Culinary Muse

Meet the Muse's Husband, Dennis Gray!

He will be at the San Francisco Apple Store tonight at 6 pm giving a presentation. Stop by to see beautiful photographs of vintage automobiles, 2009 Reno Air Races and more and to hear how he put together his website using Apple's One-to-One! 

Transitional Cottons

Yesterday was the first full day of fall. It officially began Tuesday afternoon at 2:11 pm. The heat wave that was predicted for San Francisco never happened thanks to our fog.  But the East Bay, where I grew up, will be in the high 80’s today. Not so unusual. We always get a September heat wave.  Usually around the time kids go back to school and about the time that I have flipped my closet.  That’s when the linen pants and sleeve-less blouses and sandals go to the back of the closet and the wool pants and turtle necks and boots rotate forward. Except for the transitional cottons.  Never heard of ‘transitional cottons’? Neither had I until I was in my early 20’s and met my friend Bonnie.  Bonnie was raised in New York City.  Central Park West to be exact. Bonnie explained that in the 50’s one stopped wearing white and other light colored clothing after Labor Day. You know, summery clothing.  White shoes and matching handbags.  White linen pants and blouses.  Seersucker.  Madras. But what do you transition into if it is still 90 degrees outside?  Yes.  You got it.  TRANSITIONAL COTTONS.  Dark prints, plaids.  Still light in weight but heavy in color.  Cool to wear but still respectful of the change of season.

Does all of this sound just a little silly to you?  Who cares if someone wears white shoes after Labor Day?  Does it really matter in the bigger picture of world hunger and peace? No.  But I like the ritual aspect of this change over.  Summer is over.  Fall is here.  Seasons signal the passing of time. And it keeps me from getting bored with my wardrobe. Tim Gunn, of Project Runway fame, says it best in his book ‘A Guide to Quality, Taste & Style’: ‘Life goes by quickly. We often repeat the same thing day after day: Wake up, work, go to sleep. We humans need variety!... Because technology does a fine job of protecting us from the more extreme vagaries of your environment, you might ask, why not wear voile on Thanksgiving? Well, because then life is one long stretch of endless voile-wearing and, really, who wants that? What about the thrill of pulling out a gorgeous coat when the weather becomes crisp?  Or the lovely lightness of a cotton blouse after a long winter of sweaters? … It gives our world a little puff of that all-important variety and – this cannot be overstated – it means you get a break from some of your clothing, so you do not become desperately tired of everything you own.’  Exactly.

Fall is here...

Did you feel the shift?  The sun at 5:30 last night was low and the light yellow.  And when the alarm went off this morning, the first whiff of cool air through the bedroom window carried the scent of tomatoes cooking at a nearby cannery.  Fall has arrived.  When you are raised in the San Francisco Bay Area you learn to recognize the ever so subtle signs of the seasons changing.  We don’t expect bright orange and yellow leaves to appear. We know that when we hear the crunch of just slightly brown leaves under our feet as we walk to school or smell a certain tomato sweetness in the air that Fall has arrived.