Sunday Blessings

My house is perfumed with the smell of drying basil. One more bush has been cut out. Above the smell of the basil is the lovely smell of carrot bread cooling on the open oven door. This is a mix that a friend gave me for my birthday. It looks like it should be pumpkin and it is the time of the year for pumpkin. It definitely doesn't taste like pumpkin. I can hardly wait to cut a slice.

Yesterday was a misspent day. I have a fabulous recipe for pumpkin muffins that I cannot find. I have looked everywhere. It is not there, or there or anywhere and yet it must be somewhere in my house! Thinking to reinvent it, I went to the web. Pumpkin muffins with chocolate chips; pumpkin muffins with raisins and currents; no plain, light, fluffy pumpkin muffins. Well, I will just have to keep looking.

Being outdoors to survey and tend the plants was a decided blessing. Taking it for granted all summer has made it a blessing today, for it is clear by the weather that winter is coming. The tomato plants are gorgeous and even have a small number of tiny tomatoes. So far none have matured to the point where I could pick them and use them for green tomato pie--something I have been wanting to make for six years since I first found the recipe on the web.

Baking is another blessing for a Sunday. It makes the routine different. Of course, I wish that I could go to Mass and hear the chant and chat with my friends afterward, but since I can't I want to make rituals that set Sunday apart from other days.

Monday will come soon enough with all of its tasks. For now I am grateful for Sunday, for the basil and the pumpkin bread and for the sun shining in as I type.