The World Is So Full of a Number of Things . . .

We have a sweet, small garden. A few days ago, our mali left four baby eggplant at the kitchen door. They were so shiny and beautiful, I couldn't bear to cook them. The next day, he plucked this little pumpkin (its vine had twined itself round some low-lying branch of our lichee tree and had continued climbing until it was high off the ground where it then hung, incongruous and unlikely and even more attractive as a result) and left that at the door too.

Together with a few marigolds from the front yard and a collection of coleus leaves from a pot in the verandah: what a centerpiece for the dining table! What lucky people we are! And dinner just waiting for us to break down and prepare. . .