Okay, that’s a deceptive title. No need for lemonade-making here at the moment, except that we have an imminent departure of a beloved visitor on our horizon and she’s heading to that Land Where Lemons Grow. . . .
And since we have only one more day with our daughter before she flies home to Rome, I’ll just share this journal page with you and wave Happy Weekend. We’ve had such a good visit, relaxing around each other’s various activities, sharing the space together easily. Yes, I would have loved my granddaughter here as well, but that visit would have had such a different focus with predictable stresses that haven’t arisen this week. We should chat, you readers and I, at some point, about the joys and challenges of visiting adult children in their homes and having them visit in ours. . . and the parallel joys and challenges of visiting ageing parents in their homes and having them visit in ours. It’s not always easy, and for us, this visit ticked most of the boxes on the Get It Right list.
Except for missing the granddaughter. And we’ve begun working to remedy that. Hours were spent this week online doing travel research and booking. More later. . . .
Meanwhile, some armchair travel you might enjoy via Helena Attlee’s The Land Where Lemons Grow, a cultural history that will take you through Italy with a very erudite and entertaining guide, visiting wonderful gardens and enticing kitchens. . . I sketched the illustration of the book on watercolour paper, then cut it out and glued it into my journal. I’ll fill the page later with some notes about the book and probably add a few lines about the week’s other activities.
For now, as the inimitable Porky Pig used to say, “That’s All, Folks”
I am very happy to hear you've had a Most Boxes Well-Checked kind of visit. So satisfying in so many ways. Safe travels to your girl.
😌
That’s all we can hope for in life – most boxes ticked-
Looking forward to hearing about next travel adventure.
Ali
If we're lucky, we'll tick a few, right?
I do like that book cover, it reminds me of An Omelette and A Glass of Wine and Italian Cooking by Elizabeth David. Lemons are without doubt my favourite fruit. And yes, a piece about having adult children in the home and slotting yourself back into the parental home would be excellent. How we shift back to earlier versions of ourselves. Glad the week went well.
Really, your favourite? It's true that I wouldn't want to be without them. . . .Others I consider more of a treat, but none so necessary for so many uses.
Yes, really. I use it in cooking a lot and feel a bit lost if we are without any in the house. And I love looking at them. They make me feel optimistic. I only wish I could find a truly good grater – I end up with pap and sticky hands.
Sticky hands and scraped knuckles!
Microplane graters are the thing – now available from Amazon, Lakeland and everywhere else. But not so a few years ago when a keen cook friend, hearing I was going to Boston NH, asked if I could pick one up for her if I was passing Williams Sonoma (a Shangri la for kitchen stuff). I actually had two in my hand, one for me and one for her, before putting mine back with a Surely I Don't Need This shrug. First time I grated a lemon when I got home my blooded knuckles made me realise that I really, really did. Six weeks later I was in Seattle (I was going anyway) and beating a path to the WS store. So each time I take it out of the drawer in my English kitchen I think of the pan USA saga of its origin.
That the range is now on offer at my local mall is a bit of a disappointment to be honest but it does mean that I can proclaim my love for this device to all and sundry…
Do you know? I have hesitated over picking one up for myself for so long — as when you put the second back down in Boston — and your comment has me resolved. I am buying myself a microplane grater this very week! Thank you!
Wonderful sketch of that book cover, Frances. We too are deep into our travel research as you know. Now we just need to make some decisions. And I am off to my own mother's in a day or two. Looking forward to it and dreading it in almost equal measures. Plus feeling a bit guilty to say that.
The decision-making is when the trip really declares itself, when you sometimes surprise yourself discovering what you really want.
I know what you mean about going off to your mother's, and I hope it goes as well as it can. xo
First, let me say that your execution of the journal painting is wonderful. As for the other subject…
We are fortunate when we (parents and children) take the time to get to know each other as adults–to move past the parenting and child modes of earlier years and see each other as a person in their own right–accepting each other for the ways we are the same and the ways we are different. Not a simple journey. Not always easy. But often rewarding.
Thanks re the sketch. . .
Yes, it's very rewarding, and it can be complicated. For me, besides negotiating our parent-child modes of earlier years, there are the lingering projections of our own interactions with our parents before us to contend with. . .
Love the illustration of the book cover and that the visit has gone so well. Yes a missed granddaughter but an opportunity to relate to a daughter in a different way. And ahh the joys of travel planning.
It was good. . . and yes, travel planning is great fun (and work and sometimes negotiation 😉