Dark Days

 

It was my uncle's funeral on Tuesday. I was dreading it, and I was right to. It was upsetting. 

I had lots of aunts and uncles growing up; my father came from a family of five and my mother from one of seven. Sone of these relations we saw only rarely, but many we saw on a regular (weekly) basis. Over the years, every time one of them died it felt like a little bit of the foundation of my life was being chipped away, and this was especially the case perhaps with John and his wife who were close to my mother in age, experienced some of life's milestones at a similar time ( marriage, birth of children, temporary male redundancy necessitating a move away from the place of their upbringing). And as I've said before they both loved music which was a big  thing we had in common.

Given that I knew I was going to be distressed it was unfortunate that I heard the morning before that I had also lost a good friend. Her name was Heather, and regular visitors here will have noticed that she commented regularly on my posts. She didn't always say much but enough to let me know she had read my posts and reacted. The sad irony that her last post here was an expression of sympathy on the loss of John has not gone unnoticed by me. 

Heather died last Saturday morning after a prolonged stay in hospital; several months bar a brief and disastrous return home; she was discharged  too early and as a result suffered a bad fall which sent her back to hospital. She had lived for many years not only with CFS but also COPD  which greatly restricted what she could do physically but she was always positive,and found many ways to express her creativity and concern for others. I was proud to be her friend and although, as she lived in the north of England, we met very rarely, we always enjoyed a long talk and a good laugh. In the acknowledgements section of my Ph D thesis, she appears as Heather,' who has a gift for inspiration and encouragement', and she did. To which I would now add for friendship also. I will miss her. 

I've had better Mays. 

Assisi

 I loved Assisi. Funnily enough I didn't have any idea what it would be like, so no expectations to be disappointed - or I suppose fulfilled. I did expect it to be busy, and it was, but it didn't feel particularly crowded or touristy. 

The major attraction of course is the Basilica, tomb of St Francis, two levels, great frescos, no photography allowed inside. The town is small, a slightly different overall colour of stonework to either Siena or Arezzo, relaxed, friendly and steep. 

A few random photographs. I would definitely go back to Assisi should the opportunity present itself. It was lovely. Note the random statue photo! I see odd statues wherever we go these days. 

And then it was on to Rome

Wool Stats for April

 Ouch, this one hurts! 

Wool in 900g, Wool out 138g, net increase for the month 762g, and net decrease for the year to date reduced to 2153g. 

I knew it would be horrid because I went to the  wool show and bought the wool for a cardigan plus two lots of sock wool and then there was the 100gt from the stripy sock club. And since we were away I didn't get much knitting done, and the only thing I got finished were those socks for the OH. 

May is currently looking better so I'm hoping for a happier outcome in three weeks time! Maybe I need to knit faster! 

I ran out of space...

 ... for fridge magnets. Seriously. Even though I did a cull when we moved, the magnetic board we have for them is full and even the set of metal cupboards I have for keeping sewing stuff in is now almost completely covered. I decided, since I've been sent a few button/pin badge type things over the past couple of years, that I would swap from collecting fridge magnets as holiday/outing  souvenirs to pins.

I wasn't quite sure how to display them, although I had fantasised about making a wall hanging, and then when I went to the wool show in Edinburgh recently I saw that one of the stall holders there used fabric in an embroidery hoop to display hers. 

What a good idea I thought. I could do that I thought. I even went so far as to buy an embroidery hoop when we went to Hobbycraft recently - ( another of those famous occasions where they don't have what you went for but you come away with something different anyway). 

It might have festered in the craft room for years,like so many other bits that I've collected because I had a Good Idea which I never had the nerve to put into practice but lo and behold! it didn't. Earlier today I ironed some calico, popped it into the hoop ( not anything I've ever done before) and then pinned on my badges. 

Et voila

Plenty of room for more. And honestly, for something that was so straightforward I am ridiculously pleased with myself for having done it. 

Day 4 Arezzo

 Of all the places we saw on our tour, and admitting that Florence, you know, is Florence and a place  apart, it was Arezzo that really stole our hearts. 

This was unexpected as our hotel was on the outskirts which were underwhelming, and we hadn't seen much of the city itself as we were being driven out to see Florence and Siena so it came as a surprise to find the city ( v.small city, it has to be said) so beautiful and full of interest. 

Most of the places of interest were churches, but this is Italy so that's a given, and they're mainly of interest, assuming they don't have random bits of a mummified saint to draw the crowds, because of the art and Arezzo was no exception. Apart from the churches  there are  the remains of an Etruscan Fort - top of  a hill outside the current city walls, it was very hot, no we didn't walk up to it!, the home of a famous poet and the home of an almost equally famous artist and architect. And it's buildings are beautiful and it's main square every bit as lovely as the one in Siena, if somewhat smaller. It even plays host to somethign similar to the Palio, an annual Saracen Joust. 

We had a group tour in the morning whihc took us all around the historic entre plus into two major churches; San Domenico and the Cathedral. After that it was time on your own and the OH and I opted for another church followed by a relaxed lunch on the square where we were serenaded by a violinist. I've got a short video from then but I've tried and failed to upload videos to the blog before so I won't be attempting that again. It's a lovely little memory though. And after that we went to Casa Vasari, the home of Renaissance artist Giorgio Vasari, who is thought of as one of the  first Art Historians, courtesy of writing a  famous  book entitled Lives of the Artists, Interesting fact; a paperback copy of this, together with another one of Benvenuto Cellini's Autobiography was the first Christmas present I bought the OH., decades ago now. 

So a few photos, from a very large collection that I took 

A few general views

The Square

The Poet's House ( Petrarch) sadly closed for renovation while we were there

The 'extra' church the Oh and I went to was San Francesco and the reason for that was to see the Piero della Francesco frescos there. Here's The Annunciation

As it happened we had already seen a small painting by della Francesco in the Cathedral. I hadn't known who it was by when I first caught sight of it. It's only the second painting I've ever encountered that has brought me to the brink of tears just looking at it. Obviously a photo does it no justice, but here it is, a picture of Mary Magdalene. Personally I'd take this single image over the whole of the fresco cycle in San Francesco., amazing though that is. I strongly suggest clicking on this to enlarge it which will give  abetter idea of how good it is. 

And from the Casa Vasari, a view of the garden

and one of the many beautiful frescos he decorated his walls and ceiling with 

This was our last day in the Arezzo area; the next day we travelled to Rome, via Assisi. But  that obvs., is another post

Oops! How did that happen ....

 

How did what happen Anne?  I hear you cry as you look at the photo and think , she's bought some sock yarn. Hardly needs much explanation. 

And yes it is sock yarn and yes I did buy it and yes it's the first instalment of a monthly sock club. That's the bit you didn't see coming and how did it happen? 

Well Madrigal Yarns put up a Facebook post about their new self striping sock club. Self striping is relatively difficult to get hold of because it's a pain to dye and a lot of dyers seem to have decided  that it's more bother than it's worth. The OH of course, loves bright socks and what he most likes is bright stripey socks so this, despite the fact that it means at least 100g of yarn incomnig every month, was a bit of a no brainer. 

The colours will be inspired by the month the yarn is produced and this one, for April, is called Colours of Spring. While I love the main skein, and indeed the mini that came with it, I don't think they pair very well together so I've looked out a green that I had 'in stock'  to pair with it when I get around to knitting it up into socks. 

That won't be for a wee while because at the moment all my knitting time is taken up with my So Faded  sweater, which is the pattern I'm using for my Beehive advent yarn . I am so very nervous about whether or not this will fit that I have taken a tremendous amount of trouble with it; swatching (in the round, no less!), measuring myself, measuring two slightly differently fitting jumpers, comparing measurements to pattern schematic etc.  etc. If the universe tends to the benevolent  then it will fit and fit nicely. I'm a lot further on with it than I thought I would be after only five days but not quite at a place where I can yet try it on to see how it's looking. Fingers crossed. And then the self striping is second in the queue once it's done. 

 

Reading Round Up for March

 

So it appears that I read10 books in March and did a DNF on an eleventh. I kept hearing DNF on people's You Tube reading blogs and it took me longer than it should have done done to work out that meant Did Not Finish. 

So we might as well start with the DNF which was The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse. The blurb sounded promising - an old sanatorium in the Swiss Alps (possibly the French Alps actually, but definitely the Alps anyway) has been turned into a luxury wellness retreat type thing by an award winning architect and people gather for the grand opening only for them to disappear one by one, and then turn up dead. Sort of And then There Were None, but abroad. I borrowed this from my library's borrow box program and I did really reallly try but honestly it was about as interesting as watching paint dry. I couldn't keep in my mind who half the people were, and most of the ones that made an impression made a bad one by being either unpleasant ( the men) or feeble ( the women). Possibly it's better if you read it rather than having it read to you; at least that way you can go back and check who all  people are - if you find yourself caring enough. Pearse has since written two follow ups featuring the same detective so obviously someone out there likes them. That someone is not me. 

At the same time as I downloaded The Sanatorium I also got The Silent House of Sleep by Allan Gaw. This sounded very promising as it was the first one in a series, so if I liked it, lots more to read, It features a young forensic pathologist at  almost  the start of the development of the discipline and that could be a really interesting way to approach the detective genre but  oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. The method of murder was just ridiculous and the motivation for it non-existent. What a let down. Also to be honest the main protagonist is a total misery guts and the police he works for/with are unsympathetic in the extreme. A C+ for the ideas and an E for execution. I won't be reading any more. 

With attempts to find new authors so unsuccessful, is it any wonder that I fell back on some old favourites. My falling asleep to book was The Thirteen Problems by Agatha Christie, a set of short stories which feature the first appearance of one Miss Jane Marple. When you've been reading Christie as long as I have there aren't many surprises to be had, but the plots are competent, the writing is fine without being fancy and the motivations for murder are all credible. 'nuff said. 

I listened to Karin Slaughter's Indelible and in a way this was disappointing because I thought it was the book in which she killed off a recurring character who I dislike very much. Imagine my disappointment at the end of the book when it turned out they had survived. (Spoiler, they don't survive the next one ...) Meanwhile I enjoyed this one, and certainly didn't see how it would end or how the past and the present would all tie in together. One of her best I think. 

I knocked off a couple of J D Kirks; One for the Ages and City of Scars. I must surely be running out of the library stocks of this man, but as long as I keep finding ones on the shelves that I haven't read, I'll keep reading them. 

Staying with the detective novels I also read a couple by J M Dalglish who tends to turn up on line attached to messages like 'If you liked J D Kirk, you might also like J M Dalglish'. On the grounds that I do like J D Kirk I followed up last month's not entirely successful experience of reading one of JMD's  books set on Skye with several of his Hidden Norfolk series. When I say several, this was courtesy of them being bundled together in sets of three on Audible which sounds like a bargain and I'm a great one for trying to get the best value possible for my Audible subscription. So in March I listened to One Lost Soul and Bury Your Past. I'm not sure if its the writing or the reading but Gordon Bennett these books are pedestrian. This they then did, squared. Great if you like your books to have chapters that usually open with a weather report though. And the lead detective to be half heartedly dating the most passive aggressive girlfriend ever. 

In search of some light relief I got Jodi Taylor's Lights, Camera, Mayhem which didn't supply many laughs to be honest.  I think I've got a bit tired of these characters and their recurring behavioural and conversational tics. It all gets a bit monotonous. 

Next up was a fantasy novel called Immortal by Sue Linn Tan. Can't remember now why I bought it, possibly I was looking for something to read that wasn't a detective novel and picked this up at Waterstones from a Book of the Month table? I knew it had been well reviewed, and initially I enjoyed it. The setting is oriental-ish and there were some interesting concepts. However it went on a bit too long and there was a not very well revealed 'reveal' about 5/6ths of the way through, for winch nothing had prepared the reader ( unless possibly an acquaintance with Chinese mythology that I don't have? ) I did at least finish it, but I was bored with the characters long before the end. I would say 'at least they weren't riding dragons', somethign for which I no longer have any patience at all, but at one point the heroine does ride something else, possibly a thing called  a 'quilip', which, while it isn't a dragon, does fly and have hissy fits if the wrong person wants to get on its back. 

And so finally to Enchanted Glass by Diana Wynne Jones.  It's not her best, but it's a long way from being her worst and it's a personal favourite. It's not particularly deep or subtle,  since it is after all a children's book, but it has charm, real danger, and a satisfying denouement. It also features one of her signature hapless academic males, who are great fun  on the page but who would be really really annoying in real life. And there's an understated message about the importance of tolerance and how a life full of love is  infinitely  preferable to a life full of money or power. 

No judgement  if you DNF-ed this post as it's rather long. Suspect April's will be longer, unless I content myself with just a list!