Our Mutual Friend

Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett (1884-1969)

"With Ivy one is either an addict or an abstainer."
Cicely Greig

Her face is immediately recognisable:
gaunt, stern, remote,intimidating.
I have not read any of her books, not yet,
but I feel that I have been led
right to the very edge of the cliff
and I am expected to jump.

I have arrived via writers I admire:
Elizabeth Taylor who was a friend,
Olivia Manning who dedicated a book to her,
Rosamond Lehmann who said of her
"The purest and most original
of contemporary English artists."

The reviews of her work frighten me
"This piercingly wise, discreet,
mannered Victoriana conceals
abysses of the human personality ...
a gentle tea-cosy madness,
a coil of vipers in a sewing-basket."
Pamela Hansford Johnson

However, I was entertained to read that
Virginia Woolf suffered sleepless nights
after noting in her diary that her own writing
[was] "much inferior to the bitter truth
and intense originality of Miss Compton-Burnett"
and I thought that this was a strong recommendation.

The early life of Ivy Compton-Burnett
was bleak and scarred by bereavement
but there was a brief period when she escaped
the demands of her neurotic widowed mother
and studied Classics at Royal Holloway College.
The Founders Building is the same now
as it was when she arrived in 1906,
she would have known the sound of the clock,
the smell of leather seats in the library,
the Victorian splendour of the Picture Gallery
and the exuberant decoration of the Chapel.
She would have sat in this lecture theatre.
It is another link to this forbidding woman.

I feel the 'chill wind' of her writing calling me
but I am not sure which novel to start with.
Simon over at Stuck in a Book, an enthusiast,
recommends getting to know her first
through the insight of Cicely Greig,
Ivy Compton-Burnett's typist and friend.
I think I'm going to take his advice.

Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett

Introducing Cheeky...

MasterM's Red VW Polo.

We've told him
not to park it
under the tree.

The Vegetable Garden

I thought we could pop outside
and look around the garden..

You may gasp in admiration
at my geranium display.

Must cut back the lavender.
A gardener's work is never done.

Cloches?
We have cloches...

And here is the tomato house,
the vinery is behind us and
the mushroom house is second on the left.

These flowerpots are installation art...
I like to mix in a few visual metaphors
some people are so serious about vegetables.

Fan trained cherries...
doesn't everyone grow their own cherries?

And here are the apples.
I divide them by alphabetically, by county.

and finally the potting shed.
I'm all about sheds.
I'm thinking of painting it grey.

Errr...time to 'fess up
...it's not my garden
...it's at Audley End

Letting Go

We took MissM to the airport on Saturday
and while we waited for her friend
we did all the things that you do at airports:
weigh the suitcase,
check size of carry-on luggage,
double check passport, ticket, money.

Eventually her friend arrived with her mother
and we were just about to leave
when MissM's friend' mother said
"I expect you want to know about the family
that they are going to stay with."

My stomach lurched because
I had not even thought about it.

I had not even thought about
where MissM was going -
it fell into the broad category
"Somewhere in Europe
which is not Paris or Rome".

I had a terrifying flash of that
"Worst Mother in the World"
feeling which I have avoided
for a number of years
and it stayed with me for the rest of the day.

I have rationalised this now
and I accept that we have become
accustomed to MasterM and MissM
travelling beyond our reach.
We have learned to trust
their preparations and experience
and they have learned that
if there is an emergency they can contact us
and we will drop everything to sort it out.
MrM is extremely good at helping them
make sensible arrangements for money,
insurance and telephone contracts.

In the scale of parental fear
travelling to the Czech Republic
with a friend to stay with a family
is well below travelling around
South America with a backpack.

Nevertheless I am pleased to report
that on arrival MissM
"partied til late in Moravičany
with the host's grandfather and locals
for his 80th birthday party
and has been walking
in the Moravian countryside today."

So all's well.

The pictures are from nearby Olomouc.

Onion Soup

Tonight we will have onion soup,

I will slip off the papery skin,
so neat and tight-clinging,
polished barrier against the wind
and discard the outer most
darkened shell, coarse-veined green.
Inside layer upon layer,
slippery levels held together
by the curve and shine of it.
Each revealed and sliced away,
oozing bright light pearls
as the knotted root-anchors are severed.
I am skilled at this dissection,
the fragments melt into each other
until there is no way of knowing
which is the bitter oil
springing tears from secret places
and which is the sweet note
from the innermost heart.

*****

Alice Christie (viii . 2012)

Emergency Rations

Caramel Shortbread
made by MissM
for the Admissions Tutor.

Yesterday was a tough gig
if you were involved
in University Admissions.

MissM, film critic

MissM
You have to see this,
it is the worst film ever!
She is achieving redemption
through killing her father's enemies.

MrsM
That sounds improving.

MissM
There is crazy bathroom fighting:
he tries to strangle her with a towel
and so she stabs him with a toothbrush.

MrsM
What is happening now?
It looks like ahem Graeco-Roman wrestling.

MissM
She's off duty at the moment.

A Day in the Life

At the end of the day
MissM opens the door.

MrsM
Hello! Have you had a good day?

MissM
Yes - I have been busy!
I have decided we will enter
baking into the village show
so I checked out the schedule.
I am entering a Victoria Sponge
and I looked at the other categories
to see what you could do.

MrsM
What?!
I have forgotten how to make bread
and my pastry is like concrete.

MissM
We can enter the 'Tea for Two' category
It is a medley of cakes and things.

MrsM feels faint.
She has never entered a cake show before.

MissM
You need a goal to work towards...

Also, I have been invited
to the Czech Republic for a week
and I have booked the flights.
Don't worry - I will be back
just in time to do the baking.
Can you give me a lift to Gatwick on Saturday?

Another Sky

Let's travel to the Andes
with MissM and MasterW

and explore Salar de Uyuni,
the salt flats of Bolivia

an immense space of bright light,
salt residue from prehistoric lakes.

Cacti!

Flamingos!

Llamas!

Abandoned train!

Volcano!

Crazy photos!

Many thanks to MissM and MasterW
for allowing me to share these images.

...the myriad things...

I find it very difficult to relax.

When I read posts about sitting still
enjoying the sunshine, reading a book,
I feel envious and a little mystified.

There is always a list of chores
unrolling noisily in my head
and I have not discovered how
to switch it off, to make space.

I know all about the techniques
which teach you to use your time
but what I want to do is unlearn them,
to rediscover how to let go,
to give the myriad things a rest.

Is it possible?