I’m not sure what the header photo is going to be, but the top photo in the blog is a cake fork. It’s old-fashioned, superfluous to modem life and can often be found going cheap at Antiques Fairs. Julia has a collection of such things. I think we can safely leave it there without adding more comments.
A Cake Fork
I tried to polish it, but the photo still came out like it was smeared. The marks on the back say “Stainless Steel Korea” which, to me indicates quite a late date – somewhere between now and the 60s. They also suggest low production standards.
They belong in the same category as bread forks, fish knives and sugar nips. Cake slices and long-handled pickled onion forks (with and without spring plungers) hover slightly above them, but I suspect their days are numbered too.
Today has been relaxing. I have now relaxed for two days. Thoughts have passed through my head. Some have been noted and some forgotten. One of the thoughts is that I am going to write a villanelle. It wasn’t my smartest thought, as they are tricky to write. I finish around one in six that I start. I know that because I have started six and completed one. It is here in case you didn’t see it first time round.
A villanelle is a bit like painting by numbers. Instead of inspiration I have a rhyme scheme, which I wrote down. Once you have that done you can write the A1 and A2 lines, which are the repeats. That takes care of 8 of the 19 lines. Now I just need 5 “a” lines (rhyme with A lines, but don’t repeat) and 6 “b” lines – rhyming with each other and no repeats. It’ simpler than a Sonnet and a lot less frustrating than a haiku.
I’m going to bed now. I hope that when I wake up I’m still happy with the repeating lines. If I’m not it will be a fatal fault with the planned poem.
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We have two sets of cake forks; our younger daughter uses them regularly. We have two cake slices; our older daughter used to call them pie-shovels which says a lot about her upbringing, I think.
Yes, you can tell a lot bout parenting standards from the children they produce. 🙂 “Pie Shovel” is an excellent description and as they both seem to have become first class adults, I think you pass the test.
Thank you, Simon 🙂
🙂
I liked the villanelle last time that I read it and i liked it again today. I hope that your new effort works out well.
We will see. It features bird watching and that well known phenomenon of seeing a vibrating branch a fraction of a second after the bird has gone. It has potential. 🙂
A very good subject!
I feel it has potential. If it fades, I may rewrite it as a limerick.
Thanks for posting a picture of the cake fork. I don’t recall ever seeing a fork like that for cake, but they might have been used in earlier times.
You are making me feel very old . . .
Actually, I think I am older than you are. Perhaps those little fork just weren’t as common here.
I found this in my research – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastry_fork#:~:text=A%20pastry%20fork%2C%20pie%20fork,or%20bridged%20together%20and%20beveled.
As for age – I am definitely old enough to know better than to discuss a lady’s age. 🙂
Thanks for sending the link. No, I have never seen a fork like that. Perhaps it is more of a UK thing.
We appear to have invented it, according to the link, so maybe so. If pressed, I would have guessed it was European as the French and Austrians do a lot of patisserie, but I would have been wrong.
We have an antique silver pickle fork. It tends to go green so we don’t use it. In fact, I don’t know where it is
That’s the trouble with these antiques. Stainless steel is less beautiful but easier to manage. 🙂
Yes! I was going to say I would have called that a pickle fork. It never made any sense to me why people who had to sew scraps together to make a quilt would be so fussy about what for they used to grab a pickle from a jar.
People could be very particular about certain things. My grandparents simultaneously owned cake forks and an outside privy. I’d not thought about that until you brought the contrast to mind. How does it feel being a muse? 🙂
I call those forks the “catfood forks” as I use them on catfood. 🙂
They are a good practical fork for all sorts of applications.