Books and Baking

 Pip sat her Geography test this morning and all in all she felt that it went reasonably well - especially since it was an 8:30am start which is always tricky for her with the PoTS.  As a treat for the doing I felt inclined to undertake a spot of sit down kitchen baking as a result of finding this recipe  

 Every year we receive the 'Betty's Catalogue'  and ooh and aah over  the delightful treats, many of which are totally unsuitable if you have dairy intolerance and coeliac disease.  When I saw the blog post sharing their version dubbed 'fat scallies' I jusy knew I had to give them a try.  I had to omit the stem ginger and glace cherries since we didn't have any so instead I used powdered ginger and just topped the scones with flaked almonds.  In addition i only added 20g of stevia as opposed to 120g of sugar since I haven't eaten sugar in five years.  In fact I don't even usually bake with dried fruit and so actually found the scones rather sweet to my taste.  The family declared them a roaring success and I must admit they were a welcome mid afternoon treat:

I had to run a short errand later in the day and whilst at our local Co-op I treated myself to a bunch of tulips.

I'm in a weird phase right now of not being well enough to do the usual things and in an attempt to overcome that I've been reading quite a bit but of course reading uses 'mental' energy and which in turn causes unstable symptoms including a dodgy heart rate.  I think I'm going to have to return to keeping my symptom/pacing diary which is a good visual reminder throughout the day on how i am 'trending.'  Reading is good for me, i just need to remember to put in a 'pause' and take regular rest breaks throughout the day.

This book was a delightful read, full of interesting characters, a gentle evolving of the story and. a thoroughly heart warming read.  The back cover reads:

Jess Metcalfe is perfectly happy with her quiet, predictable life - it's just the way she likes it.  But when her beloved grandmother passes away and she loses her job at her local library, her life is turned upside down.

Packing up her grandmother's books, she moves to a tiny cottage in a charming country village.  To her surprise, Jess finds herself the owner of an old red telephone box and she soon turns it into the littlest library around!

It's not long before the books are borrowed and begin to work their magic - somehow, they seem to be bringing the villagers together once more ...

This book was a total. contrast as you can well imagine.  I vaguely remember watching the film about Odette, starring Anna Neagle, Trevor Howard and Peter Ustinov.  I had this recollection that she was executed as a spy but my memory was off whack and in fact she did return home to Britain and was subsequently decorated with the George Cross for her services to the special operations executive (SOE) and for saving the lives of many fellow operatives when refusing to divulge their whereabouts under under interrogations from the Gestapo.  There was one short section of the book ( a matter of a few pages)that I couldn't continue reading as it described the torture she endured and I began to feel quite sick reading the account.  The book was very well written and thoroughly researched including all the different acronyms for the varied resistance groups dotted throughout France and Switzerland:

'In Code Name: Lise" international best selling author Larry Loftis seamlessly weaves together a touching romance with a harrowing cat and mouse chase reminiscent of 'Catch Me If You Can.'  Yet Code Name: Lise is more than a love story and riveting thriller - it's a portrait of courage, resilience and patriotism by two of World War Two's most fearless and most decorated operatives.

My next book is a Frances Brody 'Kate Shackleton mystery ❤️