grey, time,early

The sun persists on a grey afternoon And how glad we are of its milky glow.

It is clear to me that there will never be time to read and reread all the books that I want to. The worst thing to do is to drift from one book to another. without finnishing any one of them.When you open a book. I tell myself, you should see it through to the end, even, as sometimes happens, the bitter end. In the last year or so I have tackled the problem by dividing my reading time into four or more sections. And then asigning certain times to certain books, and sticking very strictly to this routine. So at the moment, it is Zola's La Terre before breakfast and in the hour so before rur evening meal. Last thing at night, at the moment, it is The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, (until recently this slot was devoted to Gullivers Travels). The afternoon is at the moment giventoTony Judt's Post War, a history Eurpope from 1945 until the present day. Four books at a time isn't I suppose bad going, but I wouldn't be able to keep it up, if I didn't stick to the rules. Then there are things to do and to be done, other than reading. "Always got his nose in a book,"   is not a nice thing to say of someone , though you could say it of me . Though if you did I it would not ne entirely true.  I do other things. Yes I do.

This morning, in anticipation of a the visit of my daughter Pippa and her  family, I get up early to peel the potatoes, trim the sprouts and anoint the joint. The sight of everything ready and  in its
 place is encouraging.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

veins, rural, dragon

The veins  in the petal confirm that this camellia is real.

As I walk through a rural part of  Tunbridge Wells I notice that the blackbirds are less nervous than on our hillside where cats abound and children shout merrily. The birds cock their heads at me, but do not fly off uttering their trilling alarm call.

"Looks like a dragon," says the woman at the check out in Sainsbury's holding up my large root of ginger. "You must like ginger." She is wearing a red  plastic nose for Red Nose Day. She has to remove the nose in order to sneeze.

meeting, chorus, news

Meeting of the newly formed Union of Mannequins (UM) in  a department store window.

One of my earliest childhood memories is  waking to the sound of the dawn chorus in the wood outside my bedroom window. We lived in Forest Row, about 20 miles from here as the crow flies. Today there are fewer trees outside my present window and my hearing is not what it was. The birds seem less noisy and are doubtless fewer. Often I am asleep when the birds, sensing the sunrise before anyone else, burst into song. But this morning, blackbirds in particular are in full song. It must be half past five. Or perhaps 1938.

I am half way through Tony Judt's excellent Postwar, a history of Europe from 1945 to the present day. The more history I read the less time  I have to read newspapers. When, I ask myself, does news become history?  This book ends with the present day. More or less. The news comes via the radio, tv, and the internet as well as newspapers, but I can't help feeling that the headlong flow of events improves with time and containment. Or at least you could say it becomes easier to bear.