The Table Comes First

(Will write more about this later, but taking advantage of better internet here at Cecílio and Ermelinda’s to at least upload the photo.)

Later... Was all a bit chaotic this morning, as I woke late and Mike didn't want to wake me, but we made it to church in time for the Palm Sunday service, though without our branches - the loveliest thing was the folk around us realizing we didn't have one and taking bits of theirs - olive, rosemary, lavender and palm - to give us one, too. It was quite sad to remember other Palm Sundays here, with the procession over streets lined in these plants, releasing their scents as we crushed them underfoot.

And then our weekly lunch with C and E, in their garden, perfect temperature, still. Forgot my camera, so this is a phone photo, but it shows what I wanted, to illustrate a quote from the book I've started reading, The Table Comes First, by Adam Gopnik, the title a quote by the British chef, Fergus Henderson:

"I don't understand how a young couple can begin life by buying a sofa or a television... Don't they know the table comes first?" Gopnik continues: The table also comes first in the sense that its drama - the people who gather at it, the conversation that flows across it, and the pain and romance that happen around it - is more essential to our real lives, and also to the real life of food in the world, than any number of arguments about where the zucchini came from, and how far it had to travel before it got here.


Gratefuls:
- my wrist definitely improving and sleeping away the shock and pain of it
- the owner of the dog flagging us down, apologizing profusely and offering to pay any medical costs (obviously, we won't accept, as they are much poorer than we are)
- watching our Deb and Donald doing the Livestream for Palm Sunday on the big screen with Ermelinda and Cecílio (translating it all)