Saturday 25 July 2009

Spider



So there I was, cooking a couple of duck-breasts, flash-fried, hot over the gas-blue flame, deep in the unctuous fat of their own flesh. Kitchen hot and smoky and aromatic, full of the promise of rich, red meat, gold and pink and, in its heart, deep red.
In the corner of my eye comes the spider. Tiny bodied, long legged. Running. Displaced by my cooking fumes from somewhere above the hob. In flight.
I turn back to the flame, burning blue and hot over the enamel of the hob. Then suddenly, there is the spider again. Moving swiftly on long, impossibly thin legs. Looking for a better place to be. But running - yes, running now - across the enamel. Running straight for the flame.
Into the flame.
A single moment when movement stops and long, hair-thin legs stop, buckle, crumple in the heat.
And the spider is still and dead.
I do not, can not, comprehend what drove my fly-eating arachnid friend to self-immolate. And in such purposeful, driven haste.
Why?
Just thought I’d share that moment. Still don’t understand.

Monday 13 July 2009

La Dolce Vita



.. which just happens to be the film I’m watching at this minute. The sweet life. Don’t know about the film - but life is certainly sweet as I write. The book - of course. Now technically published, though only available through Xlibris. But I have two copies, right here - and they look and feel very good indeed.
Now we wait ... for Amazon (not .co.uk I suspect, but .com) to pick it up. Then you can all buy it! (I wish)
In the meanwhile, as I say, life is sweet. Bricolage has broken out here (= France) again - as it does from time to time - more lambris to hide the damper bits of our walls. Hard work, and much fun. Soon our entire house will be made of pine cladding!
In the meantime, good wine (plenty) and sunshine (not quite so much) makes this a blessed country to spend time in. And food!
La Dolce Vita indeed.