Tuesday 27th February - Snow!

Yup. Woke up to a white world.

It's lunchtime now, the snow's all gone. You can stand down until the next time.

Monday 26th February - The Calm Before the Storm

I expect you think the blog title refers the the incoming weather

but no,

I am thinking of this being my last day off work before I leap back into the fray.

I am starting gently, with a couple of private students this evening. See how that goes.

I tackled an "extreme" killer suduko puzzle this morning with some success, so that is a step up from yesterday. Not this one; I've got it from the internet, and would rate it as heading for "extreme"

https://www.dailykillersudoku.com/

I've finished reading "Summer Story" by Jill Barklem, the second of the Brambly Hedge series. Dusty Dogwood, the miller and Poppy Eyebright, who runs the dairy, get married.

"Poppy Eyebright, do you love Dusty Dogwood, and will you love him and care for him for ever and ever?"
"I will."
"Dusty Dogwood, do you love Poppy, and will you love her and look after her for ever and ever?"
"I will."
"Then in the name of the flowers and the fields, the stars in the sky, and the streams that flow down to the sea, and the mystery that breathes wonder into all these things, I pronounce you mouse and wife."

Altogether "Ahhhh." 

A shorter and simpler ceremony than ours, all those years ago. Our cake did have three tiers, as I remember... 

And a timely reminder that Summer will come again. .

Saturday 24th February 2018 - More news

Did you look up that poem? Jerusalem, by James Fenton?

Well, maybe the discovery of the sound files in the poetry archive isn't as important to you as it is to me?!?

Anyway, that was this morning, and now it is this evening. My news is that I've been up since lunchtime, with no ill-effects, and am feeling considerably brighter than I did at the beginning of the week. A one-week rest seems to have been beneficial

(I wonder if another week, or maybe a month, no, stop it now).

I've another couple of days of taking it easy before I launch myself back into the unsuspecting world on Tuesday. Just in time for the predicted snowy weather?

File:Free Snow Falling on Blue Sky Unedited Creative Commons (2932693860).jpg

Saturday 24th February - Important News

(I know the day and date, because they've just told me on the 'Today' programme, on Radio 4. What a useful broadcast that is. However I've switched it off before they start annoying me with too many opinions and speculations. I know shouting at the 'Today' programme is part of my cultural identity but I didn't want to disturb the peace this morning)

The Really Important News is that I have just this moment discovered the sound recordings on www.thepoetryarchive.org

Radio 4 again. This is what we pay our license money for, and what makes it all worthwhile.

I was dipping into Clive James'  'Poetry Notebook' (too many ' ' marks in a row, but I don't know how to do that differently) and came to the chapter called

'Poetry Archive Tour'.

This is a list of poems, and his comments on the poetry, and how the poet reads them, BUT NOT THE TEXT. so, I reached for the gadgetry to find the text, and discovered www.poetryarchive.org

I've given the web address twice. For two reasons. So I don't forget, and to give you a chance to remember it.

So far I've listened to the first four poems in his 'tour' of the archive, and another along the way;

'Mayflies' by Richard Wilbur (which lead to by accident to the - to my mind - even more startling 'Barred Owl' - but who am I to disagree with Clive James?)

'The Whitsun Weddings' by Philip Larkin, which I encountered a few years ago; it reads like the outline plot for a novel or a short story. I'm tempted to have a go.

'A Subaltern's Love Song' by John Betjeman. Joan Hunter Dunn is how everyone knows it - rather charmingly JB can't find it in the book because he can't remember the real title. (Another ready-plotted novel?)

and then I listened to/read

'Jerusalem' by James Fenton, which needs a good deal more reading and thinking about before I go further.

Stone cries to stone,
Heart to heart, heart to stone,
.....
stop me here before I write out the whole poem. But the lines seem to fly off the page with the force of a video documentary or news photography. here come a few more snippets;
.....
this is the cistern where all wars begin
.....
Jerusalem itself is on the move.
It leaps and leaps from hill to hill
....
This is us and that is them,
This is Jerusalem.
These are the dying men with tattooed wrists.
Do this and I'll destroy your home.
I have destroyed your home. You have destroyed my home.

Now I shall go and do something useful about war, or religious intolerance, or poverty, or refugees, or something, anything, because Jerusalem is everywhere, leaping across boundaries, continents, seas...

February - another day

It doesn't take long to lose track of date and time without the daily schedule of here, there and everywhere.

I think it is probably Friday, and Wednesday last week was Valentine's Day (and Ash Wednesday) so work it out from there.

I'm still staying in bed; another time I might have got up and gone to work, but luckily I have been prevented from such and excess of Protestant Work Ethic by being signed off. So I am being resolute, and giving the antibiotics every chance. I can measure my progress by Sudoku levels. Yesterday I was only fit for "Mild" and "Medium". Today I have managed several "Tricky" puzzles. I haven't attempted "Extreme" or "Deadly" this week.

I've drunk a few more cups of tea, but this item on the BBC news about the perils of too much is a little alarming. Apparently it's the lemon or fruit ones that do the most damage, so I've only had "detox"; no lemon, no fruit, and not much taste, to tell the truth.

Maybe that's why it is called a "clean" infusion.

Much better than a "dirty" infusion.

What else? Someone on twitter mentioned the book "Ballet Shoes", as in she was having such an irritating day that she was going to sit in the sun and read a few chapters.

 I couldn't find my copy. It was an old secondhand one and probably disintegrated; no matter; a few clicks and I was reading it on my kindle. Then I was distracted into watching it on youtube. Oh, the joy of watching films in bed on my laptop. It took me back to having measles as a child, spending the days in my parents' bed watching their ancient and unreliable television.

There are two versions of the film; I've watched both, and read the book. It is interesting to compare the book and the two screenplays. On the whole, the book still wins. I prefer the more subdued dramatic levels in the original story to either of the screen versions. I blame "Eastenders" and the need for every life to be constantly over-full of events and drama every moment of every day

The battery level on this laptop is sinking after all this use; now down to 19%. And it is about 5pm. BB (recovering apace, thankfully, from his op ten days ago) is now able to driven and forage for supplies, and cook them. At the beginning of the week that was still down to me (and probably the tipping point for this current situation, thinking about it).

I shall go and see how he's getting on; and press "publish" before this contraption powers itself down.

Wednesday in February - The Teasmade

We bought this I dunnamany years ago, and hardly ever use it.

No, that's not true. I use it every morning and some evenings as a safe place to put my morning coffee or bedtime peppermint tea where it won't get knocked over or mixed up with my pillows.

But just every so often I use it for its real purpose; actually MAKING coffee, or tea. I'm always surprised that it still works... I found that it is best to run through some water first otherwise the tea appears with a surface layer of fine grey. It's an alarming process; the teasmade goes through its sequence of gurgling, puffing and dripping noises, always sounding very reluctant. Then after a series of loud 'pops' (why? how?) the water dribbles out into the cup.

'Teasmade days' are when I'm having a day in bed. Like today. Or rather, this week.

I took antibiotics for two weeks in January because I was properly lurgied, and thought they had done their work. However yesterday morning, while I was making my packed lunch it became abundantly clear that I was back to square one. I phoned the doctor, and he has signed me off.

To give the antibiotics their best chance of doing their stuff, I am staying in bed for most of the day. That effectively stops me from catching up on the laundry, planting out a tray of primulas, putting the kitchen waste into the compost bin, putting the recycling out, and a million other tasks.

No, me and the cat (the cat and I, if you prefer) anyway, us two, we are having a series of duvet days, with endless cups of tea from the teasmade, endless reading of books, endless browsing of internet, endless listening to radio...

Should be wonderful. Have to say that boredom could be setting  in anytime soon...

Ah well. The next cup of tea is ready to drink now. Pukka Wonderberry Green; "a deliciously sensual organic blend of luscious berries, spices and whole leaf green tea".

From the 'immune health' range; sounds terribly, terribly good for one. The previous cuppa was this;

The next will be this one.

Surely one of these concoctions (and the antibiotics) should do the trick?
PS I've tried the turmeric flavour; I don't think I'm ill or desperate enough to repeat the experience - yet.)