Rainy Saturday

I spent a lot of time in the kitchen today making lamb shanks, except when all was said and done they were definitely mutton shanks. Old mutton shanks, actually. That sounds like a nickname, doesn't it? Old Mutton Shanks. Let's just say that it was a dish that made it easy to leave the table a little hungry. Thought about complaining to the grocery store, but for various reasons, I won't. I don't have very many culinary disasters.

The worse ever was a gumbo. The recipe was in the Chicago Sunday Tribune years ago. It called for gumbo file powder, Smithfield ham, shrimp, tomatos, peppers, all kinds of good stuff. We couldn't eat it. I have never made anything that tasted that bad. Put it outside for the critters. The raccoon turned up her nose. The possum finally gave in and gobbled it down. After all it was midwinter and a possum will eat carrion, which is what my gumbo tasted like. That possum also eschewed brussels sprouts. I don't use words like "eschewed" in my novels. You can say anything in a blog.

Since I am on a Proust kick, we rented Swan In Love and watched it this evening. Jeremy Irons as Swan, with Alain Delon (god was he cute) as Baron Charlus. A pretty fair adaptation, except the language didn't sound right. All those long sentences broken into conversation, I guess. Music was a bit off, too. There were a few nice touches, like the coachman swigging from a flask while waiting for Swan. The love affair of Swan and Odette is captured in a musical phrase, "le petit phrase" by Vinteiul, one of Proust's characters, a composer. Scholars, or at least Proust's biographer, belive the phrase was actually inspired by a Saint-Saens sonata. After watching the movie, I found myself searching the web for Saint-Saens Sonata in D Minor for Violin and Piano, Opus 75. It is possible to find absolutely anything on the web, right? Guess what? Except for sheet music, the only recording I could find of the Saint-Saens sonata was used for $39.95. I don't think so. I listened to a bit of it online, but what I like to do is pop the CD into the player in my car and play the piece about 50 times. Really get it into my head. Won't be doing that with "Vinteuil's Sonata."

Tomorrow is cow-feeding day. I have all the vegetable scraps and a dozen wilted tulips. And some cheap bread, which we save for bovine dessert. Maybe the rain will stop. My god the rain. We are going to have May flowers in abundance! Green things are peeking out of the ground: the garlic chives, the chives, and the sedum. But its cold and wet and dreary. When is my spring coming? Winter was definitely a suck it up season. Waiting, waiting, always waiting for spring. The cats know the season is changing. They sniff the air when we open the windows and are very interested in what's going on outdoors. I am sick of the dark drab heavy wool clothes staring at me from the closet every morning. I want pink and green and silk and linen. Sandals! And a straw hat. Spring, where are you?