day before

I would like to be not too fussy in life. Not easily flustered. Mellow. (I worry that I think myself to be more devil-may-care than I really am.) One thing's certain: living at the farmhouse has loosened me up considerably. The traits of the other person become, if not your own, then at least sweetly accepted as part of life now. Socks, left on the living room floor (not just yesterday's, from the day before, too), junk mail on the kitchen table, four shoes in various state of disrepair tossed in any direction in the mudroom. I smile at all this. If it nags at me, I quietly push it aside.

But all that I don't mind in my everyday must be tidied and swept under the rug by tonight when the first batch of family arrives. They wouldn't care, of course, but I care. And so I get up early again, give myself (and my yoga buddy, who, despite an ankle fracture, is back at it!) a yoga hour to reset some internal compass or other (so early is it that the morning fog hasn't even begun to burn away)…






…and then I do stage three (one and two were earlier -- Woodman's comes to mind) of food shopping -- the best stage of all, because it includes all my favorites -- the produce, the bird, all of it. (Stage four is less desirable and I had stage four today as well: it's when you get home and realize you forgot the eggs.)



filling the cart with produce


And now it's time to unpack the foods...



(in a fit of giddiness, I added a bottle of Chaume... for the dessert)


... and pay attention to the flowers (looking especially regal in the late afternoon sun).






I have, too, a new vision on how to proceed this year: I'll create a timeline, so that tomorrow's preparations aren't random or surprising. It really made an impression on me when a food magazine editor admitted that last year his guests had to wait too long for the meal to appear. It's no good serving snacks and having people consume too much (foods, wines, you name it) before the turkey stops running pink juices.

So now back to the kitchen for me. To start in on -- whatever it is that I have as item one on the timeline.