We have a cool autumn, sunny day here today. It is really lovely but I was so tired from the week I just had a sleep for awhile. Now I am in my comfy reading chair with a hot cup of tea thinking of you all. 🙂🌻
Fridays are usually my rest day. We had lunch yesterday at a restaurant with a couple of old friends. We hadn’t seen them for awhile but one of them is in his 80s and quite severely hearing impaired as is Mr P. The conversation was quite funny as one hearing impaired asked a question to the other hearing impaired and both partners had to repeat what was said and then they would answer and again the partners would repeat. It could have been one of those old British sitcoms that make people laugh so much. Fortunately I had my hearing aids in and the partner of the other older friend is younger and can hear!! Old age is such an adventure. Things happen you never thought about before.
But let’s get on with the book I bought a couple of weeks ago. I came across it accidentally on a table while going into the local second hand book shop Cracked and Spineless. I was asking Richard, who owns the shop if he had any Muriel Spark books. I did find one but will save that for later. He also sells new books too. He has a real following of both university students and older adults, like us. He is known for getting some really quirky books in.
What is this new book you ask?
The book is full of gravestone photographs. Now, photographers get photos of all kinds of themed ideas. This one is gravestones. There isn’t much new with that idea but these are gravestones with recipes on them. Little old ladies who passed away and are remembered for their wicked biscuits (cookies to you N Americans), pies or cakes, etc.
The entire recipe is carved into the marble of the gravestone. This book is full of gravestones with lovely old recipes on it.
As I have several days at home over Easter weekend I was thinking I might pick one and bake it and see if it is as good as it sounds. Though I am trying to lose a couple of kilos I could still make something and train myself not to eat it all at once.
There are also stories of some of the women who baked these delights.
I have included a couple of the illustrations. I might also take my camera and find some local gravestones and see if I can find something unusual to photograph. I think these recipe stones are probably in North America. I haven’t had chance to really read through it all yet but plan to now I am not quite as busy for a few days and feel more rested.
Have any of you ever seen something special on a gravestone? If I do get out and get some gravestone photos I’ll post them up at a future date. I’ll also share what I bake from the book. In the meantime. Enjoy the photos.
Have you ever seen an interesting epitaph on a gravestone?
Travellin' Penguin 
Apologies to Cousin Eddie! I forgot to mention how gorgeous he is. I want to dig my hand down in his fur and squeeze him.
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He would love that. He is a very smoochie cat compared to our other two. 😃
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Cracked and Spineless!! Bookstores and coffee shops have some of the best names.
I didn’t know people put recipes on gravestones and that would be so cool to stumble upon. Does the book give the locations of the headstones, per chance?
Can’t wait for you to make one of the recipes.
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The recipe gravestones were collected from many states across the U.S.and a couple in Canada. The author travelled a lot to get this information.
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Well, these are new to me! Too bad my mother-in-law didn’t put her recipe for her Sacher Torte on her grave stone. I think it is lost for ever.
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I had to google what a Sacher Torte is.It looks delicious!
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It is… obviously, hers isn’t the original recipe from the Hotel Sacher (which is a well guarded secret), but her version of it, which is perfect for Passover since it has no wheat flour in it.
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I have heard of that wonderful bookshop, as my niece who lives in Tasmania is a big fan. What an interesting idea to put a favourite recipe on a gravestone and good luck with your plan to cook more of them.
My only vaguely interesting gravestone was the one for my paternal grandmother, which is up in Sydney. When I was doing my family history she was a huge challenge to me because she changed both her given name and her year of birth, as well as a few other details along the way. So her gravestone has her seven years younger than she actually was, and of course with the name she had given herself. To add to my confusion when trying to track her down, my middle name was supposedly her maiden surname, but in fact it turned out to be her mother’s (my great-grandmother’s) maiden name.
I started my family history researches with her because I knew she was going to be a challenge, and she was. Everyone after that was pretty straightforward!
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How confusing. Half of my family;s ancestry was French and migrated to Quebec in Canada, The spellings were changed a bit so that was tricky too. Lacrosse and Lacroix. Family histories are so interesting.
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Seriously? I’d never heard of such a thing! And much as I long to discover a quirky headstone – perhaps with a funny poem or personal memory, I never have. I feel cheated!
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Gravestones with only names and dates are boring compared to those in the book.
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Absolutely! Brilliant memories to keep and hand down the generations on those gravestones.
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I’ve never come across recipes on gravestones, but the ones in your photos strike me as so life affirming, thoughtful and loving…..very recently I came across a most poignant gravestone, poignant because of the back story. About 35 years ago, my husband, who was a nephrologist, was recovering from lung cancer. About 6 weeks after his surgery, which in those days was extremely invasive and serious- he very much wanted to go to a medical conference in Phoenix, Arizona-we lived in Ottawa, Canada. So I went with him because he simply could not travel alone yet, he was just too weak. At one of the conference dinners, we met his colleague George, a nephrologist from Toronto. George watched me fetch and carry-it was a ‘station’ style dinner-and then commented that he was so impressed, and realized that he had no one to do that for him if he got sick–he had recently divorced and had no kids. We assured him that he would find a new wife , although my husband secretly had his doubts. Apparently George was not the easiest of people….. Many years later my husband died and I moved to Toronto about 10 years ago. One day on a walk I tried taking a shortcut in a large cemetery nearby, and got a bit lost. Suddenly I saw a lone tombstone, with George’s name on it, the dates, and his profession, nephrologist. No family indications, nothing, just very stark. I think George never found another wife or anyone……. Which is why the idea of tombstones with recipes strikes me as such a great idea and so life affirming. Such a contrast to poor old George. Josée Posen Toronto
647 924 4683 cell
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What a very sad coincidence. You never know who will pop up in a cemetery (so to speak!)
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That bookshop looks amazing Pam – very jealous!
As for gravestone recipes, I’ve never come across such a thing so I’m fascinated! You’ll need to make a project of trying all the recipes on the book of pictures. So intriguing!
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I thought it was so different when I saw it in the shop.
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Good heavens, I have never imagined such a thing but what a lovely idea! Just reading the ones you’ve shared gives you a sense of the woman and the family that loved her.
I can’t say that I’ve ever seen such interesting and personalised gravestones, but the ones I remember vividly were on Stradbroke Island which I visited in the 1980s with a dear friend who lived in Brisbane. There must have been an epidemic of some sort and there were gravestones there with entire families, from parents to babes in arms. Very moving to see.
Do let me know if you succeed with a technique for not eating something all at once. I could use it myself when it comes to chocolate….
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That made me laugh. I’ve not seen a lot that’s interesting in human cemeteries around here but while travelling in UK i saw a couple of wonderful pet cemeteries.
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There’s a dog’s cemetery at Edinburgh Castle, for officers’ pets and regimental mascots.
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I have been there but can’t remember if I saw it. The UK has several pet cemeteries here and there.
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It says on the website that there isn’t open access, but I only know it’s there because we saw it ourselves when we went to Scotland. That was in 2005, a good while ago now, so maybe it’s like a lot of things that are now protected from over-tourism.
You can see a picture of it on my travel blog, click on it to enlarge it. https://hillfamilysoutherndivision.wordpress.com/category/destinations/uk-ireland/uk-2005/scotland-2005/
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