Recipe: Almond Shortbread

As you have most likely noticed, A Goldberry Perspective, now has a new aspect: Recipes.  I found it necessary to add this page because I am very fond of delectables, and I am sure Goldberry was as well, in spite of her slim figure!  This is one of my favourite recipes; it's delicious, easy and quick.

Almond Shortbread

1 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 tea. almond extract
2 1/2 cup flour
1 cup chocolate chips
3/4 - 1 cup pecans (optional)

Cream butter sugar and almond. Stir in flour, 'till smooth, mix in chocolate and pecans.  Press into 9"x13" pan, bake at °325F (°163C)  for 25 minutes or until no longer shiny.  Sprinkle with sugar and cut while warm.   Enjoy!

Poem: Summer

Most people like summer

They like the sunshine

In fact there's nothing better

And the heat's just fine!

They like the grass to be green

And the sky to be blue

They like the leaves to be green

And the water to be blue

But I must confess

Summer does not agree with me!

That wretched heat is to excess

And the worst of it is the humidity

While most enjoy the summer

With all of it's "charms," they say

I can't help but think it a bummer

To waste three months this way

So if you must: enjoy your solstice

In all of it's drattedness
And I'll enjoy my equinox
No matter if the whole world balks!



By Goldberry

Review: Old Rose and Silver

For Christmas I received a beautiful, old book (which I had long coveted) from my sister. I love old, first edition is best, books and I have a modest collection of turn of the twentieth century and older novels, poems and stories. I also happen to love books by the author Myrtle Reed, so you can imagine my excitement in receiving Old Rose and Silver.

Like many of Myrtle Reed's works Old Rose and Silver is a beautiful window into the hearts of mankind. The setting is in a small, turn of the 20th century, town among the mansions of earlier and glorious generation. Rose, for she cannot really be called old, the heroine of this gem is a many faceted lady with a truly honourable heart. When her heart swells so does the readers, when her heart throbs the readers will too. Our heroine's cousin Isabel is a selfish young creature, without a mind of her own, whose beauty draws even the noble, their friend Allison is a gifted young violinist who has captured life in his instrument. And of course Aunt Francesca - the mainstay of her adopted family, rises to meet every occasion with delicacy, wisdom and a dainty pair of shoes. The deep passionate undercurrent is exhilarating to read while the story is kept light and often humorous. To counter the intense emotion of this delightful tale are the endearing, albeit eccentric, Crosby twins with their inherited fortune and wild imaginations.

The story opens in the house of Aunt Francesca, and Rose, who have just recently received a letter from an old friend, asking her to reopen his house for him. Aunt Francesca's friend Colonel Kent returns with his son Allison, who has been training abroad, as a violinist. As Allison plays and Rose accompanies, their absolute rightness for each other appears in it's glorious light. But alas, youth and beauty ensnare the brilliant artist, and the reader follows the path of pain and trials that Rose must tread, when an engagement, tragic accident, and betrayal threaten to break her heart forever. The only chance of solace being "the house where love lived."

The book, although set in the early 1900's lives outside of time and is true ever and anon. Anyone who reads this book will be richly rewarded!