The very first day of Spring arrived this week and felt especially festive and exciting after The Covid Winter we’ve all endured. Even though the sun’s rays were weak, we raised our faces to it like the first Snowdrops and breathed in that sweet perfume of damp earth and soft breezes that will soon scent my laundry on the line. Our first walk was purposefully slow and we stopped to examine each bit of colour pressing upwards through the ground, like the pagans we have become. There was also a thrilling, scurrying streak of brown which turned out to be a groundhog who was unsuccessfully trying to camouflage himself by backing into an old tree stump at top speed but seemed to forget that his entire face was still on display and his glassy black eyes carefully swivelled to watch till we had passed. He was, delightful.

Today The General and I were reviewing The Simple Things (also a recurring theme here at Speranzanow) during yet another walk and here is my own (heavily edited) list, in no particular order.

Many of these will only be appreciated by those of a certain age:

 

• Rice pudding is a huge comfort food to me - warm or cold - and must be made with Arborio rice and cream. For those who like the rice pudding “skin” (and I will now apologize to readers who are gagging) try pleating it into one flat, golden, chewy cone. Always reminds me of the act of making homemade Valentines! Chew thoughtfully, slowly.
• A friend of mine once observed that when one’s hair looks completely crazy, it FEELS the most comfortable. She had scraped her hair back very severely and secured under a scarf with barrettes while doing some gardening and loved the feeling of freshness on her face and neck but when her husband appeared from a coffee run and saw her, he was not quick enough to conceal his shock. And not in a good way. Later, when she went inside she too was horrified at how old and pinched her face looked, especially when she had been feeling so wonderful. (The key here seems to really not care - especially if you are performing manual labour in the heat of your own garden!)
• I still miss those very shallow, single serve tubs of ice cream that were once everywhere and always came with a tiny (wooden) spoon attached to the lid. They contained the perfect amount of ice cream and often held a “ripple variety” of some kind such as Butterscotch or Raspberry. The spoons did become damp with the process though and slivers in the tongue (and their own distinct taste of wood!) were all part of the summer ritual.
• Neil Diamond and his springy chest hair. Oversize belt buckles and pointed silk collars aside, this one is now hard to defend but he was one of my very early (guilty) crushes and I am the only person I know who has watched his version of ‘The Jazz Singer’ multiple times just to bask in his swarthy swarthiness. (Young Neil could be Ross Poldark with a guitar, let’s give credit where it’s due).
• At the other end of the spectrum, there is a HUGE list of Guilty Music Pleasures which must include Mud, Eruption’s version of I Can’t Stand the Rain, anything by Status Quo, The Rubettes, Foreigner, Loverboy (making myself particularly vulnerable here) and of course Boney M! Since I consider my personal music taste to be generally pretty respectable, I remain comfortable with exposing myself in this way. Sometimes you just need something encouraging and uncomplicated; especially if one is prone to spontaneous bursts of interpretive dance before breakfast. (Just ask the cat. He’s seen it all … )

I will also reference random things such as peeling back the lid on a new tin of coffee; cold Chinese food leftovers eaten directly from the fridge; those gnarly bits of baked on Parmesan cheese which everyone adores but are often clipped off the baking sheet and eaten stealthily by myself before plating dinner for my family; that jar of marshmallow ‘Fluff’ that is a must for banana splits but also meltingly good off a teaspoon; a hot steamy bath at the end of a hard day, and an unopened jar of BodyShop anything close by; the need to return again and again to admire the completion of a long neglected task such as the linen closet/pantry organization; the thrill of new shoes and the need to try them on again as soon as I am inside my own home.

What about you? Am I alone?