Do you like your first name? I really hope so! It is the thing that I am most grateful to my parents for. I wish I had asked my father in which book he had discovered it. When I started at the Red Maids’ School, there was only one other Esmé, and she was in my form. She was a boarder, and I was a day-girl I am grateful …

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A recipe from guest contributor and Great British Bake Off competitor Will Hawkins (See this month’s feature item – Great British Bake Off: The Frenchay Connection) One of the things I’ve learnt being on the Great British Bake Off is to write and develop recipes. I like creating new treats but also updating …

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The recent TV series of Great British Bake Off featured, as one of its twelve contestants, Will Hawkins, who grew up in Frenchay, and whose parents still live in the village. Here he gives a short account of the experience: Until that day in November 2021, I had only ever entered one baking competition before and that …

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When the festive season is over if you have a real tree please recycle by chipping it for use on the garden or take it to the recycling centre. If you have the space the tree can be cut up into small pieces and stacked in a corner of the garden to biodegrade naturally giving a home to the creatures in the garden and …

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This article is intended to explain some of the legal history of the former school premises, now empty, and awaiting a future yet to be determined. It does not purport to be a definitive explanation, as all the facts and documents are not available to the writer, but it hopefully provides some context for understanding …

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Before we went to live in France in 1980, I thought that my female friends there would be excellent cooks! Not so: many of my English friends are more talented. We were very often invited to join them for dinner and it was usually the husband who cooked the meal. My son is an excellent cook, far better than me or …

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Great for a nibble with celebration drinks with neighbours and friends over Christmas and the New Year. These are so easy and so much cheaper than buying them. Ingredients 100g soft margarine (or whatever cooking spread is your preference) 50g semolina 85g self-raising flour 75g well flavoured Cheddar cheese Salt ½ …

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December weather is often the worst of the year in that it is grey, wet, cold and dank. However, if we get cold, frosty weather then the garden can be transformed into a glittering wonderland and suddenly all kinds of winter jobs are possible from winter pruning, gathering up those papery leaves and tidying up those …

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This is the most deliciously warming soup for a cold day and serves 6 to 8. Ingredients 750g mushrooms roughly chopped, ideally darker varieties such as chestnut or Portobello 1 onion, roughly chopped 2 celery sticks, sliced 1 medium carrot, scrubbed or peeled and finely chopped 3 garlic cloves, thickly sliced 75g …

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Thank you to those readers who told me that they liked my poem in last month’s magazine. That was very kind, so here is another. Eternity means ‘time without end’. It is the same word in French: we share so many important ones! I remember at a party once, a friend said to me: “An hour at a party goes by in a flash, but …

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