What I made for dinner last night…
What’s for dinner tonight…
Striped bas in brown butter sauce and sautéed snap peas with mushrooms… all purchased at the farmers market this morning.
Where it comes from matters. My friends and I will raise and harvest these meat chickens. Some of the best chicken I have ever had. It’s important to be involved in what meat eating is on some level if you eat meat.
July 21, 2022
… 222.8 lbs…
… been walking more the past couple of days, in the morning… no afternoon labor… snacking more?… eating more?… definitely drinking more… was doing better with shorter, more contemplative walks, but that was coupled with afternoon labor…
… i am determined to loose some weight…
… HCR depressing this AM, for its discussion of climate change and the inability of the US to get its act together… Republicans are uniformly against any legislation that promotes a fossil fuel free future, as is Joe Manchin, who claims fighting inflation now is more important than fighting climate change… inflation is a problem that will only get worse as climate change continues to unfold… fighting it is fighting inflation…
… i read a recipe for “The Ultimate Focaccia” by Paul Hollywood, of the Great British Baking Show… i resolve to make it… i love to cook… and as Hollywood suggests:
Baking is all about sharing. Even after more than three decades in many different professional roles, nothing beats making something for someone else and seeing their eyes light up when they taste it.
… i am hoping to add focaccia to my repertoire…
… an article entitled Sam Gregg’s Captivating Portraits Capture the “Humanity” of Naples… i have a look and think he’s made them look rather disappointed with life… nobody smiles… everyone looks at you as if they are suspicious of you… photographs of details of the environment seem uninspired… at the beginning of the article he mentions how friendly they are… it’s not at all evidenced in the photographs…
… i am reminded my own photography is moving forward again… i have established a new work flow… i have begun building the weekly edit portfolios again, working in the present and backwards a little at a time…
… an article, How Joel Meyerowitz Became a Pioneer of Colour Photography… ah!, a modern master, I will like his work better… and i do, but don’t see pictures i never would have thought to make, except one of a young woman about to bite into a strawberry… i don’t photography people… he manages sensuality very effectively with the soft focus and the trope of a strawberry… i see a photography that comes from the last century… still great photography but one thinks the world has moved on…
It seems impossible to imagine there was ever a time when colour photography was not regarded as an art form. But for decades, the art world dismissed colour as commercial at best, closing ranks and excluding groundbreaking photographers for years. “When I first started shooting I shot in colour,” Meyerowitz says. “A year later, I started shooting in black and white because I couldn’t print colour in 1962. I only had slides to show people and I noticed they didn’t look at them very long. They treated them like everybody’s travel photos.”
… as i read the article i begin to see the art of the photograph of the young woman… made in low light with a relatively slow exposure… she can’t help but move a little and this is what softens her image…
… the article is promotional for Meyerowitz’s new exhibition, Between the Dog and the Wolf
… Anna Leigh Clem, i thought, i know this photographer, she used to come to salon in Woodstock… i look through the work and i believe it has evolved as it is more comprehensible as a story than it was, at least in this selection of images…
… bravo Anna!…
… another article on Great Women Artists, a survey of women painters over 500 years… i have put it on my list at Amazon… liked this painting by Hayv Kahraman…
… a leisurely walk down Main Street leaves me sweaty… the day will be hot… but then i knew that…
… continuing to think about the work of Anna Clem and about reaching out to her, letting her know i enjoyed the Booooooom! post…
… on the way out the door, i photograph tomatoes and think it will be a good picture… in the front there is a Carolina Swallowtail butterfly… it comes closer to work the flowers in front of me… i photograph it… i think these photos will be good too…
… loud talking barista is here this morning… i order decaf with a little agave in it… she squeezes out some agave onto a spoon and stirs it into my coffee… i think that is nice… she is wearing corduroy shorts that end just above her knees… they are green… she has a blue t-shirt… smallish breasts, a bit of a tummy and generous hips… if i make her sound fat, she is not… she could be one day, but not now… i notice one tattoo on her right upper arm… she is pierced through her right eyebrow…
… there was no coffee to set up for H… have to bring some home with me… looking at the coffees here there doesn’t seem enough information to help me make a decision on any of the packages… they are all only 12 ounces too, which annoys me…
… an older gentleman in a British golf cap walks down the aisle, sets his bag and a folder of documents down at a table… he returns up front to get whatever he will get…
… two women walk from the back to the front… they are similar in stature and wear identically colored, though not identical, blouse/shirts… are they a couple?…
… this from Sea and Fog, Etel Adnan…
The divine is not spatial but needs space, is not material but needs matter, is not human but needs consciousness, is not a work of beauty but needs the sea’s power of attraction.
… i think about this… divine attracts consciousness with the power of the sea’s liquid material attraction… without consciousness, is there any divine?… but then there is the pansychic idea that everything has awareness… material at its most basic level has awareness, even if attraction to that which attracts it and in turn is attracted… this is the base level of awareness… to know something is adjacent…
… out of this i think about the rock on Block Island… i am aware of it… is it aware of me?… to the extent that we are bodies with mass and therefore gravitational attraction… we warp the space around us and between us… at least that is how i understand it…
… i publish yesterday’s journal entry and photographs and walk… i included a map… have forgotten to turn on the map this morning… i need to do a routine that asks me to turn it on and off as i leave and return to the house…
… after editing today’s photos… also some photos from previous weeks… working on getting caught up… making progress… deciding that iPhone photos are difficult to do as color… wondering if i need to try to do them in the apple photo app… they always seem to look better in black and white, at least as developed in Lightroom…
Heather Cox Richardson, July 20, 2022
Paul Hollywood: How to Make the Ultimate Focaccia
Sam Gregg’s Captivating Portraits Capture the “Humanity” of Naples
Can i brag about my niece?
Any place that can post a flat roasted pig’s face on Instagram for a dinner special; name a prune juice/vodka/amaro cocktail the Poo Driver; and proudly own the beigeness of its menu — which resembles a public affair with secondary meats, cheese-gilded crepes, wobbly farm eggs and house baked scones — is all right with me. Not only do I want to eat there, I want to go often for the unpredictability of what chef-owner Shaina Loew-Banayan will cook next.
… read this glowing article about them and Cafe Mutton…
Charred Sweetheart Cabbage with Prawns and a Pickle Brine Dressing, Helen Graves
… just bookmarked the recipe… doesn’t it look yummy?
Cooking with Virginia Woolf, Valerie Stivers, The Paris Review
One of my favorite features of the Paris Review, Cooking With… Each one is a look at an important literary work with a culinary event of importance to the narrative. In this case, a boeuf en daube in To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Wolf.
The boeuf en daube in To the Lighthouse, a 1927 novel by Virginia Woolf about an English family on vacation in the Hebrides, is one of the best-known dishes in literature. Obsessed over for many chapters by the protagonist, Mrs. Ramsay, and requiring many days of preparation, it is unveiled in a scene of crucial significance. This “savory confusion of brown and yellow meats,” in its huge pot, gives off an “exquisite scent of olives and oil and juice.” It serves as a monument to the joys of family life and a celebration of fleeting moments. Thus, it is with fear and trembling that I suggest that Woolf’s boeuf en daube, from a cook’s perspective, is a travesty, and that its failures may prove instructive.
The recipe at the end looks well written as is the article on To the Lighthouse. I will pursue both.
20220204-05
20220203-03
Craving Mexican…
… we love Mexican food… we are going to make some tomorrow night while the winds are howling and the snow is coming down… i have Nopalito by Gonzalo Guzman and Stacy Adimando… really nice Mexican cook book… we settled on Tortas Pambazos1 (Chorizo and Potato Sandwiches)… think of it as a sloppy Joe, but way better…
… i bought the needed ingredients yesterday… this morning i made the Jalpeños Curtidos (pickled jalapeños) and the Salsa Guajillo… tomorrow H will make the Teleras, (Mexican Sandwich Rolls)…
… that’s the thing with authentic Mexican… it’s generally a bit complex, involving layers of flavors… cheese, meat, chilies, salsas, concoctions needed to make the salsas… i imagine in Mexico many of these things are made up in quantity and ready to go for the week or month… not in our house… we don’t cook Mexican that often so we make what we need from scratch when we do… it’s what the English might refer to as “a bit of a palaver”… but oh the yum is worth it…
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I read that in Mexico the Tortas part of the title is not quite accurate and a little redundant with Pambazo? ↩︎
20220131-01
… well, major success on the culinary front last night and then a really good night’s sleep… perhaps the world will be my oyster this AM?…
… i have decided to return to Ulysses for journaling and short, spur of the moment posting to my blog site… the work flow is simple and fast and Ulysses is a good working environment… i will continue to use Obsidian for notes on reading and research rabbit holes…
… i do have to talk a bit about the culinary success… i made the Persian rice with tahdig in a new cast iron pot i got for the purpose… most recipes recommend a non-stick pot and i had one i purchased to make this dish… however, i am determined to eliminate non-stick from my kitchen… the most suitable replacement is cast iron, but, as one fellow cook said, properly seasoned cast iron is mostly non-stick… it takes more finesse to cook a dish like this with cast iron… so, to get a perfect tahdig as i did is amazing…
… my first try was a disaster for the most part… the rice bonded to the pot like super glue… last night was my second try and the rice came out clean as a whistle which i attribute to a number of things…
- nearly two weeks of working on the seasoning of the new pot
- the use of butter as the bond breaker
- the cooling of the bottom of the pot before tipping the rice out onto a plate
… yesterday was a much better day than Saturday… laundry got done, fish got bought, family got met with, though it was just M on FaceTime… also did some tweaking of my blog… changed the theme… looks much better now…
… significant accomplishment!… Persian rice with tahdig in a cast iron pot! Non stick pot is the broad recommendation because, you know, rice sticks…
First notes…
226.6 lbs
… five days of weight loss… three while pursuing the No S diet approach… also meals low in refined carbs like pasta…
… it is the one year anniversary of the riot at the Capital Building… the facts available point to it as an insurrection and are beginning to detail a planned overthrow of the government… that planning continues and it is uncertain what, if anything , will be done to counter the efforts happening around the country to suppress the vote and rig the voting system… the most likely action is one flying under the radar screen, mostly… a reform of the Electoral Count Act of 1887… 45’s attempt to seize power in a way that would have the pale varnish of legitimacy was built around weaknesses in the ECA… the lack of clarity on the powers of the VP to certify being one of them… there appear to be bi-partisan efforts to shore it up… the most widely publicized efforts are a number of voting rights bills that have passed the house but are stalled in the Senate with no Republican support… some change in the filibuster rules will be required to pass any voting rights act which, at the present moment, seems unlikely… i have given up hoping on that one… and then there is the work of the January 6 Commission… it appears they will be able to demonstrate conspiracy to overthrow the government but the question is, can they do it compellingly enough to shift the narrative?… and, if so, will it shift enough?… time will tell…
… in all of this, Liz Cheny continues to be my hero for the stand she is taking… she is attempting to take down 45 and his cronies before the rabid conservatives of her state vote her out of office… she appears to be one of the few Republicans with …a spine…
… yesterday i spent much of the day trying to free the castor wheels of my office chair… so much animal and human hair was logged in them that they have become immobile and are scratching the finish of the floor in my studio… i was only able to return three of five to fully spinning order… i found replacement castors on Amazon and ordered a set with rubberized wheels designed for hard floor surfaces… if i had known when i started where i would end, i would have jumped to the end…
… we watched Matrix Resurrection last night… or, rather, H watched it and i slept through the bulk of it… alcohol has been doing me in for the last many nights… slow down on that and i might make it through an evening’s worth of viewing… my sense of it was that it wasn’t as good as the first three…
… news, via Heather Cox Richardson, that citizens are revolting in Kazakhstan… Russia and Belarus have agreed to send “peacekeeping” troops to assist… the people are fighting the corruption and poor service of their government, which is authoritarian… there appears to be worry that the protests will spread to Russia and Belarus… the internet has been shut down and there are reports of clashes between government security forces and citizens with casualties…
… ordered a cast iron pot/pan to replace the last non-stick coated pan i have in the kitchen… i am looking forward to its arrival… i am hoping to be able to make Persian rice with Tadigh in it… one needs a good non-stick surface to do that… cast iron can be mostly non-stick, but usually not completely… the advice is to use extra oil when making the tadigh… i used gift card money sent by R to purchase it… i also bought traction devices for my shoes… i had to curtail my walk yesterday because the sidewalks were slick…
… i don’t expect to be encumbered by any household tasks today… hopefully just photo editing, reading, writing then cooking will be the order of the day…
… this morning i lay in bed and tried to count my breaths up to ten… its remarkably hard to do… after about half an hour i managed it and then got out of bed… the usual routine… put water on to boil, grind coffee beans, feed the cat, take meds, let the dogs down and out… because Fiona is a clever and determined escape artist i have been escorting her out into the brisk darkness and watching her closely… i have all the holes in the fence repaired, but we have thought this so many times only to learn she has found and exploited a new weakness apparent to her but not us… it was fun to watch her sniffing along the ground, following the trails of night critters across or under the leaf litter… we all came back in and i gave them treats, which is what they are up for anyway… then they went back to bed and i prepared my coffee and came up to start the writing/reading part of my day…
What i read today…
Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American, December 07, 2021… the heroism and death of Messman Doris Miller, a black man, in WW II… he was on board the U.S.S. West Virginia in Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked… he survived the sinking of the West Virginia but later perished when the U.S.S. Liscome Bay was sunk by a Japanese Torpedo, November 24, 1943…
I hear a lot these days about how American democracy is doomed and the reactionaries will win. Maybe. But the beauty of our system is that it gives us people like Doris Miller. Even better, it makes us people like Doris Miller.
In Defense—God Help Us—of Lauren Boebert, Chris True… i read the article and understand the point being made, but on the fence about whether i agree… my great frustration is that individuals that “no decent person … should give the time of day” get the time of day, get traction, take cover behind the protections of the system they are working towards dismantling… it puts those of us who want to stop them at a great disadvantage… we may be at a place where lines have to be drawn… on the other hand, it is a slippery slope…
No decent person should give Lauren Boebert the time of day. Congresswoman Boebert, however, is a different story. Congresswoman Boebert is representing over 700,000 people and those 700,000 people deserve the same representation in Congress as everyone else, even if that makes Democrats feel unsafe. Sticking to your principles often does._ International Court of Justice Rules Azerbaijan Must Stop Destroying Armenian Cultural Heritage in Artsakh, Yelena Ambartsumian… the ICJ apparently has the authority to refer its decisions to the UN Security Council which has the authority to do something about it… i am in sympathy based on what the article tells me, but wonder how straightforward the issue really is… last night Rachel Maddow’s opening monologue talked about the taking down of monuments to war heroes of the Confederacy… would the Confederacy, such as it exists today, have the right to appeal to the ICJ for relief?…
… a cartoon by Guy Richards Smit in Hyperallergic… last week, on Deadline Washington, Donny Deutsch lamented that the people he talked to in his crowd (he’s pretty wealthy) weren’t particularly concerned with whether democracy survives or not…
The Power of the Dog Is a Different Kind of Western Film, Ela Bittencourt, Hyperallergic…
In Jane Campion’s elegant adaptation of Thomas Savage’s novel The Power of the Dog, nature is an instrument of both wonder and violence.
The audacity of the original book comes from Savage combining a heated sibling rivalry, an illicit love story, the Western myths of male virility, and a murder mystery all within its slim pages.
[How Marisol, “the True Trailblazer,” Paved the Way for Andy Warhol](https://hyperallergic.com/696348/how-marisol-the-true-trailblazer-paved-the-way-for-andy-warhol/ “How Marisol, “the True Trailblazer,” Paved the Way for Andy Warhol”), Karen Chernick… “Behind every great man there’s a great woman.”… Marisol was quite well recognized at the time, so, not living in the shadows… but… an interesting exhibition…
Marisol, “Andy” (1962–63) (Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, image © Acquavella LLC (1962-63), © 2021 Estate of Marisol / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)
The Hungry Eye: Eating, Drinking, and European Culture from Rome to the Renaissance, Leonard Barkan, review by Lauren Moya Ford, Hyperallergic… for art lover epicureans… there don’t appear to be recipes, but i suppose we can find our own…
… this image from the book catches my attention in particular… so many layers to dig through…
Joos van Cleve, “The Holy Family” (c. 1512-13) (the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
[New Study on NFTs Deflates the “Democratic” Potential for the Medium](https://hyperallergic.com/697239/new-study-on-nfts-deflates-the-democratic-potential-for-the-medium/ “New Study on NFT’s Deflates the “Democratic” Potential for the Medium”), Jasmine Liu, Hyperallergic… yesterday i upgraded my micro.com subscription to premium to take advantage of the new email signup feature and begin posting short videos which i call video stills… i was ambivalent about doing this because i have viewed these video stills as ideal for the NFTA world… it is interesting to see that the market is shaping up to be a reflection of the physical art world system of value creation and art distribution, where there are taste makers serving as intermediaries advising the well to do on their art purchases… i struggle with this system because it is exploitative and elitist and a direct reflection of the power structure in which art is created… artists don’t often make out well trying to participate in this system… i don’t have to make money from my art at present, so i don’t have to participate in the system if i don’t want to, and lately, i don’t want to… right now, i create my art and offer it for free on a platform that isn’t profiting from my free content…
First thoughts…
229.8
… i am in a run where 6 to 6 1/2 hours of sleep is sufficient… at some point i will need more, but for now, it’s good… i like getting up a little earlier… being at my desk by 4 AM…
… hotel bookings for the trip to Florida are complete… we found a cheap Red Roof Inn room in Savanah Georgia and booked it for two nights on the way back so we have a chance to see a little something of the city… looking forward to that…
… looking forward to visiting M except that i am increasingly anxious and angry about efforts of the far right to undermine democracy… lots of news stories yesterday proclaiming we are nearing the “break glass in case of emergency” point… some are saying we are past that… returning to M, as far as i can tell, they get their information entirely, or almost entirely from Fox News… i won’t be able to have a conversation with anyone who gets their information solely from Fox… most of my knowledge of the news comes from reading and i have both liberal and conservative sources…
… made a delicious mushroom cream soup last night… it turns out to be H’s favorite…
… after dinner we watched LoveHard and agreed it gets added to the Christmas rotation… it’s plot is predictable, it spoofs Love Actually a bit and is not as good, but, in the end, a satisfying Christmas romcom… i told H i was feeling a jones to watch Lars and the Real Girl and Hugo… she agreed with Hugo, was skeptical about LATRG as Christmas fare…
Thanksgiving Part II
… we almost always go to someone else’s house for Thanksgiving so we like to make ourselves another one the weekend following so i can strut my cooking stuff and H can have leftover turkey sandwiches and soup…
The menu:
- roast turkey
- mashed potatoes with cardoon (the cardoon was my inspiration)
- celery root and rutabaga mash
- roasted Brussels sprouts
- cranberry, mushroom and lentil loaf
First Thoughts, remembering Thanksgiving…
… a good Thanksgiving… in attendance, H and me, M, L, S, B, J, M, W, G, and L, a friend of B’s(?)… L is a star of the afternoon show… vivacious, outgoing, attractive… we learn later in the evening that they are gay and recently out of a relationship that, i surmise, didn’t end well… L and B have a very warm connection to one another and spend part of the afternoon rendering show tunes, mostly from Rent… in fact, show tunes figure prominently throughout the afternoon…
… we brought the dogs with us but had to leave them crated in the car as no pets were allowed in the rental house… the dogs were very cooperative though not entirely happy about the situation… we did find out that they will stay nicely in the crates in the car for extended periods of time which might be useful Christmas Eve in Florida when we are scheduled to go out to dinner…
… L brought herbs they grew in their garden and everyone got some…
… i find out M is concerned about extremism (on both sides) but believes the population in the middle will get things back on the middle track… this conversation comes up as the result of their statement about how scary The Sound of Music was to them… M is Jewish and TSOM is about a Jewish family escaping Nazi Germany just before they are hauled off to a concentration camp… i asked M if they worried about fascism in this country which is when the middle-will-rescue-us thought was expressed… i think that would be true if the voting machinery wasn’t being bent to favor the extremist right… i think there is a very strong possibility for an authoritarian government to arise, possibly even fascist… the extreme right which is currently stacking the voting deck is, in significant portion, a white supremacist extreme right…
… the food was the standard American Thanksgiving fair and possibly a little less well prepared than in years past, but we were in a rented house and so not in anyone’s natural cooking environment… it was good enough… there was turkey of course, mashed potato, mashed sweet potato, rutabaga (i think), bread stuffing, sautéed fennel and leaks, green beans almandine, brussels sprouts with pomegranate, gravy… for desert, pumpkin, apple and pecan pies… i found myself wishing for some vanilla ice cream to go with the pumpkin pie i had…
… M wanted us to do a recognition of the fact that the land we were currently having our dinner on was originally Native American land and taken from them by the European settlers… i had mixed emotions about it… land has been ceded by weaker populations to stronger populations since the beginning of time, and i am not only talking about people… as Bertrand Russel once said, the goal of every living thing is to turn as much of the planet into itself as possible… my broad view is that the Euro descendent white patriarchy sucks and that the sooner we kill it and bring forth the multiarchy the better… M reminds me of J… so in earnest…
… i managed to escape a big weight gain, partly because i had no alcohol (i had to drive us back) and partly because i took small portions of everything and didn’t have seconds of anything, though i did have way more cheese, pate and crackers than i should have before dinner…
… i got very tired during the afternoon… to the point i could barely think straight and had trouble remembering the names of the most common things i might be talking about… later, when we were home and i had a brief cat nap, my lucidity came back to me… will have to remember to sneak off and do a quick nap in future… i found myself wondering if Prevagen, an over the counter product marketed as a brain function enhancer, works and whether i should try it… i don’t generally have trouble with my memory early in the day, so i am thinking it really is a function of being tired to the point of not remembering things…
… during the day i find myself wondering if S has a drinking problem and B is a little too fond of L…
… a slightly awkward conversation with M who wanted to know what H and I thought of Dia Beacon… they apparently went their and found it didn’t do a very good job of making the art “user friendly”… they had been a docent in a Chicago Museum and thought that museums had an obligation to make art accessible… it was really difficult to talk about it across the table… there was so much to say in answer… i pointed out that there were the equivalent of docent tours, (which they had not taken advantage of), that i personally did not require translation of what i was looking at (though i don’t object to getting other ways of thinking about the art i am looking at) and that their experience was their experience, neither right or wrong… there is a lot more i could have said… i would have liked to have the conversation with them… of note is that to the extent i understand what M does for a living, it involves the design and implementation of user experiences on the internet… so, you might say, that is their thing and possibly of more interest to them than the art itself?…
… the drive home was in the dark and on the Taconic Parkway… i was concerned about deer, it’s the time of year they are mating and more reckless, and there was at one point a buck grazing just feet from the edge of the highway, cars whizzing by… that was the only deer i saw and we arrived home safely…
First Thoughts
… i was hoping for a turkey icon to label this day’s folder, but alas, there was none…
… we drive north with the dogs to hook up with L, M, S, B, and five other family members… 11 of us all together… the dogs won’t be allowed in the house (rental, no pets) so we will keep them in the car with regular visits to be sure they are ok… don’t really like this but don’t like leaving them home either…
… HCR meter, instructive, maybe hopeful… she gives us the history of Thanksgiving, which, in the most tenuous way, does go all the way back to the Pilgrims and Native Americans having diner together in the 1600’s… however, it didn’t become a thing until the Civil War when, in the states of the Union, it became a way to remember the sacrifices on the battlefield and give thanks for the strength and fortitude being shown by citizens of the Union in their struggle to preserve Democracy…
… i made two versions of the fiskepudding yesterday… i am perfecting my technique… perhaps we will have some for Christmas…
… i dived down a rabbit hole on the fiskepudding… was trying to find some historical information but none to be had easily… then i moved on to pickled herring and a search for salted herring which is used to make pickled herring… i will look for it in the local groceries first… Adam’s might have it… maybe fresh market…
… such a rabbit hole this AM… trying to find recipes for fiskepudding, i buy two cookbooks, one on Scandinavian cooking, the other on Norwegian cooking… the Norwegian one has the fiskepudding…
… time to move on to other things…
The Journals of Denton Welch
… i read about ten pages… the book is long, almost 400 pages… i am a little beyond half way done… the entries have become more extended which i attribute to the happiness he has found with Eric… at times it seems endless, but mostly it is satisfying reading the relatively unpolished thoughts and observations… i have a desire to read some of his more polished writing and story telling, but i also have a long line of books waiting to be read… i keep buying them because they seem interesting… i am not a fast reader, especially because i make notes as i go…
… it’s later in the day… more reading in the Journals… i come across this:
Last night in the moon — head on my shoulder, and the screeching owl flickering across the lawn, through the trees and back again; while the cow mooed sadly for its bull. All stillness in the room, only the arch of grey light from the Gothic window living across the polished floor and the end of the bed. Moment that can never be made again, only known in years afterwards.1
… and this:
I suppose money is so fascinating, so repelling and so tiring because it has the power to draw all forms of ingenuity out of people.2
… fish pudding is mentioned as part of a meal… i look it up and find a recipe for Fiskepudding, Norwegian Fish Mousse… i save it to Paprika…
… he complains he has nothing to write or is not writing well, but since Eric came into his life he seems to write more and more completely… there is a gradual maturing goin on… he is having success, settling down… if only his health would improve, which we know it doesn’t…
The Journals of Denton Welch
… before i am done with Denton Welch completely i will have to read one of his books… they were well received in his lifetime and i wonder if that is where the “profound’ content winds up… or, perhaps i have to recalibrate my concept of profound, which is an epiphanic thought or idea that represents a deep insight into the meaning of being alive in this cosmos… such an idea would make death seem reasonable… if we just got to grasp such an insight before we melt back into the cosmic fabric, all would be ok… or so i like to imagine…
… another odd menu… tomato soup, egg and celery pie, melba toast and minced pie1
… interestingly, the Journals come more alive with the arrival of Eric as a permanent fixture in his life…
… it occurs to me to look up egg and celery pie and i find a quiche recipe… then, because i have some cardoon in the refrigerator, i look up cardoon quiche, don’t find anything so then look up cardoon and eggs, do find something, and then resolve to make a cardoon quiche because cardoon, plus egg, plus gruyere cheese might be interesting… i think we will skip eggs this morning and make that tonight for dinner… while Fiona is recovering…
… DW talking about an 18th century doll house he is restoring… quite a lot of detail… remembered from years ago, though the object is in front of him to provoke the memories…
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The Journals of Denton Welch, p 180 ↩︎