The Birthday of the World

This week began the high Holy Days, also called Days of Awe. We started cooking for Rosh Hashanah dinner the day before, Tuesday. Woody made his Cherry kugel. I got together the recipes and thawed the leg of lamb. And several pints of our pumpkin pureed last fall.  We were supposed to be nine, which is difficult in our small dining room but we could have done it. However, Chaim who was alone as Theresa had been called to New York on business.  He was occasionally feeling dizzy. Then he was climbing the stairs holding a glass when he blacked out. He awoke at the bottom of the stairs in a pool of blood and broken glass. The rescue squad put staples in his head and many stiches in his arm and shoulder. Theresa rushed back to bring him to New York to his doctor there. Obviously, neither could come to join us.

Wednesday, we cooked most of the day. I made my own version of a Julia Child recipe for potiron d’Arpejon, a pumpkin/cannellini/Gruyere recipe.  We have  pureed pumpkin from last fall in the freezer but it still cooks a long time. I also roasted a sesame seed-coated leg of lamb from the Noon farm. Then we got together the ritual items – honey, apples, candles, kiddish cup, and my short ritual printed out for everyone to read aloud individually and then pass on to next person to read. Some of my poems are included. All went very well and people seemed to enjoy everything. Michele brought a lovely salad with her own dressing and David made a honey cake according to Norma Simon’s recipe that she gave me before her death. She always came to Rosh Hashanah here after her husband died. Lily brought wine and Bonnie brought Asian pears for the first fruit of the season.

It took us a full day recover our energy after all the work. Just cleaning up took two hours. And the next morning putting all the good dishes away. We’re short on wineglasses. I have to buy some before Thanksgiving. Woody insists on stemless (tired of breakage in the dishwasher and ‘tippage’ on the table). I want the old fashion kind. The debate goes on.

I’ve been catching up on a lot of mess after I sent off my book to my agent. Slowly bringing out fall clothes. Last year, fall was hot. This year, more normal here so far. Unfortunately, the five inches of rain that fell in torrents washed away lots of the seedlings I had started in my garden. I may try to replant the endive and escarole and radishes this week end. I have to see if I still have seeds or if I used them all up.

So many friends and acquaintances are dying this fall – the husband of a friend, one of Woody’s closest male friends. It feels sad and upsetting. It keeps mortality in my consciousness.

I didn’t get to read much this week. I hope to get back to Pat Barker’s tthird d volume of her women of Troy series that I started and then had to put aside. I am mostly writing poems and of course, this blog. Facebook is driving me crazy.  It won’t let me see what I’m typing if I post and won’t even let me in to my page. .It’s a nuisance. 

I hope we can do tashlich this weekend.  I must look at the tide charts. We have always gone to the dike, but it is no more. I’m not sure there’s any way do it from the temporary bridge. We’ll have to find a new place. Maybe High Toss bridge. Or in the Ocean at one of the beaches that are relatively flat.

Having eaten out once, made a feast and eaten on the Maine trip, I’d like to eat simply for the next few days.