February Travels

I spent quite a lot of February enjoying this view.  It’s from my sister’s house in New Zealand.  I travelled there with another sister, the one who lives in NI so it was a kind of sisters’ reunion. Well three of five anyway. 

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The weather in New Zealand was glorious, warm and sunny every day without being too hot.  We spent most of our time in the area where she lives - on the coast just north of Whangerei on the North Island. There are some beautiful beaches and plenty of opportunities for water sports.  This suited sister Sylvia more than me - she was in her element, paddleboarding, swimming,  snorkelling.  I did swim a bit and paddled a kayak up a river one day but mostly observed from a safe distance.  I certainly wouldn’t have gone in the water if I’d seen this shark who turned up just after we got out. It is apparently a harmless bronze wailer but even so a bit scary.

During the second week of our visit,  we travelled down to Cambridge, south of Auckland where my niece was taking part in the New Zealand Rowing Championships.  We went along to Lake Kapapiro to support her races and also had some time to explore the area.  We visited Hamilton Gardens which were lovely  and Hobbiton, the set for some of the scenes in the Lord of Rings films. 

It’s long way to New Zealand. Previously when I visited I did the whole trip in one go - over 24 hours in the air.  This time we stopped over in Singapore and the journey was still fairly unpleasant with both of us suffering from jet lag.  We did enjoy the time we spent in Singapore, though it was rather too hot and humid for me.  We did all the touristy things including having a Singapore Sling in Raffles.  I loved the Orchid Garden in the Botanic Gardens and also the Gardens by the Bay where there is a free light show every evening. Singapore appears to be a very wealthy city. Everything is very modern, marble and glass everywhere and very clean - even the underground. It is full of shopping malls, expensive brands, hotels with rooftop bars and pools.

Back home now with Paul who had to cope with the dogs on his own for three weeks and the puppy still wakes up at night.  He preferred that to coming with me though - long haul flights are his idea of hell. It was good to escape the cold, wet February and to return when the days are getting longer and spring is on its way. 

January

 January has been a bit grim. Wind and rain and mud.  The lawn is now a mud patch as the dogs have been playing on the sodden grass. And I’m fighting a losing battle against mud they bring into the house too. 

Some signs of spring in the garden

Overall it’s been a quiet month.  Much TV watching. Like many people,  I watched the drama about the Post Office and was appalled by the way so many honest people’s lives were destroyed because of the refusal of the Post Office to admit their Horizon accounting software was faulty.  My mother was a village postmistress for 35 years.  She was rather like the Jo Hamilton, one of the victims of the scandal, helping her customers out in many ways.  Thank goodness she had retired before the software was introduced - she would have been devastated to have been accused of dishonesty like Jo was. Here she is just before she retired in 1998. 

I recall the stress of the weekly ‘balance’ as she called it.  When we were children, it was on a Friday night  and any planned outings were delayed until the balance was complete.  The usual problem was an issue with the pensions.  You had to total the amount shown little square date-stamped dockets torn from pensioners’ books.  In the early days it was all done manually, then we had an ‘adding machine’ a big clunky early version of a calculator with a pull handle.  It was easy to make a mistake and finding those mistakes could take a long time. 

This was awarded to my mother by the Post Office. In fact she was postmistress for 35 years. 

As soon as we were able to count money, my sisters and I began to help in the post office which also sold other things such as stationery and knitting wool. When I was over 16, I covered more officially for a couple of weeks when my mother had a ‘holiday’, which was, in fact,  just the occasional outing.  I wasn’t terribly successful as a stand-in and when it came to Friday night I just couldn’t balance.  I must have made some kind of mistake - overpaid someone’s pension or forgot to tear out the little docket. I recall my mother having to put the money in to cover this shortfall. She should have taken it out of my wages but I don’t think she did. All this came back to me when watching the ITV drama.  I felt so sorry for those innocent post office who were treated so badly. 

I have also spent several enjoyable evenings in January building the Lego flowers I got from Kate for Christmas. Here they are.

Tomorrow I am escaping the wind and rain for a few weeks, leaving Paul and the dogs behind and heading to New Zealand via Singapore.  Looking forward to it very much. 

A Family Christmas in Wales

It’s a long time since my sisters and I spent Christmas together -  over ten years at least before my dad died.  This year we hired a house for the whole family and everyone came except the New Zealand branch and the nephew who lives in Australia.  It took lots of careful planning as it’s not that easy to find somewhere for 15 people and two dogs.  Our first choice fell through in October and we ended up paying a bit more for a big house in Llandudno with spectacular views over the bay. It was a perfect location in the end despite being a bit of a trek for some of the sisters. The weather mostly dreadful - wet and windy except for Boxing Day - so we only ventured out for essential dog walking. We spent most of the time in this comfortable house which was decorated in a lavish fashion - all chandeliers, ornate mirrors and crushed velvet curtains. Not to my taste but nice for a holiday.

Santa brought lots of presents especially for the youngest nephews.  

In theory we shared responsibility for the cooking.  In practice it is Diane who takes the credit - you can see this in the photo above as she’s still in her apron,  She is like a whirlwind in the kitchen organising all the vegetable cooking and timing everything to perfection.  I had made the pudding though and had queued for well over an hour to pick up the turkey and ham from the butcher before we set off.  And everyone helped with washing up.

Here we all are about to tuck in.  All boyfriend/girlfriends of the older kids were with their own parents this year so it was just sisters and children.  The nephew who lives in Switzerland arrived on Christmas Eve to surprise the family.  He’s wearing the Santa suit in the photos above.  He had already celebrated an early Christmas in NI with his family back in November so no one expected to see him.  

After his Christmas dinner Paul took the dogs home.  It was hard work controlling the puppy in an unfamiliar environment and he had had enough anyway - he prefers a quieter Christmas.  The rest of us opened presents and drunk wine and played games and ate more.  It was very loud. 

On Boxing Day several braver members of the family - two of the sisters, one niece and two of the nephews joined in with the Llandudno Annual Boxing Day Sea Dip.  Good job the wind had dropped and it wasn’t that cold. Even so there was no way I was getting in, nor was Kate who shares my dislike of extreme physical activity.  I supported by buying raffle tickets and to my surprise I won a prize. I appear to be on a lucky streak this month - also won a chocolate hamper in the church Christmas fair. 

 

Here are the dippers wrapped up afterwards. We gathered for a family group photo (minus the late sleepers) with the house in the background - it’s the red brick one above my head on the second level.

Later on Boxing Day we walked up the Great Orme - well halfway since it was getting dark by then.  We admired the famous Llandudno goats perched precariously on ledges and enjoyed the view over the bay.  Of course we had to take the sister photo. That night there was more food - we finished off the turkey - a music quiz and even some dancing. We had a fabulous time. 

 Back home with Paul now and planning quiet New Year celebration meal with our usual visitors. 

Books and stuff

I have been meaning to write a book post for a while and this seemed like a good month to choose since November was the Chester Literature Festival. I have attended several booky events at Storyhouse, our local library/cinema//theatre, where an archway made of books greeted visitors. The highlight for me was An Evening With Monty Don. The rest of the family like to tease me as I have a bit of a crush on Monty - I never miss Gardeners’ World. So I jumped at the chance to see him at Storyhouse.  The meet and greet was a bit rushed though so I never got the chance to tell him about how I follow all his advice in my own garden. As you can see below, there’s still a bit of colour in the garden though the acer has lost its leaves now.

 

I wrote most of this post last weekend, then got distracted and didn’t finish it. In the meantime winter has arrived. The garden now looks like this. 

And now for  a round up of recent reading - my last book post was December last year.  I am not terribly good at recording what I read  - these are the ones I remember.  

I’ve been teaching a Literature course focusing on novels set in New York.  So quite a lot of my reading has been in preparation for this.  My favourite of the books I chose was ‘The Age of Innocence’ by Edith Wharton.  Very readable with some great characters.  There’s a film made in the 90s with Daniel Day Lewis and Michelle Pfeiffer which I enjoyed too.  I also read Wharton’s novel ‘House of Mirth’, set in New York in the early 1900s.  This is the period I am writing about in my own story set partly in New York so it is useful research.  The other main text on the course was ‘Washington Square’ by Henry James.  In all my years of studying and teaching English Literature, I have managed to avoid reading Henry James.  His prose is notoriously difficult to read.  ‘Washington Square’ is one of his earlier novels and is not too challenging.  I also read ‘Daisy Miller’, ‘The Aspern Papers’ and ‘The Turn of the Screw’.  And I am halfway through ‘Portrait of a Lady’.  So it’s been classic literature for most of the year. On the New York Literature course we also looked at some shorter stories which portrayed the lives of Irish emigrants at the time these novels about the rich were set.  Joseph O’Connor wrote a story called ‘Orchard Street, Dawn’ which was inspired by a real family living in what is now the Tenement Museum in New York.  And we read Stephen Crane’s ‘Maggie: a Girl of the Streets’, a very sad tale of life in the tenements in the 19th century. 

Another memorable book this year was ‘Demon Copperhead’, the prize-winning modern take on ‘David Copperfield’ by Barbara Kingsolver.  It was easy to read and I got through the 600+ pages fairly quickly. I admired the way she played with the plot of the original and how she tackled issues like addiction to opioids but I didn’t love it. 

In fact, I haven’t read a book I really loved for ages.  A friend recommended ‘The Romantic’ by William Boyd earlier in the summer - the life story of a young Irish man who encounters the poet Shelley among other adventures. I persevered - it was also very long - and it was mildly entertaining.  I also had high hopes for ‘Absolutely and Forever’ by Rose Tremain.  This was, by contrast, very short and though it described London in the early 60’s very well, it was a bit disappointing overall.  The book I enjoyed most recently was a reread ‘A God in Ruins’ by Kate Atkinson, a follow up to ‘Life after Life’,which focuses on Teddy Todd, a WW2 bomber pilot and brother of Ursula from ‘Life after Life’.  This is a great book with an interest twist at the end.  I also read another war book set during the blitz in London, ‘Dear Mrs Bird’.  The plot is a bit silly. What I enjoyed most was the language.  Lots of expressions which reflect the attitudes of the time and the middle class backgrounds of the characters such as ‘pass muster’,  ‘tiptop’ and ‘What rot!’ One of the characters is called Bunty, not a name you hear much these days. 

I am now in the middle of another war book, a well-chosen bookclub read, ‘Mornings in Jenin’, described as a kind of Palestinian ‘Kite Runner’.  It is giving me an insight into the background of current conflict in Gaza.  And I am looking forward to reading ‘The Whalebone Theatre’ by Joanna Quinn which has been compared to ‘The Cazalet Chronicles’ my favourite family saga series.  Kate has read this and thinks I’ll like it. Finally I’ve got Paul Murray’s ‘The Bee Sting’ on my ‘to read’ pile. I loved his ‘Skippy Dies’ so I’m looking forward to this one. It was tipped to win the Booker but in the end it was another Irish writer called Paul who won.  That book sounds interesting too. 

That’s it for now.  Thinking about getting out the Christmas lights now it’s December. 

October..ing

 October has been a busy month. Here’s a brief account of what I’ve been doing

Enjoying any remaining sunny days walking on the beach. Above is Talacre Beach in North Wales.  

Visiting Scotland on a bookclub weekend away. One of our group moved to Falkirk a few years ago and we stayed in a hotel near her new home.

Spending a day in Edinburgh en route to Falkirk. It was a cold crisp weekend - we managed to miss the storms which have caused so much disruption in Scotland this month. After a lunch - haggis and fried egg on a floury roll for me - we climbed Carleton Hill and enjoyed the views over the city.

Seeing the Grayson Perry Smash Hits exhibition at the National Gallery of Scotland. I loved it, my favourite pieces being the huge tapestries which tell the life story of a family Perry invented. 

Riding on the Falkirk Wheel which isn’t a fairground wheel like I expected but an impressive feat of engineering which raises canal boats 25 feet in the air so they can travel on another canal.

Seeing the Kelpies - huge metal horses head sculptures in The Helix park.  Beautiful, though it was freezing cold that afternoon.

Returning home to meet our new puppy.  Yes I have given in to pleas for a second dog. This is Lara, another Wire-haired Vizsla like Alfie. Alfie is a bit jealous as you can see below.

Celebrating Kate’s birthday.  I made her a chocolate orange cake. She was around most of the week to assist with puppy care as it was half term last week for her.  

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That’s all for now.  Considering a book post soon. 

Summer Summary

Late summer Garden

The agapanthus were good this year. 

 It is the 1st October, summer is over and largely unrecorded since I have been neglecting the blog again. So a round up some recent outings and activities.

I mentioned in the last post that I was soon to go on another writing course, a weekend at Ty Newydd in Wales.  Regular readers (all two of you) may note that this is the third creative writing course that I have done.  And I claim to be an expert by teaching others the craft.  Husband has pointed out that I should surely know enough by now, need to stop doing courses and get on and write the thing I’ve been procrastinating about for years. He has a point.   But still it was an enjoyable and worthwhile experience. The tutors were talented young women who had published historical novels.  I did learn some new things and picked up some ideas I’ll use with my own classes.  I met some really I interesting people including someone who had travelled from New York to complete the course.  And another who’d published her first novel at 79.  The course took place in a beautiful spot on the Welsh coast,  the home of David Lloyd George who is buried nearby. There was some time to explore - I went for a walk along this beautiful river with some of the others on the course.

We hit lucky with the weather for another weekend break in Wales at the beginning of September.  This time I went with Paul and Alfie to the seaside village of Aberdovey.  It’s a lovely little place.  Alfie and Paul enjoyed walks on the beach and I enjoyed sitting in the sun reading.  I couldn’t walk very far as I had a sore foot,  a mysterious pain across the top just above my toes. I don’t recall injuring it and reckon it’s just another manifestation of tendon problems like the plantar fasciitis which makes the soles of my feet sore.  Quite annoying.  It is improving now as I have been doing various stretches recommended by a physio.

Aberdovey 

The sun was still shining the next weekend when I flew over to Northern Ireland for a sisters’ weekend. We’d arranged to meet some distant American cousins who I’d contacted via Ancestry and show them around the area where their great-grandparents had lived. We went for a walk to the Marina in Ballyronan to see Lough Neagh.  It has been badly affected by blue-green algae this summer.  There was a story about it on the BBC news last week.  So sad to see the little beach area cordoned off.  And there’s a horrible smell like leaking gas.  Tragic and not much is being done about despite protests since NI still has no functioning government. 

The rest of September has been quieter.  Back to routine of gardening, dog walks, bit of yoga etc. A visit to the theatre to see a play called ‘Godot is a Woman’  a ex Edinburgh fringe show which uses humour to challenge Samuel Beckett’s instruction that his play ‘Waiting For Godot’ cannot be performed by women.  Since one of my first theatrical experiences was going to see ‘Waiting For Godot’  at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast when I was doing it for A Level, I was curious about this new interpretation. It was certainly more fun than Beckett. 

My adult education courses have also started again so I’ve been busy preparing those . Along with the usual creative writing, I am teaching a course on literature set in New York,  I’ve been reading Henry James and Edith Wharton,  I’m really enjoying Edith Wharton’s ‘The Age of Innocence.’ Great film too. That’s it for now. 

We visited Mount Stewart, a National Trust property in Co Down with a beautiful garden

Sisters and American visitors outside the family home in Ballyronan.

A Wet Summer

 It’s raining.  Again. July was a very wet month and coolish after the brief heatwave on June. And August is not looking promising. The garden is very lush. I have lots of tomatoes.  Green ones. Think I’ll need  to dig out the Green Tomato Chutney recipe. The wisteria seems confused by the weather and appears to be flowering now instead of in springtime. 

So what have I been up to since the last post at the end of June?   Well for the first two weeks of July,  I was busy with the Chester Mystery plays.  It really was a memorable experience being part of this community project which only happens every five years.  The  reviews were very good and I am proud to have played a small part in the success of the plays. Here are a few photographs taken at the dress rehearsal.  I appear in a few of them somewhere.

The rest of July was pretty quiet. I spent most of my time catching up on neglected housework and gardening tasks. Both Paul and I have July birthdays and this year his fell on a Saturday - a two performance day for me.  Kate came over for the weekend to help him celebrate though I did find time to make him a cake - a Cherry Bakewell which tasted good but looked terrible with slightly singed edges so didn’t take photo.  My birthday was midweek and a wet day so we didn’t do much - a walk in Delamere Forest, a visit to the market for a a couple mojitos and dinner at home cooked by Paul.  And I got nice presents. Here is the flower press Kate gave me and my first attempt at using it. 

We’ve seen quite a lot of Kate recently since she has finished her first year of teaching for the summer.  Instead of the Mediterranean holiday she and Calum had planned, she spent last week here. They had to cancel as they were due to go to Rhodes the week it was on fire.  Poor Kate - she’d been so looking forward to her holiday.  But they got their money back and have rebooked for Tenerife later on August,  and this weekend they’ve gone to Edinburgh for the fringe festival.  Certainly won’t be 40+ degrees there. I love having her around at home for shopping trips etc.  We also went to see the Barbie film last week - very funny, very clever. 

Some bad news in July which kind of spoiled the birthday celebrations. Our lovely doggie Alfie has been diagnosed with epilepsy.  He’s had four seizures in total, the last two separated only by a few weeks, and has now started medication which we hope will keep it under control.  He’s as lively as ever and it doesn’t take him too long to recover each time but still it is worrying.  We still haven’t got over losing our last dog so this has been upsetting. 

No holidays for us in August though we have booked a weekend away in Wales early September.  Let’s hope the weather improves by then. But I have booked another short writing course, also in Wales, to get me back on track with my writing project which has been rather neglected recently. It’s at the Ty Newydd Creative Writing Centre.  The house is the former home of David Lloyd George. Should be an interesting experience.

That’s it for now. Rain has actually stopped now so may venture out into the garden.