January…ing

My top scoring Wordle. A disturbing pairing! 

January is coming to an end so I thought I'd add a post in the 'ing' form Christina and other bloggers use. Here’s what I’ve been doing.

Enjoying the company of Kate and who has spent January here. Not much enjoying getting up early,  making her packed lunch and driving her to the station. Just like doing the school run again.  Can’t believe I’m still making her lunch when she’s 22.  She has a busy schedule of lectures on her PGCE so don’t mind really.

Watching Kenneth Branagh’s film ‘Belfast’.  Kate has an independent study day today so we’ve booked to see this film about Branagh’s childhood in Northern Ireland. It appeals to me as I’m around the same age as Branagh,  though I grew up in rural NI.  A friend from my writing group who has seen the film described it as ‘sentimental’.  This probably means I will like it - she has more sophisticated tastes than me.  

Getting my hair cut in a new shorter style.  A version of a pixie cut so my hairdresser says. I was bored with my bob so I went for something more radical.  I suppose I could add a photo.  Might do later. 

Returning to teach my adult classes after the Christmas break.  I enjoy teaching the creative writing as it’s more interactive.  The literature class requires quite a lot of preparation.  We are studying ‘Star of the Sea’ by Joseph O’Connor, which is a brilliant book set at the time of the Great Irish Famine.  I have been finding out more about why the famine happened and how the policies of the British government at the time made the situation worse.  Another gap in my knowledge of the history of my own country filled. There’s a very good episode of Melvin Bragg’s ‘In Our Time’ on the famine. 

Attempting to learn Irish using Duolingo.  Even if all I can do is say ‘le do thoil’ (please) and ‘go raibh maith agat’ (thank you) correctly, I am making some progress.  It would be good to know the sounds made by consonant clusters so I can pronounce Irish names correctly.  

Completing Wordleevery day.  I’m enjoying this daily word puzzle which is now so popular that there was an item on the BBC news about it this week. I’ve been managing to guess the five letter word in three or four attempts and was very smug when I guessed it in two a few days ago.  Today wasn’t so good - it took me six attempts as I made a couple of silly mistakes.  

Feeling disappointed as the planned weekend away with my bookclub to Llandudno had to be cancelled because of the omnicrom virus surge. Although numbers had dropped, the rule of six which applied in Wales meant we wouldn’t be able to go out altogether.

Watching the sky in the morning now that dawn breaks two minutes earlier every day.  I set myself a writing exercise - write at least one sentence describing the view from my window every morning.  There were some beautiful skies earlier in the month. I’ve not written any this week as it has been mainly grey and cold. Here are a couple of morning sky views and some of my sentences. Can’t seem to change the font. 

5/1 

Clouds stacked in layers of grey, white and blue move steadily north west. For a minute the strip of blue expands only to be obscured again by a smoky grey pall.

.

6/1 8 am

Small pink-edged clouds are rising in an icy blue sky behind stretching skeletons of winter trees. Black birds fly north.

The Year in Books

Current bedtime reading

It’s quite some time since I wrote a book post but inspired by another blogger, Dar.  I thought I’d attempt to give an overview of my reading this year.  I’m a messy reader. I often have several books on the go at once. I start things and don’t finish them or dip into books and read relevant bits, especially when reading non-fiction. I have also developed a new reading habit - reading ‘Samples’, the opening chapters of books provided for free by Amazon on Kindle.  There are 64 of these on my Kindle. Sometimes I go on to read the book I’ve sampled but not always.  I can’t give any reliable statistics on my reading as my record keeping is also erratic.  I don’t set reading targets - number of books to read in a year etc.  - this is daft in my view because of the very obvious reason that some books take significantly longer to read than others.  And anyway reading is pleasure, not homework or something that’s good for me like 5 a day or 10000 steps. 

To compile this list I’ve looked at my borrowing record from the local library which is where I usually get my books.  I was bereft when it was closed because of Covid in lockdown.  I also read quite a lot of my books on my Kindle so I’ve used it to jog my memory. I prefer a real book, but the Kindle allows me to read without putting the light on when I wake up as I am wont to do around 3am. I also like being able to increase the print size.  I don’t actually buy many physical books - only those I want to keep like the book on Seamus Heaney by Roy Foster I got for Christmas.  There isn’t that much room for more books here and I tend to give away paperbacks I have. Here’s the list with a score out of ten I’ve used in previous book posts and a few comments. I’ll stick to fiction and haven’t included poetry or audiobooks.

Bookclub reads.  I like being part of a bookclub as it encourages me to try books I wouldn’t normally choose. 

1. My Choice- Girl with the Louding Voice Abi Dare 9 

I loved this book about a young girl surviving against the odds in Nigeria. 

2. Amor Towles A Gentleman in Moscow 3

Others loved this story of a Russian aristocrat being banished to a luxury hotel after the revolution. I found it implausible and despised the Gentleman as I found him patronising with a particularly annoying attitude to women.

3. Slow Horses Mick Herron 5 

Not my kind of book. Spy thriller. Too many characters, some sketchily drawn.

4. The Essex Serpent Sarah Perry (Reread) 8

Brilliant writing, didn’t fully reread though.

5. The Bloody Chamber Angela Carter 8

Short stories based on fairy tales. 

6. Housekeeping Marilynne Robinson 8

Another book I enjoyed. Gilead is on my wish to read list. 

7. The Most Fun We Ever Had Claire Lombardo 7

Family Saga type thing. A bit like The Corrections by Jonathan Frantzen. It took a while to get going. 

8. Mayflies Andrew O’Hagan 6

Expected to enjoy this highly rated semi-autobiographical novel more as the first part was set in Manchester in the 1980s.  I lived there 1977-1981 before it was cool and before the Hacienda. This book begins in the late 80s and I’d moved on by then. It focuses on a group of young men from Glasgow going on a trip to Manchester see bands like The Smiths. Very ‘laddy’ - hard to follow the dialogue and like being out with my now husband and his mates at that time. All in jokes and references to stuff you don’t know. The second part of the novel is better as it explores the friendship between two of the characters in later years when one discovers he has cancer. 

9. Nacropolis Jeet Thayli 5

Not an easy read but glad I persisted. About opium addiction in Bombay. Opened my mind to a different world.  

10. Notes on a Scandal Zoe Heller 9

Thought I’d read this but in fact I’d just seen the film. Both brilliant.

Classics

I’ve read a few classics this year. Three were for the WEA courses I took, the others were Thomas Hardy novels, inspired by a visit to Dorset. I loved the short Virginia Woolf book Flush which is about the life of poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning  written from the viewpoint of her dog.

Old Goriot Balzac 8

Flush Virginia Woolf 9

Crime and Punishment Dostoyevsky 7

Under the Greenwood Tree  Thomas Hardy 7

Far From the Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy (Reread) 10

General Fiction

This can be sub- divided into categories. There are the by six novels and two plays by Irish writers, seven if I count Maggie O’Farrell as Irish, some of this being teaching preparation as well as pleasure. Some are by established writers, others are less well known.  I’m running out of time to discuss them all except to recommend highly Piranesi by Suzanne Clarke, I read it because I heard it reviewed positively on Radio 4.  It’s very different, set in an alternative world which is a huge many-roomed derelict mansion filled with statues and surrounded by seas which sometimes flood it. There are only two inhabitants, the narrator Piranesi and The Other.  It sounds very strange and it is, but it is brilliant. It reminded me a little of Gormenghast, another book I enjoyed.  I don’t normally like fantasy type books but this isn’t really fantasy. I have bought it for two of my sisters for Christmas. 

Klara and the Sun Ishiguro 8

Never Let Me Go Ishiguro 7

Ghosts Dolly Alderton 7

Hamnet Maggie O’Farrell 9

Unless Carol Shields 8

Small Pleasures Clare Chambers 9

Magpie Elizabeth Day 6

Academy Street Mary Costello 5

Leonard and Hungry Paul Ronan Hession  7

Piranesi Suzanne Clarke 10

From a Low and Quiet Sea Donal Ryan 8

Where the Crawdads Sing Delia Owens 8

Confessions of Madame Psyche Dorothy Bryant 7

Stitching a Life Mary Helen Fein 3

A Long Way from Verona Jane Gardam 9

Rereads

The Spinning Heart Donal Ryan 10

Brooklyn Colm Toibin 8

Nora Webster Colm Toibin 8

Dancing at Lughnasa Brian Friel (play) 9

Translations Brian Friel (play) 7

I haven’t included non-fiction on the list will mention one book I am reading now Spoonfed by Tim Spector.  I came across Tim as he runs the ZOE Covid App and he posts sensible updates and advice on Covid on YouTube. Before Covid  his research was on nutrition and the microbiome and this book debunks some of the myths about eating healthily. Some things I was aware of already but others not so much. He’s put me right of eating farmed salmon, for example. 

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

 

Christmas will be pretty quiet here with just the three of us.  Not that unusual really and it’s what Paul prefers. I’d rather have a big family get together but that would have been ill-advised this year anyway.  I have managed pre-Christmas meetings with two of my sisters. At the beginning of the month I risked a trip to a Market Harborough on a very crowded train to visit my youngest sister and her family.  It’s a lovely town with a lot of independent shops and hardly any empty ones.  On the Friday night of my visit they’d had a Christmas Fayre and it seemed much more of a community event than the more commercialised Christmas market in Chester.  The kids are now old enough to go off with their friends so Chris, Pam and I were free to explore, drink mulled wine and eat very pricey but delicious pulled pork baps.  Outside the church the local group had created a Christmas tree made up of crocheted squares to raise money for a homeless charity.  I loved it - my mother used to made blankets like these. On the Saturday we went back into town for lunch and a bit of shopping and I took this photo of Pamela with the crochet tree. 

Then last Friday Diane and husband Steve from down south near Brighton came to visit for the day. We changed our original plan to meet in Liverpool and instead had lunch here and then went to Chester’s Christmas market.  More mulled wine or in fact spiced rum for me - it was a bit chilly.  We had a walk around the cathedral where Christmas trees decorated by local firms and schools are on display.

So now I am just waiting for Kate to return home - she’s driving back from Sheffield today.  Poor Kate - she’s been in isolation because she tested positive for Covid, missing the last week and a half of her teaching practice.  No symptoms at all but not much fun being stuck in her little room until the rest of her household went home at the end of term for Christmas.  She’s not been on her own as her boyfriend has stayed there with her.  He’s also had it - no doubt infected her in the first place- though he’s now out of isolation. My niece in London also now isolating over Christmas.  No idea if it’s this new Omicron they’ve had but not good whatever it is.  We’re being extra cautious though I did risk a garden gathering on Monday evening which didn’t please Paul, who prefers to live like a hermit anyway. 

Happy Christmas! 

November

November seems to have flown past. Here’s what I’ve been doing:

Teaching more adult classes. I now tutor a literature group on Thursday afternoons  as well as my established creative writing group on Wednesdays.  And the classes are now face to face rather than on Zoom. At least for now. This term I’ve offered a course on Modern Irish Literature. I’ve spent a long time preparing the sessions but don’t really mind as I’m no longer constrained by exam board requirements so can follow my own interests and those of the group.  I’ve discussed Colm Toibin’s Nora Webster and Dancing At Lughnasa by Brian Friel and some Heaney poems.  

Learning to drive again.  My car has become Kate’s car since she needs it for a long journey to her teaching practice school.  When I need to drive anywhere, which isn’t that often, I now use Paul’s car, a large automatic.  I don’t much like it, especially parking. Getting used to it now.

Supporting Kate as some of the realities of teaching begin to hit home - ridiculous workload, the challenge of dealing with wide variations in ability in the same class, late nights for events like the Christmas Fair, the huge amount of time spent in preparing resources - printing, copying, trimming etc. She’s ok but it’s been tough. We drove through the snow on Saturday to visit and spent an evening with her and Calum in a cosy holiday cottage. We’d planned a walk but it was so icy we abandoned that idea and just spent time eating and watching TV. 

Planting tulips and then chasing the squirrels which threaten to dig them up again.  The garden looks very bare now after the storm finished off the dahlias. 

Getting up early with Alfie who insists on waking us around six every morning.  Admittedly Paul does this more often than I do, but then goes back to bed when I get up for a while. He’s been rather adolescent in his behaviour recently.  (Alfie not Paul, though it’s true of him too, with his recent monosyllabic grumpiness)  He seems to have forgotten his training especially when there is food around and will take any opportunity to pinch/lick things in the kitchen. 

Got my booster jab on Saturday morning and felt a bit shivery and headachy on Saturday night and Sunday. I’m ok now. Paul’s turn tomorrow.. 

October Ups and Downs

 It has been over a month since my last blog post so thought I’d catch up before the month ends. 

Ups

• Returning to teach my creative writing group on Wednesday mornings face to face. So much better than Zoom and my students are such good company.
• Doing some more family history research and a bit more of my own writing.
• Taking part in choir day with A Handbag of Harmonies.  Also a live event.  I was a bit worried I  would get COVID as singing is supposed to be particularly infection spreading but over a week later  I still seem to be ok.
• Enjoying walks on warmish October days. We’ve found some new places to take the dog not too far away in North Wales.  Now he is nearly 9 months,  he needs plenty of exercise and room to run. 
• Planting up some pots for winter colour in the garden and some bulbs fo spring.  The dahlias are still flowering too.
• Celebrating Kate’s birthday. I made her a Red Velvet Cake using a Nigella recipe.  It was very good though there was an alarming amount of butter and sugar in it.   Luckily it is half term so she has been able to come home. She’s done two weeks of teaching practice and has been working with a class of 5-7 year olds. Hard work and not much of a break as she had an essay to write.

Downs

• This is a major one which really deserves a post to itself! A midnight visit to A&E last Saturday.  It had been a lovely day. I’d spent all day singing and then had spent an enjoyable evening with my sister Diane and her husband who were staying overnight.  But just after I brushed my teeth and got into bed something very strange happened.  I couldn’t close my mouth - my jaw was locked open.  It was a horrible feeling and it hurt.  My throat was dry and I couldn’t speak properly. We followed all the online advice to no avail and I was beginning to feel ill mainly because I was panicking. So we got a taxi (we’d all been drinking wine) to the local A&E department which was just as you might imagine it to be on a Saturday evening - full. Some people looked ill or injured, others not so much. At one point man wearing nothing on his top half appeared and asked the receptionist and then the other patients for a light. He objected loudly when no one could help him. Then a nurse came out to announce that there would be a 7 hour wait to be seen and encouraged those with minor problems to go home.  A few people disappeared.  Half an hour later I was called in and the doctor said I had dislocated my jaw. There follows a grim tale. A long wait, an X ray, and two painful attempts at jaw manipulation which failed.  I would have to be transferred to Aintree in Liverpool to see a  Maxillo Facial expert.  I sent Paul home and curled up in an uncomfortable chair to await the ambulance. At 5am it eventually arrived.  Aintree A&E was quieter with only a few patients though there were at least four men lying asleep across the benches.  The specialist doctor, a polite and sympathetic young man, was waiting for me.  I had another two fancy X rays and then he made me bite on some wooden sticks for ten minutes. Then he pushed my jaw about a bit and it went back in place. Just like that - it was all over. Painful while he was pushing it about but the pain reduced as soon as everything was back in place. I’d have to be careful not to open my mouth much for a while but could go home. Phoned Paul and was home drinking tea through a straw by 9am Sunday morning. I was sleepy and a bit sore but otherwise fine.  I don’t why this happened - perhaps it was the recent dental treatment I had where I had to open my mouth for a long time to have a crown fitted.  And my jaw had been a bit funny since then.  It still is a bit tender -  I hope it doesn’t happen again.  I’m being very careful not to yawn to widely.  The whole experience has made me appreciate the NHS even more.  How the staff I saw remained patient and kind in the circumstances we witnessed last Saturday amazes me.  
• No other downs really apart from the fact it has bucketed with rain all weekend and it’s already getting dark at 430pm now the time has changed. 

The End of the Summer

 

Looks like our extended summer is coming to an end now with wind and rain forecast this week.  It’s been a good September though - autumn at its best with lots of sun after such a grey August.  I love the light at this time of year.  

A couple of weekends ago we had a short break on the Northumbrian coast.  We stayed in Beadnell which has a huge beach where dogs are allowed.  As you can see from the sky in the photograph, rain clouds were threatening, but apart from a little shower on our first evening, it stayed dry.  We didn’t do much - walking and eating as usual.  On the Saturday evening we were joined by several up north family members and had a meal in the very busy local pub.  Good to catch up with our niece Clare and her partner Susan who we haven’t seen for nearly three years because of Covid, as well as Paul’s sister and her husband. We also tried the local seafood place, Salt Water Cafe, where Paul had oysters, his current favourite thing to eat. I am not keen on them at all and was happier with the fish cakes and scallops. 

Kate has now gone back to Sheffield and has started her teacher training course so it’s just the two of us at home again.  So far she’s enjoying it and has made some new friends, including several girls from Northern Ireland.  She’s taken my car with her as she’ll need it when she starts her teaching practice in a couple of weeks.  This means I’ve had to drive Paul’s car which is much bigger and an automatic. It is taking a bit of time to get used to.  He’s a bit anxious that I’ll scratch it or something but too bad. 

Next week I’m going back to doing some proper face to face teaching, returning to my local creative writing class. Really looking forward to it. I was also asked to deliver an online course for National Poetry Day and I have offered a one-off session on Contemporary Irish Poetry.  To prepare for it, I contacted the young Irish poet Stephen Sexton whose latest collection is reviewed in today’s Observer. I was delighted when he agreed to join the course on Zoom and speak to students about his work. But at present not many people have signed up so I’m going to advertise it on here.  It costs about £6 and is at 945am on Thursday 7th October for two hours.  It will be about reading and discussing the poems themselves - you don’t need to know or do anything in advance. If you are in the UK and free that morning,  I’d love to see you. Just click the link above for more information. 

September Garden

 Summer started late this year and it’s taken until now for some plants to flower. And the tomatoes are ripening too - I thought I’d be making green tomato chutney.  We’ve had three unexpected hot and sunny September days now.  A nice bonus though the ground is very dry and the water butts are empty.  Won’t mind if we get a thunderstorm tomorrow and some much needed rain. 

I’m still getting used to the idea of September without a return to school.  It’s still a time for new starts though.  Need to return to better exercise and diet habits after the summer’s overindulgence. A friend has persuaded me to go to a Hula Hoop fitness class later today.  I haven’t done any hula-hooping since primary school so I might not be able to do it, but I’ll have a go.