MrsM goes wild

"Emily Anderson: Little Red Riding Hood"
Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830)

MrsM is stepping out of the Department
into the Big Wide World for the day.
She is visiting an excavation!
She is very excited!

How fortunate that she has walking boots...

Her basket* will be filled to the brim
with fruit cake and flapjacks
because it is hungry work excavating...
especially if you are looking for wolves.

*I'm not going to lie..
it is a Berghaus day sack.

War on Waste

MrsM
Oh dear...
nobody wants the Framboise Ganache...

MissM
Don't worry,
the Charming MasterN will eat them.

MrsM
Really?
How do you know?

MissM
He will eat anything.

In fact - now I come to think of it
he will be really useful at Christmas
because he can eat all the strawberry creams
in the Quality Street tin.

Multiple Choice

Benedict Cumberbatch is irresistible
because:

(a) he knots his scarf just so
(b) he goes everywhere by taxi
(c) he always answers his mobile phone

(d) the coat (MissM suggested that one)
(e) he has incredibly long legs
(f) he knows a thing or two about china

(g) he says "I'd be lost without my Blogger"

Or all of the above...

learning to knit

she found it at the back of a cupboard.
all the frustration, concentration and triumph
is still tangled up with the yarn.

Objective: Office Improvement

The Front Office is looking cluttered
and the summer is the time to make changes.
I discuss it with my team of lovely ladies.

We agree that desks must be moved,
shelves must be tidied,
cupboards must be emptied
paperwork must be organised.

And we agree that the pictures of Daniel Craig
must be refreshed and enhanced
and so my lovely ladies take time
to choose a suitable selection for a montage.

They ask if Daniel in Speedos is acceptable
and I say:
'Of course it is acceptable...
it is a defining image of our generation
and it is vital to have
up-to-date cultural references
in an academic environment.'

Objective completed.

Selective Memory

MissM is reorganising her room.

MissM
I think I might move my bed under the window.
It will create more space.

MrsM
What a good idea!
I wonder why I never thought of that?

MissM
It WAS under the window a long time ago.

MrsM
How extraordinary - I had completely forgotten!
Did I move it to stop MasterM
from climbing out of the window?

MissM
No...
it was to stop me
jumping off the sink
onto the bed.

Larkspur

Words roll free from a tongue sometime
From a sometime, tongue-tied tongue,
Words that were heard by the stream and the bird
When the world and the wild were young,
When the world and the wild were young, sometime…
(Larkspur, marigold, ebony, lime) .

Sounds that were born in sweet young breath
In a bubble-sighed, trouble-tried time,
Sounds that were found by a child at the breast
In a bubble-tried pantomime,
In a bubble-tried pantomime, no less…
(Nightshade, cinnamon, green watercress) .

Love is the sound of a word, soft-said
From the lips of the love you too,
Love is the dove of the bubble-thought read
Soft sift from the me to you,
Soft sift from the me to you, soft said…
(Homespun, empathy, marmalade, bread) .

David Lewis Paget (1973)

Shopping with MissM

MissM is exasperated with MrsM.

Back ache!
WHY do you think that you have back ache?
Because you have so much STUFF in your bag
and half of it is for Justin*.
You don't NEED to carry wet wipes for me any more.
And now you want to buy another BIG bag
which is IDENTICAL to the one you already have.
You should have a smaller bag and be more organised.
And don't even THINK about a different colour:
you couldn't cope with brown
so blue is absolutely out of the question.
Don't waste my time
Just ask if they do this one in BLACK.
It is TRAGIC.

MrsM meekly beckons the shop assistant.

*that would be my pal, Justin Case.

The Scone Plate

Masons 'Blue Pheasant' c1830

I sat on the filthy carpet of the junk shop
and looked through the pile of china.
This plate was at the bottom,
thickly covered with sticky dust
and waiting patiently
for someone to see the beauty underneath.

for Esther, in Tokyo

Cock and Japanese Bunting
Utamaro (1791)

Although I can shut the mouth of the incense burner,
I cannot shut the mouth of the cock,
which tells the coming of morning.

Yadoya Meshimore