The last few days have been lovely with a bright sun and relatively warm weather, but once that sun goes down, it gets mighty chilly. Yesterday was errand day and Gracie and I were out and about for a couple of hours. I stopped at Hart Farm for some small pumpkins and ended up buying cherry tomatoes, purple and fingerling potatoes, onion jam and honey crisp apples. I couldn’t resist.

On the back of my cellar door is a spice rack. I had it built to fit the width of the door when my spices outgrew their kitchen cabinet. Every time I open that door to go down cellar I catch a whiff of the most amazing aroma, a sweet combination of herbs and spices. I have all the common herbs and spices and some exotic ones, mostly for Indian and Moroccan foods. They are, of course, arranged alphabetically to make it easier to find them. On the inside of a kitchen cabinet door is stapled a typed list of all the rack’s contents. I made the list when I found several cinnamon, cream of tartar and peppercorn jars. I also made the list because I am anal about lists.

My making lists started innocently enough. When I worked, with little free time during the week, I needed to cram everything into week-ends, all the chores and errands, so I made a list. It was one list, one all-encompassing list, until that fateful Thanksgiving dinner when I forgot to bring some food to the table. It was a Waldorf salad left it in the back of the fridge. A flow chart came out of that experience. It starts a day or two before the event and ends with the cooking times: in and out. I was unwittingly becoming a list maker.

One year I forgot a traditional stocking stuffer I always gave my mother, a new linen calendar for the kitchen. She mentioned it, and the day after Christmas I bought her one. I decided then to keep a Christmas gift list of all I’ve bought and the traditional gifts I need to get.

As I grew older, I forgot stuff so I kept a list of groceries, appointments and on and on. Lists tend to beget lists, and I was hooked on making lists. Post-it notes are my friends. I have them in a variety of colors, and they hang off the car dashboard, the computer monitor and the lamp shade.They are but the tip of the iceberg. I am a list maker.