Carolina Moments: Staying Inside

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“DEEP IN DECEMBER”

We’ve been told that the lovely warm weather we enjoyed in October and the first part of November was not the norm for the Triangle Area.  For the Chief Penguin and me, it was reminiscent of balmy Florida in the fall.  Now that the weather has shifted (and not just here!), we feel like it’s winter and, like the song, “Try to Remember” (sung by Jerry Orbach), we are deep into December.  But not really.

Sun-striped books

Yesterday, after a chilly 28 degrees before dawn, the thermometer climbed only to 42 and stayed there.  We burrowed in, staying cozy, and never went outdoors!  Taking advantage of the fitness center down the hall, we exercised on the treadmills, enjoyed lunch and dinner in two of the downstairs dining venues, and then retreated to our nicely warm apartment for reading and the next episode in Season 2 of The Diplomat.

ESCAPIST READING

Post election, after writing hundreds of postcards, and now getting caught up in pre-Christmas preparations, I find I have less time for serious book reading.  I’ve been more drawn to mysteries.  Having finished Deborah Crombie’s latest (noted in last week’s blog post), I decided to try one in Ann Cleeves’ new detective series.  I’m a huge fan of Shetland, one TV series based on her books, but didn’t warm up to Vera in the one episode of that series I watched.

STRAITLACED DETECTIVE VENN

The Heron’s Cry by Ann Cleeves

The Heron’s Cry is the second book featuring Detective Matthew Venn, the first being The Long Call.  I read recently that a TV series is in the works.  And a third mystery, The Raging Storm, was published in 2023.  The setting for all of them is coastal North Devon in southwest England.

Barnstaple in North Devon (northwooduk.com)

Venn is an unusual detective.  He was raised in the evangelical Brethren Church which he left behind and is married to Jonathan, who runs a community center called the Woodyard.  When Nigel Yeo, a local doctor, is murdered with a shard of glass, Matthew is called to investigate.  Jonathan is a friend of the deceased’s glassmaker daughter Eve and becomes tangentially involved.  Dr. Yeo had been looking into the handling of a recent suicide, bringing him into contact with the members of a prominent local family.  When another death occurs, Matthew and his colleagues must carefully pick apart the tangled strands of connections between artists, friends, tenants, and landlord to determine the culprit.

Initially, I found the book slow going; I was learning about Matthew and his colleagues Jen and Ross as individuals along with keeping straight the various suspects.  Ultimately, I got more caught up in it, enough to be surprised by the outcome and ready to read the next title in the series.  Worth considering if you like mysteries by Elizabeth George and Deborah Crombie.

WATCHING—COZY BRITISH CRIME SERIES

Whitstable Pearl, Season 3 (Acorn)

Mike & Pearl (deadline.com)

I don’t know if you call a TV mystery series “cozy,” but Whitstable Pearl comes close.  Set on the English coast in the real Kent town of Whitstable, it features a set of local characters.  Pearl Nolan and her mother Dolly jointly own and run an oyster bar and café where Ruby Williams is their rising young chef.  Pearl’s grown son Charlie has fled the nest and is away in Canada. On the side, Pearl is a private detective who gets hired to find missing persons and who often assists (sometimes without invitation) police chief Mike McGuire in solving other cases.  Add in the underlying romantic interest between Pearl and Mike and the ever-present wannabe boyfriend, math teacher Tom, and things are complex.

Season 3 has the usual number of missing persons, one being Pearl’s son Charlie, along with the death of a restaurant critic and scary Halloween pranks.  This is a tame series free of gore or gruesome scenes.  I think it’s even better than the earlier seasons.  Recommended!

Note: Late autumn light header photo and bookshelves photo ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Carolina Moments: Raleigh & More

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ABROAD AT HOME: MORE RALEIGH

Oakwood Historic District

Last week, we decided to try one of noted local chef Scott Crawford’s restaurants for dinner.  We went downtown in the late afternoon to Person Street and then spent about an hour wandering up and down a few streets in the Oakwood District.  This section of town is home to many 19th and early 20th century houses in a wide variety of architectural styles from Queen Anne to Colonial Revival to Craftsman.  

Tucker House

Given that this was mid-November, remnants of Halloween decorations remained as well as pumpkins galore adorning entry ways and steps.

444 Dennis St. Adrian (Zillow.com)

 We saw many charming homes and lots of front porches, reflecting an era when folks sat outside, often in rockers, and watched the world and their neighbors parade by. I well recall my grandparents’ Victorian home in Adrian, Michigan with a row of rocking chairs on its front porch.

At family reunions, my father, uncles, and grandfather seemed to inhabit these seats. Were the women in the kitchen preparing the next meal?  Likely.

Dining at Jolie   

Jolie is Scott Crawford’s unpretentious French bistro on the corner of Person Street next to his larger sister restaurant, Crawford and Son.  The space is narrow with a bar on the right and tables located on the left side against the wall.  The menu is short and tempting.  The bread and French butter to start set the tone for this delicious meal.  The Chief Penguin began with a lovely squash bisque with lump crab meat and fried sage and followed it with the duck confit with pommes sarladaise (echoes of our time in the Dordogne region.). I had the swordfish grenobloise entrée.  It was exquisite.  Swordfish with a caper cream sauce accompanied by florets of roasted cauliflower and broccoli and mini brioche croutons.  

Squash bisque with sage leaves

The pumpkin cheesecake and the Videri chocolate cake sounded tempting, but we saved dessert for a future visit.  Highly recommended!

Independent Bookstore

As we wandered, we were pleasantly surprised, I in particular, to find a little bookstore tucked in on Person Street. So & So Books is small with a well curated inventory. New books, fiction and nonfiction, North Carolina titles, and a cozy children’s corner with picture books, chapter books, and graphic novels. Needless to say, I discovered and bought a few titles as gifts plus some artist notecards for myself. Being in a bookstore is always a treat!

SATISFYING CRIME SERIES

A Killing of Innocents by Deborah Crombie

(wikipedia.com)

A Texan who splits her year between the U.S. and the U.K., Deborah Crombie is the author of A Killing of Innocents. It is her 19th novel featuring Scotland Yard detectives Duncan Kincaid and his wife Gemma  James.  I have read nearly all of them and enjoyed them immensely.  Her plots are complex with intriguing twists, but her well-developed characters who grow and change over the years are what keep me coming back for more.

In this her latest, a promising young doctor, Sasha Johnson, is stabbed as she crosses Russell Square in Bloomsbury London.  Sasha is primarily focused on her work with few outside friends except for the potter with whom she shares a flat.  When a colleague of hers turns up dead several days later, the web of suspicion widens as the detectives investigate other connections and the activities of both Sasha’s brother and her flat mate Tully’s brother.  

In addition to Duncan and Kincaid, their three children, Kit, Toby, and Charlotte, also have a place in the action along with detectives Melody and Doug, whose less than perfect personal lives factor into solving the mystery of these deaths. (~JWFarrington)

Note: Header photo is a Queen Anne style house in Raleigh’s Oakwood District. All unattributed photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Carolina Moments: Eat, Read, Listen, & Watch

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EATING: LUNCH IN CARRBORO

Last week, our Abroad at Home outing was to Pizzeria Mercato, a Carrboro pizza place favored by my sister and brother-in-law.  Some local folks may well remember Magnolia Grill, an all-time great restaurant in Durham.  We would dine there every time we visited family in North Carolina.  

Ben and Karen Barker won numerous awards for his cooking and her baking and put Durham on the culinary map.  The restaurant closed more than ten years ago, but their son Gabe carries on the restaurant tradition with Pizzeria Mercato.  

Open since 2016, It’s a casual venue with a menu that surpasses expectations.  Between the four of us, we sampled several pizzas including a margherita with delicate fennel sausage and a puttanesca with gorgonzola cheese.  We also enjoyed delectable arancini (rice balls), sauteed green beans, Neapolitan meatballs, and minestrone soup.  For later, the Chief Penguin and I took home a package of salted chocolate chip cookies. Most business is walk-ins, but they do take some reservations.  Highly recommended! 

It was also Open Studio weekend.  After lunch, we wandered a bit and then headed to the studios at the Clay Centre on Lloyd Street.  I was particularly taken with the pottery and ceramics by two artists—Betsy Vaden and Patricia Saling.  

READING: SERIOUS BUSINESS

The Country of the Blind by Andrew Leland

(nextbigideaclub.com)

Subtitled, A Memoir at the End of Sight, Andrew Leland’s The Country of the Blind is a very personal account of living with deteriorating sight.  It’s also a history of the organizations that provide support for the blind, such as the American Federation for the Blind; how blindness has been treated by society over the years, and what adaptive technologies exist to assist in reading.  Librarians may recall the early Kurzweil reader; today there are compact screen readers.  

I confess to lots of skimming as I was most interested in Leland’s personal insights and adjustments.  How did he and his wife navigate his changing view of the world?  What was it like for him and his young son Oscar?  And how and when did he begin to use a cane and other aids?  

His thoughts on how he felt in the regular world and what he experienced in a residential school for newly blind individuals were informative and emotional.  It took him some years to complete this work, and it is obviously a labor of love.  It’s detailed, thorough, and endlessly fascinating.  (~JWFarrington)

LISTENING: CHAMBER MUSIC

Combinations in Raleigh

The Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival is celebrating 25 years this year.  This music festival originated at Eastern Carolina University in Greenville.  Most of its concerts are there, but in more recent years, it has brought its Signature Series to Raleigh at Hayes Barton United Methodist Church.

Last Sunday’s concert was a treat featuring six stellar musicians including festival founder Ara Gregorian on viola.  The program consisted of Overture on Hebrew Themes by Prokofiev, with piano, violins, viola, cello, and clarinet, followed by a Mozart clarinet quintet, and ending with a piano quintet by Shostakovich.  We appreciated the intimacy of the church sanctuary setting.  The next concert in the series is in February.  

WATCHING: INTERNATIONAL POLITICS

The Diplomat (Netflix) 2 seasons

Kate & Hal (theatlantic.com)

Diplomat Kate Wyler is unexpectedly summoned and promoted to ambassador to the U.K. after an incident involving an explosion at sea.  She is both flummoxed and concerned about how she will fit in this new role, especially since her husband Hal is himself a former ambassador, very present and itching to be involved.  

Season 1 has been available for a while, and the Chief Penguin and I watched it previously.  Now we are re-watching it to be fully up to date before watching the just released second season.  Given the international political situation in the U.S. vis-à-vis Ukraine and Israel, The Diplomat is fascinating and possibly better the second time around.  

Watching heads of state and their chiefs negotiate high stakes deals is compelling, but this series is also as much about the Wylers’ marriage and their ever-evolving relationship.  She has said she wants a divorce, but they are still very connected.  

The stars of this series are the unmatchable Keri Russell of The Americans as Kate, and the oh so perfectly sexy, cagey, and charming Rufus Sewell as Hal.  Highly recommended for mature audiences!

Note: Header photo of red leaves ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Interlude: Philadelphia & More

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MOVIE THERAPY

Love Actually (free on Amazon Prime)

Emma Thompson with son (nytimes.com)

After a week that left many of us sad, disappointed, bruised, angry, and scared about the future, I decided that we needed a movie that would be fun and take us a bit out of ourselves.  On Friday night, the Chief Penguin and I watched Love Actually, a film from 2003. It has a stellar cast including Hugh Grant as British Prime Minister, Emma Thompson as a beleaguered wife, Bill Nighy as an irreverent aging rock star, Colin Firth as a lonely writer, and Liam Neeson, as a widowed father with the most angelic-looking cute kid. 

I’m sure we saw it when it was released, but I’d forgotten that it takes place in London leading up to Christmas, making it appropriate for November viewing.  It’s funny, inane, irreverent, romantic, poignant, and ultimately, feelgood viewing.  But not for kids.  You will also be hearing “Love is All Around” in your head for hours at least.  

Watching it, I was transported to another time and place.  It felt cathartic.  Recommended if you need to escape!

RITTENHOUSE SQUARE AND BEYOND

Sundial sculpture at entrance, Rittenhouse Square
Fall morning, Rittenhouse Square

Last week we headed north for a family event and had a short time in Philadelphia.  For us, this was a rediscovery of Center City and a reappreciation of how much we liked our time working there and living in nearby Swarthmore.  

We stayed close to Rittenhouse Square and spent several hours in the park soaking up the vibe, observing Halloween partygoers and dog walkers, and admiring the fall foliage.  Having lived in Florida for ten years, I delighted in autumn’s color spectrum, from muted to vivid.  At the park’s entrance corner is the Evelyn Taylor Memorial Sundial by Beatrice Fenton, sited in 1947.

This park has existed since the late 17th century and was one of five open space parks planned by William Penn. From the late 19th century into the early 20th, several wealthy families lived around the square including John Wanamaker of department store fame. Rittenhouse Square has an intimacy not found in Manhattan’s Washington Square. Here, the paths between facing benches are narrower and you feel closer to those nearby.

Being in Center City meant that a stop at our favorite coffee shop was essential. Even I, not a regular coffee drinker, think this coffee is supremely good. La Colombe. We got our fix with cappuccinos and then purchased two bags of beans to take home.

The weather was gloriously warm initially and then there was a cold spell, but we walked and walked traversing familiar streets and checking in on old haunts.  

Curtis Institute of Music
Crowds in Reading Terminal Market

We have fond memories of when violinist Leila Josefowicz was a student at Curtis. We routinely got to hear her play before a concert tour and hosted her and her family for several Thanksgiving dinners.  This year, the Curtis Institute of Music is celebrating its 100thanniversary.

We checked out the famous LOVE sculpture, now mounted on a frame for easier photos, and watched families see themselves on screen in faraway places in Philadelphia’s new video portal, Bridge to a United Planet.  

My friend Hilda and I would occasionally meet for lunch at Reading Terminal Market, a crowded and wonderful assortment of ethnic food stands, produce markets, and meat and fish counters.  Although the Reading Terminal Station is now Jefferson Station, the market retains its Reading name.  We threaded our way through the throngs on a busy Saturday, inhaling smells of baking bread and garlicky pizzas and just plain salivating at all that was on offer.  

Continuing our exploration, we strolled past Independence National Park and made our way to Washington Square and the former home of Curtis Publishing.  Washington Square is quiet and just enough removed from the Center City bustle to be peaceful.  

We walked back up to Rittenhouse Square through the Thomas Jefferson University campus.  Silhouettes of the man hang above the street, and he looks jaunty with a bit of a swagger in a life-size statute. 

Jefferson – Lloyd Lillie (1987 cast)

DINING IN THE CITY OF LOVE & PRINCETON

While in Center City, the Chief Penguin and I enjoyed some great food at restaurants all new to us.

Gran Caffe L’Aquila

This combo of Italian restaurant, café, and shop, Gran Caffe L’Aquila, is on Chestnut Street.  We liked it so much after our first night in town that we returned for our last dinner.  We sat outside on Halloween in one of their sidewalk private dining spaces.  I ordered and loved the agnolotti filled with meat and veggies in a butter sage sauce, topped with truffle gelato.  It may sound heavy, but it was marvelously light.  C.P. indulged in his favorite veal saltimbocca and pronounced it the best ever!  

On our return visit, we ordered the same entrees (yes!) and added flash fried artichokes and the house salad with endive and radicchio to start.  Yum!

Ambrosia

Located just a few steps from Schuylkill River Park on 24th Street, Ambrosia offers outside dining in cubbies as well as inside tables.  C.P. had the crispy gnocchi with squash and pancetta while I found my crispy skin salmon with arugula perfectly done.  Thanks to our friend Ed for introducing us here.

The Love

It’s somehow right that the City of Brotherly Love has a restaurant named The Love.  It’s near Rittenhouse Square and is wildly popular.  The menu features American cuisine, and fried chicken is a specialty.  In the opinion of two diners, the chicken was fabulous and delicious!  My shrimp & scallop “cacio e pepe” was equally satisfying.  The hush puppies with a bit of Aleppo pepper hit the mark too. 

The Dandelion

In large cities like Philadelphia and New York, restaurants serve brunch, not lunch, on Saturdays and Sundays. I’ve never been a brunch person, so I look for menus that include a few non-egg, non-breakfast items. Fortunately, The Dandelion, a kind of upscale British pub, serves salads and sandwiches in addition to omelets and eggs Benedict.  We sampled the Waldorf salad and the chicken paillard salad along with fish and chips and enjoyed our meal.  In addition to downstairs seating, there is a fairly large upstairs dining room that was full, but not cheek by jowl.  

Winberie’s in Princeton

I’d call Winberie’s in Palmer Square an upscale casual place.  We were part of a large group for dinner where we were bowled over by what we ordered.  The Chief Penguin, a connoisseur of chicken pot pies, ordered theirs and couldn’t stop exclaiming how good it was–from the flaky crust to the amount of tasty chicken inside.  I tried the shrimp and penne Genovese which was delicious and included spinach, pine nuts, and red chili flakes.  

The menu also offers the usual range of burgers, salads, along with fish, and plenty of veggie options. 

Note: All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved) except for the movie image.