Thursday Photo
Month: August 2023
Friday Elevenses: mid-August
I am trying to make an effort to take five minutes, around 11am, to stop whatever I’m doing and appreciate the things I can see, hear, smell around me. I think it’s so easy to become overwhelmed with the busyness of life that life’s simple pleasures can be overlooked or, sadly, missed altogether. I’m thinking of starting a monthly series where I describe what I can see/hear/smell from my workspace in order to make this ‘present living’ a habit. So, as I stop typing up my thesis this Friday morning in mid-August, let me take you into my five-minute revitalising elevenses time sans camera, but through description only (and a few stock online photos to add interest!):
I am sitting at my dining-room table where I have just stopped work on my thesis for five minutes. The sun is sporadically shining into the room through the full height windows, occasionally highlighting the teacup and saucer that I have laid at the end of the table. And then, the clouds hide it away again, casting a slight gloom in the room. As I look out of the window, into our back garden, I watch the keen breeze swaying our tall bamboo stems. Some of these are so abundant in foliage that they are beginning to droop – their skinny stems are finding it hard to cope with the weight of the leaves.
As I then gaze above the bamboo stems, onto the hills, I can see two horses grazing. I think there are more up there but I can only see two of them just now. As the sun’s rays peep out from the clouds and sweep across the hills, they spotlight each horse individually – it’s almost as if it were trying to turn my attention to these munching animals.
Beyond the horses, there are trees – hundreds and thousands of them. This is because it is thick woodland which goes up to the horizon and over miles of hills to join those of the neighbouring town. I have enjoyed this high woodland walk many times. Among the light and dark greens of the different types and heights of trees, there is – even now – the occasional one which is beginning to show its autumn colours. In another few weeks, the hill will be a blaze of orange and reds; that is when the hill looks its best. Owls live in those trees – we hear them at night. The army of thousands of trees act as a windbreak, or guard, over our town protecting us from the worst of the elements.
Returning in to the back garden, the honeysuckle has made good gains on the garden fence. Although I can’t smell it from where I am sitting, I know that when I sit on our bench later, its scent will be extremely pleasant. The tubs of pansies I planted in the spring are beginning to die back now – I have enjoyed them so much this year, particularly the orange-coloured ones which looked fiery in the heatwave.
The only sounds I can hear are the birds singing, especially a vociferous wood-pigeon, the rumble of a distant aeroplane on its descent to the airport, and a far-off tractor at work. The children went back to school this week and so it is deliciously quiet – at least, until they finish at lunchtime as all the schools here do on Fridays. Now, I can just make out the faint hum of traffic on the main road, but the breeze soon muffles this as it once again picks up and rustles the leaves of the bamboo, as well as those on the silver birch tree.
There is bread baking in the bread-machine. Its scent fills the kitchen and filters through to me in the adjoining room. It will be ready for lunchtime. I have a tray next to me which holds a teapot full of tea and a slice of homemade gingerbread on a plate. The blend of the scent of baking bread and that of the gingerbread evoke a sense of autumn. I love autumn – it’s my favourite season by far.
………
My five minutes is up. Time to get back to work. It has been a pleasant break, just taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of my immediate vicinity. When we move home, I will miss the hills, the trees, the horses, and the relative quietness, but I’m going to continue trying to take five minutes out to ‘live in the moment’, enjoying the things that I have access to from my workspace.
[As I finished typing this, the solitude was broken by my dogs barking which then set off several other neighbouring dogs barking too. Oops!].
Thursday Photo
Thursday Photo
July Re-Cap
Once again, I have neglected my blog over the past month. Not out of desire but more of necessity. July has been another weirdly busy month where nothing has happened (if that makes sense). I hope to rectify things and return to my usual blogging schedule as soon as I can. In the meantime, here is a re-cap of my July:
House selling
Sadly, our house is still on the market as I type up this blog. None of the family homes around here have shifted, and more are coming onto the market every week. Since my last blog post, we have had no viewers at all; indeed, at times I forget our house is even on the market. It’s really demoralising. The “one viewer” that everyone talks about is strangely elusive and we wait on, clocking up more fees for storage and gaining more and more grey hairs and worry lines. There is a fairly big (I’m told) cycling event happening in nearby Glentress Forest at the end of this week and our agent is hoping that with a lot of visitors in the town we may pick up some interest. But, I am not holding my breath. I’m usually a positive person – optimism is my default setting – but this whole experience of trying to sell our lovely home is chipping away at that bit by bit. Maybe I’m just tired. I know I’m impatient. Both my husband and I are so keen to move back to the city as soon as possible and it’s frustrating when the ability to do so seems to not be happening imminently.
We are also in great need of a holiday away but because of the shenanigans this year with house-selling, that isn’t going to happen. Instead, it’s a case of trying to chill at home.
Anyway, maybe next month’s blog will be different (I’m sure I also said this last month…..).
PhD thesis
I have been trying to chip away at this over the past month. I have definitely left the most tricky chapter until the end. I’ve found some very useful background information, but Powell’s pubs, clubs, and restaurants are described minimally in his Dance novels. From these minimal descriptions, and from his journal entries and memoirs, I am trying to piece together subchapters which maintain the theme upon which my thesis is based. It is far from easy. Maybe I’m finding it more challenging with all that is going on (or not) with the house, but I’m keeping on going and am determined to have this finished next summer at the earliest.
When I was a child, my parents used to drag me to swimming lessons (which I hated!). The swimming teacher always used to tell us to “keep kicking” so that we could complete lengths, even when we wanted just to float or take a rest. That “keep kicking” concept has been very much in my mind, and – no matter how hard I wish this was all done so I can take a wee break – I have to keep going. If I don’t “keep kicking”, it won’t be finished for ages. And I (and I’m sure my supervisor) want this finished.
Reading
This month, when I haven’t been reading articles and books about Fitzrovia and Soho, or Powell’s novels (for the umpteenth time), I have been reading the first in the trilogy of Peebles-based novels by O. Douglas (actually named Anna Buchan, sister of John Buchan who wrote the Hannay books). I’ve only lived here 23 years and am reading them just as I’m about to leave! It’s easy-reading but a lovely escape as I try (unsuccessfully) to identify the locations of the houses that appear in Penny Plain (the first book in the ‘Priorsford’ series). Published in 1925, this novel paints a very different town to the one I live in, particularly in this description:
“I often wonder why Priorsford is so unlike a story-book little town. We’re not nearly so interested enough in each other for one thing. We don’t gossip to excess. Everyone goes his or her own way. In books, people do things or are suspected of doing things, and are immediately cut out by a feverishly-interested neighbourhood. I can’t imagine that happening in Priorsford”.
One just needs to look at the town Facebook pages to see that this isn’t the case any more! And gossip….. well, let’s just say when I was sick 11 years ago, I learned from various people “through the grapevine” that I had been at ‘death’s door’, or re-admitted for yet another operation among other falsities. I guess this is the ‘joy’ of a small town.
TV/Netflix/Streaming
I haven’t had much time to watch TV (as usual) except for the Sewing Bee (which I also mentioned last month). I can’t be bothered with TV, to be honest. I’ve been in a more creative/reading mood this month.
General
Unlike May and June, July has been cool and wet here. I don’t think there has been a day, since the schools broke up at the end of June, when we haven’t had rain. I’m not complaining though; the heatwave we had in the spring was more than enough summer for me. And, I’d rather have what we have now than the excessively hot temperatures seen in many parts of the world over the past few weeks. I’ve tidied out the garden in the drier spells but have been spared the watering – God’s done that for me! Perhaps when the schools go back in a fortnight, we will get summer again (even though I am looking forward to autumn!).
Talking of which, yesterday was so wet and cold that I decided to make gingerbread. I felt autumnal and I wanted to make something to enjoy with a cuppa tea. I found an old recipe in a book my late Auntie gave me for my fifteenth birthday, and the end result is amazing. I’m going to make that again!
Our son was 23 last week, so he and my daughter came from their respective flats to stay for the weekend. It was lovely having the house full again. Now they have both gone, I really feel the vacuum they have left. Mind you, I have a lot of tidying up to do in their wake!
I’ve been chipping away at the cross-stitch picture that my Dad gave me for Christmas. It’s hard finding time as I usually feel guilty that I’m not writing my thesis, or doing my SST emails, or doing something else. However, I have done short bursts at a time and am two-thirds of the way through it. I think I have mentioned it before, but sewing – and art and craft in general – is my go-to de-stress activity. Also, there is a quotation in a book I read a few years ago (in The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams), which says:
‘”I clean, I help with the cooking. I set the fires. Everything I do gets eaten, or dirtied, or burned – at the end of the day there’s no proof I have been here at all”. She paused, kneeled down beside me, and stroked the embroidery on the edge of my skirt […]. “Me [sic] needlework will always be here […]. I see this and I feel….well, I don’t know the word. Like I’ll always be here”. “Permanent,” I said’.
That’s how I view my numerous cross-stitch pictures which will one day belong to the kids. They are lasting proof that I have existed. Does that sound sad?
Ooh, and also the new Karl Jenkins CD was released at the beginning of July; the CD for which our choir provided two songs: ‘Let’s Go (Babel)’ and ‘Savitur’. They sound a-maz-ing! Even better, the album reached number 1 in the classical charts, so now I can say that I have sung on a number 1 CD! The names of my husband and I are on the inlay slip as proof! See if you can see my name below…. (names listed alphabetically by first name).
So, that’s been July. I’m hoping August will see the changes we are seeking. Who knows?
June's Jottings 