We have just returned home after a walk on the sea front, we called in on my Mum. It would have been so easy to have stayed at home and hibernate as its very wintery, well perhaps autumnal. I spent the morning cooking, not sure why I suddenly got the urge to fill up the freezer with sauces, casseroles and fish cakes, but I did. I really enjoy cooking, but on work days I find I just want to be able to prepare a good meal quickly. We have lots of friends who enjoy eating and drinking so there is plenty of occasions when I can cook for pleasure. Where did I learn to cook? Was it watching my Mother or the domestic science lessons at secondary school? I can remember visits to Pirbright where I was allowed to bake, Auntie Esther was more relaxed than Mum and she didn't mind the mess that we caused. Often people will say they can't cook, but my thought is that 'if you can read you can cook'. Perhaps I'm wrong, although I think you do have to enjoy food to be able to cook it. I love watching cookery programmes and I have a fair few cook books.

My oldest was a wedding present from my friend Kate's Mum. It has long lost it's cover, the pages are yellow, some are stuck together with remnants of cake ingredients. It is the one I use regularly, it holds the recipe for the Christmas cake that I make every year, I use many of the other cake recipes, no longer for children's birthday cakes, but mostly when I bake for the sailing club. In the front of the book are tables which convert metric into imperial and these I use often as I still can't think in metric. Thank you Mrs Edward's your present has given me many years of enjoyment.