Goldengrove, unleaving..

Last Wednesday I woke feeling a bit sad and with the first few lines of a poem rattling around in my brain - "Margaret are you grieving/ Over Goldengrove unleaving?/ Leaves like the things of man, you/with your fresh thoughts care for, can you?"

I remember discussing this in some class in High School and being told that it's about an adult talking to a small child who is weeping because the leaves are falling from the trees.  And, beyond that, Goldengrove is a kind of Eden, where death does not exist and the child's tears are about her discovery of mortality - the lot of all living things.

Not saying that's wrong.  But I've always loved this poem and it speaks to me personally of all change, not simply mortality and death. There's something about the use of the word 'unleaving' that to me has always been numinous with echos of 'leaving'.  Leaving is always sad for me.  I attach. That's at the core of who I am, so leaving is always a wrench.  Even when I leave a hotel room after one night, I turn and look at it on the way out and have a little Moment.

The reason I was feeling sad was that we were leaving for Brighton and it was sad to me to leave Ipswich.  I will feel the same way when we leave Brighton in the end of April.  I tell myself it's just part of the price I pay for  going places, for living two lives simultaneously.  It's a thing I don't talk about much. It is a lovely thing to be able to have these two homes, but it is not without its costs.

When we flew out of Boston it was after dark and the whole area was filled with lights - so beautiful.  I didn't think to take a picture at first, but here is one, which hardly does justice to the scene:

So, anyway, we left on a flight that was emptier than any I have seen in many years. I had a whole row of seats in the middle to stretch out it.  Though not as comfortable as it seemed it should be, at least I was horizontal for a few hours. As it grew light outside, I returned to sit by the COG and we were treated to the most amazing sunrise above a thick blanket of clouds:

Then, we were in London and quickly en route to Brighton.  Got to the flat, it was still there and unchanged.  And we napped. 

Here is the complete poem, so you don't have to  Google it:

Spring and Fall

BY GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS

to a young child

Margaret, are you grieving

Over Goldengrove unleaving?

Leaves like the things of man, you

With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?

Ah! as the heart grows older

It will come to such sights colder

By and by, nor spare a sigh

Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;

And yet you will weep and know why.

Now no matter, child, the name:

Sorrow’s springs are the same.

Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed

What heart heard of, ghost guessed:

It is the blight man was born for,

It is Margaret you mourn for.

Bread of Life

We've been here not quite a week. It has been a rather difficult reentry this time.  I don't know why some times its more difficult than others, but.... it is.

Anyway, we are now feeling pretty human again. I've started to paint the upper cupboards in the kitchen, Part II, after last time.  We have a carpenter coming to give us estimates on Saturday for some little odd jobs - the biggest one being putting the soffit back up in the kitchen.

And yesterday we made bread.  We have a weird new bread Thing called the Lékué bread maker.  It doesn't actually make bread - you make the bread in it. You weight, mix,  knead and shape and, finally, bake all in this one odd flexible silicone bowl/container, Thing.

Last night, the COG started our first loaf and baked it this morning. We used our standard No-Knead recipe, but the Lékué technique.  So it was mixed last night in the Apparatus and sat in it over night, then we just put it into the oven without even shaping it.  After 40 minutes, we took it out, turned it over and put it back for 10 minutes to dry the bottom.

It made a beautiful little bullet shaped loaf, which I am happy to report  was really really good - crusty and chewy and delicious.

The COG costed it out at about 50 or 60 cents (American) a loaf.  Not counting the £20 we spent on the Thing, of course.  He also figured out that we will have paid for the Thing after a mere 10 or so loaves (calculating using the most expensive bakery loaf we know).  All neatly rationalized.

It's a beautiful day here. The COG is going for a walk and I am staying home to sand cabinets.

Super Powers

What Super Power do you want?  Long ago I decided my super power would be to know from a single glance what the best thing was on any restaurant menu.  And the COG decided his super power would be to make any light turn green as he approached it.

A couple of days ago, sitting in a small waiting room with a huge tv blaring unhappy news, the COG changed his most desired super power to the ability to shut down tvs invisibly.  Yesterday in a different waiting area, this time without a tv,  there was a woman talking loudly into her phone, which was on speaker so we were all privileged to hear her conversations with multiple people.  So I decided my new desired super power to the ability to mute people who are speaking loudly on the phone in public places.

Some days I feel like a real curmudgeon.  Then I look at the COG and realize I am an amateur, and feel better.

Weekend Cat Blog

The COG and I went to a nursery to buy some bulbs to plant in pots for the winter.  We were cruising the aisles just smelling the damp earth for a while when we passed this and did a double take.

Did you spot it?  Here's a close-up.   I love cats. I love that they find places to curl  up and sleep in busy shops.  I love that they are so boneless and agile that they can make a circle when they sleep.

Veggie From Another Planet?

This amazing vegetable is a Romanesco cauliflower which we got from our CSA.  I had never seen one before.  The chartreuse color and the strange fractal quality of the flowerets is just beautiful.  Wikipedia says  that the branched meristems make up a logarithmic spiral. Also that the number of spirals on each head is a Fibonacci number.  It is one of the mathematical wonders of the vegetable world.

We are having it for dinner, boiled whole, with cheese sauce and ham and boiled potatoes.   I tried and tried to find a recipe that left it whole but most of them break it up like an ordinary cauliflower.  That's tragic, in my opinion.

Brighton Again

We just spent nearly a month in Brighton and I didn't blog at all. I have so much to blog about.

The reason I didn't blog is this. My kitchen.  This is a Before shot.  Where do I start?  There are many good things about the kitchen - it functions quite well although it would function better if I were 6 feet tall.  Mostly, it's a good kitchen, functionally.

Still, it has problems.  The biggest problem is entirely subjective - Although it's very bright, the window faces north, so it's cold blue light.  And the white and grey just make it colder.  I also hate the space between the washer and the sink, where we keep the trash can.  There was a dishwasher there when we moved in and we got rid of it.  Then, there is the dark tile behind the sink.  There's no close-up of it, but it seemed to me to suck the light from the room - it was black and very roughly textured with large ugly black sanded grout lines.

Perhaps you recall that we had a new ceiling put in when we had the lighting changed last spring. At that time they removed the soffit over the cupboards, which still needs replacing.  We had to repaint everything pure white after the ceiling job and that has made the Ikea off-white cabinets just look dirty.

We went to Ikea soon after we arrived. I had hoped to find some cabinet that would fit in between the washer and sink and also a few other things.  My hopes were dashed. I came home disappointed.

So that is where we stood when we arrived.  I can't remember how I got there exactly, but I came across some tiles that I loved.  

And amazingly, and they were very inexpensive- less than £40 for all of them. So I decided to replace the  tiles myself.  Which might have been insane, considering that I have no tools at all in Brighton.  To do this,  I had first to remove the old tiles. That proved to be pretty easy. However,  I, then, had to remove all the adhesive from a wall which was pretty much of a mess behind the adhesive.  But, I persevered and cleaned it up and smoothed it out and installed the tile.

I've just written that in -what - 3 sentences, but it took DAYS.  And many trips to various Home Depot type places. And the discovery that the window is not level, making the tiles look as if they are not level. 

Plus, there was just one tile that needed to be cut at the end. It was too thick to cut without heavy duty tile cutters. My Plan B was to bring it home with me and cut it on the saw at Home Depot. But I had a Plan A.

By coincidence, just a few houses up from us, a neighbor was having the tile on their front steps replaced.  And there were two young guys working on it and they had the tile cutter right there on the pavement.  But by the time I figured out that I needed to cut the tile, they were gone. They hadn't finished, but it poured rain for several days, so they didn't return. 

So I turned to Plan A2 and that ended up working.  I went to a nearby tile shop and asked them to cut just one for me.  It took a bit of persuading (apparently I still have some Wiles, despite being geriatric) but I was, finally, able to complete the tile job. 

I also decided to paint the lower cupboards.  Here is an intermediate shot with the tiles removed, but still a mess underneath and a couple of paint samples.

Nice yellow, nice blue which matched the tiles.  I liked both of them.  Daughter of just painted a unit in her kitchen that same blue grey.  But, I hesitated.  Since I couldn't get a a cupboard for the space, I knew I was going to have to put a curtain there and with the tiles it was just getting a little too much French Country for me.  So I ended up choosing a beautiful  dark grey Farrow and Ball color called Downpipe.  I was going on instinct alone and I thought I was a bit crazy because The kitchen is already so cold. But then I read on Apartment Therapy that black is a warm color.  Downpipe isn't quite black, but I think it's warm.  And I'm really happy with it.   

Painting cupboards is another thing that's easily said, but not so easily done. I bought a sander.  I sanded. I searched high and low and finally found a High Adhesive Primer. The Ikea units were painted, but very smooth. I wanted that paint to stick.  So I primed and sanded and painted and sanded. Three coats, it took, not counting the primer. But I finished. 

This isn't an After picture, because there is still work to do when we go back.  The upper units need to be painted a bright white and we need to get a carpenter in to replace the soffit. Before I left I installed a thing to hold the curtain under the counter.   Since I've gotten home to the US, I've made a skirt to cover the rubbish. It's a dark grey very similar to the cupboards.  I've also made a window blind.  We will probably never close it, but it's a touch of color for the window. 

So this is where we stand. 

Another view:

In an ideal world I would replace the counter top with butcher block (on the right) and marble (left and center). Also I'd have someone else tile the wall behind the cooker.  I don't like that stainless stuff.  

And then there's the floor. Old pine boards. I loved them when we bought the place. They are pretty, but they aren't great to live with.  I'm looking at washable runners but I'm not sure.  

Anyway, there is a lot of other stuff we did (Stonehenge! The Magna Carta!) but that's enough for today. 

A Wild Surprise of a Different Nature

Son of COG came home from work the other day and said, 'I've brought you a surprise. 'That's good,' I said -  'as long as I don't have to feed it or clean up after it.'   He laughed  said, rather doubtfully,  'maybe the second.'

It turned out to be 2 large bags of wild grapes- 12 pounds of them, after they'd been cleaned.  I haven't made jelly lately, only jam, so I found a recipe for wild grape jelly on the internet. It was a bit of work, but it made 11 pints of wonderful jelly.   Wild grapes have plenty of pectin, but you have to use so much sugar to get it to gel that my recipe advised using a low sugar pectin to bring out the wonderful flavor.  This is not Welches Grape Jelly, it has a complex almost wine-y flavor that would even go well with meat.  And it's pretty good with freshly made bread and a cup or tea, too.