Flying home to minestrone

Eastside Road, June 23, 2011—

HOME AGAIN, AFTER a month away, a month and then some. Flying Virgin Atlantic you are constantly being offered food, even in economy class; and the beer and wine are on the house. As airplane food goes, it isn't bad: but my beef stew with rice wasn't a patch on the provender of the previous two days. Oh well: you don't get in an airplane for the delights of the table.

ONCE HOME, THOUGH,dinner was waiting for us at the neighbor's — it doesn't hurt that the neighbor is our daughter — in the form of a minestrone soup, garlic-rubbed toast nicely damped with good olive oil, and a bottle of red wine. Soup: just what one craves most at the end of an unsettling day. Thanks, T.!