Alone at last...

Today is the first day that Ralph goes back to work.  It feels so strange to have the house to myself for the first time in six weeks.   I'm not sure I like it.  Oh, I like the solitude well enough, I just don't like Ralph's absence so much.  After so many days together I really relaxed and enjoyed all that together time.  It is something I really cherish and maybe this year we can work in a different way so we're not wiped out at the end of the day and can just keep enjoying our company.

September still feels like the beginning of the year.  It is the beginning of the Jewish New Year and it's the beginning of the academic year but this feeling has been with me since I was in school.  It's a time of re-assessment and looking at all the unfinished business from the summer.  There is still a ton of clearing to be done in the house and there are cupboards bursting at the seams.  The idea has always been that we would carry the momentum of the summer into the autumn.  We'll see.

This year for the Jewish New Year I am having a traditional Ashkenazi Jewish dinner with a group of friends.  I spent yesterday morning planning the menu whilst getting nasty root canal work.  Two hours in the dentist chair was actually well-spent.  I worked out shopping lists, menus, seating plans, table settings and cooking schedules in an attempt  to block out the dentist drill.  It worked a charm and today I am feeling easy and organised.  I love this cooking and preparing almost more than the actual eating.  It is almost like alchemy - taking all these disparate ingredients and making a meal.  This year's menu so far:

Chicken soup with matzo balls
Chopped liver
Morroccan-style lamb
Sesame chicken
Barley with mushrooms and onions (maybe potato kugel)
Carrot tsimmes + other veg
Exotic fruit platter
Honey cake
Cheesecake

And of course, challahs, apples with honey and other traditional Rosh Hashanah delights.

I guess tomorrow can be the beginning of prep time.  I am looking forward to bringing the spirit of my mother into the kitchen with me.  It is at times like this that she feels very close.

I am also trying to get my head round the amount of travel this summer and it's not over yet.  Next week to Amsterdam for three days and then at the end of the month I am off to San Francisco to see my kids and then on to Connecticut to see my father and my brother and his wife.  I am so sad about seeing my father since I feel that each time lately I see him it may be the last.  I understand thast he is on a steady downward decline and I just want his end of days to be peaceful and easy.

Right now I am so weary I can hardly hold my head up. Maybe it's the aftermath of dental trauma.  Whatever it is, I am giving in to it completely and going to sleep.