Home is where the hearth is. Downtown Nevada City, California.

The boyfriend and I have recently returned from frolicsome fun in my hometown of Nevada City, California. This year my most shiny of celebrations was neither Christmas nor New Years, but my sister Jacquie’s 50th birthday (for which I provided the cake, subsequently learning that Christmas day is a lousy time to buy baked goods).

Some highlights of the trip were…

Teaching my mother how to prepare absinthe. Who doesn’t love this quintessential Christmas pastime*? Equipped with a curvaceous reservoir glass and ornate, slotted spoon I enthusiastically gave a demonstration on how to prepare absinthe in both the traditional French method and the more dramatic (and efficient) Bohemian method. Both methods were merely informative, not practical, as my Mammy and me prefer our green fairy sans sucre.

My Mom, enjoying her beverage
(artist's depiction)

Armed with our booze and one clove cigarette each, we sat in her English garden and contentedly sinned with some of Satan’s most pleasingly perfumed indulgences. Once we felt sweetly weak-in-the-knees it was time to make some pie. (Drinking and driving is a bad idea, but drinking and pie making is a sign of advanced evolution in a species. Word.)

76 year old English singer/composer/actress Petula Clark holds the distinction of being the most successful British female solo recording artist ever, with a career that spans seven decades and that has racked up record sales of over 70 million units. For this feat she has been recognized in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Additionally Clark was honored by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II during an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace in 1998 when she was made a CBE (Commander of the British Empire).

Clark, whose number one hits include "Downtown," "My Love" and "This Is My Song," and whose other big hits include "I Know A Place" and "Don't Sleep In The Subway" (video below), made her first public performace singing at age 7 as part of a retail store promotion.

Her professional career began a few years later when the talented young girl became an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II when she performed an inspired rendition of "Mighty Lak' a Rose." Clark was a few weeks shy of celebrating her tenth birthday. She would go on to perform approximately 500 times in radio programmes designed to entertain the British troops during the War. At this same time she would tour the UK with (fellow child performer) Julie Andrews, earning herself the nickname of "Britain's Shirley Temple."


In 1944 (at age 12) she made her big screen debut in Medal For The General playing the character of Irma in the film. This led to her appearing in a string of films (many B-movies), including Strawberry Roan, I Know Where I'm Going!, London Town, and Here Come the Huggetts. She continued making films, about 30 in all, for the next four decades. It was In 1949 when Clark, who had still to turn seventeen, released her first single and in 1954 scored her first top ten hit, "The Little Shoemaker," which would be the first of string of hits for the artist. 1961's "Sailor" would be her first UK #1 hit and "Downtown" (video below) would be her first US #1 hit single in 1964. The 1960's was her decade, with other Petula Clark hits including "I Know a Place," "My Love," "Colour My World," "A Sign of the Times," and "Don't Sleep in the Subway."