Today’s image: Bridge over the Danube.
Coffee time – the suspended hour that is mine. Before the day starts with its multiple necessities, before Abuelo wanders through, this is my time.
Coffee time is coffee-centred, and starts with a Spong, one of my antique grinders. Pop in the beans, turn the handle, listen to the sound of a 100 year old mill.
A history of enterprise emanates from the cast iron that is busy chewing up the roasted granos, and these coffee mills, especially the London models, have become collectors’ items.
To me they are as most everything in my life – a balance of function and form, practicality and aesthetic appeal.
The fresh grounds go straight into an example of this – La Principesa, the Italian coffee maker, that holds the distinction of being the only female in my kitchen.
Her cosmopolitan companions are Pantonio, the tortilla pan – español, of course; Emile, the French bread cloche; and these quintessentially English Spongs. All are visually pleasing, but they are here to work.
I love the whole routine of coffee in the mornings, the grinding of the beans, the smell and sound and the quiet – That time spent before the chaos. Richard and I have rooibos with vanilla tea at night. I always make it in a proper English teapot with proper tea cups and saucers. We sit upstairs in our room (We have a wingback chairs up there) and we have tea and just talk with the children or just with each other. It is a welcome routine to end the day!
The Sprong’s – goodness, I could collect things like this forever – the form function and history! All of my favorite things 🙂 I am always on the look out and of course we have found some gigantic ones over here that were once used for grain – you would love them!
I love those big American mills with the side wheels. When I get the foto albums going, I’ll put up the pic of Beccs dwarfed by one.