April's Letter 2025
Chives, poppies, and shortbread cookies
Tuesday - We sat on a park bench side by side, staring off into the distance. Speechless. He finally said, Didn’t see that coming. I replied, Neither did I. He reached for my hand. When life gives you a hard left turn, hang on. Hold hands, bow your heads, and just hang on.
Wednesday - When one brother finally catches a break after a trying stretch, and the other two high five him in the family group chat: Atta boy! Hell, ya! Yooooo! Holy cow! Dang! (Is there anything better than seeing your boys truly care about each other as adults?)
Thursday - The last of last year’s rhubarb, swiped from the freezer and tossed into the oven to bubble in a crisp, dessert for my overnight guest. One week later, the red noses of this year’s rhubarb are just peeking through the soil. The ends and the beginnings nearly touching one another.
Friday - At the back of the boot shop that smells like leather, I stood at the cobbler’s counter, there to pick up my Emys. From somewhere in the jumble of leather bits, shoe polish, hammers, awls, spools of waxed thread, hanks of shoe laces, and scribbled notes on wrinkled paper, the white-haired cobbler produced my clogs. He’d refinished the wooden soles, replaced the sole caps, and only accepted cash.
Saturday - Mist, then rain, then snow, then rain again, with wind throwing all of it around. That was outside. Inside, we were in the kitchen together. He whistled while he chopped and poured and stirred a pot of chowder. I listened while I sharpened the kitchen knives.
Sunday - Smoked salmon toasts, olive oil cake, and poppies made from crepe paper. This across the dining table, all at once on a Sunday afternoon. Two friends in loung-y clothes (I admit I even wore pajamas) for a bit of slow, creative mess-making. When there are not yet flowers blooming outside, go ahead and make your own.
Moments Lately
Reading Lately
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi - For no reason at all except the delight of random generosity, I was handed a gift bag with this book inside. And that is how I got to spend March with a gentleman named Theo in the fictional southern town of Golden. Turns out, generosity is the theme, here. But so is mystery, art, creativity, purpose, grief, friendship, and love. What an inspiring story! When I read the last word and closed the back cover, I wanted to immediately open the front cover and begin reading again. Listen, if you’d like, to the author’s description here.
Eating Lately
I woke from a deep dreamy sleep one morning, inexplicably thinking about rye shortbread cookies. I’d never made them before, never even heard of them before, but there it was, a happy idea, anxiously waiting for me to hop-to. This is the recipe I settled on. Loves, they’re delicious - buttery, crunchy at the edges with the sesame, demerara sugar, and flaky salt, and have a delightful hint of orange. (And when you send the recipe to your son who likes to bake, and his reply is, Daaang, heck yeah, you know you have a winner.)
Favorites Lately
A bebe is on the way in May! (a mini of my beloved Petite Dock Bag)
Diamonds and silk (only minimalist!)
Poppies! (visitors have thought they were real)
The sharpener and the (25 year old) blades (quality + care = a lifetime of use)
For cheese, for bread, for holding things together (for zero waste)
Life has a habit of throwing us things we didn't see coming. I hope all will be well.
I am sorry for whatever it was that you didn’t see coming, and hope all turns out well. I was happy to see a recipe with rye flour in it!