Miss Marple’s Jumble Sale
In Miss Marple’s world, arranging and attending jumble sales was a regular occurrence. Donations to the cause, be it the Women’s Institute or the church’s roofing fund, were displayed and villagers would sort through the ‘jumble’ of goods, and partake of tea and baked goods like scones and rock buns.
I personally like to attend sales and look for the things that give my home its vintage cottage look. Some of the treasures I have procured include silver, vintage tablecloths, Homer Laughlin china, candlesticks, flower vases, and linen napkins.
Miss Marple Visits Somerset House
On several occasions I have heard Miss Marple exclaim “Somerset House, of course.” in a voice of sudden inspiration.
In former times, England and Wales’ records of marriages, births, and deaths were archived in an actual building – Somerset House. Copies of these records could be obtained and in this manner Jane Marple actually gathered information that led her to solve murders.
Somerset House is featured in four Miss Marple mysteries.
- Body in the Library
- 4:50 from Paddington
- They Do It with Mirrors
- Greeshaw’s Folly
Somerset House is located in London, England on the river Thames. It was closed as a government office in 1970 and is now an art museum.
Bird watching with Miss Marple
Miss Marple was known to be a keen bird-watcher. She spent many hours in her garden with binoculars hoping to catch a glimpse of something interesting.
I have bird feeding stations and a bird bath in my garden to help entice visitors year-round. My little wooded area is adjacent to a black walnut tree and a pear tree which feed my squirrels, a chipmunk, and myriad birds. This week I have sparrows, finches, a woodpecker, cardinals, pigeons, robins, and dark-eyed juncos.
I have been enjoying birding with the help of a ‘bird song app’ on my phone – Merlin Bird ID. It helps identify birds by their song with the microphone on my phone.
I especially enjoy using this app on vacations.
English Springtime Blossoms
The English springtime blossoms assure us that winter is truly over. I was scouring my garden for those very assurances and I noted sprouts of narcissus and crocus! I had last week plucked some forsythia branches and placed them in a vase of water. A few weeks in a sunny south-facing window should give me rows of yellow flowers on each branch.
As an experiment I also placed a branch of a budding blueberry shrub in water to see if it can be forced to bloom indoors.
Miss Marple hat
Crackenthorpe’s Fancies
In What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw, Jane Marple is involved in solving the mystery of a witnessed murder on a train in which the body was not immediately discovered.
Our sleuth determined that the murder occurred in a location where the train crossed a large estate owned by the Crackenthorpes and deduced that the body should be found there.
The Crackenthorpes made their fortunes in biscuits, relishes, and pickles.
Pickles on a bread and butter sandwich or on a cheese sandwich is a popular sandwich in America and England.
I will try a pickle and cheese sandwich for lunch today made with my homemade pickles.
A very traditional seed cake (caraway) receipt
- a receipt is an old fashioned word for recipe
3/4 cup butter
2 Tablespoons sugar
3 beaten eggs
3 teaspoons caraway seeds
1 and 1/2 cups plus 1 Tablespoon flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch salt
1 Tablespoon ground almonds ( or almond meal)
1 Tablespoon milk
Beat first 3 ingredients together and add others, stir to mix. Bake in a buttered bundt pan at 350 degrees for 30 min (check starting at 25).
Will fill pan 1/2 way up- making a cute small seed cake. Cool and slice thin. Enjoy with a cup of hot tea.
It is buttery and not sweet. Reminds me a bit of buttery cornbread or a rye bread.
Elderberry Tonic
In Miss Marple’s day, the world had passed through numerous tragedies including the outbreak of the Spanish Flu of 1918. There were not so many treatments as we have in our day, and many people relied on home tonics of elderberry to treat their coughs and other flu symptoms.
Elder or elderberry grows wild all over England, and its white blooms herald the summer season as surely as its dark purple sprays of berries announce the end.
Miss Marple remarked in one story that she liked the days when tonics came in big black bottles. If there was elderberry syrup in her bottle, she would have not poured it out!
Kitchen Warfare
The outbreak of Covid-19 and the immediate panic when it struck my shores drove me to researching the experiences of the generation who endured the Second World War.
Like now, families in the 1930s and 40s Britain, had to find food. I am sure there were extreme worries about supplies and how to make them last. Rationing helped, but one had to also be creative and frugal.
During the war years in Britain, butter was limited to 2 oz per person per week. For my small family, that would equal 2 pounds per month- and there were not as many butter substitutes available as there are today.
I will try an experiment and discover if I can make 2 pounds of butter last one month(I will not use oils or butter substitutes except drippings).
Update 14 June 2020: I had to barter for butter this week after using up the last of my monthly ration only half way through. I am left with 4 teaspoons to use until next week. I cannot imagine what it was like to have so many other supplies on ration at the same time!
Update 7 June 2020: I have been keeping track of my “butter ration” for the past 2 weeks. I have discovered that my frugality has not been as frugal as I expected- I am down to 2 tablespoons of butter. For the next 2 weeks, we will not be buttering toast or pancakes, and I will be using bacon fat for seasoning vegetables and light frying. I should have hoarded the butter for special occasions such as my son’s upcoming birthday. I totally understand why a frosted cake would have been a rare and wonderful treat.
A Hot Milky Drink Before Bed
In the Agatha Christie book Nemesis, Miss Marple is offered a milky drink at bedtime by Clotilde Bradbury-Scott, whilst Miss Marple was staying as a guest in her home. She declined to drink it- and good thing- it was poisoned!
In my own country, a hot drink at bedtime is usually hot chocolate. If Miss Marple had been offered hot chocolate, I believe it would have said so. So I did a little research and found a hot milk-based drink in the UK called Horlick’s. It is similar to Ovaltine in the US, but without chocolate- it is a hot malted milk beverage.
I purchased a tin of Horlick’s and found that I really liked it. I suffer from insomnia if I partake of caffeine late in the day, and I found it to be a nice substitute for cocoa.
Living Miss Marple 