Clutter

Why do some people collect more and more clutter,
or to rephrase that, why do I collect more clutter,
year upon year? Mrs C and I have just emptied our
loft, and I'm surrounded by loads of the stuff, on
this top floor. I have to admit that nearly all of
it is mine, and most of it are books I'll very
rarely read, if ever.... excuse me a minute, while
I make myself more comfortable in the psychiatrist's
chair....
Well, there are lots of reasons, which I'll tell you
about in this and in future blogs.
There is the "just in case" reason. To give you one
example, I've got several ancient recipe books,
handwritten by my parents, with recipes handed down
from their family and friends, and also those
collected by themselves. Recipes that take me
back vividly to happy times as a child.

I was looking through one of the books, which is
falling apart at the seams, yesterday and today ...
there I saw my dad's recipe for bilberry pie - this
was delicious when topped with some cream or Bird's
custard. Would you fancy eating some treacle scones,
fresh out of the oven, with a small amount of butter
melting inside them? Did you ever have baked egg
custard (not in pastry) made by your mum or dad?
This book is full of gorgeous treats (and some not-
so-nice ones too).
I'm in good company here, as the sex-goddess of
cookery, Nigella Lawson, told us that she treasures
her grandmother's personal cookery book, which has
lots of lovely recipes inside...traditional Jewish
or European recipes, that are part of her family
history in a way.
I've had a few goes at making the treacle scones, by
the way, and they're delicious. I also found a carrot
cake recipe in this book, which my sister L adored
(so I've just emailed it to her).
Well, a minimalist might say, "Well, you could find
all these recipes on the internet, so why do you keep
an ancient cookbook?" My answer is that I'm keeping
it for sentimental reasons, not "just in case" I
want to look up a recipe.