My sofa’s like a little boat. When I was recovering from Covid which took about 12 weeks, on days when I could, I would get into my boat with books, pads of paper, pens, music, and just sit cosy. Moored up. My mind wandered into the depths of the ocean of life, like a fishing net searching for something. Perhaps the Covid years have been a bit like that for you, wondering what really matters in life.
Cocooned in my little boat I stepped out of the craziness of the world, a turbulent storm flashing around me on mainstream news and social media. I just stayed safe and cosy bobbing about on the ocean of my own mind, and I did some remembering.
My mind floated across time to the 60’s when daily life had a rhythm to it that was slower than today’s. I basked in that, and decided to start living by that rhythm again, to give my attention to simple life affirming things like the weather, the birds, and all the little creatures in the soil.
I remembered some tiny little red wellington boots I wore, walking along to the post office with my mum when I was about six, and how my feet froze in them as the snow crunched underfoot. I used to get dressed under the bed covers or in front of the oven on cold winter mornings, before the little fire had been lit and the paraffin heaters turned on. And I remembered that the shops were always closed on Wednesday afternoons. Life was lived to a slower rhythm.
Today, is a typical April rainy day here in the U.K.. The red roof tiles opposite made shiny by the wet weather are back. It’s bank holiday Monday and I have a whole glorious day of playing with food. An at home day wrapped up in a watery morning of cosiness. It’s going to be a busy week so I’m writing Wednesdays post today.
I realised when I got up, opened the curtains and saw the wet tiles, that I need to make friends with my kitchen. My last one was tiny but had light levels that made it feel like summer. This one feels like late afternoon on a winters day. For some that would be cosy, but I’m at my happiest under sunny skies.
I live in a converted Victorian house where there are three apartments. Mine is the upstairs front bedroom converted into a small but cosy studio flat. The kitchen has windows that have opaque glass because they overlook someone’s bathroom, so it doesn’t get much light. I’ve decided I’m going to paint the wall behind the cooker and work counter, that is at right angles to the windows, the colour of fresh limes, and I will water the paint down to make it slightly translucent. I think this will lift the feel of the kitchen, especially when the bottom windows are open in the summer, showing window boxes of green edible plants.
Photo by Robert Owen Wahl
I’ve always been someone who loves the sun and has to manage the winters. I remember when my children were younger, I would prep some food, make a fire, pop up the fire guard, put music on then take us off to the park with a football, whatever the weather. Later we would arrive home to music, a fire warm and glowing, and the smells of a supper prepared. This lifted me and turned the whole situation around.
Reframing is what we need to do with all sorts of situations in life, to stay healthy and stress-free. It’s the reason I keep coming back to ‘joy dots’ — you can find out about joy dots here if you are new to my writing. Seeing the beauty of things is such a powerful tool for health.
Here are some of my joy dots today
Silence in my bones
Friendship
Human laughter
A warm smile
Kindness
The patter of tiny feet
Little arms reaching up
Children’s excitement
I’d love to know yours, perhaps you’ll put them in the comments.
Deep tissue nourishment
Ayurveda teaches us how to eat in order to nourish every tissue of our body and mind. It explains that our body continues to metabolise the nutrition in our food after it leaves the small intestine as a nutrient rich — hopefully — fluid, that passes through the intestinal lining and flows into each of the seven tissues of plasma, blood, muscle, fat, bone, nerve and reproductive. At this point something called Ojas is created, a refined nutritional substance that underpins our immunity and happiness. The whole process takes 35 days; the food you ate 35 days ago has made you who you are today.
Ayurvedic nutrition also recognises that it’s not just the food we feed ourselves that creates our health, but the things we consume through all our senses, those joy dots are a form of food too.
Ayurvedic nutrition is a big subject but as the weeks go by I will drop into my posts more of this way of understanding health and, before the year is out, there will be a podcast that puts it all together for you.
Recipe
On Sunday I put a shopping list in my post for the recipes I would be putting up this week. Here is the first part of this weeks dish, cheesy polenta (there’s a vegan option).
Cheesy polenta
INGREDIENTS — for 1 serving
1/3 cup polenta
1 cup water
2/3 cup milk (vegetable stock if vegan)
1/2 cup grated cheese (I used cheddar, use 2 tablespoon yeast flakes if vegan)
1 tablespoon ghee or butter (olive oil if vegan)
rock salt to season
A few pinches of coursly ground black pepper
METHOD
To cook the polenta add the water and milk to a pan, once simmering slowly add the polenta grain while whisking. Continue whisking until it starts to thicken, then turn down low and cook for 30 minutes. Next add the other ingredients. This recipe gives a small plate serving for one person, that can be used as a base for other things.
On Friday I will be sharing recipes for basil ghee to drizzle around this cheesy polenta, and purple sprouting broccoli served with hazelnut, ricotta, wild garlic pesto.
Till Friday, warmest wishes,
Lucy x
Wonderful read, thank you.