It's the time of year when we think, if briefly, about people who need to use food banks. I used to run a holiday food drive and get my local chapter of the embroiderers guild to donate. People like the feelgood of giving actual food. In fact $$ is better, because the director knows how to spend it, and can get more by arrangements than we can shopping retail.
However, if people are hellbent on donating things, I'd refer them to the local website. Here's my local food pantry this week
And personal care items are beyond the reach of many people, but they, like anyone, need to be presentable. It's good to realize that the vast majority of food pantry users are working, and attend to their appearance like any other worker.
This haunting true story of Kerr's Jewish family escaping Germany when she was a little girl, trying to understand leaving everything suddenly, with just a suitcase, why her pink rabbit hadn't made it, stayed with me. I thought of it as soon as I saw the shabby pink rabbit in the free cycle box.
Anyway these are just a few thoughts. I sent my quarterly check yesterday, with reminders on my calendar for the next couple of quarters. People are hungry year round, particularly in summer when school meals stop.
On to Pink Rabbit. I think this is why I couldn't pass her by
Kerr became a world famous children's writer and illustrator, remember "The Tiger Who Came to Tea"?
If not, check it out, it's lovely. Anyway this is why Pink Rabbit is named this way.
And, more grownup reading, I've started this interesting history of the six wives, with attention paid to their stories and ambitions, not the usual men's viewpoint of events.
It's worth reading, to round out our understanding of the period. It's one I'm interested in, because the reformation has literally touched my own life and is part of why I live here rather than my country of birth. History isn't just the past.
It hasn't escaped my notice that I'm writing this on the Fifth of November, A night when people in the UK celebrate the torture and murder of a Catholic, one of my people, at this very time. We Catholics never went out on Guy Fawkes night.
Meanwhile, this has been a dark blog post, but here's comfort food for darker nights, mac and cheese.
I used chickpea flour for the cheese sauce, and find it needs more milk than ap flour.
Happy day everyone, whatever time it is where you are!
