Cabin Commorancy
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Bon Voyage
We are leaving the cabin for the Pacific coast in a few days and there is so much I have yet to discover. I have seen one full year gone by. I know how the seasons change in this oak den, I have seen how plants can thrive and be eaten by caterpillars and spiders within an hour, I have felt the blasted heat of summer insulated by plywood walls and the frigid chill of a winter with minimal heat to speak of. I received mail for a variety of people who have dwelled here in the past: underpants catalogs, knife and hunting brochures, political literature, and super savings clippers. I wonder what trace of junk mail my existence here will leave behind. I still don't know how big the Tokay gecko is really, from head to tail. I still don't know what it's like to sleep under the stars and mosquito nests here. The cabin has been a conduit for happiness, a stifling nuisance (crumbs everywhere!), and a safehouse for fun and sadness both. I don't know if I will ever experience anything close to what I have felt living here, but I know I will try for the rest of my life, remembering not to compare apples to oranges, or plywood to drywall. Most homes are inhabited as a fresh slate, even if previously lived in, they are entered as a new home with clean drawers, empty shelves, no bedding on the sheets. Matt and I began our lives here by sorting through whose things we wanted and didn't want: the former tenant left most of her belongings for us. And now we are doing almost the same, leaving behind grandma's furniture, a mattress, a confiscated mirror and half a dozen lamps, a spice rack…….and the spices that sit on it. It seems appropriate to leave in the same way we came. I cannot imagine the cabin empty. It does not befit it to have no-one living here, and as far as I know it has been inhabited since the inception of wood to nail to floor to wall, 1976, whether it be by cock roaches, geckos, or brave humans. A bittersweet farewell to Florida and the home I have always known, but a sweeter and more bitter goodbye to the cabin, the home I feel like I have always known.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Moths
Sometimes we have home invaders. Besides the spiders I have previously written about, and Pumpkin the witch cat who thinks she owns the place, sometimes moths of varying colors and sizes fly in through a crack in the porch screen that has just recently been fixed. Now that the screen is taut, the sound of the door slamming over my shoulder has a new tone, as in a drum whose skin has been wound tighter. So these moths coat the door and side panel on the other side of the kitchen wall, mumbling 'round the timed light that comes on too late since autumn dropped the sun way down low before eight o'clock. Last night as I was cozily tucking away inside a rose print comforter cocoon a small brown moth flew in but instead of seeking the moon in the form of a side lamp, like most moths would, it continually sought myhead and hair, resting here and there and I could only tell it was there because every so often Rosie beside the bed would cock her eye to face me, roll it around a bit and say small things between the cage bars. So I slept with my moth friend.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Sun Face
The morning broke twice today, as October days tend to do. I greeted the sun once while M poured mosquito ridden, rank and brackish water on steaming logs to settle the heat, and twice at midday as anxious bird reminded us that potato and eggs awaited our buds in the oven. Now we disembark beyond the bamboo gates guarded only by our spirits, sunscreen, and the promise of crab cake sandwiches.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Pumpkin
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Cabin Cooking
This entry was written out, with lengthy lists of which ingredients I used at which intervals and in which chili, but my old computer died and in its wake comes a brand new, aerodynamic, rubber soled, streamlined macbook beside which I hawk the internet from the neighboring bagel shop.
September brought with it lovely weather, at least lovelier than usual, and we have been sleeping with the air unit off, with the windows wide open, with a strong chance that whenever we open the porch door, one of the many wolf spiders cohabitating among the nooks of screen and two-by-fours will crawl in for some homemade cooking.
Each chili is basically luck of the pot, or whatever produce seems to need cooking the most, in one I used turmeric and in another I used chili powder. Remember to put things like carrots and onions in way before pasta and leaf greens. Also I used swiss chard greens and stalks which added a lot of flavor to the broth.