Tuesday 27 September 2011

Fingers

Its the little things that count.  This morning he was puzzling over something, working out where a lecture would come in the semester, frowning over which week.  Counting on his fingers.  Apparently, even when you have a Ph.D, digital counting still means counting on your fingers!

So he holds out his left hand - because he is left handed (I've never been out with a right-handed man, isn't that interesting?).  Then he holds it with his right hand, pressing his right thumb into the palm.  He unfurls a finger for each count, and as he does, he bobs his hand up and down, only about a centimetre, a little dip, and then brings it back to where it was.  When he runs out of fingers, he turns to his right hand and frowns at it, keeping the fingers of his left hand splayed out.  And unfurls a new finger on his right hand for each continued number.  When he's done counting, he examines his fingers, and those little puckers above his nose get the slightest bit deeper while he is thinking. 

Those slightly curved, tanned fingers with their blunt ends and shapely nails.

Then he curls his hands up, and starts jabbing at his laptop again with his index fingers.

It's when he does the little things like that, that I know how much I love him.

Saturday 24 September 2011

Frock

I've been at it all day, and I am now utterly certain. Shopping for a dress is the definition of HELL!  I've been everywhere, in Norwich and Beccles, and there is nothing, and I mean nothing, that either a) I can afford, b) is suitable, by which I mean doesn't make me look like a whore,and has sleeves of some kind, and c) doesn't make me look like a camel in a frock.  Or my grandmother. 

Why is this so hard?  I mean, I've even lost a whole dress size in the last three months, for Gods' sakes!  Oh, well. I suppose I've got till the 23rd of October.  And there is always ebay.  Or the Boden catalogue.  Which no doubt everybody else will be dressing from.  Does anybody know a good dressmaker in the Norwich area for the next time I am invited to a big event, because I'm not going through this a third year running...

Thursday 22 September 2011

Greater love hath no pal....

Article from The Observer Magazine 4.9.11

You know you have found a true friend when they understand the terrible compulsions that drive your life.  And then save you articles about The Man from their Sunday papers as a result.  Thank you Michelle, you are a wonder.   Now I have come over all unnecessary (again)!

Greater love hath no pal....

Wednesday 21 September 2011

Mabon

Today is the Autumn Equinox, or Mabon, the second of the three harvest festivals in Pagan religion.  It's a time to look back over the growing season and consider what you have learnt and harvested - and to give thanks for that abundance.

As you can imagine, its been a tough summer for me, but I feel like I have a great harvest to celebrate, despite that.  I've been tested, and feel I have come through.  I shall miss my step father enormously, not least for his wisdom and wit, but he left me some beautiful gifts with his passing.  One I keep coming back to now, at a time when we are about to move into the period of busyness leading up to Christmas, is his favourite poem.  I read it at his funeral, and I think it encapsulates his philosophy of life.  Today, in celebration, I am going to try to enact these words practically.  I hope you will join me.

Leisure by W H Davies

WHAT is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?—
No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.