Connecting the Dots…

A little while ago, we happened onto a bit of happy news. It was an interview with San Francisco illustrator Wendy MacNaughton. She was talking about her #draw together project–free drawing lessons for children who are sheltering and educating at home. She presents these live every weekday at 10 a.m. PST at wendymac on Instagram. Last week, we decided to be kids and tuned in.

Wow! Did we have fun–drawing “super heroes” for a week and this week enjoying “Wild Card Week” where audience participants send in their requests for what they would like to draw. Think flamingos, rainbow hot air balloons, ice cream cones, Narwhales, and more. We are learning and having a good ole time in the midst of “it all.”

Then… one evening soon after our introduction to Wendy MacNaughton, we needed another upper so we watched the Netflix series called Salt Fat Acid Heat based on the book by the same name by chef Samin Nosrat. In one of the episodes, a woman named Wendy walked onto the set. Yes, you guessed it… it was the same Wendy who, as it turned out, was the book’s illustrator!

…I immediately got the book off the shelf.   It is one hefty, packed, educational foray into “the elements of good cooking.” I have much to learn. It is now my go-to-bedside-reading book as it contains lots of great content that can be read in short bits. I am enjoying the text, the illustrations, the recipes. And I’ve already made some coffee granita from the recipe section and it was delightful.

…Then I discovered I already have two other books by Wendy. One she wrote and illustrated about San Francisco–Meanwhile in San Francisco: The City in Its Own Words; the other is a board book for adults about wine called The Essential Scratch and Sniff Guide to Becoming a Wine Expert by Richard Betts with Crystal English Sacca and Wendy MacNaughton. This fun book’s subheading is “Wine is a grocery, not a luxury.” My kind of book!                

And that led me to a lovely glass of Pinot Noir…ah, yes, from happy news to art to food to glimpses of my home town to wine…”all’s well that ends well.” And so we hope. Stay safe!