10.1.24
in the soil
I visit the allotment despite the unforecast rain in the aftermath of the weekend’s storms because there is work to be done, not least to check on what havoc the weekend’s storms have brought to the plots quiet in the winter. As it turns out there is nothing to worry about, I forget how much worse the weather is living by the sea where the wind comes barrelling straight down from the north and how comparatively sheltered it is here in the soil, not even the netting on the cauliflowers is disturbed, every chair where I left it. As it begins to rain harder I decide I might as well do what I came here for which is to bed in the asparagus for the winter with sodden cardboard and newspaper and compost of which I do not have enough, I will come back next week with wool and manure.
in the kitchen
I have not it must be said been feeling particularly inspired in my cooking this week and (I am vaguely ashamed to say) with so little light in the day to take decent photographs I am less inclined towards cooking projects. Still people need feeding at work and at home and I am glad to drag from the back of my mind the Azerbaijani chickpea and lamb soup piti, rich with saffron, when there is mutton that needs cooking and a pasticciata of sliced polenta and bechamel and mushrooms baked with cheese when there is leftover polenta and it is always nice to make a shepherd’s pie, the lamb mince puttering away on the stove a charm against the still-howling wind.
on the page
The project to clear my shelves of unread books continuing I pick up a book by Susan Hill I had vaguely assumed was a ghost story and had been saving to read in winter (ghost story season) to find out it is no such thing and read a few chapters anyway and pick up Through The Kitchen Window: Women Writers Explore the Intimate Meanings of Food and Cooking and read a few of its essays before getting distracted by the idea of making Sharon L. Jansen’s or rather her mother’s Ginger Crinkle Cookies which are very appetisingly described in an essay about recipes-as-texts but I almost never bake at home and I do not in this instance either – I have periods where I find it easy to concentrate on reading and periods where I do not and this is one of those, I have my writing brain engaged instead.