Photographs, Paintings and Letters

Copyright Richard Pitcairn-Knowles.

Photographs by Andrew Pitcairn-Knowles

Letter from Gordon Pitcairn-Knowles

7th August 1918

Dearest Mother & Father

I hope you got my letter of yesterday. I'll continue about where I left off, I think. Well, last night we all turned in at 9:15 ("Pipe Down"). I got up about 5:30 am, had a wash, went up stairs & dressed, & went on parade with towel & soap, (which they had given us yesterday). By the way, I couldn't get to sleep for ages as the chap one hammock off snored hard & people were continually walking up & down, in fact the 4th batch of 100 recruits marched in just as I was going off to sleep at 10. The hammock would insist on squashing my vaccination marks but they're none the worse.

Recipe by Mrs M Pitcairn-Knowles

SPINACH or NETTLES

Ingredients: 2lbs nettle tops or spinach, 1 oz butter, ¼ teacupful milk or cream

Carefully pick off all stalks that seem tough. Use two large basins for washing the vegetable, lifting it from one basin to the other and changing the water five or six times, so that no grit remains. Put the washed leaves into a very large saucepan. Add no water as there is sufficient water in the leaves. Turn and stir frequently at first, with a wooden spoon, until enough juice has been drawn out of the vegetable to prevent burning, after which it will cook in its own juices. Cook until nearly dry, which will take about 15 to 20 minutes, then rub through a rather coarse wire sieve and return to the pan with ¼ cupful of milk, an exceedingly small grate of nutmeg, 1 oz. Butter and a pinch of salt. Stir till thoroughly hot and serve. Cream instead of milk is an improvement.