The light will bring you home

[sovay]

It's a small thing, but it has been ages since I was able to make myself dinner that was not a holiday meal or a sandwich and tonight I cooked some canned mackerel with shallots and tarragon and black pepper and ate it over spaghetti, with appropriate libations to the cats, of course. I sat on the couch with Hestia curled up in a little black seal-heap beside me and watched Kristoffer Nyholm's The Vanishing (2018), a harsh and atmospheric maritime noir drawn loosely from the famous disappearance of the three keepers of the Flannan Isles Lighthouse in 1900, here transposed to the 1930's and given the starting kick of a wreck with a dangerous secret. It was full of gulls and salt and the sinewy coiling of waves and winds about its rock-chip island and should have been released under its original title of Keepers, which contains among its double meanings the implication of finders. It was the closest I could get to a goddamn sea urchin, selkie. My niece has been fully vaccinated.

Comments

[nineweaving]

Not a small thing, a good dinner shared with your cat. Nor is curling up with that cat to watch "a harsh and atmospheric maritime noir." And seeing your niece fully vaxxed is huge.

A good day.

*hugs*

Nine

[pameladean]

Oh, that sounds delicious. And I am glad to hear of a sociable Hestia. I know she is, but Autolycus is so VERY much that way inclined that he gets mentioned more.

Or perhaps I am really just thinking of our own two little black cats, of whom Ninja is extravagantly outgoing and confident that everybody loves him (which is true), while Nuit is higher-strung and tends not to demand attention until suddenly she has what is generally called a "petting emergency."

In other feline-directed terminology, I have probably said before that I love your use of "libations." We often say "customary vails."

P.

[thistleingrey]

Yay, vaccine!

[selkie]

I am very relieved for your niece and I support the victory of prosaic dinner. Shoulda been sea urchins all around, but mackerel is very nice with an allium.

[sovay]

Not a small thing, a good dinner shared with your cat. Nor is curling up with that cat to watch "a harsh and atmospheric maritime noir."

Thank you.

And seeing your niece fully vaxxed is huge.

I am so, so glad of it.

*hugs*

[sovay]

Yay, vaccine!

It's such a good thing.

[lemon_badgeress]

i am GLAD

[sovay]

Oh, that sounds delicious.

It was very good: hot and savory and full of fish. I really wanted fish.

And I am glad to hear of a sociable Hestia. I know she is, but Autolycus is so VERY much that way inclined that he gets mentioned more.

Hestia is not as extravagantly attention-seeking as her brother, but she is firmly not an unsociable cat. She often sleeps against spatch and with me will perform a gesture we call the pineapple, where I scritch her back and she basically tips over into a triangle. It was an incredible signal of trust when she began to allow us to pet her belly after years of guarding it furiously. She will still sometimes become overstimulated and rabbit-kick and then become self-conscious and flee.

Or perhaps I am really just thinking of our own two little black cats, of whom Ninja is extravagantly outgoing and confident that everybody loves him (which is true), while Nuit is higher-strung and tends not to demand attention until suddenly she has what is generally called a "petting emergency."

Aw.

In other feline-directed terminology, I have probably said before that I love your use of "libations." We often say "customary vails."

I like that! I hope I have said so.

[sovay]

I am very relieved for your niece and I support the victory of prosaic dinner.

Thank you. I want my niece to be as safe as possible and I want to eat more fish.

Shoulda been sea urchins all around, but mackerel is very nice with an allium.

It was! We should add regular sea urchin to our list of necessities. Red's Best at the Boston Public Market used to serve them straight off ice onto a plate, but I do not know if they still do.

[sovay]

i am GLAD

Thank you.

[pameladean]

I love the pineapple! And yes, Nuit as well will get overstimulated, do a thing she doesn't really want to do, and flee in confusion. Sometimes it's just a truly ferocious hiss. She is fine with her belly's being rubbed and indeed invites it, but there are some head pets that are supposed to stop at a point that she hasn't been able to explain to us, poor baby.

Since I had a vague feeling, typing about the customary vails, that I had done so before to you, I think it likely that you have said so!

P.

[pameladean]

And yes, yay vaccine for kids and especially for your niece! I was distracted by cats, but that is a major thing.

P.

[sovay]

And yes, yay vaccine for kids and especially for your niece! I was distracted by cats, but that is a major thing.

Thank you! The cats will tell you it is always right and proper to be distracted by them.

[cmcmck]

It remains a mystery but not as much of a mystery as people wish to believe.

[davidgillon]

canned mackerel with shallots and tarragon and black pepper and ate it over spaghetti,

Yum, I regularly do canned mackerel with rice and salsa, I haven't used shallots before, but that sounds worth trying. And answers the question as to what to have for lunch.

Yay for fully vaccinated nibling! Hopefully I'll have my own Covid trifecta completed as of this evening.

[sovay]

Yum, I regularly do canned mackerel with rice and salsa, I haven't used shallots before, but that sounds worth trying. And answers the question as to what to have for lunch.

I am always glad to help!

Yay for fully vaccinated nibling! Hopefully I'll have my own Covid trifecta completed as of this evening.

Thank you! Fingers crossed for you.

[sovay]

It remains a mystery but not as much of a mystery as people wish to believe.

As an inspired-by rather than an effort at historical explanation, I liked this version a lot. It did not require anything other than people behaving like themselves.

[asakiyume]

Canned mackerel is a Good Thing.

The lighthouse film--does it relate to another lighthouse film you were talking about recently?

[sovay]

Canned mackerel is a Good Thing.

I love it. I tried to buy some more tonight while I was at the supermarket, but it was not unjustly sold out. I bought some canned pilchards instead.

The lighthouse film--does it relate to another lighthouse film you were talking about recently?

Which lighthouse film was I talking about recently? It is not the same historical incident that inspired Robert Eggars' The Lighthouse (2019); that one contains elements of the Smalls Lighthouse Tragedy of 1801. I've talked about the Flannan Isles Lighthouse in context of Peter Maxwell Davies' The Lighthouse (1980), which I saw performed by the Boston Lyric Opera in 2012 and loved.