These don’t come all that often – but this was too good a day not to celebrate with you.
Anna and Holly came over this morning. In January they’ll use a professional kitchen, but everything is booked over Xmas, so they were going to cook for 75 chez Anna, in her cramped kitchen. Come here, I said, my kitchen is bigger. So they did. We spent from 9.30 to 6 peeling, chopping, cooking, cleaning, stirring. Holly peeled, boiled, and mashed 50 pounds of donated potatoes. Anna and I, mostly Anna, chopped I’m sure as many pounds of donated cabbage that was fried, mixed with cooked meat and rice and tomatoes and baked. We had to mix it in a big storage tub, which still wasn’t big enough. Most went into Anna’s rented car, but there are 3 heavy pans cooling right now which will go into a covered bin and onto the deck for the night, with heavy things on top to discourage raccoons. They’ll be back tmw for them and for the pan of maple syrup fudge also cooling on the counter.
In the middle of the chaos, I heard from the editor at the Globe with edits on my piece. So I was rewriting and sending back to him while giant piles of cabbage and potatoes flowed through my kitchen. It was, in a word, heaven.
If you’re interested in what they’re doing, here it is:
Last night, solstice drinks on Zoom with two of my oldest friends from university days, a visit with Monique, and then “His Dark Materials” which is thrillingly good. It was mild today, bicycle weather. Peter Jackson has released a short montage from the “Let it be” film that’ll come out next summer, the Beatles taping the final album. We’ve all heard how unhappy and bitter they were at the end. But the fun and sheer joy that pours out from this clip – glorious. Something to look forward to in August 2021.
Macca’s new album is out, have only heard snippets so far, including last night at Monique’s with our friend Cathy, all of us dancing around the living room. But he has released a gorgeous little film to go with one of them. Merry pre-Christmas to you all. May there be such pleasure in a day for you too.
