Paris 5th-8th July Hot and sunny throughout. We're based in the 10th arrondissement. It's lively and vibrant, especially along the banks of the Canal Saint-Martin, which are thronged with Parisians picnicking, rendez-vousing, imbibing and conversing late into the evening. I feel at home. It seems that Parisians have been starved of good weather as much …
Category: musings
spring fever
At last, at long bloody last, spring seems to have arrived. I'm wearing footless tights, for only the second time this year. I've opened the bedroom window - not wide, but enough for a gentle waft of London air and London sounds to permeate the flat. The heating's been off for a couple of weeks, …
humour me
It took me a very long time to realise it's possible to be a serious (dedicated, life-committed), writer/artist/creative person and also to be funny, humorous, light-hearted (some of the time, at least). This doesn't seem such an astonishing discovery, but for years I was Very Serious, and the flip side of this was to be …
how’s my navel?
Two excuses to indulge in a little navel-gazing: another year drawing to a close, and this being my one hundredth blog post. My navel was quite well travelled this year, accompanying me to Melbourne in late February, the Dordogne in July, and Paris in autumn. We hosted a small antipodean invasion, and my navel and …
and then there were two
My visitors have departed. The airbeds have been deflated. The flat suddenly seems remarkably spacious, and strangely quiet. There's a new mark on the back of the kitchen door, recording the current height of my niece. She's grown 34 centimetres since the last visit 5 years ago. 34 more centimetres and she'll have outgrown me. …
cinq nuits à Paris
Zut alors, we packed a lot in. Five nights, six days, in tourist-crammed Paris. Our visit coincided (unintentionally) with the English half-term holidays. Weather as changeable as Melbourne, or London. Downpours, and glorious autumn sunshine. Paris art overload: the Pompidou Centre, just after it opens, straight up to level 5 for early Dada and surrealism. …
full house
I have guests. Family from Australia, over for a few weeks. Which is fun, exciting, fantastic, and just a little stretching in terms of living space. Five adults and one lively seven and a half year old in a two bedroom flat. Finished reading Patrick White's The Aunt's Story while my niece played downstairs. And …
London latte
Friday morning. I'm in the city for a course, and I'm early. Summer's ending. It's a bright, fresh morning and I'm in fine spirits, for no particular reason other than the weather, and that's a good feeling. I have a quarter of an hour before I'm due in the world of work, and I'm going …
Saturday swim
Up at 6:30. Straight into swimming togs. Cycle shirt and shorts on top. Pannier packed the night before with towel, goggles etc. Kiss my sleepy, non-swimming beloved goodbye, and then I'm out, on my bike, into the fine, bright morning, cycling south along not quite empty streets, across Clapham Common where a slight haze shimmers …
weeding and reading
Not long back from a week in the French countryside. Time to reflect, to read, to sit and drink in the landscape, the deep blue sky and fields of maize and sunflowers. Terracotta tiled roofs, delicate orange poppies, pots of carmine geraniums, beds of red sage, lavender and rosemary. Self seeded walnut trees and catalpa. …
Hilaire 