Burdock of Flourish

This was a much better day, perhaps not in terms of productivity, but in terms of being in a better mood while taking it easy, and is not that "one's great aim in life" as Cedric says in Love in a Cold Climate: "having lovely cake and eating it too!" Again I woke up too early, but this time I was able to take a restful and effective nap! I'm convinced that naps are at least one of the keys to happiness. Lady Montdore, in the novel I just quoted, thinks they are terrible and "the beginning of the end," but I believe she is wrong about this as she was about so many things as the plot unfolded.

I wasn't actually reading Nancy Mitford, but rather Dante, in preparation for our book club tomorrow. I feel a bit guilty reading Thomas Aquinas's heavenly encomium on St. Francis and his beloved Lady Poverty, and then eating such a nice dinner, but I am a creature of many contradictions. Like the later monastics, who were scolded by Thomas later in the canto for falling into luxurious ways, I may have abstained from meat on Friday, but I had some very nice shrimp that was hardly a sacrifice. Dinner, in fact, was my chief accomplishment: shrimp with lemon and sherry; zucchini, mushrooms, and walnuts with soy sauce and honey; jasmine rice; and some potato and cheese pierogis just on the side.