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Raking through the ashes
Oct. 11th, 2020 03:47 pmI must be the only person on the planet capable of getting a cold despite basically never leaving the house, never seeing anyone other than Matthias, and only being in public spaces where virtually everyone is wearing a mask! And yet, here we are — it's definitely not COVID, it's just a garden variety cold. As a result, I felt far too run down to go for the long morning walk to Grantchester that I'd planned, although I did manage to drag myself out of the house for a brief loop around the nature reserve, where everything was damp, quiet, and still, the silence only interrupted by swans and cygnets.
My brain wasn't up to much, other than cooking, so I made two different soups in advance for meals next week: green lentil, carrot and cabbage with ras el hanout, and charred eggplant with chili and lemon juice. The eggplant soup was a lot of fun to make, because it requires you to actually char the eggplant by placing it directly over the flame of the gas stove, which make a huge mess and fills the house with the smell of burning eggplant, but produces an absolutely delicious flavour. I guess it's the closest thing to cooking things on an open fire possible in an indoor kitchen. And now I've got two evening meals sorted for next week.
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Over the past couple of days I've read the first two books in a new-to-me historical crime series: the Lovett and Marwood books by Andrew Taylor, which are set just after the Great Fire in Restoration-era London. As with all crime series that I read, I'm in it for the history, and the mysteries are entirely incidental. What I enjoyed about these books is that both the two main characters are trying to navigate the dangerous waters of the Restoration while saddled with the legacy of their respective Puritan (and regicide) fathers, which makes the powers that be view them with suspicion while also trying to manipulate them. I always enjoy reading about settings which have ostensibly undergone a political sea change and drawn a line over the past — but which in reality are a seething mess of unfinished business, unquiet ghosts from the past, and the consequent shifting loyalties and intrigue. I'll definitely be ordering the next books in the series from the public library. (I was also amused to discover that the author had done an undergraduate degree at Cambridge, gone on to become a librarian, and had written another mystery novel that was essentially set in a thinly-veiled fictionalised version of the department where I did my postgraduate studies.)
The other book I've read recently is Maria Dahvana Headley's translation of Beowulf. This translation probably drew the most attention for the fact that she rendered the complicated first word of the poem, Hwæt!, as 'Bro!' Your enjoyment of this translation will hinge on whether you feel that Beowulf is about toxic masculinity or not.
*
I've just finished doing yoga in the lingering light of the afternoon, and the remainder of the day will be spent cooking dinner, browsing the Yuletide tagset to try to narrow down my offers and requests (and potential treats to write), and generally trying not to overtax myself in the hope that the cold will be on the mend by Monday. Fingers crossed!
My brain wasn't up to much, other than cooking, so I made two different soups in advance for meals next week: green lentil, carrot and cabbage with ras el hanout, and charred eggplant with chili and lemon juice. The eggplant soup was a lot of fun to make, because it requires you to actually char the eggplant by placing it directly over the flame of the gas stove, which make a huge mess and fills the house with the smell of burning eggplant, but produces an absolutely delicious flavour. I guess it's the closest thing to cooking things on an open fire possible in an indoor kitchen. And now I've got two evening meals sorted for next week.
Over the past couple of days I've read the first two books in a new-to-me historical crime series: the Lovett and Marwood books by Andrew Taylor, which are set just after the Great Fire in Restoration-era London. As with all crime series that I read, I'm in it for the history, and the mysteries are entirely incidental. What I enjoyed about these books is that both the two main characters are trying to navigate the dangerous waters of the Restoration while saddled with the legacy of their respective Puritan (and regicide) fathers, which makes the powers that be view them with suspicion while also trying to manipulate them. I always enjoy reading about settings which have ostensibly undergone a political sea change and drawn a line over the past — but which in reality are a seething mess of unfinished business, unquiet ghosts from the past, and the consequent shifting loyalties and intrigue. I'll definitely be ordering the next books in the series from the public library. (I was also amused to discover that the author had done an undergraduate degree at Cambridge, gone on to become a librarian, and had written another mystery novel that was essentially set in a thinly-veiled fictionalised version of the department where I did my postgraduate studies.)
The other book I've read recently is Maria Dahvana Headley's translation of Beowulf. This translation probably drew the most attention for the fact that she rendered the complicated first word of the poem, Hwæt!, as 'Bro!' Your enjoyment of this translation will hinge on whether you feel that Beowulf is about toxic masculinity or not.
I've just finished doing yoga in the lingering light of the afternoon, and the remainder of the day will be spent cooking dinner, browsing the Yuletide tagset to try to narrow down my offers and requests (and potential treats to write), and generally trying not to overtax myself in the hope that the cold will be on the mend by Monday. Fingers crossed!