Chaos is come again ...*

I realise now that through most of my life I was aware that my parents wove quotations into their discourse almost as a matter of course - I think I may have said before that I kept discovering that great works of literature seemed to be full of quotations - a rather topsy-turvy view of things! Anyway, I am clearly turning into them, as once more I am rifling the canon for titles, the line that came into my head as I surveyed my kitchen worktop this afternoon.

The day began, as usual, with church - the second Sunday of Advent, when we lit the candle which this year stands for Peace. If ever prayers for peace were needed it is now, and every word of the Old Testament seems pertinent in the light of what is happening now. Thank goodness for the shared purpose of the kind of gathering our church represents.

The rain came on with a vengeance during the service. The pre-sunrise was actually rather lovely, with the palest pink in the sky over a slate-blue firth, but this rain was anything but, and it lasted until darkness fell. It was as I was seeing Di out after coffee that we both, independently, decided we'd be having indoors afternoons for a change, and that's where the state of my kitchen comes in.

Once I got going, I put a loaf in the machine for tomorrow (it has turned out rather oddly; I have a feeling the paddle may have jammed before the mixing was done. Whether it is edible or not we shall have to wait and see.) Then I made some breadcrumbs with the heel of the loaf we'd finished at lunch and used them as one of the cups in my Grandmother's seven-cup pudding recipe which I use as my Christmas pudding. (I love the smell of the egg/milk/brandy mix that I pour into the mix). It went on to steam for an insane time, and I moved on to stewing some plums for pudding tonight, then to preparing the chicken and bunging it in the oven. I also got the potatoes in to roast (they were brilliant). As you can see, my small tiny kitchen becomes rather cluttered when I have more than one domestic task to do ...

Meanwhile Himself had also decided against returning to the church, and was practising on the piano instead. I, however, was listening to Leonard Cohen, streaming the contents of my iPhone over the big speakers in the dining room, singing along because there was no-one to hear.

One last thing - I watched the end of #2 son's marathon flight home from Tokyo: he touched down in Edinburgh just before lunch. Whew.

 *https://www.enotes.com/shakespeare-quotes/chaos-come-again