Chicken, microseasons and the Land of Abeyance

So yesterday the chicken, only two pounds but a lot of meat on a little frame, did me proud.

There's a lot more meat for various plans involving chicken salad, soup, potpie (thanks to Debra). Definitely doing this again. 

Tender, very good quality. I roasted it slowly for juiciness, don't care about crisp skin since I don't eat it anyway. Basted with the butter I'd dotted about. The herbs on top are sage flowers from my sage that tried for world domination during the heatwave last summer. 

Today is marginally warmer but the icy wind kept me down to a couple of recycling and mailbox walks, not the real one I hope for this week.

I noticed I just missed the opening of the Japanese micro 72 season year.

You may remember a while back, I started a microseason log, to try to deal with the upcoming winter.

I used a book I'd made, with, appropriately,  a Japanese stab binding construction, and set up sections for each microseason.

I tapered off when the entries seemed to be too repetitive. It's in abeyance, maybe once the change of season gets under way more evidently, I'll resume it.

Also in abeyance is my Arabic study.

This is the result of the Striking Virus which did a job on my thinking ability, just fog. When I get to where it comes back, I'll be back, too. The spirit is willing but the brain is tottering.

The Land of Abeyance is an old joke dating back to a convo with an artist wondering why our artist group hadn't exhibited or even met recently. I said "I think it's in abeyance." 

Whereupon she said indignantly, straight faced, "Nobody told me they'd planned a trip! Why wasn't I invited? You  seem to know all about it!".  Really upset, total FOMO on display.

I had to explain. 

Speaking of Arabic, when I mentioned my brother Kevin recently, I searched unsuccessfully for a picture, must have given it to Handsome Son, but in this repository of special stuff, literally the only thing I inherited from my parents 

Found this, 

Left, Kev's self teaching of Russian. He must have been a teenager, since he died at 20 in the Fleet Air Arm, ww2.  I wonder if this urge to self teach, especially foreign languages with different alphabets, is in the DNA.

On the right is a bit of fern from sister Rita's wedding bouquet, from 1953.

The book itself was a standby in my house. My mother bought it on weekly payments, because she believed a house needed a dictionary. This was in the 1930s, when the older ones were all in school. She couldn't afford both a vacuum cleaner and the dictionary, so she went for the dictionary.

I think that was heroic, considering her workload with a large family and no appliances, not even a washing machine. Walking the walk.

I read this dictionary cover to cover when I was sick in bed, which probably helped develop a vocabulary out of all expectation from a little kid. My older sisters told me I was reading at three, so by six and seven I guess I was equal to at least going for it.

Anyway if we've recovered from the Great Tiebreak Debate, are you up for a puzzle?

And speaking of little kids and winter

I remember the roast chestnut man coming around in winter, roasting the chestnuts on hot coals in his vehicle thing, selling them in a wrap of paper, gosh they were hot, and so good.

Happy evening everyone, may you manage to pull your chestnuts out of the fire in good time, metaphorically and literally, big dictionary words..

Happy solstice with Flowers

 The Christmas cactus has started flowering, and the color is different from the buds, as you see. I sent a picture to my cleaning family who gave me it,  so they can enjoy it too. 

Perfect timing for the solstice, so a happy Solstice to Northern hemisphere blogistas, days to start lengthening, and to Southern hemisphere blogistas, shortening, but there's summer coming right now.

And yesterday's mail brought the blessing of a President who knows what he's doing. My new batch of free covid test kits arrived, timed for the holidays

and in other news, my Arabic reader arrived, ready, I thought to help me stumble along.

Alas I found their notion of beginners isn't mine. On their first page they say of  course the beginner is expected to have a basic understanding of the language.. Honey, that's not a beginner. 

It reminded me of the construction kit in a Child's Christmas in Wales: easy for little engineers, oh, easy for Leonardo!

Jamal will have to wait for me to catch up, then I'll read his adventures. A stretch goal at this point. Maybe this time next year I'll be looking back kindly on my current ineptitude.

Meanwhile here's a lovely manuscript page with a Christmas Chi Rho, the abbreviation for the word Christ. It's a symbol and a devotion in itself, as is the X in Xmas, an early respectful way of expressing the Holy Name. 

And on to less reverent things, here's a seasonal puzzle you absolutely will get. As usual, post funny clues not the actual answer

Happy day, everyone, longest night comes right before the return of the light, good to remember.

And today AC's photograph is totally right for the day.

Photo AC 

Current concurrent reading and soup, Islamic art

 I usually have several books going at a time, aside from audiobooks, and this week it's Tidelands, which is slow but inexorable, and very good,  and 

This is the "classic affluent unqualified lady gets to be a publisher almost by accident", the story of the haphazard boy's clubby upper class world of English publishing.  

Except that she found she was a great editor, as her stable of writers attest. And this, I've just started it, is nonfiction about her life ss sn editor who turns out also to be an engaging writer. 

Then I just downloaded

On being alerted of its existence by Steve.

So between knitting and studying my Arabic, I'll be reading. Also enjoying soup.

This turned out to be celery, broccoli, spinach and yellow potato. Green powerhouse.

Today's art is Islamic illustration and miniature painting

Speaking of things Arabic, I was looking yesterday at pictures of young East End of London school children yesterday.  

I found that when one, in the little bio each eight year old child gave, mentioned her sister, I could have written her name. This is exactly why I'm learning this stuff, just to enlarge my ability.

Got to go, Arabic lesson calls.

Happy day everyone, learn something, it's always fun. Or don't, on the grounds, as Bertie Wooster would say, that you're full up!

Baluch rugs and other discoveries

Yesterday's presentation by the Textile Museum Associates was on Baluch rugs, from the general area of Iran and what is now Afghanistan but wasn't back when these rugs were handmade.

I'll just show you a parade, without technical details, since the general impression is the point for those of us, such as me, who are not rug scholars.

I've tried to include the slide notes, where the captioning didn't cover them up. These are marvels of hand work, some of the knotted rugs with hundreds of knots to the square inch, handling like fine fabrics.

While I was in that part of the world, I checked on Haggard Hawks, the etymologist, on his current essay on robins, seasonal for Brits.  Their robin is a different species from the burly north American one misnamed by European settlers who knew damn all about birds.

Their breasts aren't red, but more orange, but there's a history of how, before the fruit was introduced, along with its name, there wasn't really a word for the orange color, so red was the nearest.

Even Chaucer was stuck describing the fur of the fox as

Anyway the orange fruit with its name, traveled across from the far east bringing naranja from Arabic and further back then norange. 

Eventually grammarians got on their pedants' hobbyhorse and said it wasn't a norange, it was an orange. And everyone went along for the sake of a peaceful life 

But here's the bit that thrilled me to little apples (!) : After three ten minute lessons in Arabic, I can read the word for orange!

Reading right to left: Initial nun, medial alef, r sound I had to guess, medial alef, medial nun, final djim. Wheee. 

It's entirely possible that you may be thinking it doesn't take much to get her going, she must be a noisy liability in a quiet library, well, guilty as charged.

In other seasonal excitement, Gary stopped by with the annual hand-dipped chocolate treats made by a mutual friend who's moved away and he saw her recently 

And in total opposition to seasonal food, I really needed something plainer, so I made spaghetti with an ordinary red sauce, just diced tomatoes, turmeric, onions, garlic, parmesan rind, knob of butter, bunch of dried basil hanging in the kitchen for the purpose.

Parmesan on top with red peppers, pretty good, and more for today. It reheats well.

I'm hoping my delayed Misfits box arrives today, though I don't envy the driver, since we're about to have a rain and snow storm.

Happy day everyone, keep warm, or cool, dry and pleased with life if possible.