Day 29

Saturday, April 18: Sometimes the days go slower than my Aunt Joan’s Hondamatic, a tiny brown bubble of a car from the 1980s, top speed about 60/kph. Other days are like the Hondamatic in the hands of a hoon.

Today, it’s the latter (slight exaggeration on the hoon thing) but time flies. There is a good start at 9am, Kim Hill on RNZ interviewing American author Ann Patchett, who wrote The Dutch House, one of my favourite books from last year. Patchett was to have been at next month’s cancelled Auckland Writers Festival, and now she’s on the line from pandemic lockdown in Tennessee. She speaks about the security of being in her beloved home, it means more to her than ever in this crisis. It is, she says, “the shell of the turtle that we are”. I tuck the quote away, love it. My home is my precious korowai. Especially now.

From then on, the day is as social as it gets in lockdown, as friends come bearing gifts. There are food drops from Denise (hot cross buns); Angelique (more beautiful field mushrooms and the last of the season’s sweet corn); and quinces and a lemon from neighbour Mary. All this, I hasten to add, is done with physical distancing and careful management of packages and produce. Plus there is a serendipitous driveway conversation with Anna, Mary, and Rosie the dog. I’m smiling as I finally head to the kitchen to chop, dice and slice, deal with the new produce. Coffee will be on me for many people when we get out of lockdown.

Late afternoon, there are Zoom drinks to attend, and this includes a music quiz run by Lynne. She sings the first line of 13 songs she’s picked; we guess the title and the singer. Damn. Not my forte, I’m musically challenged and at the bottom of the heap.  We Zoom out to cook dinner in our bubbles.

Food matters: at my place it is homemade creamed corn, inspired by Angelique when she dropped off the fresh cobs. Husk the corn and slice the kernels off with a sharp knife. In a heavy pot, melt butter and olive oil, sizzle a spring onion or two, chopped garlic and bacon (optional but excellent). Stir the corn kernels into the butter and oil and cook for a couple of minutes to release their juices. Add a dessertspoon of flour, mix through, and add milk, a little at a time, until you get a creamy texture. Season with salt, pepper, parmesan and chopped parsley and serve over orzo, toast, anything, with a green on the side. A topping of toasted breadcrumbs is good, too. The fresh corn is wonderful but next time I’ll use the can of whole-kernel corn lurking at the back of the pantry.