I’ve got to the time in my life when I look in the mirror and think ‘Good grief!! Who is that?????‘ It’s a daily shock, because it seems as if after a long while of very fortunately – and with no artifice, of looking younger than I actually am, that luck has run out. Now, as with us all, there’s a stranger looking back at me. My hair has changed too, it’s faded from very very dark brown, to less dark, well, actually, quite a lot less dark although not too many silvers among it. I find myself looking at me in mirrors in shops and washrooms, thinking ‘what’s happened, who is that, and how disappointing if it is me, and I now look so different‘. I’ve always been absent minded, and now I am more so, perpetually putting things down and forgetting where I put them, going to do a chore and finding I’d already done it, or thinking I’d done something and actually hadn’t.
I know this is partly because we lead very quiet lives now – we don’t seem to see friends as often, some friends have drifted away, and we’re now in a different pub – which is lovely and friendly, but we know few people, and it’s got a different vibe so we don’t meet new people. Our lives are very uneventful. I’m not complaining, it’s just the way it is – things always change, but the changes vary – sometimes incrementally, sometimes drastically, sometimes steadily, sometimes suddenly and very unexpectedly. We don’t just sit here of course – we go to places, we go for walks, we go to check out a new café or find some ice-cream, but we don’t see as many people as we used to.
Husband meets his ukulele group once a week, and they always have at least a couple of gigs a week. I’m see my writing friends frequently, once a month at the meeting, once a month at an open-mic night at the Black Cat pub in town, and randomly at other times for coffee. I meet my lovely book club once a month too, and in fact we got together last night.
Our get together was in the garden of one of us, a beautiful, calm, flourishing place of peace, tranquillity and greenness. Just for a change, instead of all having read the same book and discussing it, we brought our own recommendations, what we’re presently reading, details of books we’ve read reviews, and other books we’ve heard about or love. I’m sure the my friends, like me, came home with a great list of books tbr – To Be Read!
I brought copies for each of my latest Radwinter book – “Something or Nothing” (which you can find as a paperback or a kindle book on Amazon) :
- * Judith recommended “What We Can Know” by Ian McEwan.
- * Phil recommended “Vermeer, A Life Lost and Found” by Andrew Graham-Dixon, and “The Things We Never Say” by Elizabeth Strout (one of Phil’s favourite authors!) and “The Dharma of Poetry: How Poems Can Deepen Your Spiritual Practice and Open You to Joy” by John Brehm, which looks extremely interesting and which I may very well buy.
- * Lana recommended “But is it art?” by Cynthia Freeland, which also looked very interesting, and might be the perfect gift to husband for his birthday, “Nightwalking: a nocturnal history of London” by Matthew Beaumont. I’m sure it’s very interesting if you know London, which sadly I don’t, but I will certainly recommend it to other friends who do.
- * I recommended “The Pigeon Tunnel” by John le Carré, a non-fiction book of autobiographical writing, “Conversations with John le Carré“, edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli and Judith S. Baugham, “Unruly – A History of England’s Kings and Queens” by David Mitchell, and “Modernists and Mavericks – Bacon, Freud, Hockney & the London Painters” by Martin Gayford. I also brought copies for each of my latest Radwinter book – “Something or Nothing” (which you can find as a paperback or a kindle book on Amazon) :
Gosh what a reading list our meeting gave us!! I’m not sure the others were very keen on my choices – maybe I should have thought more carefully about what to recommend, thinking perhaps of genres they enjoy rather than books I love!!
It was a wonderful evening, so relaxing to be with my friends, having a glass or two of wine, some fresh and delicious summery dishes, and my personal chauffeur to drive us home!
I did mention that Damian Boyd has just published his latest book, “Seeing Red” – it dropped on my e-reader at midnight… I finished it at about midday!! I did sleep of course, but it was literally to good to put down!
My featured image is not of Phil’s beautiful garden, but another favourite place, Benvarden Garden near Ballymoney in Northern Ireland.
Lois Elsden 