Zen teacher and chef Dana Veldon, thinks a simple bowl of lemons can offer us the world, and she keeps one on the counter in her kitchen. Since I read her book (Finding Yourself in the Kitchen) years ago, I do it too. Dana is right - the little dears are life-changing. I love the look of them when light coming through the kitchen window glances across the bowl, their colour and shape, their texture and fragrance. They lift my spirits, and they make me smile.
Having a pot of parsley is also a fine way of invoking the right stuff in one's kitchen before spring and summer really get going, and I do that too. The smell of the stuff is uplifting, refreshing and bright and just a little grassy. When I discovered a bin in my green grocer's shop a few days ago, I grabbed a lovely bunch and tossed it in my cart. The cherry tomatoes purchased on the same expedition were not too shabby either. Both were tossed into a wok with other odds and ends from the fridge and served on leftover rice for dinner that night. A banquet. Yum.
No doubt about it, lemons and parsley light up a kitchen, and as sure as the Old Wild Mother made little green apples, they cheer me up on a bleak morning. They turn my impromptu stirrings into happy magics, and that is what life is all about.
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