October 18, Monday evening -- Reading Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

While I'm recovering from foot surgery....
My lovely friend, and fabulous cook, tending to mashed potatoes on the stove and reading aloud
Wind, Sand, and Stars, a memoir by the famously gutsy, wise aviator, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. My friend and I cannot imagine ever wanting to fly an airplane, without a top, through snow storms....but we want to read about it.

When she reads, she pronounces all of the French phrases correctly. I like this. She did a writers residency in the Pyrenees this past summer and studies French. Some day we will do the Grand Randonnée 10 (Big Trek 10) in the Pyrenees together. That is enough adventure for us, but still, the pilot is an inspiration.

In the book, in the pages she read, I love the great appreciation for the mundane that comes from adventure: I walked between rows of lighted shop-windows, and those windows on that night seemed a display of all that was good on earth, of a paradise of sweet things.

In this kitchen, where I've spent a large part of the last six days, I have a paradise of sweet things: food, friends, books, and I have touched up the photo to hide my feet and simulate an airplane flying through a snow storm.