subsequent eccentricities

'She wore green sandals, which fact in itself is enough to explain any of the subsequent eccentricities in her conduct. Green as a Cornish sea they were, flat as a Cornish beach at low tide, and decorated on the toes with a chaste cut out design.' Stella Gibbons A young man in rags from Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm

Oh to be walking along a Cornish beach with the sand between my toes today...

The Month of February

Warmth had the day off work to wait in for a new carpet to be laid. Now all we need for the front room is an over mantel mirror and some pictures.
The train to Canterbury to see Mother, a quiet and lovely weekend catching up and keeping warm.
Really enjoying going along to Pregnancy Pilates.
A quiet Friday evening mooching to the Tatty Devine shop to buy this and discovering it's in the online sale, wandering past MW Nails that I've read lots about, popping in on the off chance they had a space and having a lovely Friday night file and polish in their airport style salon. Still having time to pop to the MAC shop to buy a new eye shadow and then home. A very lovely Friday evening.
Meeting up with a dear friend to go to the Valentino exhibition at Somerset House followed by tea at Laduree. Perfect for a cold dreary Saturday.
Up early on Sunday as friends, with their four children, were coming to lunch and to very kindly drop off a whole load of baby bits and pieces.
A delicious Valentines Day meal cooked by Warmth of lamb shanks and chorizo.
Popping round to Mama and Papa Warmth expecting a cup of tea to be welcomed with afternoon tea of delicate sandwiches, scones, fruit loaf and lemon drizzle cake. Then off to meet Mother for a quick, and very light supper at Victoria, as she then went to meet Pops at the airport.
A wonderful family day on Sunday welcoming Pops back with a 'low key' turkey and trimmings. So lovely to see him, he to see bump, when he left three months ago there was nothing to see. Catching up on three months of our news and all he's experienced. Lovely to know that his stories will keep coming and being talked about.
Beginning the half term with my #bookswap delivery. I have so many wonderful books to read that I mustn't buy anymore.
Off to the Kings Road for a mooch and more importantly meet a dear friend for lunch, catch up and to learn more about babyhood at Pain Quotidian. It was almost like when we used to work together and would sometimes meet up there between visits.
Finally getting round to buying a food processor, so when I saw the latest Hummingbird Bakery book reduced in the shop it felt foolish to resist it.
Discovering a dainty patch of snowdrops, being able to hang out the washing and permanently having a vase of daffodils. Spring is coming and soon I'll be back out in the garden. I can't wait.
Then off to Poole Hotel du Vin for a few days rest. My it was cold. We wrapped up warm and the delicious soup at this deli warmed us. Gawping at the huge houses at Sandbanks, a brief and windy walk along the sandy shores, catching the chain ferry across the spit to Swanage for fish and chips, stopping off at a traditional sweet shop to buy iron rations for exploring Corfe Castle and each night being thankful that we were dining in the hotel's restaurant so we didn't need to venture out.
A lovely evening with Warmth's brother and wife at The Young Vic bar and supper at Ev.
Continuing with the Sunday bake, though the pear, raspberry and oat loaf was just too soggy, an apricot and marzipan loaf from The Great British Bake Off book and another lemon drizzle cake, with an extra lemon added for additional zing.
Reading The boy in striped pyjamas by John Boyne for my school course, finishing Diana Athill, Instead of a Book and really enjoying The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. Finishing off the month with The Parasites by Daphne du Maurier, one of my Mr B's Reading spa recommendations.

unseen, but certain

The final quote that I really liked, that in its way concludes the book.

'She had learnt to wait for the changes and the help that life brings. Life is like the sea, sometimes you are in the trough of the wave, sometimes on the crest, and always, trough or crest a mysterious tide bears you forward to an unseen, but certain shore.' Dorothy Whipple

sea

The month of September

Started with a day trip to Worthing to see Granny Warmth. After lunch we went for a walk along the beach, played on the 2p slot machines and all the joys of a local museum.
London has just been alive this summer with so many surprises. Walking from Charing Cross we discovered a Paralympic live site at Trafalgar Square and then walking up Regents Street, which was closed for Piccadilly Circus Circus. We gazed, gawped and admired the amazing acrobatic feats.
Back to work, but the evenings were still filled with Paralympics.
Glorious sunshine and a sunny Saturday mooching at Maltby Street Market and then Borough Market. Buying delicious food for a weekend of final September BBQs.
An early start on Sunday and in to London to eek out the last of London 2012 with cheering on the marathon. The sun shone and London looked glorious.
Picking a few apples from our tree, not nearly as many as last year.
Easing into autumn with footless tights...
Going to Renegade Craft at Spitalfields and meeting fellow blogger Anna there. A new brooch was bought. Then a lovely autumnal shopping mooch, up Marylebone High Street popping into Oxfam Bookshop, Rococo for a small salted chocolate bar, then meeting Warmth and Brother Warmth and wife for drinks.
A Sunday afternoon at the cinema for Anna Karenina. It felt like we should have vodka and caviar rather than popcorn to munch on.
A quiet weekend sharing food with Ma and Pa Warmth on Saturday and Mother and Pops on Sunday. Suddenly autumn has arrived, as did the rain.
Catching up with a dear friend at Pain Quotidian.
Another gorgeous sunny Saturday and off to Sevenoaks to visit some friends this evening.
Books read - very dismal I started Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry but just couldn't get into it so 200 pages in we departed company.
Baking an apple streusal cake - not the most interesting but it's always lovely to have a cheeky slice of cake. Some more bananas so another banana cake. Julia Child's Coq au vin - the perfect recipe so much so that we've already planned who we're cooking it for next.

A good month

Sunday, 2nd March
March has brought an end to the rain, the sky is raw now, a screeching blue between fast-moving clouds, and a sharpening wind has risen during the night, gusting in corners, rattling windows.
......... 
March wind's an ill wind, my mother used to say. But in spite of that it feels good, smelling of sap and ozone and the salt of the distant sea. A good month, March, with February blowing out of the back door and spring waiting at the front. A good month for change. Joanne Harris Chocolat

waiting

I can't wait for spring.
Wishing you all a good month x

Oceans are moving

"A whole year passed, unremarkable, one of those periods of consolidation in change when one is growing and filling out into the spaces of a life the shape of which has been set but not yet seen: the time will come to stop shout, and look, up and around at the walls, the ceilings, the staircases leading from here to there, that one has built around oneself out of daily dabs of mud. Or the year was like a ship; inside it seems much the same town you have always lived in... But beneath the patterned carpet oceans are moving past your feet; and you yourself have determined this with a ticket you bought months back." Nadime Gordimer The Lying Days

For us 2011 definately wasn't like a ship - we knew we'd moved...
@
What was 2011 for you a staircase or a ship? And how would you like 2012 to be?

Wash you ashore

Reflecting on the previous post being a young woman waiting for love and continuing to mull on the emotions and stories remembered through sorting letters from the years. I'm thinking quite a lot about memories.

'He knew that memory was as uncertain in its behaviour as the sea; it could wash you ashore on any old forgotten beach;' Rose Tremain The beauty of the dawn shift in The darkness of Wallis Simpson

Thankfully I've now been washed back to the present shore.

memory

Eyes surfeited with beauty

I'm enjoying reading Ripening Seed by Colette for passages like this. Although it is making me want to be on holiday, by the coast, in France.

'An off-shore breeze wafted the scent of the new-mown after-crop, farmyard smells, and the fragrance of bruised mint: little by little, along the level of the sea a dusty pink was usurping the domain of blue unchallenged since the early morning. Phillippe did not know how to express such a thought as: 'All too few are the occasions in life when with mind content, eyes surfeited with beauty, heart light, retentive, and almost empty, there comes a moment for the senses to be filled to overflowing: I shall remember this as just such a moment.' Colette Ripening SeedWhat moments are you remembering this month?

Not Waving

It didn't quite get as bad as this poem, but moving home and areas and changing jobs - all on the same day was a little mind and emotion boggling at times. Thank goodness for Warmth. There were moments when I thought of this poem.

Not waving but drowning
Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.
.....
Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.

Stevie Smith

A photograph from Halong Bay, Vietnam. The mist, the islands seem to sum up the poem too. How do we know where to look for someone when it's so misty out there?

Unknown Seas

Chatting with a dear friend at a party about 'when will I meet someone?' reminded me of these two quotes from Charles Dickens which comforted me. I tried to quote them to her but I'd drunk a little too much fizz.

'How can we tell what coming people are aboard the ships that may be sailing to us now from unknown seas?'

'Him who is coming to court and marry me'
'When is he coming?... Where is he coming from?'
'Why good gracious, how can I tell? He is coming from somewhere or other, I suppose, and he is coming some day or other, I suppose. I don't know any more about him at present.' Charles Dickens Our Mutual Friend

@

The Month of June

Henry Moore again but with a different friend. Sheltering from the rain again though.
My birthday!!!
The Crucible at Regent's Park Theatre - a great sunny sunny day. Hurrah for my fantastic wide brimmed black summer hat from H&M.
Nails painted - A list again but that was to match the red polka dot of my....
Boozy, very sunny, friend filled let's finish off the Wedding pimms Birthday Picnic in Holland Park.

Baked my first batch of macaroons - Nigella's chocolate - oh my they were delicious and shall be baked again. Re baked Hummingbird Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes.
Mad Men Series Two - Warmth now loves it too. Hurrah!
A christening and time to catch up with dear friends.
My first Cricket Match - Lords 20:20 and unlike football I would go again.

Grace Kelly and The Quilt Exhibition at V&A
SATC two a chance to watch it with two dear friends who I rewatched all the series with over SATC weekends. Miranda's character just gets better and better and better....
Visiting my father in hospital - a badly broken ankle from sliding down a ladder.
A new job, our offer accepted for a house.
Toenails Tangerine and fingernails Lilacism
A delicious supper in Smiths of Smithfields
To Worthing to visit Granny Warmth. Paddling in the sea, eating 99 icecreams (oh they look so much better than they taste) playing on the 2p slot machines.

The British Isles

A Bank Holiday quote for today. One of Laura's daydreams in One Fine Day is to take her daughter away for the day to the seaside. To run away from all their responsibilities.
'The cold English sea - she followed it in her imagination, all blue for once to-day, lapping quietly round the coast, sucking the conrete blocks which had been going to play Canute to the invader, drawing a wrinkle of silk over the long sands where pink-toed children ran brandishing starfish by a rough pink ray,

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washing a deeper, more southern purple and indigo round the black rocks of St. Pol, then up the melancholy gull-haunted estuaries and past the ruined castle on the grey point, round the farthest lonely islands with the names like wild poetry,

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running up in gentle wavelets on shingle above which the Regency houses in need of paint turned peeling faces towards the great land mass of Europe, sighing against the chalk cliffs, and finally tying it's girdle around the island's green waist with that knot of shining broad ribbon. Mollie Panter-Downes One Fine Day

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Where's your favourite patch of sea?