Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Lunch Under the Tree

When we moved to Cape Town the plane tree planted at random on the lawn was a sapling that I could bend in half. Now I can't wrap arms around it. Two of me could. This week Clan Collins, Alistair, Katrine, Kerrie and Claire, and Katrine's mom - all on holiday from London and Ireland - joined us and Marijke for lunch under its cool branches on a meltingly hot day. Everyone wore white. We didn't mean to. When I was an elderly teenager I once babysat for Kerrie and Claire for a week, getting them up for school, boiling them eggs for breakfast, driving them to school. I can hardly believe that I or they survived the expwrience. They were very well behaved.  One of my brothers nicknamed them The Insects when they were very small. They were that spindly and reticent They are spindly no more - both very beautiful women.
KC Sauvignon blanc poured continuously, along with huge jugs of lime and mint water.
...the best gazpacho ever.
Beef fillet with ginger and cucumber. Good genes: Katrine, turning 60 next, er, this year); Pa, turning 77...this year. Jeepers. Katrine's mom, Ann - 80-something?

After dessert, my mom's home made limoncello cooling off Sweet, lemony, slightly bitter...

2 comments:

  1. That's quite a tree! And at the risk of repeating myself, it could so easily be growing next to the Bastide Neuve, somewhere above La Treille...

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  2. Ah that Limoncello...I haven't yet taken the time to make my own batch again. I did, however, buy some nice Sorento Limoncello this past weekend. And I couldn't resist: 1 part Limoncello, 1 part Grey Goose, 1 part Cointreau, 1 part Cranberry Juice - shaken well and poured into a martini glass. WOW!

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