Lemons and Cottages

Trying all the lemon remedies I can get my hands on - drinking them with honey, sucking on them in lozenges, just looking at them and wishing this cold away. I've kept this page from a magazine on my 'frig all Winter. After pears, lemons are my favorite fruit for shape, color, and cooking..........how clean they smell. My Mother told me she craved lemons when pregnant with me - would suck on them despite their acidity. Could this be why I love them so?

The village of Cockington is a quick walk along a narrow country lane from my childhood home in Devon. It's where I spent many a Summer's day playing. The thatched cottages are amazing and although some are now gift shops and tea rooms, the 14th century forge is there and the farrier still shoes the local farmers' horses. The church, just visible behind the Manor House in the small picture, is 12th century and I attended an aunt's wedding there. This special village was first mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086.
Lovely old books with peeling spines - what tales do they hide? Golden daffodils are very pretty - creamy narcissi full of perfume are extremely gorgeous. For those of us who are into altered books, these aged ones are much too fragile to play with, but if you are lucky enough to have some this is a lovely way to display them for Spring.

"...............................there are five ploughs and fourteen serfs and six cottagers (occupiers of smallholdings not exceeding 5 acres). There are 15 acres of meadow, 50 acres of pasture, and 50 acres of wood........worth 50 shillings"..............Domesday Book of 1086.

Now that was true "cottage living".