Current Read- South Riding by Winifred Holtby

This arrived in the post the day after I picked up Wolf Hall and since it's a book of a size that I can actually carry with me, I have taken up South Riding. I discovered when reading the introduction, that Virginia Woolf had asked Winifred Holtby to write an autobiography on the Hogarth Press, I am still reading Woolf's diaries, so I picked my Woolf back up, and who's name do I see mentioned only two pages ahead of what I was reading? Winifred's of course. I am one for reading signs and the signs were surely pointing to South Riding, and so that is what I am reading. Yorkshire, here I come.

Current Read - Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Another book that has been sitting on my bedroom shelf for a long time, a book that I had bought on 5 am insomniac whim, Hardy's Jude The Obscure  after hopefuly.

 

Happy Birthday Cézanne

19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906

Current Read- A Death in Belmont by Sebastian Junger

This book had been sitting on my shelf for a number of months, a friend had lent it to me and I knew it was about time. This isn't the type of book I usually go for, but back in a time long, long ago when I watched TV, I used to love watching those documentary dramas; I loved CSI, Law & Order and those awful channel five reenactments. So far, I have to say, it is actually a good read, and the thought of this man knocking on my door is absolutely terrifying, I said to Mr Cranmer last night, "now I really understand why I grew up with don't open the door to strangers, in fact, don't open the door at all " I heard this until I was twenty something- I have to say, this isn't such an over reaction on my parent's behalf!

Rhythm & Rhyme

I sat at the table this morning and an image flashed before me, one that I had seen a dozen times and it was a photograph of a typewriter, the picture and feeling for the week ahead; The photo was taken from Patti Smith's Land 250 book, it is a photo of Herman Hesse's typewriter. I hope to extract the rhythm and rhyme of this object and allow it to encompass my thoughts while I plough on with the work ahead.

Light, what are you doing here?

Two shafts of blue light crossed the room and lent across me as I lay in bed, I still felt heavy with sleep as my nights are filled with a myriad of dreams, especially since I returned to the writing table. I've made it a rule to write a sentence a day in my diary, just to make sure the juices are consistently flowing, but my brain doesn't seem to switch off- where do my night thoughts end and my day thoughts begin?

 I try to shy away from the blue light, and burrow deeper under the quilt but I can't stop thinking about the blue light. I long to wake with the sun and chirruping of the birds, but not yet...not yet, but still, I am drawn to the light. Head aching with the need for more sleep, I resign, throw off the quilts, but not selfishly as to uncover snoring Mr Cranmer and grab my camera to take a picture of the light that has insisted on transfixing me. I don't know what I'm doing, or why as  I walk-sleep- take picture-sleep, but what I've learnt, more recently in fact, is to just go with the flow. If something needs to be done, and you're not sure why, just let it take you along. This is how I write, I question it after, but at first, there is always a reason for it to arise to the surface and let itself be known.

And so, here I am, here are the photos of the protruding day, it has remained grey, but the warming lamp  on the kitchen table where I've set up camp, reminds me of the sun yet to come, the mornings where I am energized and desperate to leap out of bed, but till then, may the muses, strange as they seem, continue to guide us.



Current Reads

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I've developed an interest in Native Americans, this has a lot to do with my longing and wish to be somehow more connected with my surroundings and those magical elements that touch us, that appear time to time, a lot of the time, we're not quite aware of them. I am seeking that awareness.

A New Year

So, here it is, the new year. I fell into it with a thud as my health seemed to fail me. Start the year as you wish to continue it, I said, and I started it with tiredness and illness, so I decided this wasn't the way I wanted to continue it, I thought, this is the year in which I will fight things harder, try harder, and write harder, but so far, I'm coming up short, but I will try. I will try

I Take into My Arms More Than I Can Bear to Hold by Janet Frame

I take into my arms more than I can bear to hold
I am toppled by the world
a creation of ladders, pianos, stairs cut into the rock
a devouring world of teeth where even the common snail
eats the heart out of a forest
as you and I do, who are human, at night

yet still I take into my arms more than I can bear to hold