Weird, Wild, Wonderful 4 - January 24 - 30

A most interesting site if you love lemons, as I do, is lemonflower. This site has everything lemon, from recipes, to beauty tips, to laws about lemon cars, to a business plan for a lemonade stand! The recipes alone are worth the visit - lemon pie, lemonade, lemon chicken, lemon butter.


Also this week is Blogger's Cafe, a blog full to overflowing with information and reviews of other blogs. There are four "libraries" in this blog, each containing the blogs the owner has reviewed in categories - makes things easy to find. This is a great resource and is always good for spending as much time as one has free just poking around.


I love wine and am only just beginning to work my way around a site called Winedoctor (independent opinion on wine). The site is extensive with detailed information about wines from different countries and regions, about producers, vintages, and tasting notes. There is a glossary of terms and a section called Wine Advice with information on such things as choosing glasses and shapes of wine bottles. This is another one that could keep a person busy for a good while.



Finally this week is a blog that already has about 15,000 followers, so needs no introduction from me! But I do love it, so can't resist. The Sartorialist features photos from great cities like Paris, Milan, and New York (among others) of chic and stylish people on the street. What a simple, but wonderful idea. The men and women  Scott Schuman photographs all have a distinct personal style, are always cool, and mostly wear clothes that I couldn't wear in a million years. But they are totally wonderful.

Soiree's Past Week

At My Soiree - January 18 - 24


Here's to the last week in January coming up. One week closer to spring.

Cheers!

How Long? - January 18/10
Send Money, Not Wedding Dresses - January 19/10
The Eve of St. Agnes - January 20/10
Ode to the Lemon - January 21/10
Brewing Up History - January 22/10
Weird, Wild, Wonderful 4-Jan 17-23  -  January 23/10

Ode to the Lemon

The poem is "Ode to the Lemon" by Pablo Neruda (trans. Margaret Sayers Peden).  The photos are mine - making preserved lemons.

From blossoms

released

by the moonlight,

from an

                     aroma of exasperated                       

love,

steeped in fragrance,

yellowness

drifted from the lemon tree,

and from its plantarium

lemons descended to the earth.

Tender yield!

The coasts,

the markets glowed

with light, with

unrefined gold;

we opened

two halves
of a miracle,
congealed acid
trickled
from the hemispheres
of a star,
the most intense liqueur
of nature,
unique, vivid,
concentrated,
born of the cool, fresh
lemon,
of its fragrant house,
its acid, secret symmetry.

Knives                                                                      

sliced a small 

cathedral

in the lemon,

the concealed apse, opened, 

revealed acid stained glass,
drops
oozed topaz,
altars,
cool architecture.

So, when you hold

the hemisphere

of a cut lemon

above your plate,

you spill

a universe of gold,

a

yellow goblet

of miracles,
a fragrant nipple

of the earth's breast,

a ray of light that was made fruit,

the minute fire of a planet.