The Oxcart Bench

About 7 or 8 years ago a mutual friend talked us into taking an Indian cooking class. Why? I have no Idea, but it turned out to be one of the best things we ever did. Ruta, the teacher, is a gorgeous Indian woman, who always has all kinds of irons in the fire (so to speak) and is passionate about Indian cooking. She and her husband had a home not far from us in Berkeley with a purpose built kitchen for teaching classes. Not only did we learn how to cook from the many cuisines of India, Ruta taught OilMan that there are other ways to cook than over an open flame in the back yard!

Over the course of time , many more classes and some epic parties, we became good friends with Ruta and Neville, and they added two little girls to their family. Although this didn't slow them down much, they admitted to us that they were "working too hard and not having any fun" so they sold their house and everything in it, and moved to Goa.

But they didn't move back to India before one last epic party. Neville made his awesome cocktails, Ruta made her awesome snacks, they invited everyone they knew, or had met in the course of teaching classes, and every single thing in their house had a price tag on it! (Now THAT'S the way to do it, if you can pull it off.) We bought the bench in today's blip, made from an ox cart yoke, which they had brought from India and decided not to take back. We loved it in our Berkeley back yard, but couldn't really see it from the house, so we moved it to the farmhouse. Now we are moving out of the farmhouse and have brought the bench, with all its attached memories, to our new digs in Santa Rosa. Despite it's humble and distant origins, it seems to enhance its location no matter where that is!