Maria thought of plants at school - beans in jam jars... and mustard and cress on bits of flannel. But what I like, she thought, is not all that but the names of things. And every single kind of thing having a different name. Holm oak and turkey oak and the sessile and pedunculate oak. Sessile and pedunculate... 'What?' said Mrs Foster. 'Nothing.' Holm oak - quercus ilex I have on my bookshelf a faded paperback in a cracked plastic cover. On the front cover, a girl with windblown hair gazes into the distance; below her, small silhouetted characters in top hats and Victorian dresses parade on a beach; and under them are grey stones with swirly ammonite fossils etched on them in white. The title, in block capitals, is A STITCH IN TIME by PENELOPE LIVELY. I had never given much thought to the author until I happened upon a book in the library called Ammonites and Leaping Fish: A Life in Time , also by Penelope Lively. Despite the referen...
Getting through life one cake at a time.