Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Garlic, tool box and small treats

The ramsons or wild garlic which I have been talking about. London chefs are now using the leaves and flowers in salad. It is prolific in shady damp places in the country hereabouts.

While trying to concentrate on my friend's novel in the hospital waiting room, I am distracted by  a merry red head of ample proportions and voice to go with them. She is having a good laugh with a couple of men and another woman. No booze but they could be in a pub. Torn between their wit and hilarity and the limpid prose on the Kindle, I am distracted by a  spoken sentence wrapped in seismic laughter " I had a dream about the tool box on my motor bike..." She has  bright red hair, wears a black tee shirt adorned with picture of a plane and the words Flight 606, black jeans and pink plastic slippers. Thinking back I should have concentrated on what the party was saying. The written words endure, the spoken ones drift away into the dark.

"One of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats".  Wrote Iris Murdoch. I agree.



3 comments:

Lucas said...

Internet Explorer is allowing me to make comments again. I like the idea of small treats and so does Joyce. For me they tend to involve toast and honey....for Joyce toast and boiled eggs.

Lucy said...

I think it's also about noticing and appreciating something as a small treat, rather than taking it for granted and letting it pass one by, or getting spoiled for them and wanting bigger and bigger treats. Sometimes one can choose between seeing something as a chore or seeing it as a treat even.

I feel I do very well for small treats. At the moment I'm looking at one I made earlier: a jam jar of buttercups, bluebells and red campion, it looks like something brought back from a Sunday school outing (not that I ever went on one of those), next to a yellow bowl with three lemons in it.

You're very good at finding and making small treats.

Unknown said...

Continuous small treats can be helpful for those having to follow a diet I have found. You eat a little of something very good only at prescribed mealtimes. If it is creamy or buttery or engrossed in carbs it matters not. Just very little.