Stop Press

The Moffat News today yesterday reported, correctly, that Moffat Book Events withdrew an initial application to Annandale and Eskdale area committee for funds. What was not reported is that, following guidance on the presentation of our accounts, we have re-submitted the application for our Oct 15 event. Once non-repeatable 'start-up' costs, which were anticipated (and met by our sponsor), were extracted from ongoing costs and ticket sales, our April event broke even - as we expect our forthcoming Jeans or Genes? to do. The paper that books are printed on comes from trees, and I am happy to say I spent yesterday in a forest of those trees twenty miles north of Moffat,. The trees thrive in warm, wet conditions, so yesterday was ideal for them - you could practically hear them smile.

Michaelmas

From today's online The Writer's Almanac:

In the Christian world, today is Michaelmas, feast day of the archangel Michael, which was a very important day in times past, falling near the equinox and so marking the fast darkening of the days in the northern world, the boundary of what was and what is to be. Today was the end of the harvest and the time for farm folk to calculate how many animals they could afford to feed through the winter and which would be sold or slaughtered. It was the end of the fishing season, the beginning of hunting, the time to pick apples and make cider.
Today was a day for settling rents and accounts, which farmers often paid for with a brace of birds from the flocks hatched that spring. Geese were given to the poor and their plucked down sold for the filling of mattresses and pillows.
Michaelmas was the time of the traditional printer's celebration, the wayzgoose, the day on which printers broke from their work to form the last of their pulp into paper with which to cover their open windows against the coming cold -- the original solution for those who could not afford glass yet had more than nothing -- and the advent of days spent working by candlelight.
In the past, the traditional Michaelmas meal would have been a roast stubble goose -- the large gray geese that many of us only get to admire at our local state and county fairs. Today, when most poultry comes from the grocery store in parts and wrapped in plastic, a roast goose can be a difficult luxury to obtain, but any homey, unfussy meal is a fine substitute -- especially with a posy of Michaelmas daisies or purple asters on the table.
In folklore, it is said that when Michael cast the Devil from Heaven, the fallen angel landed on a patch of blackberry brambles and so returns this day every year to spit upon the plant that tortured him. For this reason, blackberries would not be eaten after today, and so folks would gather them in masses on Michaelmas to put into pies and crumbles and preserves. And they would bake St. Michael's bannocks, a large, flat scone of oats and barley and rye, baked on a hot griddle and then eaten with butter or honey or a pot of blackberry preserves.
Whether you recognize Michaelmas or not, you can still greet what comes with the symbols of today: gloves, for open-handedness and generosity; and ginger to keep you warm and well in the coming cold.

And lastly: Happy Birthday to Miguel de Cervantes, baptised Miguel (the Spanish for Michael), author of Don Quixote.

Exclusive preview

Here is an exclusive preview of the menu for our exclusive tea at Jeans or Genes?, our literary event at Moffat House hotel on Oct 15:

Smoked salmon sandwiches & Cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches
Scone with cream and raspberry jam
Apple & cinnamon cake
Almond macaroon
Raspberry cream mille feuille
Lemon meringue tart

Unlimited refills of best Scottish tea

Full circle

I started to write about history yesterday, musing about events in Europe during my mother's lifetime having come full circle yesterday, then was distracted. She was born in 1917, so you can imagine that my thoughts were pretty gloomy. However, this morning the clouds have quite literally lifted. Moffat is basking in warm, golden autumn sunshine. Zac is recovering well from his chicken pox. A friend sent me a hilarious account of taking part in a car rally for the over 60's in the south of France. Not so much Dornford Yates as I'm Sorry, I Haven't A Clue. I read Dornford Yates's stories about smart young things racing their open tourers to the south of France (or was it Biarritz) when I was about 12, impressed by their wit and style. A few years ago, I opened a copy hoping to re-kindle that memory but oh dear. Very dated, rather feeble, if not positively nasty. Par contre, my friend's account of her and her husband Teddy's 'rally' was a catalogue of mishaps, from discovering that on the dawn of the event that their open car was covered in the cat's muddy pawprints, failing to read the instructions and finding themselves within half an hour, by following the clues, outside their own front door. A 'go/no go' decision had to be made: to cut their losses and go to the flea market for some new wine glasses, or join the rallyistes for the end of event picnic in a nearby tourist trap. No prizes for guessing which they chose. Cheers, Teddy and Nicola!.

Time for a coffee?

I wonder if Moffat could support a year-round centre for book events, in other words a bookshop big enough for people to sit in and have a coffee, or hold 'meet the author' events and other literary activities. My hoped-for excursion to Wigtown today had to be cancelled but I am still planning to get across to Wigtown later this week, and will do some research.

What's in a name?

It was announced today that the BBC is dropping 'BC' and 'AD' in favour of 'BCE' and'CE'. As Matthew Parris pointed out on the Andrew Marr show, this is simply using the same dateline - the birth of Christ - while avoiding the apparently offensive direct reference. We are having a similar debate about our international conference to be held in Moffat next year, originally to be entitled Christianity without frontiers. Alternative suggestions include On shared ground? Religious faith and contemporary culture. The theme of the conference is values and attitudes, inspired by the life and work of Alexander Men 1935-1990, a Russian priest. The hope is that by avoiding precision in the title, a wider variety of participants will feel inclined to attend than might otherwise have been the case. So: are we part of what seems to be an increasingly fashionable pre-emptive cringe? Off tomorrow to the Wigtown Book Festival, for a session on Voice and Presentation For Writers and pot luck for other sessions I haven't booked for. I will practise tweeting, a habit I haven't managed to acquire but am resolved to master.

More recipes from The Frugal Cook

Yesterday, I made kedgeree. Cooking time 10 minutes. Equipment - frying pan with lid or dinner plate to cover.
Ingredients:

• 1 small fillet smoked haddock
• Semi-skimmed milk
  
• 5 hard boiled eggs
• 1 pack Uncle Ben's pilau rice
• Freshly ground black pepper

I placed the fillet of smoked haddock in a frying pan and added milk with a little water to cover and simmered for a few minutes to cook (with a lid on). Then I added the pack of Uncle Ben's pilau rice and continued to simmer for 3 minutes. I had 5 hard boiled eggs* in the fridge, which I peeled and sliced. I turned off the heat, placed the slices of hard boiled egg on the top of the fish and rice, spooned a little of the cooking liquid over them and put a lid over.

There was far too much for one person, so after I had had what I needed for supper (lots of freshly ground black pepper because it was tasty but quite bland), I put the remainder into a plastic box in the fridge. Today, I plan to fry an onion, sliced, and some mushrooms with grated nutmeg which I will add to the kedgeree mixture for Meal Two.

*I had a pack of six fresh eggs that I hard boiled before I went down to Kent last week to visit my mother aged 94. One of the eggs went on the train with me for my picnic: a roll cut in half and spread with mayo, garnished with sliced tomato.