Last week at the Kneading
Conference West was a huge treat. I like being physical, and the bread- and
cracker-making that I did for various workshops – along with wonderful Dawn
Woodward of Evelyn’s Crackers, with whom I co-presented – was satisfying, and tiring
too of course. We did a lot of baking for a tasting of (freshly milled whole grain) single varietal wheats, so interesting. I can't wait for next year's tastings.
Meantime there were lots of other pleasures: exploring the amazing orchards
at the Agricultural Research Center in Mount Vernon; talking, eating, and drinking
with friends old and new; and cooking too. Best flavours? Hard to say, but the
Alchemy apple that Dawn and I shared, forbidden fruit from a survivor tree at
the Center, ranks very high. (It has Cox Pippin in its ancestry, so a
firm-crisp bite, but it also has a sweetness and complex flavour. Just a
dream.) High ranking too for the freshly shucked kumamoto oysters at Taylor's,
that we ate sitting by the water last Saturday afternoon….
Now I’m back in Toronto,
the moon is about to be full, and my trip to Iran via Istanbul is less than two
weeks away. Can’t wait. But meantime, as the moon shone straight into my room
through a crack in the curtains at 4 this morning, I started to run through the
to-do lists that whirl in my head but that I still have difficulty remembering
to write down. They include small things like shopping for black socks and a
manteau or two for Iran; larger issues like learning a little Farsi, and
preparing some language pages on the (old laptop) computer I am planning to
take with me; urgent tasks like preparing for the talks and presentations I am
giving this weekend at Savour Stratford, some of them Burma-related, some
wider; and travel detail issues like what bag will I take, how much money to
bring (there being no access to cash once I am in Iran, just like Burma until
recently, so at least I have an idea of what’s involved), what shoes? and the
trivial fusses that go along with packing decisions.
Hmmm…no wonder I sometimes
feel scattered.
Yesterday morning though I
had a wonderfully focussing experience. I went for a heart ultrasound to give
my doctor a baseline (and yes, I have an active-person’s slow pulse and good
blood pressure, and all looks very healthy I gather). Have you ever seen images
of your heart beating? Or listened to the wonderful syncopations? It was
thrilling and awe-inspiring to watch the regular pumping, see the “flapping” of
the valve (can’t tell you which one), look at the heart’s structure from
different angles. And there was a bonus: The very nice and experienced
cardiology tech was teaching a student as she did the tests, so I learned a
little about what they see and what they watch out for. As I walked out of the
hospital and down the sunny street I was exhilarated, as high as I was when,
years ago, I walked home from having a pregnancy ultrasound.
Life is mysterious, and the
heart in each of us keeps us going. Best to have respect for it, treat it well,
and keep it healthy, for it’s working without a break…
Now, as I round the corner
on this blogpost, I look up and realise that there’s bright sunshine outside,
and blue sky. The cat is asleep in the corner, in a patch of sun. It’s time for
me to get moving. The writing and other sedentary “activities” of home, after
the lovely physicality of the Kneading Conference, leave me feeling flat. The
obvious answer is to remember to get my blood moving. And so I’m heading out
now, heeding the call of the lovely September sun and the always interesting
life on the streets of Toronto.
