Candles on a stormy Saturday

It was my turn for book club on Saturday and my fellow readers could not have chosen a better time to visit the Verandah. It was a cold, windy and wet day...
    But I could serve them lunch by candlelight and nobody could detect a speck of dust or a nasty cobweb. The table was laid with lace, crystal, silver plate and my usual bone handle tools. The fare was not spectacular as the farmstall pie turned out to be something other than the venison I thought I bought on my way back from Grahamstown the previous day... and the meringue on the lemon pie did not travel well. Little morsels of whatever I could find in the larder complemented the offering and everyone was content to drink their coffee from my Sicilian cups.

  The candles on the mantlepiece added to the atmosphere