Each month, RoseRed does this meme, which is about capturing the day, recording the great and small moments, and each month I forget. By the time I remember, I realise I've not taken photos and give up on the idea.
This month I thought i'd give it a go, despite the almost lack of photos. Mainly it's because Sean is watching Mythbusters which doesn't interest me in the slightest and I want to do something else.
So, my day.
We went to the markets nice and early, stocking up on veggies and meat. We bought a chocolate croissant from the delightful French-style patisserie, Knead, and brought it home to have with a pot of tea.
By 10:30am we were at the National Gallery of Australia waiting for our friends Polly, Steve and Julia so we could see the Degas exhibition before it finishes its run in Canberra. I know almost nothing about Degas, other than that he was an Impressionist. My knowledge of art history is sorely lacking and it's something I try and rectify by going to exhibitions when I can and watching Sunday afternoon art documentaries as much as possible. I seem to enjoy it so much that I think I really ought to make a study of it, even if it's just in these fairly simple ways.
Sometimes, I think these sorts of excursions are really defined by who you go with. The paintings are wonderful but there's something about the company and the mood of the day that contributes significantly to the moment.
I've known Julia, Polly and Steve since university (approaching twenty years). We have dipped in and out of each other's lives over the years and now, in our late thirties and early forties, we seem to have all reconnected in a really meaningful way. Our lives are all at different points. We each have either grown up children, small children or no children but the differences don't seem to matter at all. There's a common understanding, a shared history that overrides all of that.
Being with them, and Sean, made the Degas exhibition the most enjoyable art gallery experience I've had in a long time. We've not done this sort of excursion before and together we seemed to just fit. Sometimes we sniggered at Degas (some of the paintings of horses really seemed strange as if he'd never really seen a horse before) and sometimes we were in awe. To stand in a dimly lit room with old friends, inhaling the colour and light of, for example, the ballerina paintings was special in ways I can't really explain.
Old friends are as valuable as these paintings.
We left the gallery to go our own ways and because of a wrong turn, Sean and I ended up near Kingston where one of the better yarn shops, Cassidy's, is to be found.
I must digress here for a moment. A few days ago, in a quite serious need of some retail therapy, I went to Cassidy's at lunch time to indulge in the Rowan sale. I admit to feeling a small twinge of guilt to be buying something like this when so many have suffered and lost so much in the bushfires but when another round of IVF fails, as I found out it had on Thursday, I allow myself to do whatever helps in the first 24-48 hours. I can hardly speak about this, but that's what the yarn indulgence was for. It's pathetic really to think that a yarn sale can even come close to making up for the loss that yet another failed IVF represents, but like the wine I'm drinking right now, it doesn't fix anything. It's just something that soothes me in those first, horrible days.
I emerged on Thursday with more than a little Rowan Felted Tweed (some was for RoseRed!). Like I said, few photos of today, but I can post other photos.
My new Rowan.
Ten balls of this.
Four balls of this.
Sigh.
When Sean saw this on Thursday, he immediately asked if the chocolate colour was for him. Ah, no. It's been earmarked already for a shawl. But today, as we were out that way, I deviously suggested we call in and choose some yarn for him which I don't have a photo of right now, but he chose a colour called Dragon. For a fantasy/sci-fi boy as he is, that seems somehow fitting. It'll be a scarf for him by the time winter arrives.
Sean and I spent the better part of the afternoon preparing food. We bought a BBQ recently and last week Sean bought a BBQ cook book. He's all enthused and we've dined well since the book arrived. Veal steaks, pepper steak, lamb burgers. Fabulous stuff. So now we have various kinds of meat marinating, just waiting to be cooked in next to no time after work this week.
Tonight we dined on an Indian feast that was also partially prepared this afternoon. Madras Chicken with dhal, raita and basmati rice. We work well in the kitchen together when we get motivated and work in tandem. We drank champagne while we prepared it; red wine while we ate it and felt immensely satisfied afterwards. I even remembered to get a photo.
And that's really it. The rest of today will be spent knitting, watching TV and polishing off the rather delicious Shiraz we're drinking. We don't really bother about Valentines Day, but cooking something tasty together and doing the things we love, well that feels like a celebration of love to me.
Bells
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