Not too long ago, mentally exhausted and virtually brain dead to think of anything original, I threw myself on the mercy of my readers to provide some inspiration.
And, thanks to the brain trust in my small slice of the blogosphere, I received some very good ideas.
Lest you think that I am ignoring these, today I will multi-task, and not only answer one question from the ever-lovely RiverPoet over at Poetic License, but I will - in usual Baroness fashion - embellish. Ever so slightly.
I was asked to talk about my summer reading list. While I kind of sketched out here what I had devoured and what was on deck, yet once again I have gone off-page. Such a rebel.
As I was grabbing the next book from the pile to take with us on a little 4th of July jaunt to Les Etat Unis avec le French exchange student Julien, I found Marlena De Blasi's "A Thousand Days in Tuscany" .
And feeling hungry as always, I was mesmerized by the title of the first chapter, "The Gorgeous Things They're Cooking Are Zucchini Blossoms". From that point onward, I was hooked (and grumbly in the tumbly) by this succulent account of the author's stopover in San Casciano dei Bagni.
When she's not talking about food (something she does very, very well), De Blasi's talking of the rhythm of life as a supplanted Tuscan, or about the relationship between her and her husband.
One of the most exquisite paragraphs I have ever read talks about getting into bed on the first night in their new home. Does this seem odd to you? Does it seem odd that I wanted to groan with pleasure at the description, weep for the beauty of the sentiment, and immediately read it to my husband, who would completely agree?
Read it for yourself:
"...How delicious it is to rest after such a day. To lay down blood and bones in a place, almost any place, where someone waits to hold what's young of you and what's old of you. What's just happened to you and that which has happened so long ago to you. All of you."And, thanks to the brain trust in my small slice of the blogosphere, I received some very good ideas.
Lest you think that I am ignoring these, today I will multi-task, and not only answer one question from the ever-lovely RiverPoet over at Poetic License, but I will - in usual Baroness fashion - embellish. Ever so slightly.
I was asked to talk about my summer reading list. While I kind of sketched out here what I had devoured and what was on deck, yet once again I have gone off-page. Such a rebel.
As I was grabbing the next book from the pile to take with us on a little 4th of July jaunt to Les Etat Unis avec le French exchange student Julien, I found Marlena De Blasi's "A Thousand Days in Tuscany" .
And feeling hungry as always, I was mesmerized by the title of the first chapter, "The Gorgeous Things They're Cooking Are Zucchini Blossoms". From that point onward, I was hooked (and grumbly in the tumbly) by this succulent account of the author's stopover in San Casciano dei Bagni.
When she's not talking about food (something she does very, very well), De Blasi's talking of the rhythm of life as a supplanted Tuscan, or about the relationship between her and her husband.
One of the most exquisite paragraphs I have ever read talks about getting into bed on the first night in their new home. Does this seem odd to you? Does it seem odd that I wanted to groan with pleasure at the description, weep for the beauty of the sentiment, and immediately read it to my husband, who would completely agree?
Read it for yourself:
Ahh. How delicious, indeed.
