Today is the fifth day of blessed sun and warmth! I've spent most of the preceding four days out in the garden (which is so large it's like having a private park), working, dozing, eating, reading and entertaining. Whenever I've been at home, I've wanted to share this bounty of green heaven, so I've had three different groups of friends over. We've lounged on the lawn under the cherry tree eating sausages and ice cream; we've lolled about checking our email before heading inside to watch BBC costume dramas ("A Room with a View" and "Pride and Prejudice"); and we've sat at the little table under the ripening apples chatting far into the night, cups of tea firmly in hand (of course).
I love talking about weather. Some people may think I can't think of anything more interesting when I talk about the weather, but it fascinates me. This must be the inescapable legacy of being from Minnesota, for though I grew up in Arizona, I lived until the age of 9 in St. Paul-Minneapolis and also returned there for college. You may notice that native Minnesotan Garrison Keillor introduces every episode of his Lake Wobegon stories on "A Prairie Home Companion" with a weather update, and I realize that my dad (born way up north in International Falls, MN) does exactly the same thing. And now so do I.
And so the weather in Nottingham the last few days has been lovely, even quite hot at times, although I was surprised to read it hasn't gotten much above 80 degrees so far! It's all relative. I'll be spending the first week of August at New Wine, a Christian conference/camp my church helps run in Somerset, and then the following week renting a holiday cottage with friends in Wales' Gower Peninsula, and this weather has really been encouraging me. However, current forecasts show that the showers and cool temperatures return tomorrow, lasting through my Wales holiday. Rats!
With this in mind, I've just rearranged my schedule for the day. If today is the "last day" of summer, then I want to enjoy it, so I'm pushing my considerable pile of work back for a few hours and have persuaded my housemate Julia to go with me to a nearby lake. While there we'll swim and lay out in the sun and, no doubt, ponder the burning questions of life.
One of these burning questions concerns English society. Why do the Brits leave the soapy water on dishes after they've washed them? I was so surprised my first weekend here, nearly a year ago, when I was helping someone wash up and she handed me a plate covered with soapy water.
"You forgot to rinse," I said, handing it back. She looked at me puzzled and just turned away, so I rinsed the plate and then dried.
But I soon learned that is the norm around here in Nottingham. Is it like this all over England? My casual observation is that 19 out of 20 people do not rinse their dishes of soap after washing them. They say that, when you dry the dishes, the soap gets rubbed off by the tea towel. But what about when the tea towel is covered in soap, or if dishes are left to air dry? As someone who likes to eat organic whenever possible, I find the prospect of consuming more chemical traces than necessary rather disturbing, but I try not to argue about this or press the point. I'm friends with an international married couple (he is Austrian-British and she is Israeli-Arab) and they don't understand, either. In fact, they don't let anyone English wash the dishes at their flat because they don't want soap left on them.
When washing up by myself I rinse my dishes, of course, but when helping others I try to just suck it up and not insult people by insisting dishes be rinsed. I meekly wipe them off, soap and all, with a tea towel. After all, you can't change a whole culture, even if it is a bizarre practice. But the I do rinse all of of my own dishes before using them. Just in case.
I would like to be under that apple tree about now. As for doing dishes, Audrey Anne has been helping me rinse, which I have learned from your blog, is counterculture for those around you. It is quite cute to hear a two-year-old say, "Bubbles all gone, Mommy." And then see her try to load the dish drainer in a haphazard way not understanding the need to set stuff upside down so they can drain away water. Keep washing away your bubbles and any residual grime...and enjoy those lovely days in your garden.