Downsizing

Where am I going to put all my

New rooms

Even if you never find the house of your dreams

you can have the house, many houses,

in your imagination.

And in those houses there are many rooms,

all waiting to be furnished and decorated.

I have a recurrent dream, perhaps it is a common one,

where I am in a house that I know well, 

 it is my own house apparently -

but I happen upon a room 

that I have either never visited,

or somehow forgotten.

Usually it is large and light,

with tall windows and fine views,

filled with beautiful furniture and fabrics,

all of which I recognise as mine.

Sometimes it has a fascinating attic,

stuffed with treasures,

it might have a garden 

with a stream running through it.

I am delighted to rediscover these houses

and sometimes a passage in a book 

brings them faintly back to my waking life.

Those pale light rooms opening out of one another,

full of bright chintzes and spring flowers -

tulips and broom and irises and rhododendron -

were at last really different from the old rooms

with their shut and curtained doors,

red carpets and rich dark covers

and tiny scattered vases of flowers.

Rising Tide by Molly Keane

Sun bathing

Late afternoon and a sunny interval

lengthened and brightened into brilliant

spring illumination. 

It felt like being awakened from

a rather dreary dream.

Even this squirrel took a little moment

to sun bathe.

The evidence

I know the sun must have shone

briefly 

because 

I have

the evidence. 

I know we must have had birthday cake for P.

because I have the evidence for that too.

Sarah Raven's Chocolate cake with lime.

Limes are essential for vitamin C.

Chocolate is essential for February.

Bring it in

New electrician.

Black grit showers down from loft.

Pink blossom opens.

Walking on

'Sentries and cardboard shields: parallel gestures,

it seemed, in a world of bombing planes and motor traffic.

But perhaps the making of the gesture was what mattered.

She pulled herself together and walked on.'

From The First Day of Spring by Jan Struther.

On being able to accept that 

you are unable to right all the world's ills

but that you must do what you feel you can

and then walk on.

Ain't the sun gonna shine anymore?

A lovely morning interlude*

because it isn't all errant electricians,
leaky plumbing
and Black Mould round here.


Sometimes people just offer to come and play
Fauré and Saint-Saëns 
'if you wouldn't mind',
before a return-to-the-concert-platform event
following surgery.


*See also A lovely evening interlude

Wish fulfillment

Whilst going through a folder of magazine cuttings

I notice that I have twice torn out pictures of

brightly painted Hans J. Wegner Wishbone chairs.

They were produced to celebrate the chair's 60th anniversary.

At £536 each they are beyond reach,

but I spotted a bentwood chair in the top picture,

(price £99) and thought,

I've got one of those,

and a paintbrush.

The paint cost £9.49.

So I'm pretty happy.

Large Tummies

With nary a child in the house

and a hard afternoon spent cleaning and 

re-assembling the linen cupboard,

we treated ourselves to a curry 

at our local Indian restaurant.

The guava and green raisin kulfi

was a delicious

but quite unnecessary indulgence.

P.S I have found a new electrician.

The carpet is drying out again.

Spoke too soon

The radiator has been leaking all night.

This is the second leak, 

the first occurring when the radiator was removed for painting

allowing just enough time for the carpet to dry out

leaving a watermark that I could just about tolerate.

(See below - I didn't trouble you with this news the first time)

Now it has leaked on being re-fitted.

Paul the painter has switched his phone to voicemail.

Meanwhile Lloyd the 'lectrician,

is four hours late and I am 

in a state somewhere between resignation and despair.


Edited to add: Lloyd never came. 
Why I do not know. He didn't ring either.
Paul eventually got my message and has been back
to repair the connection.
Let's hope it holds.