For a simple sprinkly cake decoration, y0u still cannot beat 'hundreds and thousands'. Phoebe reminded me of this when she shook some over a tray of rose-pink buns and transformed them into the kind of thing we ate at parties when I was little (although I don't remember cochineal-coloured icing being quite so pretty - it produced a much harsher shade of pink).
I've had 'hundreds and thousands' of things going on here for the last few months and that's more than I need or want. So I'm going back down to single figures this summer with two months of house-related work, three children and one long summer holiday, one big pile of books to read, one book to be published, one husband to spend time with in the garden. But I think I may break my single-figure rule when it comes to glasses of wine. Hundreds and thousands of those sounds about right.
***
I've just read John Burningham and loved every page. John Burningham's style must be indelibly etched on many a parent or child's visual memory, and Tom, Alice, Phoebe and I still ask each other would you rather? questions. And Winifred Nicholson reminded me again that I would commit serious art-theft to have one of her lovely flowers on a windowsill paintings. I'm now reading Cold Cream which is absolutely wonderful - funny, poignant, self-disparaging and beautifully written.
PS thanks for all the kind comments about the quilt. The sun has gone in since. I am hoping that what we have just had was not our provencal summer.
