Wednesday 29th April - Sound, and Noise

This morning was sparkling star to the day. As the sun rises over the front of the house, the light travels down slowly from the tops of the trees at the bottom of the garden to the roots, and then up towards the back of the house by the afternoon.

At about 8 am I opened the back door and looked out, and was literally dazzled by the combination of bright blue sky and vivid green leaves all flickering in the fresh sharp breeze. From a tree in another garden a little further along there was the most tremendous noise. Several dozen starlings were jostling and bustling about, all continuously commenting on everything.   

They kept up this racket - I couldn't possibly call it birdsong - all day. I've just discovered that while a flock of starlings in flight is a 'murmuration', another collective noun is a 'chattering' of starlings.

I watched the starlings for a little while later in the day. I think it was a 'first flight' day for this year's broods, as the birds were making longer flights between the fences separating the gardens. Perhaps the starlings weren't arguing, but doing the equivalent of shouting 'watch me!' 'Did you see that?' 'Look, I'm going to the next tree!' and so on to each other, like excited children on a climbing frame.

.......

Now follows a rant about background music.....

...

I'm slowly reading Sara Maitland's book 'On Silence' which is about her searching for, and investigations about silence. I suspect that true silence is impossible to find, except in carefully, scientifically constructed chambers. She describes a lot of her experiences of solitude, a different thing altogether. I think the nearest we can get to silence in normal life is the reduction, maybe elimination of what I think of as deliberately added extra noise. 

Now, if you wanted some background music while you read my rantings, how about Elgar, Chanson du matin? Or just skip the rant and go straight to the music?

                 

TV programmes, I'm looking at you... I've given up watching favourites like 'The Repair Shop', and others such as 'The Great British Bakeoff' and 'Masterchef' are on notice. They have incessant background music - no, all it 'muzak'. 

Are they mending clocks? Cue tick-tock style music. Cut to person mending a teddy bear and we abruptly switch to a music box waltz. Here's someone mending a military cap and guess what, our ears and brain now have to assimilate a brass band march, faded down during the voice over, increased in volume while the presenter takes a breath and faded down for the next sentence.

Cooking - there are separate jingles for announcing the challenge, for beginning to cook, for approaching the judging time, for standing waiting for the verdict... you don't have to watch to know exactly what's happening.

I've nearly reached the end of this rant - I was dismayed to hear background music exploding into the short gaps between items in the radio programme about statistics in the news called 'More or Less'. Totally unnecessary.     

And finally; 'The Enchanted April' by Elizabeth von Armin is being seralised on the radio at the moment. It's such a lovely, lovely book. I've read it twice, and I'm enjoying the episode on the radio, but, but, but... as the reader reads the description of Lottie's first morning waking up in the castle in Italy, there is also a gorgeous piece of violin music, which exactly fits the mood and description. Except that I cannot concentrate on the words, and build the picture in my mind, and listen to the music all at the same time. My castle and the terraced gardens and view all crumbled to dust... still, I had the music to listen to!

....

Monday 27th April - in the garden all day

 It has been another lovely sunny day. I even took off my cardigan! We were both outside all day, having meetings...

Our architect came over, and we sat outside in the dappled shade of the apple tree at the bottom of the garden to go over plans and next steps. At the same time the building company's surveyor was doing the very detailed measurements which will provide the very detailed plans for the groundworks. He had set up his 'workstation' on the patio table up near the house. BB set up the parasol for him as the sun was now properly sunny.

Having both architect and surveyor at the same time proved a good move as they could settle a lot of questions between them straight away. Then fence between us and our neighbours gas not yet been replaced after their similar extension was done last summer.  We get on very well, and we had permission to nip through and check on how various details such as manhole covers and drains were dealt with, which the surveyor found helpful.

They left shortly after 3, and we had lunch - yes, lunch! - at about quarter past! I hadn't managed to get it ready for us to eat before they turned up just before 1pm. My, but we were hungry!  I'd already cooked the sausages, and defrosted some chunky vegetable and tomato sauce, so I nipped into the kitchen to put plates into the oven to heat and make a start on cooking pasta while they were packing up their bags. It didn't take long, and we sat outside in the shade of the parasol to eat.

And then it was supper time... or would have been... but the day was so scrambled. We had a snack much later.

Three events, then.

A shower, and two meetings. And a lot of fresh air.

Dvorăk, Sillouettes op8 no 11 in A major. Played by Claudio Columbo.

Sunday 26th April - what a beautiful day...

In the garden after lunch; 

I'm trying to avoid what I think of as 'work' on Sundays... that's roughly defined as 'anything I don't want to do, that doesn't need to be done today'. It's working well so far. 

After lunch (salmon en papilotte cooked in the air fryer with boiled potatoes tossed in a little butter, and spinach, followed by banana custard, should you be interested) I took my coffee and knitting into the garden and sat on the bench for nearly an hour. The chuntering of the oxygen concentrator was muted to a background rumble so it felt closer to silence than it does indoors. Instead I could hear the little solar fountain, and birdsong, and the clap of pigeon wings as they flopped onto a branch. 

It was almost as if I could hear the whole garden relaxing, expanded, growing. It felt as though if I listened carefully enough I would hear the leaves growing, and the sound of the ants and beetles scurrying across the patio.

Here's another prayer from the Angela Ashwin book of 1000 prayers from our last home-group meeting;

I hope you have a good week.

Saturday 25th April - three events per day

 Aiming to schedule just three events per day is working fairly well. Also, recognising that a day of action may well require an easy following day is helpful. 

So Thursday - having a shower, a chatty social/piano lesson zoom, and home-group zoom were the three events.

Quite a lot of knitting and thinking about the cardigan too; deciding which ball of yarn to use where to spread the colours to best effect, and thinking about how to manage the sleeves and ribbing, as I'm using a thinner yarn so have to calculate how many stitches I'll be needing.

So Friday was meant to be a gentle day, and so it was. Just one event, an afternoon outing; our little home-group zoom, just the five of us, met for a communion service followed by tea and cake in the garden of the of the group.

We sat at a table in a shady corner with a trickling fountain nearby, surrounded by trees, plants, birds. We said the familiar prayers and shared bread and wine. It was such special time; for many reasons this was only the third or fourth time I have been able to receive communion since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. 

We were all given a little sprig of the olive tree to take home as a memento

Now it's Saturday afternoon. I spent the morning going through some of paperwork from last year, shredding, recycling and throwing out things I (hope I) no longer need from dealing with probate and all the other stuff. Don't worry, I kept all the financial files!

This all started because I wanted to try and clear my little work table. BB's been given a Book Nook model to make up, so he needs the space on the dining room table, which meant tidying my side, which meant making space for more files on my bookshelves, which meant I was precipitated into a mega sort out. Long overdue, and well worth doing.

I never did get to sit at my desk today after all that!

Sussex in April, in Spring, is so quintessentially English; so here is Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis 

Wednesday 23rd April - Carrots. Wedding Ring. etc

 

Batch cooking has happened. A crock-pot full of carrot soup made about 6 portions for suppers, and a tray of minced beef, vegetables and beans made another 8 portions for lunches. The freezer is now bulging; we'll have to do a freezer inventory soon.

BB walked into town yesterday to the jewellers, and left his ring with them. They are going to cut a chunk out of it, so hopefully we've played the last game of 'hunt the wedding ring'.

I'm knitting along my experimental cardigan. So far I've finished three of the five strips that will make the back. Hooray, hooray! I ordered another ball of Sirdar Jewelspun chunky in what I hoped would be a toning shade, and a slightly shorter set of 6.5mm needles. The yarn is perfect, and the new needles are So Much Better. 

I'm pulling the yarn from the centre of the current ball, and all was going well until this happened;

Instead of a length of yarn I pulled out a tangled knot! (Looking too much like intestines for my liking) 

I just had to practise patience as I unravelled it. Then, of course I was left with yards of wool... nothing for it but to knit and knit until it was tidied up into several dozen rows of mock rib!

Tuesday 21st April - hunt the...

 This was one of my favourite books;

When I was little, Parties had already begun to change. Girls had party dresses, but I'm not sure the boys wore ties. 

We did play all the party games; oranges and lemons, blind man's buff, and hunt the thimble;

It took me a surprisingly long time to spot the thimble in the picture.

......

So what's this bit of nostalgia all about? Well, it's becoming a bit of a habit; BB unpacks the grocery delivery, comes back into the sitting room and then suddenly stops an announces 'I've lost my wedding ring again'.

After an anxious half hour we found it in the vegetable drawer in the fridge. His ring seems to have developed a bit of an affinity for potatoes. 

.....

And breathe.

Monday 20th April - rush hour(s) at the laptop

 Today everything I read at the beginning of the day was encouraging me to stop procrastinating and get going on my task list; 

'One step at a time'

'Getting it done was a lot easier than not doing it at all'

and so on.

So I powered up my laptop and submitted reprar prescription requests, fired off email left right and centre, printed off and filed documents as well as saving them from email attachments to folders in my computer, making phone calls, leaving messages, placing the grocery order (oh, did I order yeast? I'd better check).

A friend came round unexpectedly; I nade tea, and she carried the tray while I got an oxygen cylinder and we went and sat in the sun under the apple blossom and caught up on all our news...

It felt MAGNIFICENT!!!

After lunch I thought I'd walk round, yes, walk! to the corner shop post office to extract some money and post a letter...

But I fizzled out, did some knitting, read some of my book... 

This piano piece exactly matches the day! You can hear it fizzle out at the end.

.....

Poulenc trois movements perpetuals, no 1, played by Alexandre Tharaud

Sunday 19th April - 'Rainbow Colours of His Peace'

 This is such a lovely book of prayers. 

This is a favourite of mine;

Mikhail Pletnav playing Scriabin Prelude in C major op11 no 1

Friday 17th April - ah... end of the week eeek...

 The day began with an unscheduled magical mystery tour along lanes I'm sure we've never travelled before. The main road was closed, and the back lanes were quite a challenge. I think, I  hope they are dealing with the state of the road surface which has been steadily going from inconvenient to bad to worse to properly dangerous over the winter.

Meanwhile I enjoyed visas of bluebells glowing under the greening woodland canopy, while BB dealt with steering the car between narrow hedges and potholes.

The purpose of our expedition? It's covid vaccination time. Done and dusted this morning, that's it for another six months. So far, so good; I'm fine, BB has a bit of a sore arm.

Today Me was grateful to Last Month's Me for poaching several chicken breasts, slicing and freezing them in portions. It meant producing stir-fry chicken in satay sauce for lunch took very little time. 

Today Me had more cause for gratitude as supper was tomato and vegetable soup with some fried pancetta, and toast. I add a bit of cold meat, or some pasta or rice, or any leftovers, to vary these batch cooked soups.

Now, of course, I'll need to replenish the freezer for Future Me. 

How about another flashmob? I love Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. And I love looking at the expressions on people's faces

I've worked out it's the Vienna Opera Company, and I think it's the main train station;

SolistInnen, Chor, Orchester der Volksoper Wien boten im April Fahrgästen und Passanten eine besondere Performance. Die KünstlerInnen lösten sich aus der Menschenmenge - eine "Passantin" begann, weitere "PassantInnen" - sowie als ÖBB-MitarbeiterInnen verkleidete KünstlerInnen - setzten nach und nach ein.: 

Thursday 16th April - flowers in a teacup

 

Aren't these gorgeous! My April flowerbe box arrived today. 

The cup and saucer have sentimental value for me. I remember my parents buying boxes and boxes (so it seemed) of this pattern; plates, bowls, cups and saucers, in a market on holiday in the Netherlands when I was about ten years old. It's a good thing our car had a decent sized boot. (Might have been the Triumph Herald Estate).

These dishes were to bulk up what was left of a set with a very similar pattern. That set came from. Cornwall, and I know it was bought in around 1930 by my grandmother. I've got the half dozen bits from it, and still use one of the last breakfast cups and saucers for a proper cup of tea.

Good heavens, I've just worked out they are nearly a hundred years old!

Verdi's drinking song from La Traviata... though I don't think this song is about tea.

Italian opera stars spoof customers at Australian market. This is an effort to tease and bring classical opera out of the symphony hall and to the masses who may not normally see and hear it.

Wednesday 15th April - knit, sew, read, repeat

I have been knitting;

The first two strips of the experimental cardigan almost completely sewn together. Another three to do and I will have finished the back. 

and sewing;

the next quilt-as-you-go is underway, and more prosaically the elastic in my pj's trousers has stopped being elastic. Still a bit of sewing to finish stitching up the waist band.

and continuing to binge read through the Dr Nell Ward thriller whodunnits. I'm on to book three; A Mischief of Rats. In about twenty minute's reading time I should have reached the bit where Nell's life is in danger - it's always just after three-quarters through the book!

Now, after a 'sitting down' day I need to do something about my woeful step count  🤔 before bedtime 🌙 

Tuesday 14th April - needles and threaders

This was originally a box of Christmas chocolates from M and S, a present from my father several years ago. When the lid was opened, the picture inside lit up and it was full of delicious chocolates.

The box was far too pretty to throw away, so we used it for 'chocolate o'clock' treats for several years. Then the lights eventually stopped working, but still we kept the box. Which it just as well, as I was looking for something to keep my perle threads in, where they wouldn't keep unravelling and tangling.

I'm able to fit them all inside the box! How lucky is that!

BB gave me some attractive sewing notions one year, bought at an exhibition at the V and A. They included the best needle threader I have ever owned;

And a little wooden container of self- threading  needles. I rather ignored the needles for a while. They looked too large and thick for ordinary sewing. 

But I am a complete convert. I would definitely use finer traditional needles for 'proper', fine sewing, but for everyday stuff they are brilliant. I've found they work well with ordinary thread and perle cotton, but are not so easy the thread with stranded embroidery floss.

Here's a diagram I found that shows how they work;

You just pull the thread through the gap at the top, until it rests in the centre space. Some kind of magic stops the thread from freeing itself as you sew.

They have certainly made it much easier for me to thread needles, especially in the evenings.

Reading...

I have been enjoying the Dr Nell Ward thriller series, so when I saw the latest book 'A tribe of tigers' was 99p on kindle I only took seconds to click on 'buy now'. It's about number eight in the series, ando I don't think it would make much sense to readers unless they started at the beginning with 'A Murder of Crows'. Nell is an ecologist, and in the course of her work - advising on conservation and rewilding etc - gets mixed up in murder...

I'm also reading 'All the colours of the dark' by Chris Whitaker, another 99p download. It is... odd, but strangely addictive because of the characters of the young girl, Saint, and boy, Patch. It's centred around the abduction of Patch, and Saint's efforts to find him, and now I'm reading about how their lives are changed by the experience. I'm a bit apprehensive at the moment because they both look set to marry the wrong people for the wrong reasons, and I'm hoping that's not going to happen...

Sunday 12th April - The Day of Rest

 And so we rested. For most of the day anyway.

I stood and watched the squirrel struggling to get to the last of the sunflower hearts.

The lilac is in flower.

The garden is sunny, although there's a chilly wind still.

Perfect. 

Offenbach; the Barcarolle from Tales of Hoffman 

Saturday 11th April - braving the weather forecast

 Cloudy start, 40% probability of rain, temperature feels like 9°C, sunny periods later...retty normal for April. We wrapped warmly and set off to meet with Son and Daughter to celebrate his birthday (belatedly) and Easter (even more belatedly)

And hurrah! The sun shone and the temperature rose. Every met-up is an occasion, whatever the weather... but especially when it's spring and there are flowers and little lambs and sunshine.

So I've had plenty of fresh air today, enough for weeks!

....

Before we left, and after we came home, I managed to finish three things;

The first of the strips for my experimental patchwork cardigan. I'm enjoying it, because the rows are short so it's easy to pick up and put down, because the patterns are simple and change every six inches, and I'm using a variegated yarn which keeps changing colour, all exactly right for my butterfly brain.

I have completely finished this patch now. I managed to talk myself into outlining the flowers and it has hade such a difference. 

Finally I sewed up the hat. It's too big for me, and I don't like the colours, so I'll save it for the shoebox appeal at Christmas time.

Finally, Next-door's cat has found a new hiding place in our front garden;

at least he's away from our bird feeders. The RSPB are saying we should stop feeding the birds now it's warmer, so we'll put them away now.

Peter and the Wolf by Prokofiev; the cat theme;

My favourite moment is listening to the orchestra illustrate in sound when Peter lowers the rope over the wolf to capture it. I used to get the children to listen out for it, and watch  for the smiles to appear.

Friday 10th April - and Thursday 9th too

 We've had several days of sunny warm weather which has been enough to let the countryside erupt into greeness. Bluebells in the woods, leaves on the trees, hedges filling out. Some friends came home from holiday landing at the local airport this morning, and noticed how green the countryside looked from the air.

I thought we'd go out yesterday morning for a coffee and a sausage sandwich. Unfortunately I became hopelessly confused about which Village Stores we were heading for; Alfold, Kirdford,  Loxwood, Plaistow, Ifold.... we drove round in circles going to all of them in the end - they are close together, linked by leafy crinkle crankle narrow lanes, narrow bridges overcstreams, shadowed by bluebell woods... and finally arrived at Kirdford Village Stores. BB was very patient, said it helped to keep his skills driving skills sharp.

They didn't have any baps; to their consternation I picked up a packet of hamburger rolls, and asked 'if I buy these, will you put our sausages in them?' After some thought they said they could, so we sat outside with our sausages and dr8nks, soaking up the sun and lovely countryside. 

There were these two large carved wooden garden ornaments beside the apple tree trees, aren't they wonderful?

Today we did - nothing. 

No, that's not entirely true; I finished knitting that hat and it just needs sewing up. If I knit another I shall buy double pointed needles and knit it in the round; I do so dislike knitting rows of purl!

I'm also a good away along the first of the five strips which will make up the back of the next cardigan I'm hoping to make.

For supper we had sausage baps again. I cooked three sausages and some sliced onions in a dish in the airfryer (30 mins at 180, turn halfway through), and toasted the baps. Then, I put a smear of chutney, the sausages and onions and some spinach leaves in each one. They were delicious!

....

Aaron Copeland, from Appalachian Spring

Wednesday 8th April - Knitting Madness

 We had a long long morning, or so it seemed; traipsing round Curry's electrical superstore to look at ovens, mini ovens, built in ovens and hobs... then moving three stores along to look at new kitchens (Wren). Finally to another superstore to look for buttons! 

I would reckon BB was very relieved that I was near the end of my stamina, so we just went in, found the buttons, paid for them and came home, with barely more than 5 minutes of eyeing up the yarn in passing...

I was very pleased with myself for knitting a small swatch with a buttonhole in it. So much easier to tuck into my little bag than the cardigan! Here's the Completely Finished Cardigan;

Those are BB's hands holding it up. It is still too warm for me to put it on for a fashion shoot. You can see how the back is longer than the front.

Here's the photographs on Ithe pattern so you can see it's supposed to be there

I'm using up a ball of super chunky left over; I'd bought an extra one, thinking I was going to run out, but fortunately I didn't need it as I'd bought the wrong colourway! Here's it is;

Being a variegated yarn the cable panel doesn't really show, which is just as well because I'm not used to doing them at all. I'm using a 10mm crochet hook as a cable needle, to match the knitting needles and it's working very well.

Finally, I have embarked upon this cardigan

The pattern is a freebie from Lovecraft, and uses a paintbox super chunky yarn. Except that I'm knitting it on thinner, Sirdar Jewelspun yarn on smaller needles. It's knitted in vertical strips of different patterns, so I reckon as long as my strips are the same width and length I might be ok. I'm not thinking about shoulder and neck shaping yet. Inspiration will come in due course...

And now here's a sweet little story; apparently Borodin's daughter came and sat on his lap when he was at the piano, and played this well-known tune, and he improvised and then wrote down this duet part;

I used to base an entire music lesson, several, perhaps, on this piece. I'd give the children two chime bars, or boomwhackers each or whatever was to hand. I'd arrange them in groups of four; the first person would play the first line, then the second person the second line, etc. Slowly, slowly we would work away until everyone could play their line in time with the recording. 

I was going to say you could have heard a pin drop, they were concentrating so fiercely, but of course it was actually far too noisy!

Tuesday 7th April - one week behind

 Today I caught up with last week's daily Lent email course... 

and now I'm putting up this month's photograph of my tree, the little witch hazel in a pot, which I was planning to post on the first of the month.

BB took the picture for me on Sunday. Just look at all those leaves, all new and crinkly! Those are red tulips in the background. 

The peony that had apparently started flowering last week turned out to be red tulips buried among the vigorous tall late daffodils. That's a bit of a relief! 

I do love tulip season.

Monday 6th April - My Christmas Cardigan

 'It will be finished for Christmas New Year Epiphany Valentine's Day Easter Day Bank Holiday Monday...' and so it was.

I could look back and see when I started this - or I could not... too long ago. I finished knitting it (after many fits and starts and adjustments) several weeks ago, but stalled out at the sewing up stage. Partly because I didn't trust myself to do a decent job, and partly because I always lose confidence in the fit, even after obsessionally measuring everything at least half a dozen times, and holding it up against myself.

It's come out fine! Not exactly like the pattern - I hadn't intended to choose the cuff option for the sleeves, but it looks like I have, and the original pattern has a lower neck, which I wasn't keen on, so I'm quite happy that this has come out somehow with a high neck. I was also trying to alter the pattern because I didn't care for the way the back was intended to be longer than the front - some kind of design statement? - but what will be, will be. I won't be able to see 'the statement' when I'm wearing it...

I just have to source some 2 inch buttons. At the moment those are stitch markers dangling from where the buttons are to go.  

Sunday 5th April - Easter Sunday

 There must be a hundred versions of this hymn on the Internet,  but this is the best I've ever heard for celebrating Easter.

Saturday 4th April - an in-between day

The day between Good Friday (sad, solemn, subdued) and Easter Sunday (joyful, laughing, exuberant) seems neither one thing nor another.

So I've been doing a bit of this (sewing)  and that (reading) and the other (making a crockpot of soup, and a loaf of bread). In-between activities. 

And all the time eyeing up the one Lindt mini egg left from last weekend, which I decided to keep until Easter. It's 8pm, I only have to hold out for 4 more hours.

Yesterday I caught the last bit of The Sound of Music, from when the family sings 'Goodbye, Farewell' at the competition and then escape. I don't think I've watched it for at least 10 years. I remember we were taken to see it in London on a school trip when I was about 9 or 10 years old. I was at a convent prep school, and I think I realised even then that the nuns who lead the trip were buzzing with excitement. We had to wear our summer dresses, white ankle socks, blazers, straw hats and white gloves.

Today this little clip caught my eye;

They dance so beautifully.

Our family used to occasionally holiday in Austria with an Austrian family, friends of my parents. Their children were the same age as us and they all spoke very good English. The children, teenagers by now, all learned the traditional dances (waltz, landler, etc) at school, as they were expected to dance them at the school end of year prom, clearly a much more formal occasion than ours.

Friday 3rd April - Good Friday

 It's raining, somehow appropriate for the mood of today. 

Bernard Daddi (14th Century). Mary sits to one side, exhausted, John on the other, watching her. Jesus is no longer here; his body is just a grey husk. 

Thank heavens, thank God, for 'spoilers' as they are called; we know, as they do not, that this is not the end, but the gateway to the beginning. 

This is one of the pictures the Patrick Bringley discusses in 'All the Beauty in the World'.

Tenebrae singing 'Crucifixus' by Antonio Lotti (1687 - 1740) conducted by Nigel Short, in the Sainte-Chapelle, Paris.

Crucifixus etiam pro nobis;

sub Pontio Pilato passus,

et sepultus est. 

He was also crucified for us;

under Pontius Pilate, he suffered

and was buried. 

From the Nicene Creed

Thursday 2nd April - Maundy Thursday

 It's been a long day today; a whole series of quite tiring (for me) activities.

Nothing major - going out for coffee, browsing for kitchens...

but I'm off for an early night.

Here are Yo-Yo Ma and Kathleen Stott. I love the way he makes his cello sing so gently, as though the notes are just floating like bubbles.

Sleep well!

Wednesday 1st April - Properly Spring

Still too cold to sit out today, unless you are swathed in hat, coat and scarf. Which I wasn't,  so I didn't.  But I  did stick my nose out of doors for a few minutes to see what I could see. 

Lilac in leaf, wallflowers almost about to flower, and my peony is already flowering, rather recklessly. I thought they didn't come out until later. I can't see the flower though, because it is completely hidden by a clump of tall vigorous daffodils.

I've been reading 'The Violin Maker's Secret' by Evie Woods.

 How would I catergorize it? There's the backstory revealed as the book progresses, tragic romance, passion for music, and the present day romance/thriller, and the whole thing shot through with a kind of magic.

It was one of the options suggested (not by me) for the Book Club. I'm not sure if all the group would gave liked it; it's what I think of as an easy, light-weight book. Fine by me - I enjoy this kind of easy reading as a contrast to weightier tomes. I do like a happy ending. 

....

Here's some 'light-weight' music; Anitra's Tanz from Grieg's 'Peer Gynt' Suite. This has always seemed to me to be as light as air...