Saturday, August 30, 2014

Weekend Cooking: Loaves, Fishes, and Flowers

In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden


"The sight of the refectory was inviting: each place was laid with a snow-white napkin, a glass of wine, a bunch of grapes, a small wheaten loaf and a brown earthenware bowl of vegetable soup. Apricot puffs and cheese were laid along the side tables. When the nuns were seated, the Abbess came in, wearing a white apron and white sleeves and with her came the kitchener, Sister Priscilla, bearing a great silver silver salver of fish."

"The Abbess went to every nun, serving her and laying beside her plate a nosegay of small flowers: violets, wood anenomes, grape hyacinths, tiny ferns, pink heaths."
***** 
The right book at the right time. Joining this enclosed community of Benedictine nuns and following the peaceful, ordered measure of their days through the seasonal rituals and observances brought a solace that I'd been struggling to find in the books I'd picked up recently. I enjoyed the personal stories of the individual women but it was the beautiful descriptive passages of daily living, the garden through the seasons and the family of cats that I really loved.

Weekend Cooking, hosted at Beth Fish Reads, is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.


6 comments:

  1. That's a lovely passage! Have you read Rumer Godden's other "convent" book - Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy? *Very* different, no cats :) Not a comfort read - or a comfortable one - for me, but I enjoyed it.

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    1. Yes, I read that one last year - good but not as good as this one for me.

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  2. I read - and loved Black Narcissus - earlier this year and now I definitely want to read this one

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    1. I will have to find that one too - Rumer Godden seems to like nuns as subject matter.

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  3. That is beautiful! I'm glad the right book has come to you just when you most need it. Hugs.

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    1. Thanks JoAnn - I have followed it with another lovely story by John MC Gahern, That They May Face the Rising Sun which has no plot but is a beautiful account of daily life. Obviously I need no dramas right now. :-)

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