Winter Baking Kitchen

Flour has worked its way across most of the table. A rolling pin lies beside the cut dough, and the first batch of gingerbread stars and hearts is cooling on a wire rack. There are still cutters out, along with a large cream bowl and a rumpled red checked towel.

Behind the baking, green cupboards hold rows of blue-and-white crockery. The copper pans catch the lamplight, while the window is bright with snow. Cupboard knobs, checks in the cloth and crumbs between the cookies leave few plain patches. The rack is a useful landmark among all those browns. Its thin black lines continue beneath the gingerbread, right down to the rounded corner nearest the table edge.