Vodka Drinks: Simple, Clean, and Clear

Spring is moving quickly toward summer at the Villa, and a preference is seen in the Garden for drinks that are as clean and refreshing as the breeze. This is no time for cloyingly sweet mixes or anything that will give you a headache the next day!

That isn’t to say that care shouldn’t be taken, or consideration not given, to how these things are made. And that isn’t to say that it’s a difficult thing, just that some simple guidelines can make a simple pleasure even better.

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Sonnets From the Portuguese XIV

If thou must love me, let it be for nought
Except for love’s sake only. Do not say
‘I love her for her smile–her look–her way
Of speaking gently,–for a trick of thought
That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day’–
For these things in themselves, Beloved, may
Be changed, or change for thee,–and love, so wrought,
May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pity’s wiping my cheeks dry,–
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby !
But love me for love’s sake, that evermore
Thou mayst love on, through love’s eternity.

 

(Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

Body, Remember

Let’s have some more Cavafy, shall we? His words come across so excellently in English, one must wonder how beautiful they must be in their native Greek! It’s enough to make a gardener want to learn another language.

You’ll often find this as “Body, Remember” or “Remember, Body” depending on the translation, but I’m pretty sure the correct title is this one:

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