when I am grown up...

I will have a kitchen dresser
filled with beautiful china.

Kitchen at Myrtle Cottage
Dod Procter (1892 - 1972)

I have prodigious amounts of china
but no kitchen dresser...yet.

I am still working on that.

Happiness in a Penny Arcade

MrM and MrsM can't resist an afternoon at the Fair.

It is a chance to invest hard earned cash

on one-armed bandits and candy floss.

It is an indication of their love for each other
that MrM lets MrsM believe
that the pennies will fall off the edge...

and MrsM never tells MrM
that the grabber doesn't reach as far as the sweets...

You might wonder why their relationship is so strong...

and the answer is
they have invested in counselling...

no expense spared...

because they know that
happiness is priceless.

In Search Of Sunlight

When you are exhausted,

as I have been this weekend,

it is easy to lose sight

of the things that bring joy.

Monica reminded me that it is the small things,

the tiny patches of sunlight.

Thank you, Monica.

Michaelmas Daisy

Michaelmas is the point of transition
between summer and autumn, light and dark.
This little daisy flowers in patches of autumn sunlight.
I am sure that there is a paradox there.
Or perhaps a lesson for life
if only I wasn't too tired
to think about it.

Visiting the Sick

MasterM has not been at all well
and so I dropped everything
to go and spend time with him.

It is hard enough starting at university
- new people, new places, new ideas -
without catching swine flu.

When I finally arrived
I was shocked to see
how much weight he had lost.

We went out and bought a belt
and now at least his trousers will stay up.

Sometimes you really need your Mum...
and there is no shame in that.

A Palette of Jewels

Here is the last Hydrangea of summer:

vibrant Lapis lazuli

It too will fade:

Pale Sapphire

Rose Quartz

Creamy Jade

Watered amethyst

Soft alluring colours for subdued autumnal light.

*****

I will be out and about for a few days:

things to do
places to go
people to see

Back soon.

Retail Therapy

MrsM has been using an internet food delivery service.

There are lots of good reasons for this:

fragile shoulder,
precious Saturday mornings,
responsibility to environment.

So MrsM sits down on the sofa with a cup of tea
on Monday evenings and conscientiously orders
all the things on her list
until her mind goes numb with boredom
and she rushes to the virtual checkout.
Then she can forget all about it
until the lovely Eastern European guy
walks into her kitchen with the bags on Friday evening.

This week she went to the Supermarket
for a loaf of bread
and it was like being let out on day release.

Fabulous fruit,
exotic vegetables,
fresh bread,
delicious pastries,
flowers to drool over,
shiny magazines.

It was all a bit overwhelming
(and ultimately expensive)

Maybe online shopping
is not the way forward after all.

MissM, distraught

MissM
I have terrible, terrible news...
MrsM
Oh no! Oh no!
(thinks:
Death
Terminal Illness
Expulsion
War
Natural Disaster)

MissM
My school shoes have been banned!
MrsM
Oh no! Oh no!
(thinks:
they would not have done that
if they had known
how long I sat in that shop
while MissM agonised
about whether the heel
was a fraction too high.)


Heel Height = 83mm

MissM
What am I to do?
MrsM
You could wear your other shoes
(thinks:
heel is fractionally lower
but they are lace up
and look sensible
and practical)
Heel Height = 65mm

MissM
It seems such a shocking waste
and I only wobbled slightly
because I was running in them.

I wish, I wish

Anne Hayward
The Ides of March

I wish I could
sit in the afternoon sun
with a book and a mug
and feel the breeze on my neck
and breathe the soft autumn smell
of damp leaves and ripe apples
and hear the subdued flap
of white linen drying
instead of
the hurry of emails,
and anxious students
and hasty academics
who rush past
to lectures.

I wish I could...

but that was another life
and I know in my heart
that the sun did not always shine.

(just for the record)

The noticeboards in the Department are immaculate.
The order and energy of the display impressed me
when I walked through the door for the first time.

1.
A handwritten message from a tutor:
"Hello again!
I hope that you had a great summer.
Please come and see me to discuss
your course choices for this year."

2.
An advertisment for a seminar:
"Why Denim?"
(Why not?)

3.
The Student Soc poster:
"Around the World Pub Crawl.
A different drink in every pub."

4.
Newspaper cutting:
"Great Dust Storm Shuts Sydney"

5.
Poster of Department Staff:
There is an empty space
where the China expert should be.
He was in Corsica
when the photos were taken
Tsk.

6.
Health and Safety sign:
"It is Strictly Forbidden
to Eat or Drink
in this Room"
which is on the wall above the table
where the birthday cakes are shared out.

7.
Outside my office:
Pictures of the bones of
a Woolly Rhinoceros.
I know the person who dug them up.

8.
Notice of Important Meeting:
to give details of Field Trip, January 2010
for the first years
who read it anxiously,
not sure what to expect.

9.
Collage of Photographs of Field Trip, January 2009:
Much laughter and chatter from second years
as they recognise themselves
smiling out from the display.

10.
On my noticeboard:
a postcard from the University of British Columbia
sent by the Professor of whom we spoke.
It shows a granite arch stranded on grassland.

11.
Small notice in foyer:
"The sarsen stones outside the front door
were found during excavations for the M25.
They are similar in size and age
to the sarsen stones at Stonehenge."

12.
A competition to design a sari:
I wonder if my friend, Gina, would be interested...