24.4.06

Highlights Reel

Sorry, no pictures of my own (well, of Darcy's) yet. Will update soon.

Last two weeks:

Bolton Priory
Lambing season in the English countryside
Three Sisters
Easter morning in the gardens below Edinburgh Castle
Paying visits to Sir William Wallace
"C-crumbs!"
Double beds
Scottish bed and breakfasts
Circular walks, Loch Tay
Pizza Hut. Yes, Pizza Hut.
"Mostly Ballads"
Grandpa's stories: "...and that was the time I almost died in Dublin."
Legacy
Photographing the Queen's Birthday Celebration
Bobbies with car fetishes
The Victoria & Albert
BBQ!!
First nap on the lawn in the back paddock
The Big Woods
Getting picked up by lawyers minutes before meeting This Kid on the Hampstead platform
Learning that Elias Canetti lived, begrudgingly, in Hampstead
Portobello on a warm spring day
The first dress of the spring
Snoring myself awake (allergies? overtiredness? the saga continues)
Papers and lunches made free of charge (my own cabana boy)
This is Scotland!
Searching for Nessie
Wrong turns in Glasgow
Postcards from home.

12.4.06

The only Eagles song I'll ever sing.

There are stars in the southern sky
southward as you go
There is moonlight and
moss in the trees
Down the Seven Bridges Road

Sometimes there's a part of me
Has to turn from here and go

Running like a child from these warm stars

Down the Seven Bridges Road
There are stars in the Southern sky

And if ever you decide
you should go
There is a taste of time-sweetened honey
down the Seven Bridges Road

(
Which Road, by the way, I totally fell down five minutes after this picture was taken.)

Nanny McPhee?

If I learned one thing about myself from my years as a camp counselor -- and trust me, I learned many, many things -- it's that the stereotypical behavior for which I have the least affinity is that of the spoiled girl-child, of any age. I learned pretty early that the best summers were those in which strong boundaries were set early on, and so my kids and I would come up with "Group Rules" that we all then enforced. I always made sure it included the usual suspects, but the kids would be so proud of themselves for coming up with these guidelines all by themselves that I usually never had to enforce them. The exception, of course, was whining and bossiness. Both the boys and girls enforced the first one, but every case of bossiness I dealt with involved girls. What that's all about, I don't know, but I would NOT stand for it. I got pretty good at developing crafty ways of handling these situations, though, but I'll save those secrets for another day.

This aversion to bossy young girls stems from issues I'm still working through from fourth grade, in which R. Lawson demanded that SHE always get to marry Heath in our recess version of "Big Valley" because she was the oldest and, obviously, thus the most ready for marriage. I had a suspicion that this was all poppycock, that the real reason had to do with Heath's evolution from "angry illegitimate son" into the quintessential silent type, but whatever. She was bigger than me. Somehow her impending marriage to Heath, a role that was always played either by my friend Chip or my neighbor Natacia, excused her from those obvious frontier duties the rest of us kept busy with until the whistle blew again, such as brushing the "floor" of our California mansion with "sagebrush," foraging for nuts and berries for the big meal, and looking out for Injuns and bandits on the Newington skyline. Meanwhile, R. held court underneath a giant bush and served fake tea in acorns for her most trusty female companions, which she'd ordered the rest of us (namely me) to collect. To this day I don't look at acorns with anything but anguish.

The kids I live with here are really cute, but the youngest shows signs of developing the R-factor. Today, she whined all morning, throwing tantrums and fake-crying because her older brother wouldn't share more than half of his candy, which he had generously given her after she ate all of hers, and cried on and on about how he didn't listen to her, didn't follow her instructions, etc. I think you'll agree with me here when I say that I really put my issues to rest when I heard her, thinking no one was upstairs, go into her brother's room and steal the candy. As soon as she'd thrown it into her room, she cheered up and gaily ran downstairs as if all were well to tell him she'd forgiven him. And I, who am free to use the mirror in her room to make certain I match, marched right into her bedroom, picked up the stolen candy, and stole it back. placing it in her brother's room out of her reach. The policing instinct born of many years of watching kids be, well, kids, has not left my system. Apparently.

I can't tell if I'm more amused or horrified. No, wait: amused. I'm laughing as I write this a little too maniacally for someone spending the whole day in a library.

8.4.06

In a word: April.

Soul singing and impromptu musicals in London streets prompt the posts that Maura hates.
Poulet piquant? Oui, oui.
Handing out numbers and daisy chains with equal proportion, here in London there is no lonely wandering.
I climb the countryside and fall as often as not, but no matter: his hand seeks the small of my back regardless.

Spring's here.
Sweet grass and dark chocolate, cucumbers and fresh avocado and the last good peppers roasting, cooler nights for bogging down with friends in the corners of cafe booths.
The sweet thrill of the market throng, a ring of smoke ahead, cobbed corn and jacket potatoes, flamenco lessons in the big City.
Kite-flying and watermelon squash, peanut butter and honey breakfasts, bees bumbling beyond bedroom doors.
The ping of rain on my window, the view from this library, the good ache in my heart when I think that my home, now, lies in so many places, and all of those places have their own passports.


These times make me laugh. Something's coming, something good. I dare not tell it to sit still or to stop dreaming or to fold its hands.

5.4.06

ITEM: Daft Punk Forgets That Taxes Are Due in Astonishing Display of Complete Lack of Fiscal Fealty to Her Dearly Beloved US of A.

You know, there's just something about the phrase "extension" that makes the word "tax" a lot more palatable, especially when one forgets about it entirely.

I think I'm going to go kick up my heels in Islington, buy some fresh fruits, and stop at my favorite veggie Thai restaurant for dinner. It's amazing what those people can do with Soya and a little bit of gumption. Everything's in bloom in Great Britain. Wish you were here. Really.

Love,

Me