Bread!!

Home was once a busy place. Ma baked on Saturdays. The kitchen would be filled with the heavenly smell of fresh bread, and the sound of young people, siblings, cousins and friends, sneaking in one by one, two by two, to eat hot buttered bread. 

Soda bread baked by my Irish auntie.

Sad to say, the house was empty when I returned from my vibrant Island days. Only me and Ma now. Grieving. Adjusting. Struggling with heavy emotions. Dealing with power issues. (Let me tell you, parents are Extremely Stubborn People to train. Joke, man, joke).

Bit by bit though, we ended up having many a glorious gyaff...conversation...and delicious lunches with visitors, local and foreign. When the cleaning lady, gardener, and tradesman came to work, they shared hearty chats with my mother and me. 

At nights, if the electricity went off, Ma and I sat in the verandah and waited for comets. In the days, we listened to music.

Slowly, I rediscovered the essence of home. 

It is where we learn to compromise, to adjust, adapt to changes in each other. It is where we play, are our most foolish, most vulnerable selves. We make mistakes, we forgive, we learn again. 

I swear, when I have my own home, and I want it to have a happy feeling, I’d bake bread. The smell of freshly baked bread is heavenly!

I’m not much of a kitchen-gal though. My friend Annie is. She loves to cook. Maybe I should convince her to convince someone to give her a bread-making machine and she can bake all kinds of bread. She can come up with a recipe that doesn’t call for a lot of sugar. And she can bake delicious, healthy bread with different types of grain. I would be her best friend, ahem, I mean, customer!

Anyway, that’s all for now. If you want to read more about home life, check out my book, Big Old Home By De Sea. This book will have you rolling with laughter. There will be tears too. And dreams, and songs, and silliness that will make you want to be a child again. Go on…here it is: Big Ole Home By De Sea.