My cup runneth over
More good news. My son's met a girl at university. She's American and so she went home for Christmas, but he's asked if he can bring her home for dinner on Friday.
I know this doesn't seem like much, but when I was ill it was on my list of things I might never get to see, so to me it feels rather wonderful - especially as I live in a house full of men - even the dog is male. Now I'm in agonies about what to cook, and I'm laying frantic plans to clean the house in a week where I have a lot on already.
And I'm ploughing on with these funding bids, it alarms me how easily I slip back into action plan speak. God how I hate it, and yet it's what you have to do if you want the cash!
Other good news is I entered again for the national competition I won the landscape section of last year. I heard yesterday that I have three shots through to the exhibition, two landscape and one close-up of a section of waterfall in a new category on patterns in nature. I really don't think I'll win anything this year as I don't have the same feel about these shots as I did over the one last year - but it's good to know three shots got through on the anonymous judging part of the exercise.
I also want to mention two books I read over the holidays. A friend lent me Miss Garnet's Angel by Salley Vickers. It is set in Venice and the descriptions of the city and its art and architecture are lovely, not so sure I bought the plot, it is about redemption and forgiveness and I'm too much of an old cynic to buy it.
I also read Gilgamesh by Joan London, an Australian best seller. It is an unusual epic about the Second World War, with "the story unfolding across three continents"
What I liked about it was the characterisations, they are so strong you can hear them breathing. Def. a good read!
I'll catch up with everyone soon, I promise!
I know this doesn't seem like much, but when I was ill it was on my list of things I might never get to see, so to me it feels rather wonderful - especially as I live in a house full of men - even the dog is male. Now I'm in agonies about what to cook, and I'm laying frantic plans to clean the house in a week where I have a lot on already.
And I'm ploughing on with these funding bids, it alarms me how easily I slip back into action plan speak. God how I hate it, and yet it's what you have to do if you want the cash!
Other good news is I entered again for the national competition I won the landscape section of last year. I heard yesterday that I have three shots through to the exhibition, two landscape and one close-up of a section of waterfall in a new category on patterns in nature. I really don't think I'll win anything this year as I don't have the same feel about these shots as I did over the one last year - but it's good to know three shots got through on the anonymous judging part of the exercise.
I also want to mention two books I read over the holidays. A friend lent me Miss Garnet's Angel by Salley Vickers. It is set in Venice and the descriptions of the city and its art and architecture are lovely, not so sure I bought the plot, it is about redemption and forgiveness and I'm too much of an old cynic to buy it.
I also read Gilgamesh by Joan London, an Australian best seller. It is an unusual epic about the Second World War, with "the story unfolding across three continents"
What I liked about it was the characterisations, they are so strong you can hear them breathing. Def. a good read!
I'll catch up with everyone soon, I promise!
posted by apprentice at
11:26 am
7 Comments:
Lovely news all round. It took me years to learn that it is far m ore important to be a relaxed hostess than to have the house immaculate. Have you got a hat yet?
Aw - that's great news about your son - and would be the same, panicking about the meal and the cleaning. She's not going to be looking at your dirt though -she'll likely be panicking about meeting ye!
Gilgamesh sounds like a really interesting book - thanks for the tip. And congrats on going so far already in that comp - that's a nice start to the year!
Blast ! I got ;up at crack of dawn to name my five people for the powerful word award and findyou have it already. Heigh Ho! You deserve it.
I love my d-i-l and future d-i-l (I've yet to meet her in person tho') You're right, we get starved for female company sometimes us mothers of sons.
Good luck tonight - hope it all goes as planned .... meeting the girl, the photo comp etc., etc.!
belle
Oh good luck, I do hope she's nice!
I love all Salley Vickers' books. I care less about the plots than something really elusive and magical about them, and her language and descriptions and how passionately and obscurely erudite she is but wears it lightly, and that she never quite commits herself on the numinous.
'Mr Golightly's Holiday'is my favourite. There's always that moment the first time anyone reads it when it all falls into place and you say 'Ah, that's what it is, I can see it now', a bit like a Rolf Harris painting, if that's not too lowbrow a comparison! then I had to read it allover again to find the clues I'd missed.
And thanks for the recommendation of 'Gilgamesh'.
thanks all. I posted above re the new girlfriend experience.
Lucy I liked the Vickers book, but I think I'm just too much of a cynic to buy that kind of redemption. I was at the doctor's this week about something else that had a read across to my illness. The GP told me I was guilty of catastrophic thinking. However when the sky has already fallen on your head it is hard to trust the sky again. That a bit how I feel about the Vickers book.
She has a lovely style, and where I think she matches Rolf is that her style is big with bold strokes that you have to take on trust. Maybe that's the nature of faith and why I find it hard to swallow.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home