Rainy days, gardening, cooking and other foolish things

“I’m old fashioned, I love the moonlight
I love the old fashioned things
The sound of rain upon a window pane
The starry song that April sings
This years fancies are passing fancies
But sighing sighs, holding hands
These my heart understands”  Lyrics by Johnny Mercer, 1909 – 1976, American lyricist, songwriter and singer.

This morning I awoke to rain.  Not the sound of rain but that soft misty rain that absolutely soaks everything and stops you seeing even the houses on the other side of the street. But as I have said before, I am English and we are used to this type of rain.  It is in the air and all around us.

So what to do today.  I shall certainly take my small dog for a walk.  She doesn’t much like being wet but I love the feel of this soft, caressing rain on my skin. It reminds me of walking home from school in the rain.

 

I won’t be able to get into the garden to pull out the weeds that have invaded since last week.  How sad!  In case you don’t know weeding is not one of my favourite pastimes, although I have been known to lose myself in the task for several hours.  In fact last weekend I spent a couple of hours trying to decide which were flowers and which were flowers in the wrong place.  My spiritual gardening friends tell me that weeds are only flowers in the wrong place.

That old garden bench in need of painting won’t get done today. That was something I was looking forward to doing.  Oh well, leave it for another day.  It has been waiting to be painted for so long that a few more days, weeks or even months won’t really matter.  And I can still sit on it and read on good days.  And with a rug on it, Lotte (my Tibetan Spaniel) doesn’t care if it is painted or not.

So now I can think of what I can do today because of the rain.

Yesterday in a cafe with a friend – those of you who have read my earlier blogs know that I frequent cafes a lot – we had mulligatawny soup.

via Wikipedia

Love the name.  It rolls off the tongue so easily so I looked up its origins.  According to Wikipedia (my go to place for anything I need to know)

 

“Mulligatawny is a  curry-flavored soup of Anglo-Indian origin. Translated literally from Tamil, “Mulligatawny” means “pepper water”(“Millagu” means pepper and “Thanni” means water).  There are many variations on the recipe for mulligatawny.  In the West, the soup typically has a turmeric-like yellow colour and chicken meat, beef, or lamb meat. Often it is thickened with rice.”

The soup was so good that I thought I would make it sometime.  Looks like that sometime is today.   My son will be very pleased if I do make it.  He will get some and he tells everybody how good his Mother’s soup is.

More on soups another time.

So what else can I do?  I went to the library yesterday and have a number of books I could start.  What a choice.  Time was limited at the library as I found a car park good for only 30 minutes.  Not nearly long enough to browse through the library.  But beggars can’t be choosers.  So I went straight to  C and found Robert Crais’  “The First Rule” then onto D for Jeffery Deaver and chose “Speaking in Tongues”  and then James Paterson “Postcard Killers” all three novelists well-known to me.  Then I came across three unknowns (at least to me)

• Alan Dunn, English teacher and novelist.  His book is “Ice Cold”.  I am looking forward to reading that.
• Judith Kelman is ‘an award-winning master of psychological suspense”.  She lives in New York City. Her book is called “The First Stone”.So another new writer to read and
• Domenica de Rosa’s ‘Summer School’.  A novel set in a 13th Century Italian Castle.  That will make good reading.

So as you can see I am spoiled for choice.

But first, a cup of tea with toast and marmalade for breakfast while I decide the order in which I am going to do things.

Such weighty decisions can’t be hurried.

Then check larder and refrigerator for ingredients for the soup.  I may have to make a trip to the store for some things.  That’s OK it can be merged with the walk for Lotte.  That is if she ever gets out of her bed today.  As I said, she doesn’t like the rain or water of any kind.  She is not a true spaniel as spaniels are water dogs and love the sea.  She hates it and won’t go anywhere near it or a river.

Are you old enough to remember Johnny Ray singing “Just Walking in the Rain”? If so take a walk down memory lane here.  Even if you are not old enough you might still enjoy it.

Now a question for you.  What do you do on rainy days when you have to spend time indoors?  I would really like to hear from you.

And today’s quote is from Terri Guillemets (1973-)  U.S. quotation anthologist
creator of The Quote Garden

Weather is a great metaphor for life – sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad, and there’s nothing much you can do about it but carry an umbrella”.

If you haven’t discovered Terri and the Quote Garden you won’t know of her ‘Daily Harvest”.  Here is todays:

Daily Harvest for 4/16/2011: The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.  ~Elisabeth Foley