Proust had a madeleine. Imagine if it had been a cheesedoodle.

[gfrancie]

I suspect that this weekend (when I am not being social or starting on the painting of the guest room) I might make some marmalade. The citrus season is ending, there are oranges to be had and I have jars on hand.
Let the long process of cleaning jars to perfection begin.

This morning I met up with meowlet for pastries and adoration of handbags and Senor Onion. We also stopped at Fran's and bought chocolate and looked upon one fat baby. He was only six months old but he seemed larger than Senor Onion. The baby made me think of Augustus Gloop from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He was a very serious looking little man who held onto his elephant with severity. Senor Onion thought he was absolutely interesting and kept pointing and hoping Augustus Gloop would point back. He was a little disappointed.

I have spent most of the afternoon working on an exquisite migraine. I stuffed my face with pills and chocolate. Things are a bit better now. As they should be.

I am slowly reading this vast book on the history of Venice. The author plays like it isn't very complete or all that terrific. Someone ought to hit him with his own book. The weight of it alone might land him in the hospital. It is certain interesting. Mind you we are still in the dark ages and there are eunuchs and the Lombards have a habit of taking over (as they are apt to do) and sometimes there is a visit from the Visigoths -and of course they never bring a hostess gift. This is why they aren't invited back to dinner and so they invade.
In the end all this reading does is make me long for Venice. I always wanted to go there. I had the incredible pleasure of staying there for a few days during my honeymoon and it was made all the more pleasurable by being with one of my favorite people (the super amazing Mr. Jenner) and while the place doesn't give itself up so easily; it can make you want it more and more after you have left. While I can't have Venice on a whim I tend to collect books on the subject. Venice at night is the best. You can wander half the night getting lost. Looking in closed shop windows, finding a 24 hour gelato stand or a bar that sells absinthe to university students -all the while there is the constant wet scent of history and time surrounding you. Paris can be like that too. The smell may not be traditionally pleasing like flowers or baked goods but sometimes dirty and stale scents can be recalled with fondness later on.

Comments

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

and sometimes there is a visit from the Visigoths -and of course they never bring a hostess gift

Fire and bastard children aren't hostess gifts?

I like your description of Venice. Not overly romantic, and all the more appealing as a result.

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

Why couldn't they bring a nice bottle of wine or a cake like anyone else.
I understand the yen to be original but bastard children end up being more work than sea monkeys.

It is a romantic place but you have to wade through the crass tourist aspect first to see what is genuinely beautiful and heart-felt. It becomes like a sickness.

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

It is a romantic place but you have to wade through the crass tourist aspect

I was referring to your description of Venice as not being overly romantic, not the city itself. All too often people will talk up a city they love in such a way as to make Heaven seem like Lubbock, TX in comparison, so I always appreciate less starry-eyed accounts.

Is the tourist aspect beginning to dominate the landscape there? That's disappointing, but I suppose as more and more places rely on tourism to fuel the local economy it becomes inevitable.

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

The tourist aspect has dominated the place since the beginning.
It is mostly concentrated around certain parts. (like Saint Mark's and all the people on gondolas on the grand canal) There are always going to be people selling beads, lace and masks. That is a given. But there is always much more if you look for it.
You can avoid a lot of it and the majority of people just come to Venice for the day and then go back to the mainland. If you actually stay there -it becomes even more wonderful. It is one of the better places to get lost. You can't get too far and you are surrounded by water so you can always find your way somewhere.
I liked seeing canals that were drained because they were doing work and shoring up the sinking buildings. You could see all kinds of ancient garbage and silt on the bottom.
The air was always moist and there are pumps/fountains everywhere so you can have a drink. Usually haggard gypsy women would be around them, getting cleaned.

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

Sounds lovely, all the more so for the grittiness. Similarly, red_girl_42 and her husband did a good job of ducking the tourist scene in Paris when they went abroad, from the way they describe it. I'm always much more intrigued by what lies underneath the "mask" a city presents to visitors.

[lyrainverse.livejournal.com]

I read somewhere that scent memory is the strongest. Sometimes I catch scents in the most random places (the stairwell in the building that I work in) that bring me back to the most random memories (my grandparents' house that I haven't been to in years). Fall rainstorms remind me a lot of my time in Europe, since it pretty much rained the entire time I was there.

I hope you catch your migraine in time! Caffeine can help me out a lot. But barring that, it's Imitrex plus oxyprozone (anti-inflammatory) plus a nice nap. Good luck!

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

I totally buy into the idea. I can smell a certain type of food or perfume or anything and it makes me recall people and places I haven't thought of in years.

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

There are some scents that kind of come back to a person years later. It can be so haunting.

[kirinqueen.livejournal.com]

The smell may not be traditionally pleasing like flowers or baked goods but sometimes dirty and stale scents can be recalled with fondness later on.

Very, very true. I love the way smell memory works.

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

The one that is hard to deal with is when I smell my late Grandma's perfume somewhere. It might be a fleeting scent.