Fallen branches among the bluebells. Anon was always my favourite poet when as a child I was first introduced to poetry anthologies. So thank you Anonymous for your encouragement a couple of days ago before I had time to upload my snaps. The thing is when I was a child there was a bluebell wood at the bottom of our garden Now only the garish Spanish bluebells invade our little garden. And I no longer take their English cousins for granted.
"There's too much writing," writes the novelist Susan Hill in this week's Spectator. "The problem is that people feel they have to read it all. 'I've started a blog' is news to make the heart sink. I need my later years to read the best - novels, biographies, scholarship in a hundred subjects I want to learn about, poetry, letters, wit." I find myself agreeing even though I have been contributing to surplus reading matter by way of this blog for several years, and even expecting others to engage with it. To say nothing of reading other blogs myself. But those I read I regard as the work of friends. I want to hear about their exploits and discover their views as we used to in the days when we wrote letters to one another. Or sent postcards - another dying art. Sometimes I think of Best of Now as a series of post cards to my friends, open to view by all comers. And the more I dwell on the thought the more I like it.
In The Grove I hear a whizzing sound behind me. It is grown woman on a foot propelled scooter, the sort usuallydriven by children but clearly suitable for more mature folk. She banks to the left and turns sharply and at speed into Little Mount Sion, with athletic skill which fills me admiration.
"There's too much writing," writes the novelist Susan Hill in this week's Spectator. "The problem is that people feel they have to read it all. 'I've started a blog' is news to make the heart sink. I need my later years to read the best - novels, biographies, scholarship in a hundred subjects I want to learn about, poetry, letters, wit." I find myself agreeing even though I have been contributing to surplus reading matter by way of this blog for several years, and even expecting others to engage with it. To say nothing of reading other blogs myself. But those I read I regard as the work of friends. I want to hear about their exploits and discover their views as we used to in the days when we wrote letters to one another. Or sent postcards - another dying art. Sometimes I think of Best of Now as a series of post cards to my friends, open to view by all comers. And the more I dwell on the thought the more I like it.
In The Grove I hear a whizzing sound behind me. It is grown woman on a foot propelled scooter, the sort usuallydriven by children but clearly suitable for more mature folk. She banks to the left and turns sharply and at speed into Little Mount Sion, with athletic skill which fills me admiration.
2 comments:
Beautiful photos of bluebell woods! As for writing and blogs, I too think of blogs being like postcards between friends, at least the more personal blogs. They are even more special when one has met the writer in person. I probably would not be writing much at all were it not for the blog because I was not a diarist. May we keep on with it!
Blogging does provide an opportunity for exploring mini-ideas (or rants) that could not be handled elsewhere and this leads to the generation of further mini-ideas. I am about to conduct research on my recent posts that (which?) have scored very poorly (in comments) and see whether there is any commonality. Sonnets do badly but I'm sure I've cracked this one: when I started out I got lots of very generous encouragement. These days there's the expectation that I should have improved; if anything I'm even more slapdash and my readers - a discerning lot - are prominent by their absence.
Other poor-scorers remain a mystery. My memorial to Colin Davis scored a measly one - thanks to a fellow operating out of Tunbridge Wells - but then music, as a subject, is a bit of a loser. Or should I say: my thoughts on music. A dim idea is already forming: poor scoring posts are those which offer fewest opportunities for readers to get their hooks into. They are often hermetic, limited entirely to the author. However this needs further definition and the resultant post will - I have absolutely no doubt - score very badly indeed.
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