Sabi Saturday, Week 17

Sabi Saturday, Week 17

Sabi Saturday Linkup Week 17

This is the first Sabi Saturday of 2020. A little late but restarting Sabi Saturday.

Show how you love, treasure, reuse or creatively transform things that may be a bit worn but nevertheless is still useful/beautiful and have character or history.

As you know while I post on Saturdays, the blog hop is open for the whole week so feel free to share any time during the week. Add your link at the bottom of the post. I do moderate the links to avoid spam so it may take up to 24 hours for the link to show.

  • the vintage/antique items handed down or we “rescue” from garage sales and thrift stores so they don’t end up in a trash bin
  • items we’ve upcycled instead of throwing them away
  • items we’ve repaired in a transformative way to make them more beautiful or cooler than before
  • process or tutorials on how we upcycled or repaired something to make something new, more beautiful, or cooler

Sabi Saturday Linkup Week 16 Roundup

First the roundup from Week 16 posted the week of June 29th, 2019:

Crystal and Daisy Mae’s Photo-Blogging Site : Crystal displayed the vintage Japanese jewelry box that she inherited from her Aunt Kay Dee.

teleportingweena showed a puppydog keepsake her aunt gave her grandmother.

Cactus Catz shared a book Cattastic Crafts: DIY Project for Cats and Cat People by Mariko Ishikawa and shared the catnip mouse that she made following one of the projects in the book. (note: I am an Amazon.  See Amazon affiliate disclosure in the sidebar.)

This week’s my Sabi Saturday contribution:

One of my favorite things to do is to check the “for sale” books at the library. The books benefit the library which is a plus and hopefully it will allow them to buy more books.  I found an awesome book Julia’s Cats: Julia Child’s Life in the Company of Cats by Patricia Barey and Therese Burson. Did you know Julia Child adored cats?

It all started in Paris.  In 1948, just after WWII, Julia and Paul Child moved to Paris. While he worked at the embassy, Julia searched for an apartment and found one that came complete with a housekeeper and mice.  This is how Julia’s love of cats began:

(page 15-17) “Jeanne lifted the [basket’s] lid, and a black-and-mud-colored ball of fur emerged.  Two glittering green eyes traveled up and up and up until they met Julia’s.  A pussycat!  It was love at first sight.

Jeanne patiently explained that French housewives relied on cats to control the mice, and they usually just called them Minou (Pussy). She shrugged and left Julia gazing at her adorable new mousetrap. The cat stared back but couldn’t be coaxed from the basket. When Julia finally gave up and went to stir her simmering stockpot, the kitty’s curiosity took over, and it leaped to a shelf above the stove and crouched next to a mixing bowl.

When Paul returned from the embassy for lunch, as he did most days, they embraced as if they’d been apart for months, not a few hours.  Julia gleefully introduced him to Minou, the purrrrfect answer to their mouse-control problem.  Paul studied the newcomer carefully and delivered some interesting news — Monsieur Pussycat was a mademoiselle.  Without missing a beat, Julia rechristened her “Minette” and set two steaming bowls of soup on the table.

She had been bending over her stove all morning trying to duplicate the velvety mushroom soup they had devoured at their favorite restaurant the night before. She pulled a baguette from Paul’s raincoat pocket, tore the crusty loaf into chunks, and sliced big wedges of strong-smelling Roquefort. She filled two tumblers from an open bottle of red wine and joined Paul at the table, fretting about the potage. It smelled scrumptious, but was full of lumps. Maybe it was the roux — was it hot broth added to flour paste, or the other way around? Paul took a spoonful, paused, then let his diplomatic training kick into gear.  Lumpy, but still very tasty. He kissed her hand and told her not to worry so much.  Julia vowed to try again even if it took all afternoon.  Paul, sensing another chance to show husbandly support, volunteered to be her guinea pig and taste very batch.

From her safe perch, the hungry cat watched and waited.  Finally, she bounded to the floor and onto Paul’s lap.  From under the table’s edge, her nose rested just inches from his bowl and the crumbled cheese on the plate.  With one flick of her paw, she scooped a chunk into her mouth, then eyeed the bowl of soup.

Julia took the hint, spooned some soup into a saucer, and set it on the floor.  She watched anxiously, worried that even a starving cat might find her soup wanting.  At first Minette ignored the soup, seeming content on Paul’s lap.  Suddenly she slid to the floor, dipped a delicate paw into the soup, and raised a lump to her mouth, chewed deliberately, then lapped the saucer until it gleamed.  Paul marveled at Minette’s elegant French airs while Julia refilled the saucer — and their bowls.  A drowsy pussycat studied her reflection in the empty dish, then rested her head on Julia’s large red leather shoe as the murmuring voices lulled her to sleep.

The mice scurrying under the sink had little to fear — Minette had other menu options.”

I adored this story of how Julia adopted her first cat.  So cute!  Later when she became famous and between traveling and doing cooking shows to introduce french cooking to American and changing how America cooked, it became difficult for her to have a cat but her kitchens always had cat pictures and magnets. When she retired, despite the retirement community having the policy of “no pets”, Julia had her final cat, a cute black cat with white paws and a white streak on it’s nose.  It’s name?  Minou, of course.

The book is short, only 137 pages, but I really enjoyed Julia Child’s biography contextualized by her relationship with cats. The book is dotted with the many cats that enriched Julia’s life. It’s a fun read.

 

Linking up

You can choose to do a pingback or add your link in the Mr. Linkys. Also feel free to leave a link in comments. The advantage to Mr. Linkys is that it can feature an image from your post. Please tag your post Sabi Saturday.

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Give it a few minutes to do the script and resize the image and then refresh your window. You should see your link. Be aware if you’ve entered a url in a previous Mister Linkys on anybody’s blog, not just mine, it will probably automatically propagate the fields with your previous entry. Remember to change the url if you’re not doing the same post.

9 Replies to “Sabi Saturday, Week 17”

    1. It is a lovely book but then I love cats (obviously, lol). Thank you so much for joining Sabi Saturday. It’s so cool that your brother made you a bench. It’s a great way to upcycle old wood. That’s a skill I’d like to pick up. Happy belated New Years!

  1. I am so glad you are doing Sabi Saturday again. I love that book. I always joke that my Penny is Minette reincarnated because she loves to help cook.

    1. You read the book too? I love the stories like Minette’s reserved seating at Julia’s cooking school. Your Penny is a smart cat. Helping to cook means sometimes you get to be a taster to make sure everything is going well. It’s an important job.

  2. Fascinating MNL! We had a black and white cat named Minou. A friend who was from Cajun country called cats “Minou” so we decided to use that name for one of our kitties!

    1. that’s really cool. since cajuns have french ancestors who came from France from the 1800s or before, it just goes to show that that custom of naming cats “Minou” goes back a long time.

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