The Baker's Secret

One morning this past week, out of the blue, my husband asked "Why don't you make bagels?"

I happen to love making bread. The entire process from adding yeast to flour, kneading, rising, baking and then listening to the crackling sound after it comes out of the oven is delightful to me.

And what can I say about eating it - who doesn't love fresh bread right from the oven?

So his suggestion wasn't completely out of left field but I haven't attempted bagels in the past. 

He caught me at the right time, on the right day, and I was soon looking up a recipe I remembered seeing. Turns out bagel making is fun and the finished goodies were ready by lunch time and very much traditional chewy bagels.

Coincidentally, I was reading The Baker's Secret last week. This is not a cookbook but rather a novel about a young baker in occupied France during WWII who is tasked with baking twelve baguettes every day for the German officers. She managed, through ingenuity, to stretch her output to fourteen loaves and shared the hidden extra two with individuals in her community to help stave off starvation.

I don't want to give too much away about this wonderful story but the premise is that members of her community began to ask her for items not available: an egg, extra gasoline, tobacco, even a light bulb. She gave thought to each request and, in recognizing that some people have things they don't want or need, she met everyone's' request.

Of course, there is a war going on. Her town (and her own home) is occupied by the Germans so her efforts require stealth and cooperation from others. There is danger and ugliness in war but this book reminded me of what human beings are capable of.

As I read, I couldn't help but draw a parallel from her actions to today's COVID. Life has simplified for most of us (ie I now make greeting cards by hand and Christmas gifts were largely hand made or passed down) and we've learned to share rather than make unnecessary trips to stores. This reminds me that I have much around my house that I don't want or need but there are others in my community who may want or need these things. 

Reading this book has opened my mind in new ways. A new refrain runs in the back of my mind: Do I have something, or can I do something, that might help?

From the darkness of COVID, I see light breaking through.

Oh, and I also learned how to make bagels.

Traffic Congestion

As the weeks of this shut down continue, walking can accomplish much. Rather than my solitary walks, I'm enjoying walks with a friend now and again to hear how her life is going. We try to walk on little-used routes to avoid the new phenomenon I call 'the Sidewalk Dance'. This is the to'ing and fro'ing that happens as you encounter people coming in the opposite direction.  

I actually feel anxiety when I see people coming. In our winter, with three feet of snow on the ground,  a long stretch of sidewalk without driveways or access to the road can make it problematic on how to avoid each other. The anxiety is heightened by the knowledge that we are within miles of many cases of the more highly transmitted variant of COVID. Since many are not routinely wearing masks while out walking, coming within two feet of someone adds way too much tension to what should be a healthy activity.

Today was a different day. As I walked around my neighbourhood, everyone approaching the roads I walked on turned left, walking ahead of me in the same direction I was. I didn't have to do the avoidance tactic once and maintained my place on the sidewalk throughout my walk.

That was when a brainstorm hit me.

How much more pleasant walking would be if we had pedestrian traffic patterns similar to one way streets for our cars. If, for example, every other street running in parallel directions allowed pedestrians to head east and the in between streets had walkers heading west. We might even have times applied to this pattern with the direction changing at busy times (think of multi lane bridges that have middle lanes that change direction depending on time of day).

I understand there are drawbacks to this plan depending on where your house lies in a block. But weren't these the very issues that the earliest city planners had to deal with when planning streets, intersections, crosswalks, streetlights ... Society accepted all of it with only a few quibblers.

This plan might say quite a bit about me. I am an innovative thinker? I enjoy complex problems? I need to live out in the country away from other people?

I'll just put it down to COVID fatigue and stay indoors (at least until the snow melts).

Ok - not really.