A dull and damp end to January but I'm on cloud nine here - my fracture is healing well, I've started physiotherapy and I've now got two free hands to do things with! I shall be very careful on that step in future ....
Whilst the practicalities such as housework and cooking have got more than a little out of hand over recent weeks, I've rejoiced in the opportunity to catch up on a lot of reading - some for research purposes but a lot simply for enjoyment. I've been trying some new authors (new to me, that is) as well as going back to old favourites. "Cousins" by Sally Vickers I really enjoyed but the one that kept me reading well into the night was "The Improbability Of Love" by Hannah Rothschild. Multi-layered, with a huge cast of characters - each beautifully drawn - it's exuberant, witty and says a lot that is deeply meaningful but with the lightest of touches. Following the life story of a great work of art through four hundred years of romance, intrigue, plunder, underhand dealing, you-name-it-the-painting-has-been-subjected-to-it, you can't fail to realise the depth of the author's knowledge as well as her skill in writing about it. If you haven't read it, do try to do so - it was shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction and would certainly have been my winning choice.
Tuesday, 31 January 2017
Wednesday, 25 January 2017
The Year Of Legend
My daughter and I have just booked to go to the Celtic Folk Festival being held in March in Porthcawl and I was very interested to see that 2017 has been designated the "Year of Legend" in Wales. No doubt a carefully thought-out marketing ploy on the part of the Welsh Tourist Board, but a highly appropriate one nonetheless. I can't think of anywhere else with so many, or such fascinating, myths and legends, from many of the Arthurian tales to the magical stories in the Mabinogion. One of my favourites is about Idris, the giant warrior poet who sits on his chair - the mountain Cadair Idris - to contemplate the heavens. Any mortal spending the night on his mountain needs to be brave or foolhardy - they will wake from sleep either a lunatic or a poet too!
Last spring I began a series of poems based on Celtic legends but other work got the better of me and the poems went on hold. They've come to the top of the to-do list again though, as soon as my big project is finished, and I'm really looking forward to revisiting all the stories - and hopefully their settings too, as I want to illustrate the poems with relevant photos. Roll on the spring, when I shall hopefully have the time, and some better weather, in which to do so!
Last spring I began a series of poems based on Celtic legends but other work got the better of me and the poems went on hold. They've come to the top of the to-do list again though, as soon as my big project is finished, and I'm really looking forward to revisiting all the stories - and hopefully their settings too, as I want to illustrate the poems with relevant photos. Roll on the spring, when I shall hopefully have the time, and some better weather, in which to do so!
 |
| Lake above Llandecwyn - Excalibur's final resting place? |
Tuesday, 17 January 2017
Steaming ahead
Well, take myself in hand I did, and last week was a highly productive one on the writing front. It could have been even more so if I was adept at typing left handed, but in the current situation I'm not complaining! I'm well on the way now to completing the first draft of the family chronicles and hopeful that my newly-set target (mid March) will be achievable. Whilst I need to maintain a definite focus to make sure of that, at the back of my mind and on the pages of my notebook a couple of other potential projects are taking form, spin-offs from the main thrust of the family story. I'm certainly not the type who can write two or more works simultaneously, but it's good to have some tentative follow-up plans.
One highlight of last week was an evening spent at Buzzwords listening to R. V. Bailey and June Hall reading their poetry. I wrote about the two of them a year or so ago now after hearing them read in Swindon from "The Book Of Love And Loss" which they had edited. Again I really enjoyed hearing them both, but I was especially struck this time by June's work; she writes so movingly about the triumphs and tragedies of life, about such intimate events as stillbirth and sickness, so amusingly about birthdays, growing up, growing old, even the frustrations of using disability aids. If you're not familiar with her work, do look it up, it's well worth the effort.
One highlight of last week was an evening spent at Buzzwords listening to R. V. Bailey and June Hall reading their poetry. I wrote about the two of them a year or so ago now after hearing them read in Swindon from "The Book Of Love And Loss" which they had edited. Again I really enjoyed hearing them both, but I was especially struck this time by June's work; she writes so movingly about the triumphs and tragedies of life, about such intimate events as stillbirth and sickness, so amusingly about birthdays, growing up, growing old, even the frustrations of using disability aids. If you're not familiar with her work, do look it up, it's well worth the effort.
Sunday, 8 January 2017
Positive thinking!
Was it only a couple of weeks ago I was writing about hopefulness and the power of positive thinking?! I certainly need to take myself in hand here - I've been thoroughly fed up and achieving very little over the past week as it's become obvious that it's going to be a protracted business recovering from this shoulder injury. But looking through the diary this morning there seems to be so much to look forward to on the poetry and writing scene and tomorrow at Catchword we'll be discussing the objectives we've set ourselves for the coming three months - a definite motivator! I can't turn up empty handed ... so it's upwards and onwards.
And even this miserable winter weather lets up occasionally; I've always loved winter evening skies and there have been some stunningly inspirational ones recently ....
And even this miserable winter weather lets up occasionally; I've always loved winter evening skies and there have been some stunningly inspirational ones recently ....
Saturday, 31 December 2016
2016 - going out with a bang ....
... literally! In a hurry yesterday morning I fell down a step in the garden that I'd forgotten we've got and landed up in a mess on some unbelievably hard concrete. We spent an interesting afternoon at the local community hospital (knowing that the main Accident Department twenty odd miles away was full to overflowing); the staff were wonderful - caring and very thorough. Somehow I have landed up with an unusual fracture of my right scapula - an injury more commonly seen if you come off a motorbike at 70mph or get rolled on by a car!
It's quickly become apparent that I'm not an accomplished typist with one finger on my left hand! This rather cocks up my writing plans for the next few weeks - I think my resolutions for the New Year may need to be amended accordingly this evening.
It's quickly become apparent that I'm not an accomplished typist with one finger on my left hand! This rather cocks up my writing plans for the next few weeks - I think my resolutions for the New Year may need to be amended accordingly this evening.
Sunday, 25 December 2016
A Hopeful Christmas
As always it seems, Christmas news from around the world is far from what we
would wish. Destruction, fear and famine, anxiety for the future and sadness about the past - it's often hard to find any real "Christmas spirit". But two years ago, at a very difficult point in my father-in-law's life, a Quaker friend, an ex-student of his, sent in his Christmas card a bookmark with a Seamus Heaney quote. Since my father-in-law's death I have kept it on my desk and it's become a philosophy that I try to live by. Call it faith, call it the power of positive thinking, but I firmly believe that we have to look to the future with optimism that our actions can materially alter things, that we can make a difference in our own individual worlds.
would wish. Destruction, fear and famine, anxiety for the future and sadness about the past - it's often hard to find any real "Christmas spirit". But two years ago, at a very difficult point in my father-in-law's life, a Quaker friend, an ex-student of his, sent in his Christmas card a bookmark with a Seamus Heaney quote. Since my father-in-law's death I have kept it on my desk and it's become a philosophy that I try to live by. Call it faith, call it the power of positive thinking, but I firmly believe that we have to look to the future with optimism that our actions can materially alter things, that we can make a difference in our own individual worlds.
Wherever you are, however this season finds you,
I wish you a hopeful Christmas and a peaceful 2017.
Thursday, 15 December 2016
A Festive Evening Out
A hugely entertaining couple of hours yesterday evening hosted by St. Mary's Priory Church in Monmouth - "A Thousand Years Of Christmas", songs and readings performed by the soprano Sally Bradshaw and Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury and an outstanding poet. Richard Burton apart, I have not heard anyone read Dylan Thomas's prose so well - his Conversation About Christmas and Ghost Story had to be my favourite parts of the evening. Although I must say that "Christmas Cards" by Keith Watkyn amused me no end too - if you're struggling with writing the interminable annual updates to people you haven't seen for years (some of whom you haven't minded not seeing for years!) and could do with a break, do look it up, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)