Those of you that have been reading along here for any length of time know that my companion, Remi and I are both inveterate dreamers. We can’t help it. It is a glowing ribbon in the bind that links us together. Perhaps because we are both nomads who grew up with a foggy sense of home for varying reasons, one of our favorite dreams is of the “We Could Live Here” variety. We do it all the time. The games people play (kind of like my favorite “What would you choose to eat if you could only have three ingredients?” Avocado, chickpeas and roasted chicken is today’s answer)…
And so I didn’t bat an eye when Remi got that far-away look after finishing off a recent picnic in a vineyard on the outskirts of Uzes.
I followed his gaze to the ruin in front of us and knew what he was thinking before he said a word.
I watched him dreaming with all of the internal fervor as our puppers do when they run in their sleep.
Yes, we could open up that doorway. What is it? Renaissance period? Possibly.
And then that rather large window too, big enough to make a doorway, perhaps a little balcony could be added, a beacon over a sea of vines.
Of course, the roof would need to be redone…always a pricy affair…
Tick, tock, tick until his imaginings pulled him up from our comfortable perch in the shade and drew him like a magnet to make a closer inspection.
The dogs followed. Nosing the ground as they padded along behind.
I stayed where I was for the longest time. Watching Remi stroll with a glass of wine in hand.
King of his imaginary domain.
Until I too was bewitched enough to wander.
Delight swelled, blurred my vision, then stilled it.
The surprise of happiness.
It might never be where you expect it but a little dreaming is fine fire to the flame.
Isn’t it?
Wishing that your weekend ahead is filled with good.
And speaking of, to read Laurie Anderson’s moving and very beautiful tribute to her late Husband, Lou Reed, please click here.
Hi David, My little pup, Karina, literally trembles with effort when she is asked to contain herself and not do whatever it is she so very much wants to do, so I understand how difficult it must have been to not tell me your snake stories. Thanks ever so much for your amazing restraint.
Yours truly,
Judith in Concord, Mass where thankfully there are only garter snakes running around loose.
Well, then, Judith…..I won't tell you about the time a friend of mine (she lives out in the country and had left the bathroom skylight open) stepped (naked, mais bien sur) into her bathtub to find that a six foot long black snake was in there with her markedly vulnerable self. Much destruction of doors, shower-curtains, etcetera ensued….but I won't mention the story, will I?. Nor will I tell you about the time "The Snake House" (this made national news; I was teaching up in Philadelphia that summer) burnt down….across the street from my old house in Durham. A Taiwanese medical student had about 100 illegal exotic and venomous snakes in cages there. In his prissy panic (the fire woke him up in the middle of the night, during a heat-wave), he threw all the cages out onto the front and back lawns. The fireman arrived to find cobras and rattlesnakes and black mambas and god-knows-what-else spitting and snarling and biting all over the place. I'm not make a WORD of this up……but neither will I mention a word of it, since you've asked me not to do so. Presumably, you can google something like "Durham Fire Snakes" and get all the details you want. I ended up simply staying away (with my terriers) from our very old and bushy neighborhood until the temperature finallly dipped below 55 degrees…..but I won't mention that, will I?
Compliantly yours as ever,
Uncle David
This comment has been removed by the author.
We seem to get an influx of them inside the house every spring — not so bad. But David, please, no snake stories. And I know you have a few.
I am still longing to see your "Ghost House"!!!! Now THAT is an amazing story…
Oh it was tasty. Very basic–ham, baguette, cheese, wine! And aren't those grapes crazily luscious???
Perfectly said, Susan. Plus it has to be good for the tinker, no?
Happy Weekend to you too!
That is such a wonderful quote, Mumbai. Thank you so much for sharing it!
Thank you Leslie! And oh now I want a pomegranate!!! If only they weren't so much work…sigh.
Bon Weekend!!!
Absolutely! 🙂 I am slightly chickpea obsessed as of late. That and roasted everything.