One Day in an Old Kitchen

The kitchen is the heart, the hub, the only big room in the house. In the room next to it are the stalls where the horses stand, their warm animal noises comforting on the days when the mistral fills the air with a whirl-wind of dust, dead leaves & grapes. The north wall is blind against this fierce wind but it still manages sometimes to wrench the shutters from south-facing windows & blow the lace curtains flat against the ceiling. Fortunately the mistral does not blow all year round. In summer it is only a rustle of dried herbs over the red tiled floor.