I was thinking about what else I could do with my Lemon Butter and remembered how my grandmother used it. She used to make pastry tart-let cases which she would store in an airtight container and bring them out for when visitors came.
I found this photo of her when she was young,
and this one where she was in her 80's (on the left) with my maternal grandmother. This is how I remember them both. After my grandfather died they lived together and called each other Mrs Tollis and Mrs Floyd. No first names here, reminds me of Jane Austen characters and they never went out without a hat and gloves.
She was a very old lady, in her late 80's, when she showed me how to make pastry. My mother died when I was 16 and it was this grandmother who had stayed with us every time she went into hospital. I seem to remember it was this same long weekend all those years ago when I was initiated into how to make pastry. I was probably about 18 years old. Looking back I see that her life at this time was rather solitary. Her children all had families of their own. She still had one boarder who lived with her but I don't think they were very close friends. She had a maiden niece who had been the eldest in her family when her parents had died she had devoted her life to raising her brothers and sisters. They were firm friends and attended the same church. This photo was taken in the early 1900's on the banks of the Parramatta river, this was very rural in those days.
It was a weekend andmI was shocked at having to walk the 2 miles to get to churchand then another 2 miles to get home again. But this little old lady walked this way all the time. I have always admired her. She had been widowed when she was 6 weeks pregnant with my father and had 4 other children. It was the depression and she couldn't withdraw any of her money from the bank. But she and her sister ran a corner store, stables and took in boarders to survive. I had a look on google and the shop is still there but the stables are now a child care centre. It all looks very seedy. Most of the people who live here now are migrants from the middle east.
My father attended school at Elizabeth Farm which is now a Museum and was the home of the MacArthur family in the early days of the colony. It is now the oldest European building in Australia. My father's great grandfather was a Lieutenant at the Lancer Barracks at Parramatta. Another one of those military families who put down roots here.
How could pastry lead to all this reminiscing? Next installment the pastry.
She was a pretty girl, wasn't she!
Almost anything can trigger reminiscences, can't it...
Posted by: RachelandDesign | June 11, 2012 at 09:07 PM
Yes , and sometimes it can be the strangest things.
Sent from my iPad
Posted by: Carolyn Foley | June 12, 2012 at 10:14 PM