Talk among yourselves

I’m frantically busy – and not much time to blog.

Here is something for you to talk about to keep things going. (I admit I have stolen this idea). What songs/hymns/carols are so terrible you would eat your own liver rather than sing them? Possibly the two I hate worst are ‘All things bright and beautiful’ and ‘Once in royal David’s city’ (which is fine till it gets to the meek and mild stuff.) But what really jams your shutter?

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Nothing else will do

‘9-11 made me lose my faith’, she said, ‘No I was not a Muslim, but seeing what faith could persuade people to do, I decided that the very idea of God was wrong.’

And the Pope tells us, reasonably enough, that if we lose sight of the worth of humans, then our society is impoverished. Only it is not what his denomination SAYS, but what it has done, that undermines it. The shocking child abuse and the undervaluing of women (as you know I do not believe rubbish about being ‘equally valued for different roles’).

Don’t get comfortable, please.

One of the saddest things I heard was somebody telling how they had joined a church and lost their faith because they could not see any difference between the lives of those who where part of the church and the rest of the world. No, they did not expect they to be perfect, but they expected SOME difference.

People cannot hear what we say if they do not see what we do. If you believe enough for it to be important to you, let it work through into every conscious thought and every unconscious action. Nothing else will do. Sorry.9

Re-homed

Yesterday was a day of gloom and backache and headache and cleaning. The gloom was mainly over the book, or rather its rapid advance towards not merely being unpublished but unpublishable.

At 2.30 it changed. Not, I fear, the status of the book, but my attitude to the day. I had been told earlier that my afternoon customer intended binning a comfortable-looking arm chair – and as I was preparing for the builder who never came, I had taken no steps to providing myself with that utter necessity for quiet winter evenings, and happy lazy Saturday mornings, the comfortable arm chair. The chair had failed to make that sad last journey several weeks in a row, and yesterday I plucked up my courage and asked for it. Within moments the request being made the chair (admittedly suffering a bit from the claws of the customer’s companion animals, but that is the hazard in my home too) was safely in the back of my little van/car and I was rejoicing.

I often fail to live in the moment, but yesterday afternoon the (probably) failed gamble of 15 years of work faded into the background, and the absolute certainty of a really comfortable chair stepped forward. A gamble is a gamble, you have to be prepared to lose. Something comfortable to sit in, is a present and achievable reality. Yea for a nice chair, re-homed!

On the pull

I would have made a terrible prostitute. For a number of reasons, you understand, conservative morality being high on the list. But among them being that every time a man drove past me, I would have taken the rejection personally.

Currently my nice agent is hawking my book around publishers. It is all happening terribly fast. Actually I would have quite liked a little time to digest events. What is actually happening is that rejections come in rather speedily. Each one I take to heart.

Idiotically, I feel most hurt by the suggestion the book has too many footnotes. Sigh. Well, what’s a girl to do? It is such a huge no-no to leave anything unattributed in the world of academe. Of course, I could very simply lose them. But footnotes did not stop the Duchess of Devonshire being a smash hit.

Oh dear, should I abandon my reputation in the gutter?

Mutton, dressed

There is do doubt that I love clothes and like (when not in the home dress of jods and jumper, or the work dress of inexpensive jeans and T shirt) to dress up a bit. I do not warm to clothes generally intended for my age group. A friend commented recently that she had thought my choice for a BBQ (rather a dressy one) of chiffon tunic blouse, jeans and my beloved shocking pink patent Doc Marten’s required chutzpah, which had not occurred to me, since I feel chiffon (unless for meeting the Queen) requires something to give it a bit of an edge.

I did restrain myself from wearing footless tights to my son’s wedding.

However usually I make most of my clothes, which seems to provide a bit of a breaking system. I need to find the pattern, suitable cloth and also suitable time. At the moment, it is very plain that suitable time is lacking. I have a ‘Reader’ to compile, work on the presentation of my book to finish, and a story telling session to prepare. When that is done I need to take out the fireplace, summon the joiner, plumb in an upstairs shower-room, clear the kitchen, and …. You get the message. Dressmaking, however enticing, is off the menu.

So I have been buying, a novel experience for me. Oh Dear. You see the restraints of think of how long it will take, and how to find the material are not there. Frankly, on ebay you can buy almost anything for 25 squid. Or less. I certainly paid less for the really charming green velvet and lace skirt. It is stunning. If I am ever needed an an extra in an amateur production of ‘Elf’ I will be sure to wear it.

A good week

I have had my fair share of Jonah weeks – weeks when everything that could go wrong did. This week I got the opposite.

The sun shone. The new little keets were able to venture out and enjoy it. They are growing, although it does weigh on their minds that they are delicious. They are very cautious.

Bernadette too is putting on weight. When she arrived she condition scored one (out of five, where five is obese) and now she scored three (which is the ideal weight). It has taken good feeding to get her there. The least said about what it has done to Martha’s condition score the better. They too have been out in an electrified pen enjoying the sun.

I have also been able to see good progress with the plants. The tomato seed my son and son-in-law gave me has turned into nice little plants. So have the aubergines, who turned out to have enchanting purple flowers, and as you can see, the pepper my daughter gave me flowered and then set fruit.

Then the buddlia from last year and the lavender from this year, given by another daughter are both flowering.

And then an agent felt they would like to represent the big biography. A good week.