I awakened before dawn this morning and stood outside in the darkness, waiting for a fragile scrap of waning moon to show her face above the horizon in the southern sky. She was visible for only a minute or two before fading away in a graceful gesture of kinship with the rising sun, but the slender crescent of light remained on the inside of my eyelids long after retreating into the high still light of morning.
A single male cardinal perched in a maple tree in the garden singing blithely, and he didn't seem to care that it is only late February and there is a lot of snow about. On our early walk, two owls were perched in an old beech tree in the park, a splendid pair of mated "great hornies" greeting the day with gentle nudgings and hootings.There was no mistaking their pleasure in being together and sharing a tree for a few minutes, but that is probably the only quiet time they will enjoy today. There is a brood of little owlets in another tree down the hill, and the parents are run off their feet (or rather their wings) finding food for their hungry offspring.
Returning home, I made a robust beaker of French roast with freshly ground beans before ransacking the freezer for blueberries, then the refrigerator for organic flour and maple syrup from the highlands, a fine rosy beginning for a late winter day. The moon is new tomorrow, and the approaching lunar cycle (and hopefully the arrival of spring) calls for a celebratory gesture of some kind, a little culinary magic. Fresh "made from scratch" journey cakes (or pancakes or bannock) seemed like the right way to go, and the fragrance in the kitchen as they cooked was downright ambrosial.
4 comments:
The recounting of your early morning was a delight. And now I'm thinking of blueberries in pancakes on Sunday. Thank you, Cate.
The universe is listening. Yesterday I described how I made blueberry pancakes in detail to a friend. We just had been talking of berries and how we froze them. Mine are just rinsed and stored in mason jars in the freezer, and I pull out a jar, and knock a few loose then sprinkle the frozen berries into the freshly poured batter in the skillet. And make more than I can eat in one go, so there will be frozen blueberry pancakes that I can pop in the toaster oven to have later at my pleasure. And now you've eaten some too, which look so much like mine, which I haven't made for probably a year! My taste buds are imagining the flavors!
Yum, indeed! Thanks for sharing your lovely morning. The way you see the world lifts me up every morning. Thank you.
As always, my imagination takes off, northward, when I read one of your beautiful essays. Thank you, dear Cate.
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