Written by We’ve reached the end of yet another month and I DO hope you’ll join us for our October Art Challenge coming up next! For our final September prompt of “Supper”, I thought of spending summers on my grandparent’s farm. There, we had a big breakfast and then in the early afternoon, we’d all enjoy a big dinner. It was never called lunch. Supper was later in the evening and was something small and simple as all of the primary meals had already been cooked and served. My own choice was always a bowl of corn flakes, which seems rather meager for the evening, but I was still quite full from my midday dinner and so it was all I really needed. Looking back, I remember my grandmother getting me a bowl of corn flakes, but I don’t actually remember her eating anything at all for supper. I’m sure she must have had a snack of some kind. But, I would just sit alone in the little kitchen and have my bowl of corn flakes and then peruse all of her Reader’s Digest books before getting sleepy and heading off to bed. It’s one of my favorite childhood memories.
Indeed, I enjoyed every moment when I would visit the farm, but the quiet moment at the end was particularly lovely. To be honest, I rarely had corn flakes anywhere else. It was something special that I reserved for those moments with her. That moment when my grandmother would be sure I had everything I needed before going off to do her own evening routines. Then the next moment when I would climb into bed and dream about the day I just had. I still remember the smell of the quilts since they were hand-washed and hung outside to dry. Something about the outdoors gave them a natural smell combined with whatever little touch of fragrance was used that made it feel like curling up in the lap of nature herself. I was miles and miles from the city that was my everyday world, yet it always felt like home. I guess that’s what happens whenever you spend time with the people you love most. Home is just a place, after all, it’s really the moments shared with loved ones that makes a place special.
And now, in my own little home, I don’t get corn flakes for supper anymore. Actually, the evening dinner is the main meal and breakfast and lunch are rather meager. I don’t mind this at all, of course, since Philippe is quite the chef and the dinner is always incredibly tasty if not totally spectacular. The latter happens when he gets excited about trying something new, then plates his creation like a five star restaurant, and I’m left feeling elated and perfectly spoiled. Tonight, I think we’re just having leftovers though as he made up a sort of Italian chili that’s one of my new favorites. Though I can’t cook, I ask him about all of the ingredients so I can be sure to sneak them onto our grocery order for the week. So, yes, things have changed a bit since I was a kid when it comes to meals. But the love that I feel each night before heading off to bed, is just as warm and wonderful as that moment from days gone by, when I would have supper on the farm.
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About the DoodlewashDa Vinci Paint Co.: Yellow Ochre, Quinacridone Red, Cobalt Turquoise, Ultramarine (Green Shade), Terra Cotta, and Indigo. Lamy Al-Star Safari Fountain Pen with black ink in an A5 Hahnemühle Watercolour Book. Want to purchase a print of this doodlewash? Want to purchase a print of this doodlewash? Send me a note with a link to this post, and I’ll add it to my shop! |
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My father always dreamed of buying a farm and raising Hereford cattle. It would have been wonderful to have a farm, but we would laugh at him, because there is no way he’d be able to raise animals and slaughter them for meat. He’d make pets of them all. Even if he sold them to someone else to do the deed, it would have broken his heart.
Aww… your father sounds like I would be if I ever had a farm. It would just be the world’s largest pet shop indeed! 😃💕
Fantastic Charlie! We grew up calling the evening meal supper. Dinner was a special meal and was usually at noon time. Sunday dinner, Thanksgiving dinner, etc. The rain came, more than an inch and a half of need moisture! And I got to play in my studio!
Thanks so much, Karen! 😃💕 Yeah, we always called it dinner when it was on a holiday, even at home. Yay for rain and playing in your studio!
Hey Charlie those meece look so placid and happy. Yes that is how a lot of nursing homes do it too, good breakfast, main meal at lunchtime, and a little repast for supper/dinner. So many nursing home residents get up from table and go to bed and food digesting in the stomach is not what should happen while they are sleeping. Digestion is meant to happen while we move and live and have our being. Corn flakes are good especially with bananas — and then two hours later you have toast and cheese. My new system. Country living is great however I like to be able to access things and places so I live in a small city to which I refer as a small town since I know what the major cities are like and this is not.
Wonderful Doodlewash and memory, Charlie!!
Thanks so much, Mary! 😃💕 And thanks for the awesome prompts this month! They were a blast to DO!
Glad that you had fun with the prompts. Thanks for the opportunity to put the list together; it was fun!
Thanks so much! 😃💕 Yeah, I really think that tapering off our food intake is probably the best way to do things for any age. And corn flakes and bananas is sooooo yummy! I love that as well. My own city felt more like a small town until this past decade. Now it’s more one of the major cities and Philippe and I are craving that small town feel again!
Our evening meal was supper…and it depended on how much or how little my grandmother wanted to cook that night..Your painting is lovely and has me wishing for days past…when life seemed simpler and happier with out a lot of chaos and confusion. Thanks for the painting and a lovely memory!
Thanks so much, Priscilla! 😃💕 Yay for those days! My mother says she’s not been a fan of this century so far. She misses the last one. I think I have to agree!
My friend who lives next door have a friendly argument going as to whether the evening meal is dinner or supper. I’m in the dinner camp because that’s what we called it as I was coming up she’s a farm girl and they called it supper. The thing is, here in Wisconsin we are famous for our Supper Clubs. Dad would say anyone want to go out for dinner? And we’d end up at a supper club somewhere. Especially for Friday fish. Yum!!
Oh, we did Friday fish as well! That was always a yummy time indeed. Yeah, I think the whole supper/dinner thing just got happily confused along the way! As long as there’s good food, though, count me in! 😃💕
What beautiful memories, Charlie. So cherished and sweet. I didn’t have grandparents so I never experienced anything sweet like that. My mother was raised by her aunt, Tia Aurora. She came from Mexico to be with my mother for the delivery. She was the first to see me (my father was out finding money to pay the hospital) and she was the one who named me. She was always nice to me, but she lived in Mexico.
Smell is so good at bringing back memories. How wonderful to remember your grandparents so lovingly. You are the man that you are today because of those moments with them. 💜 Cute mice.
Thanks so much, Marisela! 😃💕Aww your Aunt sounds lovely and that’s sweet that she gave you your name! Indeed, my grandparents were a bit part of who I became today. I miss them dearly!
Delightful story, Charlie! I wish I knew my grandparents. We came to America when I was a toddler. My older siblings shared stories about them, though. My paternal grandfather had a fishing pond by their small home by the sea, as well as a sugar cane field. I remember the secure feeling I had when I smelled orange blossoms and my sister said a particular jasmine flower called Pīkake that grew outside my nursery window in the Philippines smelled very similar. So, I’ve planted this same jasmine vine in my back yard. I agree, some scents bring back wonderful memories, a sensory connection with our pasts.
Thanks so much, Kathy! 😃💕 Aww I adore that you planted that same jasmine! What a wonderful thing indeed to connect you to your past. Scents are so wonderful for memories!
Great doodle,Charlie.
Thanks so much, Gary! 😃💕
This is so darling. Look at that kiddo, he is so anticipating that bowl of cereal. I think supper is a midwestern term. It is not a word you hear out hear much in the west, along with bubblers. I haven’t thought about that in a long time.
Thanks so much, Lori! 😃💕 Yeah, supper is certainly a midwestern farm term. Many of my friends here in the city as a kid hadn’t heard of it either!
Adorable.
Thanks so much, Laura! 😃💕
Hello Charlie,
That is such a sweet doodlewash, I blew kisses at it. It looks almost straight out of Brambly Hedge. And I love your childhood memories of summers spent at your grandparents’ farm. I specially liked the fresh smelling quilt bit. Since you like folklore and little cultural trivia, here’s something your post reminded me of. In India (in decades past), old women never threw out their old faded cotton sarees. Those old sarees would be very soft and every woman saved them for the day she would become a grandmother. Then a faded saree would be sewn into a soft blankie (stuffed with cotton or simply layered with more old fabric) for the new baby, the logic being that the fabric held the feel of a grandmother’s warm love. I still treasure mine. 🙂 The custom is so old it is still considered good luck to gift a new baby a blankie of this sort. And cornflakes for supper sound super!
Love,
Mugdha
Aww thanks so much, Mugdha! 😃💕 Love that you blew kisses at this one! Oh my goodness!! I adore that traditional with the saree! What a beautiful way to keep your grandmother’s love close to you. That’s beautiful!