Daily List - mud, Arundel - Tuesday 18th April

It won't last, you know, this daily list thing. You and I will both get tired of it sooner rather than later, I suspect. The idea is you make the list when you first wake up.

Today, I woke abruptly from a rather unpleasant dream where my car was just about to get buried in a mudslide and I had climbed out of the window and was balanced on the roof shouting at the men driving mega-earth-moving-machines to get them to stop. And also to try and work out how to get rescued. I'm not sure how I was rescued; I think I had to climb into the slippery bucket of the huge digger that had been dropping mud by my car, as bringing in a helicopter risked me getting blown off the roof. By then I was properly awake, and ready to go back to sleep again.

Seeing as it was also about 5 in the morning, list-making was not going to happen at that moment. However, later on that day we went out to lunch (at the Black Rabbit in Arundel). We only had two courses - no room for pudding and anyway we have a carton of posh custard and a bag of  bananas to use up tonight. Sitting outside, next to the river, looking out over the meadows across to the downs (me) or towards the castle (him), today's topic chose itself.

The River

1."The Wind in the Willows" which I have just finised reading. The River flows through the story. I've just started "The Willows in Winter" - a sequel written by William Horwood, and the River plays a leading role in that one too.

2.Looking for miniature water creatures in the River Misbourne, in Chalfont St Peter, with a sampling kit I got from some educational scheme for testing river water purity, when I was about 10. Test-tubes, and a hand lens, and an identification chart. Hot, and wet, and muddy, and not as exciting as it looked on the packet.

3.Long summer afternoons sitting on the banks of the little muddy stream at the back of our house. The children catching little fish - I've no idea what - and keeping them in plastic tubs until it was time to back. I had a rug to sit on, a flask of coffee and my book.

4.The tidal River Arun at Arundel - sometimes high, sometimes low. Today it was mid-way, slow, and deceptively unthreatening.

5.The River Ouse at York, creeping up the embankment, over the pavement, across the road and into the pubs. Our house was higher up the hill, fortunately.

6.The Aire in Leeds, black and treacly as it slowly slipped past where we were sitting in the gardens of Kirkstall Abbey, Leeds, one Summer afternoon back in the 1970s. Slow bubbles, methane, probably, certainly not fish, rose to the surface. Pollution was a real issue back then - we didn't settle as there was a definite smell...

7.The river running through the centre of Boughton-on-the-Water, and a duck-race (hundreds of little numbered yellow plastic ducks tipped into the water - if yours crossed the finished line first, you won a prize). Apparently the races have been abandoned. It's a long and complicated story (and we were not involved, promise.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jun/22/police-called-to-charity-rubber-duck-race-in-cotswolds

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourton-on-the-Water

8.The river in the book "On The Banks Of Plum Creek" which called to Laura (Ingalls Wilder), and nearly drowned
her. I've always remembered the picture;



Luckily she managed to pull herself out of the water and run home.

9. A boat holiday on the River Thames, many, many years ago. The foolish look on the dog's face when he fell in, and the terrible smell of wet dog when we drove home in the car.

10.And, of course, this, just downstream from the Niagara Falls.

Sunday 3rd November - And that was Half Term

That was the week that was - it arrived after a

week of chaos, and was spent in chaos.

 

I got through 29 of the 32 items on the to-to list, not counting the half-dozen or more items that got done but never made it onto the list.

Number One Son came to stay for a few days.





We went out to Arundel for a day as a whole family - and I was much better walking up and down the hills than I had been walking around on the flat the previous weekend. We bought Roly's fudge - EXCELLENT. Unfortunately I have now finished all my fudge.

I went for a lovely day out at Pulborough Brooks with Number One Son - that was a really good day out.

I cleaned, hovered, sorted, tidied. (Number One Son helped - bless you)

I went to London twice for hospital appointments. (Lung Function tests showed that the cyclophosphamide has been effective, and my lung function has improved. So I shall hopefully be able to continue with a similar immune suppressant medication - that's a "hooray"!)

While I was there I visited the Saatchi Gallery twice, the huge Peter Jones in Sloane Square to gawp at rare and expensive knitting yarns, and lighting displays (we plan to replace our sitting room light sometime), and Harrods gawp like a tourist at the décor, and Patisserie Valerie indulge myself with Nata tarts and mignon pastries. (I've just finished re-reading "Moon over Soho" and the jazz-vampire was always eating cream cakes in Patisserie Valerie, which was what made me want to go there again)

My piano teacher, who I "re-discovered" on the internet a few years ago having not been in contact since about 1974, has come to stay for a week (hence the housework!). I've had a couple of piano lessons, and in return she has been having lessons on how to operate her new tablet.




Today My Best Husband and I went for a stroll around some little fishing lakes and woodlands nearby at Sumners Lakes. I noticed that I had noticeably more stamina, at one point managing to get up a steep and slippery slope in one go without having to pause and catch my breath.





It has been a hard-working half-term "holiday", and there is a significant amount of work to do before I will be ready for the rest of term, but, even so, I reckon I am embarking upon the next seven weeks in better shape than when I started at the beginning of this term! 

Friday 26th October - What a day!

Capuchin Monkey
borrowed from my music site
www.themusicjuingle.co.uk
drawn by "the artist" and
included by permission (from me)

When you are busy, and when the school term is eight weeks (less one day) long (and I know I have chuntered about this already), and when you have been teaching from 9:45am to 6pm, with twenty minutes for lunch, and a half an hour break between school teaching and piano teaching at home, and when the last four lessons at the school were three beginner recorder classes and one - let's call them the "slowly improving recorder class"








when you reach the end of the teaching part of the day,

Keyboard Snake, also borrowed from my music site www.themusicjungle.co.uk
drawn by "the artist" and included by permission (from me)

and you cook and eat supper (thank heavens for that pulled pot-roast-lamb that I put into the freezer a week or so ago),

and watch some television (Inspector Frost and the Gruesome Granny - suitably "easy-watching")

when you go to bed, and your eyes shut before you can finish the Sudoku (which you are doing because you've left your book downstairs and your Kindle has gone flat so in spite of having upwards of 200 books in the bedroom you can't find anything to read)

then next day you can hardly remember what happened until you start to blog about it!

But that was all yesterday, and today we've spent the whole day in Arundel, looking at this and that and the other. Which is partly why yesterday had disappeared under the overlay of what we did today.

It does seem a bit wasteful, to have your days so packed full that in the end you can barely remember what happened yesterday, let alone last week. That is the advantage of keeping a diary - at least you spend some time reflecting on the events of the day, revisiting the good parts, mulling things over, before they vanish from your mind.  

Monday 27th May - Arundel Day Out - Castle Keep

We tried to go to some kind of hysterical historical re-enactment-kill-everyone-day at Arundel Castle at Easter, but it was soooo cold that we just went somewhere else. Where it was soooo cold that we went somewhere else again - for lunch. Where it was still pretty chilly and  the lunch wasn't that great anyway. So that was just a typical British-Make-the-Best-of-things-and-Enjoy-Yourself-In-Spite-of-Things-Day-Out.

Today was DIFFERENT! Although it was still pretty cold (I was warm enough - vest and long-sleeve T-shirt and fleece and wind-proof jacket - I was even nearly warm enough having lent jacket to daughter. No-one else was as warm as they would have liked to be.) anyway, I'm still in the middle of a sentence, still pretty cold due to a fresh and bracing breeze, the sun was out and the skies were blue and cloudless.

We arrived early, started off with a second breakfast at what is becoming a favourite spot;











which is right next to a favourite shop;




and then set off for the castle. It has improved since the days when I decided it was too commercial and too expensive (to be fair, the last time we went into the castle was nearly 20 years ago). It is so much better that it will take several posts to share our day.







We set off for the castle keep - a steady walk up to the entrance, and then 131 steps of varying sizes, lengths of flight, twisty-ness and turny-ness. Well worth the effort.

The keep is just an open  shell, with pictures and descriptions of how it might have looked in the olden days.

The final few flights were narrow spiral staircases leading through the guard room into the chapel, where a figure of a monk sat reading a manuscript (printed cloth, so people could touch it) and a lavishly bound manuscript lay open on the altar (thick paper, with prayers in Latin and illuminated initials, so we could turn the pages.)

At the top you could face into the sharp wind, and look across the flat land towards the sea, or across the river valley to the downs, for miles.

Add caption

It made me realise how seldom I get the opportunity to just stand and look into a far distant horizon. There are brief glimpse across the river valleys as I drive round and round West Sussex; a sudden opening in the trees at the top of the first hill travelling home from Petworth, a gap in the hedge along the twisty back lane from Ardingly, across the reservoir, to Balcombe, the views over the fields from the A272 between Petworth and Midhurst...

I always look out for these moments, but fleeting moments is all they can safely be. A glance, and then a tricky blind corner, or sudden narrowing of the lane, or dastardly behaviour from fellow motorists will bring by attention right back to the here and now, to the close and imminent demands of the next few minutes.



Just "gazing" isn't something that happens often enough. Hurly burly, hurry, hurry, do this, do that, mind the gap, watch your step, consult the list, what's next....

Stop. Stand. Stare. Be still.

Look. Listen. Observe.

Breathe.

Get a sense of perspective. Step back. Look at the big picture.

There. That's a lot better.

Monday 27th May - Arundel Day Out - Castle Keep

We tried to go to some kind of hysterical historical re-enactment-kill-everyone-day at Arundel Castle at Easter, but it was soooo cold that we just went somewhere else. Where it was soooo cold that we went somewhere else again - for lunch. Where it was still pretty chilly and  the lunch wasn't that great anyway. So that was just a typical British-Make-the-Best-of-things-and-Enjoy-Yourself-In-Spite-of-Things-Day-Out.

Today was DIFFERENT! Although it was still pretty cold (I was warm enough - vest and long-sleeve T-shirt and fleece and wind-proof jacket - I was even nearly warm enough having lent jacket to daughter. No-one else was as warm as they would have liked to be.) anyway, I'm still in the middle of a sentence, still pretty cold due to a fresh and bracing breeze, the sun was out and the skies were blue and cloudless.

We arrived early, started off with a second breakfast at what is becoming a favourite spot;











which is right next to a favourite shop;




and then set off for the castle. It has improved since the days when I decided it was too commercial and too expensive (to be fair, the last time we went into the castle was nearly 20 years ago). It is so much better that it will take several posts to share our day.







We set off for the castle keep - a steady walk up to the entrance, and then 131 steps of varying sizes, lengths of flight, twisty-ness and turny-ness. Well worth the effort.

The keep is just an open  shell, with pictures and descriptions of how it might have looked in the olden days.

The final few flights were narrow spiral staircases leading through the guard room into the chapel, where a figure of a monk sat reading a manuscript (printed cloth, so people could touch it) and a lavishly bound manuscript lay open on the altar (thick paper, with prayers in Latin and illuminated initials, so we could turn the pages.)

At the top you could face into the sharp wind, and look across the flat land towards the sea, or across the river valley to the downs, for miles.

Add caption

It made me realise how seldom I get the opportunity to just stand and look into a far distant horizon. There are brief glimpse across the river valleys as I drive round and round West Sussex; a sudden opening in the trees at the top of the first hill travelling home from Petworth, a gap in the hedge along the twisty back lane from Ardingly, across the reservoir, to Balcombe, the views over the fields from the A272 between Petworth and Midhurst...

I always look out for these moments, but fleeting moments is all they can safely be. A glance, and then a tricky blind corner, or sudden narrowing of the lane, or dastardly behaviour from fellow motorists will bring by attention right back to the here and now, to the close and imminent demands of the next few minutes.



Just "gazing" isn't something that happens often enough. Hurly burly, hurry, hurry, do this, do that, mind the gap, watch your step, consult the list, what's next....

Stop. Stand. Stare. Be still.

Look. Listen. Observe.

Breathe.

Get a sense of perspective. Step back. Look at the big picture.

There. That's a lot better.

which is right next to a favourite shop;




and then set off for the castle. It has improved since the days when I decided it was too commercial and too expensive (to be fair, the last time we went into the castle was nearly 20 years ago). It is so much better that it will take several posts to share our day.

We set off for the castle keep - a steady walk up to the entrance, and then 131 steps of varying sizes, lengths of flight, twisty-ness and turny-ness. Well worth the effort.

The keep is just an open  shell, with pictures of how it might have looked in the olden days.


The final few flights were narrow spiral staircases leading through the guard room into the chapel, where a figure of a monk sat reading a manuscript (printed cloth, so people could touch it) and a lavishly bound manuscript lay open on the altar (thick paper, with prayers in Latin and illuminated initials, so we could turn the pages.)

At the top you could face into the sharp wind, and look across the flat land towards the sea, or across the river valley to the downs, for miles.



  

Sunday 15th September - Arundel - A Perfect Day 1

What made the day so good, yesterday?

It was a family day out together (reset your mental image; the "children" are now properly grown up) celebrating a brthday which happened earlier in the week.

We went to Arundel, and carefully avoided any connection with any of the "Attractions". We've been round the castle a number of times already. The Wildfowl place was a regular place of pilgrimage when the children were small. I would load them into the car, along with suitable supplies for myself (book, flask of coffee) and spend the day there at half terms. They put on a really, really good day of activities in the Visitor centre, and I would find a comfortable place, with a good view of the lake, and settle down to watch the water birds, drink my coffee and read my book, while the children did their own thing, doing brass rubbings, model making, watching the vinegar-food-colouring-bicarbonate-of-soda volcano explode ...... lunch, walk round the reserve, job done. Day filled. Everyone happy.

Yesterday we followed a different agenda; mooch round the town in the morning, find lunch, and walk in the afternoon. The weather, the time and the place turned ut to be perfect.


We ambled round the town, looking at the farmer's market; hang on a minute, what were they selling there?






Oh, very funny. Irresistible to teachers.

I didn't take many photographs around the town, although this fountain caught my eye:


It appears to have been put together from an eclectic mixture of vases and bowls, topped off by the golden crown from the frog prince. I would love to have seen it working.


One thing that made the town so interesting was that there were none of the standard national chain stores in evidence. We didn't go far; up the High Street, turned left and followed our noses into an arcade which I think is the Old Printing Works and where you can find Real Crumbly Fudge, made in front of your eyes on the premises (https://rolysfudge.co.uk/

picture from the website

 They let us try all the varieties before we bought 4 decent chunks each of strawberries and cream, Baileys, coffee, chocolate and vanilla.  Leaving the arcade we passes a shop which sells miniature Steiff teddy bears (hint hint)  (ah, I've just seen the price tag, so don't pay any attention to the hint. Very, very, VERY cute and desirable though!)

I did ALL my Christmas bits and pieces present shopping at Sparks Yard -  a mecca for stationery obsessives. I've bought the Most Beautiful hank of yarn to knit a fine, lacey scarf, as delicate as a cobweb, but a pattern so simple that I reckon I can manage it without tears.

The town was full enough to be lively and buzzing, but not heaving. The shops were interesting, the little mazey backstreets fascinating, the houses and buildings most attractive, the traffic resigned and patient with everyone pretending that the streets were pedestrianised and people meandering at will from one side of the road to the other. I found myself checking out the estate agent windows in passing....

We did have lunch in a chain - Pizza Express - where I came across fascinating collages (another post), and finished off the day with a round walk along the river and back through the woods at the edge of the wildfowl reserve. More on this to follow.