reading Amitav Ghosh’s River of Smoke. Lost in a world of ships, opium and rare plants in nineteenth century China.
listening to James Yorkston (and excited to see him again at tomorrow’s gig)
buying too many books. Must stop book browsing and start reading. New Oxfam bookstore opening in town does not help!
loving holiday planning! Off to the Lake District for the first time. Guide book gives the Eskdale Valley full marks for hiking, scenery and beer. Count me in, whatever the weather..
This June weather may not be inspiring the usual barbecues and beers, but I am enjoying these rainy days to get lost in books. I visited the British Library the other day, admired the King’s Library several storeys high, and wandered the main atrium filled with the noisy bustle of shuffled papers, stirred teacups and tapping keys.
Across the hall, I was lost in a far more ancient world of parchment and quill. In the dimly lit ‘Treasures’ exhibition I peered at the notebooks of Austen, Coleridge, Carter and Wilde and marvelled at the studied carefulness of their solitary work. The room was a heady mix of ancient maps, sacred texts, and mighty tomes. I love this collection of minds, these ideas bound in paper, filled with boundless possibilities.
You can keep your Kindle; these sheets of paper is where my heart lies.
Turning off the lane, I make a long trudge into the wind into the oak trees…The whole wood creaks. The curious thing is how quiet and calm it can be inside a wood during a wind. The wood shelters itself. All you hear is the wind in the fringes and in the treetops, a sound with the quality of a shingle seashore not far away.
– Roger Deakin
It’s been a weekend of windy sunshine and doing just what we fancy.
Yesterday, Tom and I treated ourselves to brunch at a favourite cafe and spent the afternoon on a longer-than-anticipated walk across Yaverland and Bembridge Down.
Today, with tired legs and heavy rain outside, we had the perfect lazy Sunday, filled with knitting, baking and reading.
This pattern from Kate is proving great fun, much faster and simpler than the initial five-page pattern had me fearing. Its got me picking up my knitting far more often than I have done for months and I’m enjoying watching its fast progress.
I’ve found a banana bread recipe (adapted from Hummingbird Bakery) that Tom seems to love. Home-baked goodies in a weekday lunchbox remind me of being a kid and always go down better than the Kit-Kats we settle on when I fail to bake.
I’ve taken my time reading Roger Deakin’s Wildwood. This morning I was transported to the wild walnut forests of Kyrgyzstan and this afternoon I was lost in the blackthorn and crab apple of English hedgerows.
It’s easy breezy weekends like this that make that early Monday morning start a little easier.
Tom bought me “Love and War in the Pyrenees” for our first year anniversary. We spent our honeymoon hiking in the Pyrenees and I was looking forward to a revisit of the beautiful scenery and a bit of a love story amidst the pages. I hadn’t really taken into account the ‘war’ part of the title and found this book a far more harrowing read than I’d expected. Sure, I studied the Second World War at school, and I guess I could regurgitate some names and dates; but the personal stories of struggle and resistance in this book, set in the familiar backdrop of this part of the world I love so much, hit me much harder.
These mountain passes are difficult enough in perfect sunshine, with a pack full of food and the promise of a warm bed at the end of the day. Even with Bailey’s fantastic writing, it is hard to imagine how so many refugees covered these routes in such hard conditions. True tragedies can be a depressing read, and perhaps that is why it’s taken me six months to getting around to reading this book. It is almost impossible to believe the extent of man’s inhumanity to man, but equally incredible to read of the stories of resistance, bravery, and kindness. This book has certainly given me a different perspective on this part of the world. And whilst there is always an argument for simply soaking up the beauty of a place in the moment, this little bit of history has made me marvel at these mountains all the more.
