Painting
This week I primed and painted the wall-mounted shelves Christian made for me in 2024… made of pine, they perfumed the guest-room/office for a year as I let them dry, before applying the special primer this kind of wood takes. Tidying the space this way felt good.
Listening
Painting a piece of furniture takes hours. Some of them I let be silent, the rest I let fill with audio… Jad Abumrad’s podcast series “Fela Kuti: Fear No Man” and a French audiobook titled La maison vide by Laurent Mauvignier.
The first line of Mauvignier’s epilogue caught my ear: “C’est par l’invention que l’histoire peut parfois survivre à l’oubli.” (Sometimes it is through invention that a story can survive through time.) And thus, by inventing a story, Mauvignier remedies the pieces of a tragic story that were handed down to him in real life. He says as much in the second interview here (“j’ai l’impression qu’écrire c’est peut-être pour réparer une angoisse de l’enfance; une peur lié à cet enfance…”). And so, as much as I appreciate listening to French fiction for the sound of it in my ears, I’m all the more interested in the real-life connections, the way fiction and facts cross-pollinate in this story.
Date night
We postponed our Valentines supper out and went to Gather at the Assiniboine Park’s horticultural garden this week instead. Isn’t it pretty reflecting sunset rays?
On the actual Valentine’s day, we went skating with the kids and treated them to boba at (our favourite) KHAB Tapioca…
The special was a Ferrero Rocher drink that, when ordered, came with the question, “any nut allergies?”
Eating
Cooking from Hailee Catalano’s cookbook By Heart continues to surprise and delight… (Her website is really nice too!) On Sunday last week, a “Pasta alla Norcina with Roasted Squash” so delicately flavoured, so wonderfully balanced - one could decide that Beef Stroganoff had been permanently dethroned. Then, on Wednesday “Spinach and Artichoke Ziti” described as a pasta rendition of the beloved appetizer. The fact that the dip is not beloved in our house is a trifle when you’ve decided to whole-heartedly trust a good cookbook author, and this trust was rewarded! Not a single artichoke-spinach sauce-covered noodle was lost, cast aside, distractedly left for the dishwasher or digestive failure of our dog (shallots and a whole head of garlic, roasted and blended, would surely finish a beagle).
Dog coat
An Etsy purchase for Enzo arrived this week… a perfect-fitting coat made of 73% wool for when the temperatures really dip in Winnipeg…
Here’s what he looks like on our walks, most of the time, sans coat.
Postcard
It’s cold again as I write, but still, just the way the light is, in the mornings, on our walks, shows the approach of spring even if it can’t be felt in the temperature.
Happy Sunday!
