Hello. Hi. Are you well? I am well thanks. Did you know my book came out on Wednesday? It did! I’ve been so busy doing a workshop and some radio (listen to a radio slot here) and interviews. It’s been heaps of fun and I am excited that my book will be in bookshops now. People get to buy it and snuggle down and read it. I read it again last night and I enjoyed it a lot (!)
Of course, some other favourite people I know have released books recently too. Michelle Mackintosh set her Snail Mail free. Steve & Michelle cut the apron strings on Tokyo Precincts. AND Michelle Crawford has released her first, beautiful book A Table In the Orchard.
I have known Michelle Crawford for quite a while – first through our blogs and then in real life. She’s one of my very favourite people, truth be told. Not only does she take beautiful photos and write from-the-heart-yet-down-to-earth pieces, she’s just a really nice lady. You know how sometimes people you meet online are not quite as you thought they were in real life? That’s not Michelle. She’s the real deal. The bees knees.
Today we’re lucky enough to have Michelle sharing a guest ‘Taking Stock’ list with us. It’s such a simple but effective way to get to know someone, this list. Here’s what Michelle is up to as we speak…
Cooking : Currant buns
Drinking : Yorkshire tea
Reading: Old English cookery books
Wanting: more free time
Looking: at the sunrise
Playing: With my new Olympus camera
Deciding: what to photograph
Wishing: for a weekend off
Enjoying: the autumn harvest
Waiting: for the first snow
Liking: the autumn leaves
Wondering: what to cook for dinner
Loving: my job right now
Pondering: An overseas adventure
Considering: how to pay for it
Buying: vintage cookery books
Watching: Outlander
Hoping: for a happy ending
Marvelling: at meeting new amazing people
Cringing: dumb Facebook comments
Needing: new shoes
Questioning: what type
Smelling: the wood oven smoke
Wearing: gumboots
Following: a wild mushroom trail
Noticing: my cats missing
Knowing: he’ll be back
Thinking: about the next project
Admiring: my clever friends
Sorting: a pantry of overflowing with preserves
Getting: new jam jars
Bookmarking: hiking trails
Coveting: damsons
Disliking: all the bills
Opening: the wretched envelopes
Giggling: at my children
Feeling: excited by the year so far
Snacking: constantly
Wishing: I wouldn’t
Helping: My daughter navigate high school
Hearing: a meow at the back door
What’s the best way to eat a crumpet?
Our favourite response will win this lovely book!
(Comp closes on Friday May 1st at midnight Melbourne time – Australia only – sorry!)
Ten Things I Learnt About Creativity
This Is My Life: With Michelle Crawford
This Is My Life: With Michelle Mackintosh
Lady Faves
All photos except the top one are by Michelle Crawford. Thanks Michelle!
umm.. with butter! duh! just enough for it to drip through, plenty of honey and toasty bananas if you dare. good coffee mandatory. day complete.
On a lovely old plate from the op shop piled high with honey comb stolen from my gorgeous friends busy bees and creamy whipped marcapone sitting in front of a freshly stoked morning fire wrapped in a snug warm rug crocheted by my dear old great gran reading the weekend morning paper.
With honey fresh from my lovely friends bees still running out of the comb and whipped marscapone curled up under a rug knitted by my great gran in front of a freshly stoked wood fire
Favorite way to eat a crumpet? In company of the Queen, of course, at a private garden party at Buckingham Palace.
In bed…on Mothers Day…still warm with butter and syrup…with three sweet expectant faces waiting for my approval. I take a bite and then have a sip of my tea and then smile and they erupt with whoops of joy!
hot and dripping with butter – I love crumpets and even made some once ! I look forward to making another batch soon with Michelle’s recipe !!
Late on a Friday evening, after a busy working week, boil the kettle & toast the crumpets….then lather with Western Star butter and honey bought from our local organic farmer’s market….then savour the bliss of the first bite, whilst contemplating what’s on for the coming weekend.
Definitely in front of the heater, nanna blanket on lap, cup of well brewed lady grey tea close to hand, lightly toasted crumpet, lashings of half melted butter and homemade lemon butter from homegrown lemons. Best crumpet eating method I know.
Definately in the toaster until crispy top and bottom, one with lashings of butter and honey, the other with butter and vegemite, sweet and savoury, delish!
These days I’m a peanut butter and honey kind of gal, but when I was a kid I was all about butter until it seeped through the bottom, Promite and plastic cheese popped in the microwave until the cheese melted and fell into the holes. Writing this now I’m a little unclear why I made the change.
cosy socks and cups of tea,
early mornings of him and me,
rumpled sheets and tousled hair,
and a plate of crumpets with honey to share.
Butter!!! With so so much butter and a little raw honey. Mmmm bliss.
crumpets dripping,
lips-a-licking,
butter and vegemite falling,
never appalling!
The best way to eat a crumpet is with your mouth 😉
Buttered crumpets one, two, three
Fruity crumpets with my cup of Yorkshire tea
Dripping juices seep from the craters
Make sure you leave some for laters
Oh I love this, I’m such a fan of Yorkshire tea too.
The best (and only) way to eat a crumpet is as breakfast in bed.
A wooden tray set with a small teapot of piping hot English Breakfast tea, ready to be poured into my best and most favourite cup, a tiny vase with a freshly picked camellia, and 2 lightly toasted crumpets dripping with butter and honey. Of course there also needs to be some handmade cards and love notes from my babes, spotted with sticky fingerprints, and overloaded with glitter. Best of all though the sweet, smiling faces of those little ones.
A Perfect Mother’s Day!
The best way to eat a crumpet.
Best way to eat a crumpet? Toasted until there is crunch then smooshed with real butter, peanut butter and a drizzle of honey. Best part? Licking the butter and honey when it runs down your arm!
With butter and honey. I don’t even like honey. But with crumpets, I love it. So strange, but true. Ohhhhh crumpets, where have you been. I love that it is finally crumpet and honey weather.
Plain, with just butter! Oh, yum!
The best way to eat crumpets: in your pajamas!
Crumpajamas. That’s a new thing.
There was some leftover lime syrup in the pot from a cake I’d made the night before. I poured that on a buttered crumpet and it was the cats pyjamas!
Brought to you in bed, on a tray, with tea and a posy, all hot and buttery, made with love by your own bit of crumpets.
Real salted butter? Yes.
Strawberry and rhubarb jam? Absolutely.
Toasted on an open fire in a small hut in the middle of no where, served on a chipped enamel plate with the smell of the bush and the rain and the dirt and a kettle boiling away
perfect!! Yes!
The best way to eat a crumpet is to be wearing someone else’s t shirt, so the oozy honey doesn’t get all over your own clothes ????. You still have to wash your face and hands afterwards though …..
Hot and crispy ( burnt slightly round the edges). One savoury (strong, grainy cheddar) and one sweet (blackcurrant or blackberry jam) with enough salty butter to soak through and make the bottom soggy. Mug of strong tea, wood fire, dog and a good book. Delicious 🙂
twice buttered with honey so you can lick the delicious plate afterwards! made even better with a piping cup of english breakfast tea xx
The best way to eat a crumpet is with butter and honey, as you snuggle under a warm rug on a cold day.
Pulling two piping hot crumpets from the toaster, the bottom crispy, not burnt. Butter straight from the fridge. Unwrap the laminated foil, slicing off thin slabs of cold butter. Attempt to spread without ripping the crisp popped bubbles, unsuccessful. One crumpet is slathered in honey. The heat causing the honey to melt quickly, it drips down your fingers. The other gets a smattering of Vegemite. Eaten as quickly as a the first.
…while knitting a lopapeysa (with wool from Reykjavik), log spitting on the fire, chilli cocoa steaming next to said crumpet, all precariously balanced atop the chaos of the family table……
Is there any other way? Hot and toasty brown around the edges, then as quick as you can pull thoses hot little bubble filled pillows of yum from the toaster whack on as much butter as they will take, and I mean REAL butter, don’t worry that it drips through the bottom-we’ll get to that in a minute. Then drizzle the honey, yes REAL honey – from a farm not a shop- honey that tastes of the flowers the bees enjoyed – all over, not missing a spot. Then with a pot of tea and no-one watching get into it! ….oh and the butter than ran through in the beginning has now mixed with the warm honey on the plate and this is what you save the last little bit of crumpet for- to sponge up that sticky goodness. Oh happy day ??
I’m told by my mother that I’m very strange but there’s nothing like crumpets with Vegemite. I know I know I hear you from hear screaming “what?!” Face palming and aghast but seriously what’s more australian than screwing with an English tradition whilst licking deliciousness off your lips.
crumpets with Vegemite are my favourite! I love them !
Me too!
With your eyes closed.
WELL, I’ve given this a lot of thought; Just cooled enough so the butter only just melts on the edges, but warm enough so the crumpet is warm on the inside. Its an exact science. Also, probably while looking at the sunrise through frost on a window while straddling an ticking oil heater.
the best way to eat a crumpet is with other crumpet loving peeps, by the warm fire after coming inside from the cold and wet bush, with lots of butter and crabapple jelly.
Aw man I’m pretty boring with my crumpet eating… stick it in the toaster until the edges are crunchy and then slather it in butter and honey! It always drips through the crumpet and onto the plate and it’s compulsory to clean the plate with your tongue. And you have to eat it on the couch under a smoodgy blanket with UGG boots on and something English on the telly. My pick would be Pride & Prejudice as Mr Darcy is also a delicious crumpet!
I completely agree Lisette, Mr Darcy IS a beautiful English crumpet. xx
i feel really lucky & happy that I’ve gotten to know you & Michelle online. You are both very inspiring & make my online time much more beautiful, fun & enjoyable. Thanks for that! xx
The best way to eat a crumpet is in bed on a cold,rainy day with a huge cup of tea and a soppy movie on the TV.
Quickly… So the drippy honey and butter don’t go anywhere by on my chin and in my mouth xxx
The best way to eat a crumpet is with peanut butter! Hands down! Yes, peanut butter. Crunchy, salty, gooey, and hot all at once. I particularly like eating peanut butter crumpets on a rainy day watching some kind of guilty pleasure TV show
The best way to eat a crumpet is with a shiny cold nose and cold tingling fingers, so that you appreciate it warming you up and welcoming you home. Of course it would be served with lots of butter and honey, which would drip through to the plate for you to lick off as you contemplate the wisdom of another one. And there would be a mug of steaming English Breakfast tea to go with it.