BB walked round to the local corner shop and post office with a couple of my parcels, including my April Cover Story Collaboration piece. Then, at lunch time I jumped out of my skin when Ang's parcel dropped through our letter box. The postman catches my by surprise everything!
I'll wait for Ang to let me know she's received my stitching before I post pictures...
That was pretty much it for the day... although I did manage to knock up a batch of oaty biscuits to go into the oven while we were eating. For once I got my act together to make use of the hot oven.
It's been too hot to do anything which can be left until tomorrow.
Music
A Debussy prelude - Voiles (Sails) - played by Pascal Rogé
Not only have I swapped to summer pyjamas but we may even swap out our winter weight duvet tonight! (We can always add a quilt if this proves to be a little rash!).
Stitching
I've finished the April piece for the Cover Story Collaboration. I think Ang has already posted hers to me. Mine will get posted on Wednesday morning. It's been fun to do, this month, even with the 'Snippy Snippy' moment on Easter Sunday when I needed to take out a section. It's too soon to post a picture; we wait until we know that both pieces have arrived at each other's house.
Gardening
In this weather? It's too hot during the day!
I did this little drawing a day or so of me planting something or other in the veg plot. You can tell by the scrap of writing that these pictures are often very small
Shopping
Our local B and Q Homebase became The Range recently, when B and Q Homebase closed a lot of stores and The Range bought them. I fancied having a look around but I've been biding my time, as there was a lot of interest when it opened. We went for a looksee this morning; I want to make a simple skirt and needed some elastic, and BB wanted to hooks.
I remembered The Range as having an interesting and eclectic mix of things... but either my memory is at fault, or they have shifted their market considerably. It turned out to be a cheap trip - a mere 59p for some elastic which I suspect may be too narrow. Still, I've satisfied my curiosity... for almost no money!
[When I wrote this paragraph I confused the two stores...]
Music
Since I post in the evenings (UK time) this is sort of the last opportunity to post Ella Fitzgerald singing 'April in Paris'. At least, the last opportunity in April.
It's 'water the garden' weather... already, in April. I haven't exactly 'cast any clouts' yet but if there really is going to be a spell of really hot weather I may be tempted...
We were given a bottle of delicious wine and also a bee-friendly planter kit by our neighbours as a thank you for looking after their cat. If This blog is even more typo-infested than usual, blame the wine. I'm just finishing my glass as I tap out the letters. I've sorted out the kit, filling the container with the earth and sprinking in the seeds. Germination in 2 - 4 weeks; something to look forward to.
Music
Poulenc playing Poulenc; movement perpetual no 1
Another memory from the past for me. I enjoy the way it cheerfully rattles along.
I did some stitching and a lot of reading in the morning.
My current Book is 'Wifedom' by Anna Funder, a portrait of Eileen Shaunessy who was George Orwell's wife. She is apparently largely ignored by Orwell's biographers, and Anna Funder sets out to right this wrong.
I hadn't realised quite how controversial Anna Funder's book is; if I had read the reviews first I might not have chosen it. I'm still at the beginning so I'll carry on for a bit longer. I think her view of 'The invisible Mrs Orwell' is highly influenced by her own feelings of being trapped in the role of mother and housewife while trying to retrieve enough time to do justice to her own career as a writer.
....
In the afternoon a friend came round for 'tea-in-the-garden'. BB did the 'butlering', making the tea, assembling the tea-tray and bringing it out, and we all sat and chatted, while friend and I companionably deadheaded a pot of pansies together. I can't resist fiddling with plants when I'm in the garden. That needs deadheading, or there's a weed, or something always needs something doing to it!
She's visiting a rather deaf elderly friend who is in hospital. We commented on how difficult conversations are in these circumstances - one certainly can't be private!
I noticed that when I talked to my parents who were both hard of hearing and could never get on with their hearing aids, that I always came away feeling cross and irritated, even though I wasn't really annoyed. I think it's something to do with the effect of raising one's voice, and using a slightly sharper tone in order to enunciate clearly. It's the way one speaks when one is cross, so I suppose it's not surprising that one starts to feel cross after twenty minutes of it!
Music
A lovely, delicate little piano piece by Robert Schumann. It sounds so simple, but is fiendishly complicated to make it sound like this. I've tried to learn it a number of times...
Fantasiestucke op12 no 1, 'des Abends'. Abend is German for evening.
The early piano music was written for Clara, his great love, and eventually his wife.
I've had a couple of wakeful nights; I don't think there's any particular reason. They just come along from time to time. It doesn't bother me, especially now I've retired from schoolteachingand don'thaveto summon up the energy to lead samba bands, cart loads of equipment around and keep teach up to 40 children at a time. Now I just listen to audiobooks or the radio through my cosy phones and drift in and out of sleep...
Radio 4 World service, provided they are covering something that I find fairly tedious - politics or cricket comes to mind - is best... my current audiobooks are too interesting!
It's much easier to manage the headphones now I have wireless ones. I used to get into a real tangle when they had to be plugged in with a length of wire!
....
The news has been full of the pope's funeral. I feel for my Roman Catholic friends who will be grieving for the loss of someone they genuinely loved, on much the same level as when the Queen died.
(I won't mention Trump's rather bright blue uit, sticking out like a beacon among the other world leaders... After he made such a meal of Zelensky and the subject of dressing respectfully too)
(Oh, did I just mention Trump's suit? Sorry, it slipped out by accident)
I've had to talk some sense to myself to stop rushing out into the vegetable patch to see if the potatoes we planted yesterday have come up yet,
But beans... well that's another matter;
They are growing in paper tubes made from scrap paper. Every time I go past there seems to be another one just peeping through the earth.
Audio books
I have two books on the go;
The Masquerades of Spring by Ben Aaronovitch - fantasy adventure, a precursor of the Rivers of London series, set in New York in the time of prohibition. The action takes place, at least to begin with, in a sort of Jeeves and Wooster environment in and around the world of hazz and nightclubs. I'm not very far in, but it's good fun and I'm entitled.
Next to Nature by Ronald Blythe. This is a lovely, lovely month by month account of his life in the Essex countryside. Part nature notes, part reflection on village and church life, part natural history - it's very wide ranging and eclectic. Luminous. That's the word, and beautifully read.
I have given up on the audio book version of Less by Patrick Grant. I find his tone of voice off-putting; it feels like being on the receiving end of a long and rather dry lecture.
Books
I read Conclave by Richard Harris late into the night yesterday and I'm paying for it now; I've been getting sleeper and sleepier as the day wore on! Very enjoyable, and I'm praying that the real conclave to elect a new pope is nothing like this work of fiction!
Music
How about a bit of Fauré? A Berceuse, (not the 'Listen with Mother' one), for cello and piano. I think I like the cello version best.
