Sweet and Sour

Now that the week’s getting on it looks like Mr Brown got last weeks’ forecast wrong – we are somewhat short of fruit and veg. I can only guess that Sunday’s Wesak guests overdid it with the clean-up. Certainly on Monday morning the fridge was sparkling and spacious, with clean decks and a fresh breeze; which, post-festival, is unusual weather, but actually just how the kitchen manager likes it when he’s taking the helm. This time though, my cooking stint was short, and with the silent week in full swing, and the heat up on the sweet-and-sour, I’m very much appreciating Chris, Kath and Jay's superior captaincy. And that’s not the only thing; there's also the newly re-jigged dishes rota on which I seem to be faring rather well. Too well I fear - I sense a washing-up squall heading my way.

Outside however, no squalls but plenty of blanket cloud and rain, together with the odd surprise: like yesterday in the garden, coming-to at the end of the walking path, and there not twenty yards away, Mr Fox and his wind-flattened ears, perusing the sheep. Then today, waking up to a new blue sky and back at the same spot finding it silently still, with the barley below frozen quiet like a green Arctic dream - nice discoveries and good grist for the silent weeks’ contemplative mill.

…Ah, thank you, that’s a kind offer, but no we’ve got plenty of corn for it. On the other hand, as mentioned, yes, we really would appreciate some:

• fruit and vegetables
• soya milk
• tahini
• tinned tomatoes
• sesame oil

Whilst some useful non-food items would be:

• small bread baskets
• wood for wood-burning stoves
• Large Letter stamps (1st or 2nd class)
• small denomination stamps (eg.2p,5p,1p)
• larger denomination stamps (eg.£1)
• plastic rake
• Ecover toilet/multi-surface/cream cleaners
• rubber marigolds (hands not garden)
• white spirit (non-numinous variety please)
• 40W/60W screw-in energy-saving light bulbs

Thank you but as well as having plenty of corn we also have plenty of kitchen utensils and towels, toothbrushes and eggs, lentils and instant coffee, juice and onions, cakes and pasta, tea bags and spices.

Silvio's treacle

Wednesdays' final saw the loyalty of our Italian friends divided between Berlusconi’s ACMilan and the Harnham Kitchen. But for the manager of the latter it was a straightforward affair: Merseyside Misery: Assuaged only by the fact that the following day was Bob Dylan’s birthday. Which, being my own as well, Jay-in-the-kitchen helped celebrate. Hailing also from Minnesota, and therefore sympathetic to my suppressed musical tastes (if not my football ones), he set his culinary heart on the task and conjured a Hurricane that would've made Delia proud.

...Whilst out the back, with ‘Tom’s Roof’ now on the hut - sorry, now on Penny's new office - I was called upon to stick the felt down with thick black treacle. Nasty stuff, which does however seem to work better there than in the bread; though either way it’s tricky to get off your hands, so many thanks to the person who brought the steel pan scourers (and the hand-cream). They keep things delicate. As they are now on the front of hill, what with the lilac fading and the hawthorn in full blossom, and my word the wind on that barley is quite a sight. Hermann reckoned it would be an early harvest with all the sun and the recent rain, and with things growing quickly into their fullness I think he might be right.

…For some reason this situation is mirrored in the larder - there’s been steady growth since April. Mr Brown would approve. Were he to visit before his forthcoming candidacy and in time for Wesak on Sunday, he might only suggest that we'd benefit from:

• green vegetables
• soya milk
• tahini

And in the stores from:

• small bread baskets
• firewood
• Large Letter stamps (1st or 2nd class)
• small denomination stamps (eg.2p,5p,1p)
• larger denomination stamps (eg.£1)
• plastic rake
• Ecover toilet and multi-surface cleaners
• rubber gloves
• white spirit
  

But that otherwise there is no shortfall and we are fortunate to be amply supported and have plenty of the following reserves: kitchen utensils, toothbrushes, instant coffee, tea bags, towels, onions, pasta, lentils, spices, oranges, eggs, fruit juice, cakes and biscuits.

Chestnuts

Quote of the week in my WHSmith diary: “Gluttony is an emotional escape, a signal that something is eating us.” Whether this applies to the not-so-coy carp in the Ajahns’ pond I’m not sure, but for some of us it was certainly worth bearing in mind when the Leeds group were here – one might say they appoint themselves very well in the kitchen.

…Whilst at the retreat house they were squeezing their cars into any available space between breeze blocks and mounds of earth. With their departure however, and Mondays’ arrival of our tea-spurning builders things have changed; there’s now acres of space down there on nicely graded gravel. Please use it for parking your wheels when you come to Wesak on Sunday the 27th. And if it’s full, then carry on down the lane to the first field after the cattle grid – without trying that lazy old chestnut of sneaking back round to the front of the hill for a shorter walk.

Before that though two events of note: Next Wednesday, the Champions League final, where the Merseyside kitchen manager wishes all of the Ratanagiri-Milan-Branch a friendly defeat. And more importantly, this Sunday, the first meeting of our newly formed retreat house committee, where there will be tea but no special biscuits – which went as a gift to the two builders who finished today. As for the photo, well that’s the one other piece of news: The hut behind the kitchen is on its way back up. Although, alas, not to serve as additional kitchen storage - so please take a moment to look at those bottom items which we have in excess. Without perhaps overlooking those which we don’t:

• honey
• long-life milk
• tahini
• eggs
• soya milk
• baking powder

And of the non-food items:

• small bread baskets
• firewood
• Large Letter stamps (1st or 2nd class)
• small denomination stamps (eg.2p,5p,1p)
• larger denomination stamps (eg.£1)
• plastic rake
• pastry brush
• Ecover toilet and multi-surface cleaners
• toilet roll!
  

Finally, thank you, but we do have plenty of the following: kitchen utensils, toothbrushes, instant coffee, tea bags, towels, onions, pasta, lentils, spices.

April All-Stars

Not only hands and dishes, and hands-that-do-dishes, but this week a wider, more inclusive cleansing - April has arrived in May. The fields are being sprinkled and swept, windows opened to a cool and clear air, grasses brought to life as velvet green rivers. The walled garden is scented with lilac. Overhead, the sky is a continually changing landscape of its own.

Early today the waning half-moon stood full in the middle of a blue southern sky. It is a lunar observance day. Only, as with April and May we took things the other way round and devoted yesterday to quiet reflection instead. Something I was rudely reminded of, when I woke this morning to the repeated thud of our porridge master butchering palm sugar in the kitchen.

He’s down there again just now; one half of a North American All-Star team, that we trialled on Tuesday in Ajahn Munindo’s absence. They Super-Sized everything; an understandable mistake that I had not accounted for, fearing instead that they’d dial in pizza or take the monastery car to the drive-thru: All unwarranted prejudice on my part, for which I eat humble pie and give them free rein this time round.

After they’ve finished, and the meal is offered and eaten, Abramina (who has the freest kitchen rein of all), has to leave us. Whilst Jay, Minnesota-man from Minneapolis, has just arrived. Over breakfast he thought all his Christmases had come at once when he mistakenly heard me ask “Would you like to be an ex-cook?” He should be so lucky. Next week he’ll be joining the All-Stars. But before that, the Leeds group will be with us. Perhaps they’ll be logging-on first to find out some helpful food items. So here they are:

• honey
• long-life milk
• normal milk
• dried semi-skimmed milk powder
• cheese
• lemons
• mayonnaise

Whilst helpful non-food items include:

• small bread baskets
• fire wood
• Large Letter stamps (1st or 2nd class)
• small denomination stamps (eg.2p,5p,1p)
• larger denomination stamps (eg. £1)
• plastic rake
• pastry brush
• Ecover toilet and multi-surface cleaners
• small hoover
• toilet roll
  

Thanks also, but we've plenty of toothbrushes, instant coffee, tea bags, towels, onions, pasta, lentils and spices.

Pa-Bah

No chariots of fire this week. Only British Airways, which delivered Ajahn Abhinando back into our midst. He doesn’t waste any time either. Seven hours after touch-down and with a full-day Trust Meeting about to start I spotted him in the kitchen holding a paint tin to the light and reading off instructions for his workshop minions. That said, it’s not been all work that’s landed on his plate. On Tuesday we celebrated his birthday. Mame came along with Maureen bearing all sorts of gifts and to offer the meal, whilst the next day an ‘anonymous’ but belated brown box came through the post causing a little perplexity and the faintest of smiles on the face of the kitchen manager, who knows something more than he’s telling...

It was a moment of quiet amusement in what’s been a generally busy and active week. Not just with birthdays, Trust meetings and building committees, but also with the Pa-Bah offered by Noi and friends on Sunday; an alms giving festival enjoyed by about seventy people, that roughly coincided with the Thai new year and saw the ritual cleansing of hands in the temple and much cleansing of dishes in the kitchen. It was a warm-handed, warm-hearted celebration.

Today, Abramina is downstairs baking her legendary specolaas and putting together some signature dishes for the meal. Whilst outside I can hear the mini-dumper loading gravel into the soakaway, driven by the only builder I’ve ever known to refuse tea (on his colleagues’ behalf as well as his own). Behind them, in my minds eye are the sycamores, one shade of spring green amongst many now on the hill.

Spring greens?? Well yes, they are always appreciated. But just now the following would be the most helpful food items:

• honey
• tahini
• cheese
  
• long-life milk
• semi-skimmed milk powder

Helpful non-food items would be:

• small bread baskets
• fire wood
• Large Letter stamps (1st or 2nd class)
• small denomination stamps (eg.2p,5p,1p)
• larger denomination stamps (eg.£1)
• plastic rake

Thank you also, but we have plenty of toothbrushes, towels, instant coffee, tea bags, onions, pasta, lentils and spices.