Greetings from your hostess…

Apologies for the radio silence. The IK has been contending with a protracted bout of ill health. (Not covid. Just her usual problems.)

While a post is readied in the background, here are a few photos for your pre-holiday entertainment.

It rained last week. With any luck, it will rain more.

‘Tis the season for cranberries. Above, cranberries cooked with fresh orange juice, set atop an ancient napkin.

Your hostess took it into her head to attempt a recipe dated 1904. The outcome was not delicous.

Note the upper leaf’s resemblance to Michigan. Your hostess did not notice this until moments ago. The lower leaf, on the other hand, bears no resemblance to anything other than what it is: a chard leaf.

Empty pots.

The first Pyrex “Colored Bowl Set” was manufacted in 1945. Complete sets–I am missing the fourth and smallest bowl, which is red–run from $125-$300, depending on age and condition. Collecting the bowls separately is the cheapest way to go. The yellow bowl, at $30, was the most expensive one. It comes from one of those twee shops selling vintage and handmade junk at upscale prices: fancy soaps, candles shaped like tomatoes, hand-painted cards with blank interiors. You know what I mean. There were zillions of these places lining the Bay Area’s wealthier shopping districts, pretentious and irritating. Now the spaces these stores occupied are dark, like rotted teeth, and I mourn their absence.

Downtown Berkeley.

Nobody will ever visit California for fall leaf viewing, but a few do change color.

A modest tree for one of the strangest holiday seasons in living memory.