reasons to be cheerful - part 2,073

So - what are my reasons to be cheerful today? It's not raining. For five minutes at least.

I got the train to work on Monday (my car got sick on the way to the Urusen gig on Friday - the gig was brilliant) and so my day was bookended by walks to and from Frome station and Temple Meads. Which, although raining that day - rather a lot - was delightful. I wish I had the time and money to take that option more often.
Crysse's birthday this week - see pic with Annie and (Niamh? sorry if I can't spell that properly) at the dinner party last night to celebrate the birthdays of all three - mucho Leo energy around, with Karen's birthday coming up. Last night's celebration another reason to be cheerful - a veritable smorgasbord of delights for our delectation. Including songs from Annabelle - such a multi-talented group!


Sunday saw Crysse and I fetching the car (the RAC a little less beleaguered by then, but still giving us an hour or so writing time while we waited) and enough sunshine to take a long walk in vest tops... before Crysse's anthology launch.

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A brilliant evening, with a live n'lippy poem squeezed in with Crysse's anthology readings. Such delight to see in print so many poems whose birth I have attended, so to speak... but even more pleasurable to see so many people supporting the publication of the anthology. For Crysse's take on this and Frome Festival (among other writerly things), see http://crysse.blogspot.com/

The writer-in-residence 'award ceremony' following on the heels of the 'Are we nearly there yet?' launch meant it felt like Christie's was becoming my second home... Judge Helena Drysdale asked if I was an actress; I was thrilled to think the narrator of my story sounded so authentic - got something right! A challenge to read such erotic material in public (especially looking like a drowned rat, having arrived straight from the station - hence no pix!).
My car is now fixed, so that's another reason to be cheerful.

The rest of the week has been work and rain, rain and work... though by comparison with some areas, we're getting off lightly...
I have a week's holiday now. So even if it does keep raining, I'll have some writing time, some exercise - and some rest!
If my skin condition is at all related to stress, then the next week should see some improvement.
All in all, many reasons to be cheerful...

English summer days

Today's weather has continually changed character, raining one moment, sun shining the next - and sometimes raining through sunny spells. The cloudscapes have been utterly amazing; skies I would never tire of painting if I were an artist (although I might die of frustration at not being able to capture them adequately!)
In the run up to the Jools gig at the Larmer Tree Festival, I wouldn't have put money on our chances of staying dry - but we were blessed with a bright, breezy afternoon and evening.
Such fabulous grounds - this 'grande arch' not the only interesting piece of whimsy. In one folly, full-size figures modelled and dressed as an elderly vicar and his wife, clutching festival programmes in their fabric fists. Amid the trees, multi-coloured hammocks strung in quiet clearings. Along pathways, mini-avenues of roomy tents with a plethora of healing practitioners enticing festival-goers into their opulent interiors.
An alternative marketplace with stalls selling the usual fare, an artists' corner, beer tents and a separate 'snacksville' area. Brightly coloured lanterns promised a magical effect after dusk - although it was magical in dappled sunlight,too.
In daylight, the main stage somehow benignly innocent of the energy about to erupt... which I only managed to fix digitally as blurry dark shots whose foregrounds are filled with people's backs...
Jools always puts on a brilliant performance. There are many things in this world which transport me to another dimension, and a Jools gig is one of them (though, to be fair, two and a half hours of dancing is likely to create altered perception without Mr Holland et al). Interestingly, the opportunity to see him often coincides with important transitions in my life - which will add to the intensity of the experience...
But it's not simply the music - which is always superb - or the line up (guests included Lulu and Ruby Turner this time), but the passion and verve with which he inhabits showmanship as well as music.
At the Larmer Tree gig, mirror balls in the trees played with the light beams to decorate the leaf canopy, and peacocks called through the night...
Wonderful.
Home about 2am, and since then, time feels like sand in my fingers, as if I overspent from my pleasure bank and am somehow repaying with interest...

getting back in the swing...

Or going with the flow?
An eclectic mix for live n'lippy - aka me & Crysse - to perform to at Bath Poetrycan on Monday, (pic taken by ace haiku poet, Alan Summers - thank you!).

It's not often I'm in town at 9.30am on a Saturday morning, it's NEVER. The first full day of Frome Festival dawned bright and sunny... A batch of 14 writers despatched around shops in Frome...
I wasn't so early in town today that I could grab Alan for a photoshoot with us, though! (He was one of the 14, just not in the pic).
So, back to today... What window would I draw from the hosting shops? (In 2005, I got a real jammy spot, La Strada!)


Up the hill this time, Catherine Hill, to the amazing 'Poot'. As the external shot doesn't do it justice, let me just quote their sign; 'Handmade original delights, clothing and Fox's furniture at "Poot" Catherine Hill'.
No shortage of inspiration, then - though I wasn't at all concerned, trigger writing is never a problem - the quality is something else... I woke on Thursday with the seeds of a poem; such joy is rare, but boded well for this morning.
Back on the hill. Time is doing that loopy business again... whoever said time is chronological is talking through the sphincter which doesn't often see the light...
The narrator in my story just had to be an actor, in these fabulous surroundings... A narrator who decides, in the face of huge temptation, that her chosen career takes precedence over any sexual temptations... Hmmm! Prophetic perhaps... I didn't take an image of the 'prop' I used - maybe I'll go back next week and see if it's still in the cabinet. It would be lovely to post the story with that image...
here I am, nearing the conclusion (cheers, Crysse!) Shame I missed lunch and laughter with Crysse and Ali Clink - oh, the grind of the writer's life! (It gets better...)
Home to check my email (alerted by Mike that he'd sent one) and a veritable mountain cascades into my in-box- but some from my writer friends, which is always a pleasure.
Time for a walk in the sun...
Several years ago, I searched for a suitable place outside my study to motivate me through the novel - if I had to 'go out' to work, as I do for other employment, I figured I could be more productive. Look what I found -the world and all that's in it! (I'll get that novel written yet - I love it when I hear of fantastic writers who work for years on books. After all, I only want to write one novel, if it takes me twenty years I'll have a long and happy life - and also write other stuff; poetry, essays, process books, journals...)
A leg stretching hike to get to this particular branch of Hazel Stewart Inc...
this one with the added bonus of 'private solarium'.Just what the doctor would order (if he could) for my poor skin. So I sat in this field, on a glorious English summer day, and wrote about the fun I'd had with my character. And the people I'd talked to... I wrote about an issue that's getting under my skin a lot these days... and about the wonderful week I've had. How full of wonder, indeed - wonder, poetry, magic and mischief. The midsummer sprites are out in force! And then I walked some more, took some more photos...
My neighbours roses are a delight. Those nodding over the end of my road here are the ones which enchant me with their delicate perfume at the end of every lanes walk variation I meander along.

I went down for a J2O at the street party. Forgot my camera - because I didn't want to take my rucksack. The whole of Frome in carnival mode; a live music stage at the market cross and a seventies rocker outside the Blue Boar, food marquees on one side, tables and chairs on the other, the road thronged with happy people - even a Griffin beer tent! I saw loads of people I haven't seen for ages (some since before Ath was born!). I caught up with Vicky from my Selwood Hospital days, spoke briefly to Lindsay Clarke and his wife Phoebe, to Will Angeloro, to fellow Liquid Jammer (can I say that if I only play with words?) Laurie Parnell, got hugs from Peter Mac and Emily Gerrard, said hi to Kate (who beat me to the job on the media team - no regrets, it was hers!) so I'm glad I went...
and now I'm off to read today's paper.
Bliss is the writer's life!