(Anna Dillon - The Ridgeway series)
HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE
I see my last post here was in April. A lot has happened in my life since then as my wife for 63 years died last May. But life goes on and Christmas is here. A verse of Joyce Grenfell's seems appropriate:
If I should go before the rest of you
Break not a flower nor inscribe a stone
Nor if I go speak in a Sunday voice
But be the usual selves that I have known.
Weep if you must, parting is hell.
But life goes on, so sing as well.
I had intended that this blog should close (running since 2006) since most of the others seem to have faded away. But it is something I have always enjoyed and interacting with your replies (which have likewise tended to fade away). So, "life goes on" and so will this blog.
9 comments:
Happy Christmas to you too. Joyce Grenfell was a good egg.
Happy Christmas...as you say life goes on. And I too think Joyce Grenfell was a good egg.
Happy Christmas Avus.
Life goes on, as you say.
Hope we may actually meet next time we get to Kent!!
Just remembered what that picture reminds me of...the work of Ravilous!
gz.
Yes Ravilious is one of my favourite artists too. His brother James was an excellent black and white photographer. His book "The Recent Past" contains some of the best b/w photography I have seen - all taken with a traditional Leica camera.
Get in touch if you are ever in Kent again (avus@hotmail.com) and we can meet up (perhaps on bikes) at the Cosy Kettle cafe for a coffee and natter - they are well used to entertaining cyclists.
I keep going even though responses are down to single figures. I blame myself for this and look for other more ingenious ways of disguising what's obvious. No doubt a triumph of hope over expectation.
If writing becomes a burden then drop it for something less demanding - say, the management of indoor aquaria. Or styrofoam sculpture. Writing was never supposed to be easy or - if it is - something's wrong. Always remember the guideline: easy writing = hard reading.
Some bloggers don't blog because, they say, "nothing's happened.". Sadly ignoring all the thoughts and flashes of imagination that have passed through their mind since the last time they addressed the keyboard. "But those aren't facts," they protest. Again missing the point. Facts themselves are not intrinsically interesting. The seven times multiplication table is full of facts from beginning to end but without a scrap of entertainment.
And get this: if those flashes of imagination turn out to be sterile you can always lie. There's no prohibition on untruth. Think of lapels. Think of grabbing them. Metaphorically that is.
RR
A long and interestin comment, as usual. You give me the will to continue blogging. Thanks.
As to your last paragraph - when a boy queried the truth of G.K.Chesterton's article about getting to France from UK with just 6d in his pocket the master's reply was, "I am a journalist, young man."
Hi, Avus! It's New Years Day here, and HH informed me you'd written again. It's hard coming up with what might be of interest. The most exciting happening this year was our daughter's wedding in October to PD, who's been her partner for over 10 years, but many people's children did the same thing last year. Maybe there is something in the water? HH's motorcycles get their batteries charged, but the poor things aren't getting ridden in this wind and rain and weather. We haven't even gone many places with the Minx. I did buy a bunch of books from Emma Batten, and have read most of them. I'm a mother-in-law, and my daughter has a mother-in-law who reads a lot and gives me a lot of books. I'll never catch up!
Vita:
Good to hear from you once more and a Happy New Year to you and HH. Sorry about your weather, just like ours at present and I have not ridden a motorcycle since a good while before Christmas.
However I did buy one (what's new). I still have the Suzuki TU250X but wanted to change the scooter (always prefer motorcycles really) for another light, small runabout. Honda recently updated their perennial Cub to a 125cc Super Cub and I picked up a 2020 example with only 180 miles on it. But still waiting to ride it because of the awful weather.
Good that you still like Emma Batten, I have all her books and actually met her one day when she came into the little cafe I use, to top up her sales counter. We had a good chat over coffees.
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