Garlic, and FOMO

 The FOMO is on the garlic's part.

I noticed some little scapes here

and thought I was getting a message

So I separated out the unsprouted segments, peeled and froze them, pausing to admire the silver beauty of the skins

Then planted the sprouting ones in their new home. They're now installed next to the ginger.

Go scapes!

Reading and listening

While all this food prep and stitching have been going on, I've been reading and listening.

This lengthy audiobook, all about being a seaman in the 19th century, in sailing ships, comes complete with unintelligible terms and shouted commands. And it's gripping.

 Endless adventures on land and sea, interesting characters, including a captain who has to escape Bonaparte's soldiers walking hundreds of miles in a bear suit.  With his ship's surgeon acting as bear leader.. and many more capers, all of which make sense in the context. 

The history is impeccable as  is the knowledge of  life aboard the royal navy ships and the politics of the Admiralty and parliament.

 I'm not sure I could read this in print. I need the narrator who's excellent at performing the commands on board ship so that the reader gets the gist.

This has been the background to my stitching and cooking prep lately qv:

When I need to actually read words, I have a biography of Agatha Christie on my Kindle.

 It's very well researched, and uses a lot of references to her books, including the Westmacott ones which are much less well known. They're not mysteries and I find them less worthwhile. 

The writer, Laura Thompson, shows us the real life sources of a lot of the characters and plots, and Christie's business acumen. Worth a read for the social history of the early 20th century. The page I put up because I couldn't access the opening page, deals with the time after her mother's death, and the people mentioned are her parents. 

The discussion of Christie's personality isn't very flattering, but interesting.  She wasn't very skilled with people in real life, oddly, and I wonder if real people were too complex for her. Her fictional characters are so much simpler, limited motivation largely around money. In real life this reflects her own belief.

Art is food is art

Today was The Time of the Prepping of the Ginger and Garlic.

Garlic is so beautiful in its design that I can't just peel, I have to do pictures.

It's like handling a sculpture that also smells interesting.

Ginger, too, is an adventure in smell, and I wonder who first found out about it. It looks like strange little figures when it's growing, and who thought to break a bit off and sniff? Then even, daringly, taste, and find they'd been transported onto a higher plane?

So garlic

And ginger

Are now in the freezer, ready for whatever might seem to be a good idea. The stainless steel spoon is to remove the smell of garlic from your hands.

 You know that old trick, under cool running water, rinse hands and spoon together and some chemistry happens, the smell of garlic is gone. Interestingly, the smell of ginger stays around a bit. But that's not much of a problem.

A Friday thank you

I have four different neighbors currently texting to offer shopping, just give them a list. Plus my son, just a list, Mom,done.

I think they're all in league to keep me at home cooking treats for them..

Here's a surprise that showed up yesterday, on the step.

 Asked by neighbor what I needed,I'd mentioned ginger and garlic, but said no hurry, just if you ever  happen to be in a shop that has them, since their trip was to a store that doesn't.  Not to make a special trip.

An hour later, these showed up. Payment firmly refused.

This kind of gesture doesn't just happen overnight. Years of friendship go into making a community, and the care goes both ways. I tend only to talk about what is done for me, but I'm sure you realize we've all done our bit for each other.

And right now the bread we've tossed on the water is coming back multiplied. It's such a help to feel valued when everything's frightening. And to feel useful.

 My state has now lost more people than we did on 9/11.   We're in the epicenter of the virus. Field hospitals operating, thousands of retired medics back as volunteers, revised licencing, cutting red tape to allow fully qualified immigrants with MDs from their home countries to practice in NJ.

Volunteers at food banks, making gowns, masks for medical personnel. Grocery workers in masks and gloves, sturdily working their shifts as usual. 

It feels as if the whole state is mobilized. Staying home out of the way, refraining from grumbling, being a cheerful presence, are such tiny things in comparison to people daily risking everything. But I think it helps.

And I think ginger and garlic just illustrate it all nicely.

So I'm thankful. And now I have to chop and freeze them.