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 …
Category: musings
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. …
the upsides of downpours
We've had a lot of rain recently. Slight understatement. And the weather seems to affect my spirits more than it used to. How I loved those grim louring skies when I first moved to London. And I do, still, sometimes, when I'm inside looking out, and not worrying about how drenched I'm going to get …
excuse me
Where have the last three weeks gone? (I could as well ask the same of the last six months...) I'm just about treading water. No new writing but I have submitted to a poetry pamphlet competition, and heard last week that I've had a short story accepted for Wet Ink magazine in Australia. Gold star …
not lit crit
I've written before about my anxieties around reading. So, this post is just to record some personal responses to two (quite different) books I have actually read. Firstly, I recently finished The House on Paradise Street by Sofka Zinovieff. I was attracted to the book by a short and largely favourable review in the Guardian. …
word association football
I seem to have a very associative mind. I recently ordered a copy of the literary magazine, The Wolf, and now every time I see its cover I hear the Duran Duran song 'Hungry Like the Wolf''. I observe that it's raining (a not infrequent occurrence at the moment) and straightaway Nick Cave booms 'And …
a fair fortnight
Two weeks since we returned from Melbourne, and here are a few things that have eased my adjustment back into London life: The weather. We've had a spell of glorious, almost summery weather. Clear blue skies, temperatures into the low twenties, hazy sunshine. Crisp mornings and balmy evenings. Warm enough to sit outside a pub …
not quite dispelling the blues
A brisk walk around Battersea Park. Looking for signs of spring, and for the rhyme or reason that I'm still wedded to London. I need to gaze at water but The Thames is low, the tide right out. The brightest thing in the park is an out of place wattle tree, shaking its yellow blossoms …
pep talk
New year's resolutions are so last year, don't you think? Besides, I have a constant conversation with myself (mostly not out loud, but the occasional exhortation gets vocalised) about being more disciplined, focussing on what's important, keeping the day job in perspective, not giving in to diversionary tendencies (that sounds like a political crime in …
