Also, say good-bye to the longer hair with these last two pictures of me from before yesterday, when I've had it cut short (really short), much better for this season.
The one on my parents' balcony was taken Tuesday of this week. Why am I having an Apérol Spritz on a Tuesday evening, you may ask? It was a mini celebration of sorts: My parents have had a balcony make-over, namely the floor. You'll see in the next series of pictures how the old concrete slabs (the original ones from 1988, when the house was built) have been covered in snazzy new decking.
It does not just look good, it also feels nice underfoot, warm and smooth to the bare sole. This was done Friday last week, and when it rained on Sunday, my Mum assured me that the wooden planks are not slippery when wet.
Then there are of course the obligatory sunsets, taken from the allotment of O.K.'s parents last weekend.
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| Just before the UFO landed ;-) |
And last but not least, for the first time in months I felt like shopping, and splashed out on two pairs of sandals, simply because I could not decide whether I prefer the yellow or the grey ones.
Now I'm afraid something is wrong with them and I'll have to take them back... see for yourselves:
I think it is the latest fashion!!
ReplyDeleteOr maybe I am going to set a trend!
DeleteYou work hard and deserve what we call here a Wee Refreshment. I shall be purchasing a bottle of Aperol Spritz from my local Waitrose.
ReplyDeleteMay I recommend not to buy a ready-made version, but make your own? They tend to be a lot better! All you need is Apérol (the original bitter orange liqueur), some sparkling wine and a bit of fizzy water (that is the "Spritz" in the cockatil). Oh, and don't forget the ice. An Apérol Spritz that is not well chilled is awful.
DeleteClassic decoration is a slice of orange, but my Mum used lemon, and more often than not, O.K. and I don't use any decor at all, and still love it.
Ah. Bitter Orange. The liqueur. Sparkling wine. On the rocks. I can already taste it. *When they begin the beguine, it brings back the sound of music so tender.*
DeleteIt's Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, dancing. On the ... German Riviera?
The German Riviera - now, where might that be? Definitely neither on the North nor the Baltic Sea! Lake Constance is sometimes dubbed the 'Swabian Sea', so maybe that comes closest with some of the promenades there having an almost mediterranen atmosphere.
DeleteFin-de-siecle Bodensee makes me think of Visconti's Death in Venice and Mahler; and Barabara Tuchman's book, The Proud Tower, about the world between 1890-1900, which I read in 1968 at the age of 17 and which got me into European history and geography. From Lake Constance to Zurich is not too far, and Zurich makes me think of Jung and Freud, Mann and Wittgenstein. This is from Wordsworth but it could be Schiller:
DeleteThough inland far we be,
Our souls have sight of that immortal sea
Which brought us hither.
Zurich has its very own beautiful lake, as you know of course. I have been to Zurich to visit friends of O.K.'s a few years back; you can see many pictures from the city, the lake and surrounding mountains on my blog if you are interested.
DeleteSchiller! He is of course one of our local heroes, having lived part of his life in my home town, and his birth place not far away (the German Literature Archive in Marbach, originally founded upon Schiller's work, is on of my clients where I've been to my first on-site appointment since mid-March the other day).
What interesting work you do, the German Literature Archive! You must write a novel. How about a ghost story? I adore ghost stories. One set in Lake Constance, and that town you told me about where Herman Hesse lived. You will find the theme, crisis, plot by chance. There must be at least two characters who blaze with life. Read Hampton Fancher's 70 page writing manual, The Wall Will Tell You, and John Gardner's On Becoming A Novelist. James Barrie (Peter Pan) taught Daphne du Maurier to go into a slight trance before she wrote, a mild altered state, in order to access the subconscious and the deep stories that dramatise Jungian archetypes. Dramatise, dramatise, as Henry James used to repeat.
DeleteI'd love to earn my living writing - and a way I already do, as much of my work involves creating documents such as guidelines, teaching material and so on for my clients. But I lack both the stamina and the time/motivation for a novel, which is one reason why blogging is made for me: I can write as much or as little as I want, about any topic I wish, and at any time convenient for me.
DeleteYou are a writer already. Teachers need your guidelines. It makes a difference, knowing that your work is needed. Finding time (nobody can *make time*) is always a problem. Motivation? Writers say, *If I don't tell this story nobody else will.* That's their motivation. Stamina is a state of mind. Graham Greene wrote 200 words a day. Raymond Carver wrote stories of just a few pages because he had a job and children. If you do write fiction, approach it the way you do your blogs, though the *I* in the story may not be the same *I* as that of your blog. Isak Dinesen said of a novel she had read, *I liked it, but there wasn't enough air or water or sky in it.* You have lots of these in your blog, which is why it is compelling and involving for the reader.
DeleteI should clarify that I am not writing guidelines for school teachers. My work is in data protection and IT security, and I write guidelines for companies, other documents that have to do with compliance in those areas, and course material. I also teach my clients' employees regularly, some lessons are to raise general awareness, others are more specific about certain topics such as when, how, why personal data of their customers needs to be deleted, etc.
DeleteBy necessity, there is a lot of legal and technical stuff in those documents and lessons, but I do my best to make them interesting and relevant nonetheless.
I understand. My late brother-in-law was a financial controller of a number of companies. In late middle age he retrained and ran his own IT security company. He must have done well enough because when he died he belonged to three wine clubs! He gave me this laptop for my birthday, my only ever computer.
DeleteI can't do spread sheets and I don't have a functioning email. But the Internet is wonderful when I see or read up on writers, painters, composers, film-makers, theatre-makers, actors, bloggers like yourself etc. (Watch TateShots on YouTube for painters and sculptors in the Tate Gallery London.)
I have started reading sci-fi thanks to a YouTube vlogger, Kalanadi; she recommended To Be Taught If Fortunate by Becky Chambers and Ursula Le Guin's 1969 classic, The Left Hand Of Darkness, which I have now purchased.
There was a great writing teacher, Dorothea Brande (1893-1948) who said that some writers will read hard science or dry statistics before they write imaginative fiction or poetry. It could be like that with you. The exactness demanded in writing legal and technical material could stimulate you to write lush prose.
Raymond Carver said his own writing was spare, but he liked the sensual prose of Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet.
In lockdown I reread Durrell's 1945 travel book on Greece, Prospero's Cell, and his very last book, Caesar's Vast Ghost, a celebration of Provence in France where he made his home.
Dorothea Brande only wrote one book, Becoming A Writer, admired by everyone.
I very much agree with you about the internet being wonderful - when we use it to our advantage, such as looking up things, organising trips, making friends, keeping in touch and so on.
DeleteAs for dry facts stimulating the mind to come up with lush prose, I have not tried that, as I have never actually aspired to writing lush prose, but I can well imagine this method would work.
Prose can be plain yet possess texture. Sense impressions. Colette brings to life her cats, flowers, trees, a meal outside. Seamus Heaney describes tools, farm implements, a rusty well with clean water, the way these things feel to the touch.
DeleteMailer said Truman Capote wrote the best sentences of his generation. Capote said he learned from Willa Cather, E.M. Foster, Isak Dinesen's Out Of Africa. Martin Amis found a template in Nabokov, particularly the novel Lolita. Martin's father Kingsley Amis said Nabokov had spoiled the style of a generation of younger writers. Hemingway said he learned to describe landscape by spending hours looking at Cezanne. I like the first sentence in Hemingway's Paris memoirs, A Movable Feast: *Then the bad weather came.* No one describes people like Dickens.
Some novelists say: Come into the scene as late as possible, and give every character a back story. And fully imagine your bad character, the conflict bringer. Often I enjoy a plain writer like Georges Simenon, then I reread Madame Bovary. I like to go from Verlaine to Walter De La Mare, then to Robert Browning and Gerald Manley Hopkins. The beat is everything.
The important thing is to keep a journal or diary just for you, and put in it everything you see, hear, feel, imagine. You can go from sloppy, precise, lush, flinty, cold, cunning, warm. Keep a small notebook on your person. Every time you leave the house you are seeing something that has never been seen before, the never to be repeated moment. I watch a vlog by a cheerful American who was born blind and who says he doesn't think he has missed anything. To think I am seeing what he will never see! No wonder Darwin had trouble explaining eyesight.
I have started reading Afropean: Notes From Black Europe by Johny Pitts. It has got me thinking about life for a Malian immigrant with very dark skin living in Paris or a half Somali, half Arab young women living in Stockholm. Other worlds.
Gordon Lish, the editor of Raymond Carver, says write about what you are afraid of, and don't be sincrere, sincerity is the enemy of art. James Purdy wrote some of the best stories in America but couldn't get published in his last days because he was too stark. There's an online Guardian essay on him. His friend took his ashes on an airplane and had them buried in England. America didn't want him.
Like the 'UFO' shot and the next one framed by the vines over the top edge. The wood decking really enhances balcony--looks great.
ReplyDeleteAs for the shoes, now all you need to do is find a dress colour-blocked in those colours and you will set a new/old fashion. I'm old enough to remember Courreges' dresses from the 60s. :)
The UFO is good, isn't it :-)
DeleteI was born in 1968, but I know Courreges' colour blocking dresses, too.
Good job there is plenty of yellow and grey in my wardrobe already!
Aperol Spritz? You mean it's nearly as good as Barnsley bitter? Is that a potato crisp in your hand? Do you dunk it in Aperol Spritz? That's what do with Barnsley bitter.
ReplyDeleteAs I have never tasted Barnsley Bitter (in spite of having been in and around Barnsley many times - I received my marriage proposal in a pub there), I can not say whether Aperol Spritz is as good. I can only say it is our standard summer drink, on a par with shandy and cider.
DeleteMany things to celebrate. The deck looks great. I am sure your haircut is much cooler. Not only one but two pair of new shoes. Fun!
ReplyDeleteThe shorter hair is really good this time of year, especially when I'm out walking or running, and after the shower it is dry within 10 minutes.
DeleteFortunately someone else will have the same problem- love the yellow.
ReplyDeleteYou're right - I never thought of that :-D
DeleteI like the UFO picture, too. And it looks like your parents have a very big balcony! As for the shoes, it looks like with buying two pairs, you now have four alternatives how to wear them!
ReplyDeleteThe balcony is actually not very big, but it is a nice size to have a small table and chairs, potted plants and herbs, a few containers for growing tomatoes and radishes, and the big umbrella for shade.
DeleteYes, I can wear a different combination every day!
The balcony looks lovely and I love your sunset photos. We don't really see the sunset here as there are a load of trees in the way. Sandals do look nice.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Pat!
DeleteFrom my place, I can only see parts of the sky, as there are houses in the way. Same at O.K.'s; if we really want to see the sunset in all,its glory, we have to go out.
That new decking your parents have is beautiful! I bet they will really enjoy it. The UFO must have been arriving to check out those interesting grape vines. I love your shoes, especially the colors. You know the kids wear mismatched socks all the time, you could start a new trend with the shoes! I glad you are happy with your new haircut. You should show us a picture! Enjoy your weekend!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Bonnie! My parents treat their balcony like another room, they spend a lot of time on it as long as it does not get too hot.
DeleteYou are certainly going to see pictures of me with the short hair, when someone takes one of me that I like :-)
Yes, Meike, those couplings look a bit absent minded, if stylish.
ReplyDeleteI remember, I think it was Amsterdam, running (literally) down some hotel corridor, on a stupidly busy assignment, checking someway down the road whether I was actually wearing matching shoes. Main thing is to go for the same height of heel. And smile. Despite of it.
U
Isn't it a saying attributed to royalty, 'never complain, never explain'?
DeleteIt's been a while since I had to run to make it in time from one meeting to the next, but I have been dashing about in my clients' office building some days, especially when meetings were in different wings and on different floors. Now that it's all happening on video calls, I only dash to the toilet or to get a glass of water from the kitchen.
When I first looked at the photo of your sandals, I just thought you were being funny. (The sandals were identical just different colors and you put the left one with the right one from the other pair.) Of course, they are a different sandal style with different colors! :-) I love the new decking for your parents. Very sleek (but NOT slick!) Fantastic photo of you with that drink on the new deck and your hair looks GREAT!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kay, but believe me - the longer hair just became dry and strawy with the sun, and I did not really like the cut, either. With the new short hair, I feel much better equipped for summer!
DeleteI was indeed trying to be funny about those sandals; they are the same model but the yellow ones have the front part in a different texture, and while the grey ones have the same smooth leather all around.
The new decking looks and feels good, and I am pleased that they had it done.
Well, if you lose one pair you will have another the same (almost - so long as you look in a mirror) Decking is great. We had our balconies decked and it made such a massive difference, hard to believe before we experienced it.
ReplyDeleteSame here, Jenny; when my Mum came up with the idea, I was a bit sceptical and found it not necessary. But now that it's there, I really like the new surface.
DeleteI have to say that OI rather like your longer hair. The shoes are very 'you'. If I were going somewhere were people knew me I would wear the different shoes and wait to see how long it took for someone to notice.
ReplyDeleteOn my 60th birthday friends threw a huge party. A very dear friend and her two daughters decided that I was going with every one of my finger nails painted a different colour. It was a long way into the party before anyone noticed. People are remarkably unobservant (as any police officer trying to get a witness statement describing someone will tell you)
What a funny story about your painted finger nails, Graham! I wonder whether people really did not notice or simply did not want to say anything. I bet if I went out with those mis-matched shoes, people would notice, but nobody would say anything, either out of politeness or fear of embarrassing themselves. Usually, we do not comment on people's looks anymore, do we, unless they ask for our opinion, or their looks is their livelihood.
DeleteYes, Meike, when someone noticed it caused a great deal of mirth and comment and no one could understand how I could have been chatting to everyone with a drink in my hand and yet my nails had gone unnoticed. It was simply that people do not see what they do not expect to see. I was always a very conservative in my dress and appearance. People just expected more of the same. They don't now!
DeleteThat's true about people usually seeing what they expect, and not seeing what they do not - it is what magicians use to perform their tricks on stage, isn't it.
DeleteLove the photos
ReplyDeleteThank you, R's Rue.
DeleteI was once in a rush to go to a Saturday afternoon seminar relating to the then relatively new Internet which my company had arranged for me to attend. As it was a Saturday I was also looking after my mother. I did all my required duties with my mother, rushed home to change, and rushed off to the seminar. On arrival I looked down at my feet as I got out of the car and discovered I was wearing odd shoes. I decided to say nothing and not draw attention to it and that if anyone said anything I would try to convince them that it was some new fashion style! Although we changed from room to room during the seminar to use the computers nobody appeared to notice and, if they did, nobody said anything. It was a very useful afternoon of learning and although I never forgot about the shoes I did learn a lot.
ReplyDeleteThat's a funny story, Rachel! I wonder whether really nobody noticed, or they just didn't say anything. Who knows; one or two of the others at the seminar may even now still say from time to time "Remember that internet seminar, one of the ladies there was wearing odd shoes!"
DeleteI once went to a concert wearing a new skirt, and the small plastic strip with which the price tag had been attached was still on one of the belt loops. I didn't see it until my sister-in-law pointed it out to me - so SHE was looking very closely at my outfit that evening :-D