Weather
January has weather. I live in Southern California so when I say weather, I mean bad weather. Good weather, what we usually have, needs no explanation. It’s just a pleasant backdrop to normal activities. So weather, in this case means fog, or rain, or just plain cold. Or, worse yet, a combination of all.
But I have learned to adapt, at least for the short term. Luckily, I like to read, which I consider nature’s natural indoor activity. And, as I get older I find myself giving in more easily to the instinct to hunker down and relax with a book, letting the weather outside do what it will.
Some books are more warming than others. Books about food, cooking or domestic stuff seem to fall within this category. Right now I am in the process of rereading Laurie Colwin’s book, More Home Cooking- a Writer Returns to the Kitchen. There is a prior volume of course, logically called Home Cooking, but I picked this one up at my used book store and it’s not like it’s a sequel or anything. I read them both some years ago but really, they never age. Not familiar with Colwin’s work, why not? She was a novelist first, with several excellent books, and then went on to compile two books made up of columns that she wrote for Gourmet Magazine about her other interest, which was food, friends and family. Sound familiar? Yes, I feel me and Laurie would have had a lot in common. She surpassed me in talent of course; and I’m not being overly modest when I say that. I speak of her in past tense because, unfortunately, she died suddenly in 1992 at the young age of 48. But by then she had already made her mark.
For those of you with more ambitions than just relaxing and enjoying the words, recipes are also included in the compilations. The one I am reading has an intriguing looking recipe for something called Wensley Cake. Those of you who like movies in addition to reading may remember one from a few years ago called Wallace and Gromit-Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Wallace is a character who loves cheese, Gromit is his erstwhile companion and Wensleydale cheese was prominently mentioned. It was my understanding that when the movie came out, the small cheese artisan in England who produces it was overwhelmed with the interest, but in a good way, presumably. So the name attracted me and I have been known to make a recipe just because I was taken by the name. Who knows, maybe Wensley cake may be next years’ holiday gift.
There are other writers of this sort that I have found inspiring or just plain fun to read. Ruth Reichl’s biographies, particularly, Tender at the Bone, and Comfort Me With Apples have a sense of place and time that is fun to visit whether you lived through that period or not. Again, the stories are about the big three F’s(food, family,friends). Ruth apparently was part of the group in the San Francisco bay area that included the now renowned Alice Waters. And of course she is well-known as the editor of Gourmet Magazine.
I devour these and other books like them in the same way I do food. There is beauty in the words they contain, the pictures they paint are a satisfying way to spend time and give me sustenance, and I am filled with a vision of the possible.
The writing inspires me and humbles me. Still, I think each of us has a unique perspective to share. And that’s what you are getting here – mine.