A Thousand Feasts

... by Nigel Slater, is one of the books I bought with birthday vouchers from my three kids. It's a beautiful book, with the most gorgeous endpapers, shiny gold with red leaves, while the dust cover is the opposite, red with gold leaves. Every time I open it, it gives me a "small moment of joy". 

Inside, Nigel details small moments of joy in his life, like "Slowly tearing apart a cinnamon bun in a coffee shop." or a longer one about eating mangoes with "turmeric-yellow flesh" in an ancient Morris Oxford in a monsoon in Goa. About packing the perfect suitcase, "full of plans, hopes and dreams", or waking to snow in his home in London or the scent of home-grown sweet peas. "These diminutive pleasures are there if we care to look for them, little joys illuminating an increasingly darkening world. They feed the soul and nourish the spirit." (There is also a fair bit of laugh-out-loud humour - see "The breakfast buffet" in Seoul, South Korea, p26.)

I think that is what a lot of us Blippers try to do - to notice these small moments of beauty or joy, and then make a photo to help us not to forget - but also, hopefully, to bring joy to those who look into our journals.

Gratefuls:
- the pleasure this book has given me
- the friends in England who so lovingly and faithfully support, encourage, and pray for us
- meeting and chatting with Miguel and Ana, and Eileen, in the supermarket in Reguengos