Saturday, January 14, 2012

Home and Bread Machines

I enjoy my weekends here at Poet’s Cottage. I’m usually awake by 5 AM, showered and sipping coffee by 5:30. I value this time of easing into the day, when I can read a few poems written by a friend or tweak a few things I’ve penned during the week.

Quiet time. A time of gathering thoughts and introspection. And yet, as I type these words, I’m suddenly aware of

the soft drone
of the refrigerator,
a percolating
coffee pot,
the soothing
swoooooosh
of heat passing
through air ducts,
a home
exhaling,
inhaling,
intermittent
popping
of walls
settling back
into
place

Our homes possess characteristics that make them seem alive. They are a reflection of our inner selves. Maybe I’m a candidate for adding a rubber room, but I’ve walked into my home after a long day at work and said, “Hello, nice clean home!” We become attune to the needs of our homes as poet Susan Nelson Myers accurately captures in this senryu:

empty winter nest -
discovering a new drip
in an old faucet

Prune Juice; Issue 6, Summer 2011

Stop and listen to your home. What do you hear? What does your home tell you? Walk through each room. Do you see a reflection of your personality, your creativity in your home?

We can live in many locations throughout our lives, but how many places can we truly call home? When I arrived at Poet’s Cottage, I texted a friend and said simply, “I’m home.” Today, I feel that I, too, have slipped into the rhythmic hum of the place that shelters me from the elements and keeps me warm.

One of the coolest gifts I received in recent months is a bread machine. The manual/recipe book had been lost but, thanks to the Internet, I found a free manual after a bit of googling. Having a fresh loaf of bread really is as easy as tossing a few ingredients into the machine and setting a timer for two or three hours. I’ve saved a few dollars by baking loaves of wheat, country white, carrot and cinnamon bread. Here are a few pictures of my bread machine and a loaf of homemade fresh bread.

Ingredients tossed into the bread machine

Front view of the bread machine

Timer set for 2 hours and 30 minutes

Fresh cinnamon bread from the bread machine
“Your home smells like fresh bread,” commented a friend, who stopped by for a visit. For those of us gifted with sensitive olfactories, the benefits of a bread machine exceed the taste of fresh baked bread and dollars saved.

1 comment:

  1. Hi, Curtis, I no longer have a kitchen where I can make bread...but to me the best part of making bread was the tactile sensation of the kneading. In the kneading you learn the little secrets bread has for you...the differences between breads...and the artistry of braiding and knotting and all sorts of things bread opens to you. But I agree, there's nothing like home made bread...fresh out of the oven...no matter how you make it.

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