Aconites
Hellebores
closed crocuses
jonquils
open crocuses
all pretending it’s spring. The last few days have been sunny and much milder than normal. Is climate change showing its claws?; maybe we are going to pay for the sudden display of nature’s kinder side in March. It was pleasant enough this morning for me to grab the secateurs and chop back some spent perennials. I must ring old gardener and ask him to come and restart our gardening year. Something to look forward to. The sun has brought out my own sunnier side; a frequent first thought on waking is : why get up, there’s no one to care and nothing to do : but then Millie starts scrabbling on the carpetless floors, I shout at her furiously - she can’t hear me, being completely deaf now - and the day has begun in earnest.
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I believe I have grown up; many years ago I bought Diana Athill’s “Instead of a Letter” in hardback, it may even have been a first edition. She died not long ago, at age 101. The blurb on the original flyleaf said that Athill had “written this autobiography in order to discover the truth about herself and about what her life has been for. Her book is uncompromisingly honest. Yet although she discusses with unusual frankness matters not usually discussed by conventionally reared daughters of British colonels, she is never embarrassing because nothing embarrasses her.” Why I did not appreciate this frank and honest account of her privileged childhood, falling deeply in love at an early age, before being jilted by her lover, mystifies me. I still remember exactly the space on my bookshelves where her memoir sat, yet I must have given it away decades ago. The other day I searched for it in vain, having read several others of her memoirs since and loved all of them. So I ordered “Instead of a Letter” from Blackwell’s in Oxford and instantly fell in love with this classic of modern memoir finally, and for the first time.
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My study is all finished now, the computer is downstairs, books and music and TV have been installed. Instead of climbing upstairs I can now get to my computer more easily and it’s more fun to sit and type, for short periods of time, unplanned and unhurried. My painter, who is also a friend, was looking over my shoulder during a break and asked what I was doing. “Tinkering with my blog”, I said. “Blog? What’s a blog”. I explained and he came up with this remark: “So, this how it is, a man in a shed, a lady at a keyboard.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. The problem is that he is now one of the few people in Valley’s End who know, but I shan’t let it cramp my style.
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A bit of housekeeping to finish, Google no longer lets me comment on Google+ blogs. Sorry, Google+ bloggers who visit here.
Dogs...the most effective alarm clocks.
ReplyDeleteNothing like spring flowers to wake the gardening soul....here, in the midst of scorching heat, watering has encouraged some of the more sheltered stuff to sprout forth again.
I just went to my library website and put a hold on that Athill book. Somebody is reading it right now but I should have it pretty quickly. Love memoirs and good ones are my favorite pastime. :-)
ReplyDeleteI didn't realise that Diana Athill had died. My partner and I were talking about her just last week. she was saying how much she liked Diana's writing and how much she would like to interview her one day. Well, time to break the news. :-(
ReplyDeleteGreetings from London.
If I did not have Lukas to look after, there are days I would not be bothered. Going on week three of this upper respiratory crud and though much improved, still tired. I like the sound of your study, all of your favorite things in one place and easy to reach...Good job.
ReplyDeleteI love Diana Athill, read all her work. You might also enjoy May Sarton, she's a bit of an acquired taste but I love her memoirs of life at 70, life at 80, etc. And her other writings, fiction, essays, etc. One of her passions was gardening.
ReplyDeleteXO
WWW
Thanks for a bit of spring sure hope it comes soon! Your new computer space sounds good! :)
ReplyDeleteHi Friko - love the displays ... are they cyclamen or crocuses? It does sound as though you're well set up -and that will be relief ... it's good to potter around doing various things as the mind desires ... time to sit and read, or ponder at the machine and that beautiful garden awaiting you. Thankfully the thick fog has disappeared today and we have some of the sun the rest of England has been having ... it does raise the spirits. Have a good weekend - and I hope Old Gardener will be joining you soon.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read any of Diana Athill ... I must look her up. Glad things are easing ... cheers for now - Hilary
Good to hear from you and that you are having better days. Having the Old Gardener to work in your gardens, having your room set up for blogging and reading, good for you.
ReplyDeleteHave a nice weekend ~ FlowerLady
There is nothing like the colors and promise of an early spring to heighten one’s mood.
ReplyDeletelaying in bed wondering why you should get up but then being awake after a while laying in bed gets boring. I may have to see if aconites and hellebores will do down here. my computer in in front of a wall of windows and I get ta gaze out while I think and compose and read and write.
ReplyDeleteI have always been fascinated by Erich Kaestner and Hermann Hesse …. and Luise Rinser and Rosamunde Pilcher … and you …. Thank you for your thoughts, friend Friko … says this Alberta cat and her cat Theo. Much love, c.
ReplyDeleteI trying my google account,
ReplyDeleteI used to have a Google+ blog and it would not let me comment on some other blogs! It all changed, either through some tinkering I did or some other reason...certainly not the beneficial tweeking from Google itself! Only Helebores blooming, but certainly time to distribute the mulch. Did not do it two years past and weeds have taken over!!
ReplyDeleteThought the Diana Athill book sounded interesting so I'm requesting it on library loan.
ReplyDeleteFlowers won't appear here in my corner of the world for another two months so what a treat to see yours! Like you, I go out for company in small doses - nothing wrong with that!
ReplyDeleteMy hellebores start blooming mid-winter every year. And the crocuses come out early, too. I love that!
ReplyDeleteI just love posts like this one. I like the photo add-ons as well.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad your study is set and that work for that is done. How nice not to have to trudge upstairs to do it -- more convenient, I'd say. And it sounds like life in your hamlet is quite good right now, what with spring clearly in bloom. Not here. Snow, winds, ice. And yes, Millie will keep you on your toes.
ReplyDeleteOh dear about the blog leak! Hopefully no one is online! But maybe not such a bad thing. After all, you never know who might climb out of the woodwork and I don't recall you ever saying anything so frightful about things that it would be a problem!
Dear Friko, sorry to have been away and missed your last two postings. I was ill for 5 weeks, and then--aged soul that I am--it took me almost 4 weeks to recuperate! But I'm so glad to discover that during that time you wrote these two postings--one about becoming a recluse and one about spring and the memoir by Athill. I am going to look for it.
ReplyDeleteBecause I no longer drive and because I moved away from my home of 38 years and left behind all those wonderful friends, I find myself spending most of my time with me and with the three cats with whom I live. I'm fortunate in that I enjoy reading and also enjoy my own thoughts. But it is so true that humans are social animals and we need the interchange of words with other humans. So I spend time on the telephone.
I can just see you--in the posting before this--trying to pay for your meal. I do the same things--drop my winter cap, lose my gloves, dig through my purse to find paper money and also my change purse, and generally cause many sighs! I guess my role in life now is to teach others how to be patient!!!! Peace.
It's always such a delight to see your flowers. I've never yet seen a hellebore, or even a crocus, in real life. On the other hand, we have our own little treasures that are beginning to bloom, like the bluebonnet (a form of lupine), so I'll not complain. I came away from the weekend with a tin filled with cowpen daisy seeds, and I almost was tempted toward putting some in pots, but I see they don't really like pots, and aren't designed for my area, so I'll forego the temptation toward gardening, and pass them on to someone else.
ReplyDeleteIt's true that sunshine is cheering. We've had day after day after week of fog, rain, and gloom, and I understand in a new way the complaints of people whose climate tends that way more regularly. "They" say we'll have sun next week, although it's going to come with a good dose of colder weather. I'll just be glad to be able to be out and working again. It's funny how days when we want to work but can't never feel like a vacation!
I've never heard of Athill. I do enjoy memoirs, so on the list of potential reads it goes. At this point it's quite an extensive list, but hope springs eternal, and all that.
Beautiful flowers!
ReplyDeleteI think we appreciate some things when we are older that we never understood before. I was reading a book to my boys (Nory Ryan) and could not finish the last paragraph because I was crying. My youngest read it for me. He was able to keep from crying!
The photos of spring blooming make me feel a bit better on this gloomy day. Thanks for sending them. I'm so happy to know that you are thinking of starting a new gardening season. I look forward to reading about it.
ReplyDeleteI just ordered the book you recommended. I look forward to reading it. Thank you! I am reading "Women Rowing North" by Mary Pipher. It might be a book you might want to check out. She writes of women in the age bracket where I now find myself: the 70s.
Your study sound nice. I am thinking of moving my computer downstairs which makes it harder for me to get to, but is in a room that has fewer distractions and a bigger desk. I hope to do my more serious writing there. We will see how that works out. Access to the computer is also a major factor when writing, and I hate to go downstairs, so I don't know if the move will be a good one or not.
I couldn't comment on blogs with Google+ either since I do not have Google+ anymore. I finally figured out the key: go to Chrome instead of Safari if you use a Mac computer. (Maybe the computer doesn't matter.) I now can comment by using Chrome to access blogs. I guess there is some glitch with Google and Safari. I don't know the details, I just know I figured out a solution. Hope that helps.
Beautiful flowers. Love the crocus!
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