Happy New Year everyone. I don’t know when I’ve last faced a New Year with so much hope, God-confidence & anticipation. This year, God willing, might mark a new direction for Roy, and a return to beloved old directions for me. I have now found people who can run our family publishing business efficiently, so am hoping to return to almost full-time writing (interspersed with lots of travel!!)
Spectacular view from my window, every tree and twig clocked in frost; crisp, white, pure fields; frozen ponds.
04 January
Roy plus I plus dog forced ourselves out on a pre-dusk walk/run. Well, to be accurate, the dog forced us out. And my running pace was slower than Roy’s brisk walk. But anyway, it was a white wonderland, every leaf and twig, crystallized loveliness, pure and recreated. And I now feel exhilarated and happy, and am so enjoying a well-earned cup of hot tea, and an exciting book, “Dreaming with God,” by Bill Johnson.
04 January
“Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.” David, Psalm 51. Snow everywhere; the fields from my window are pure white, the willow tree outside my window is a sparkling fountain. Loveliness everywhere!!
06 January Zoe and Irene’s snow jokes. “What do you call 50 penguins in the Arctic?” Lost. Penguins live in Antarctica. “What did the snowy road say to the car?” “Fancy a spin?” Lovely to have a day at home, and catch up with chores. Zoe and Roy are unpacking the last boxes from our move from America (5 years ago!) which are still in his study!!
Snowy fields outside, and plotting our travels inside. 13 weeks more of work, and then we take off on a travel adventure over Easter. If our family were a dictatorship (how sensible, how efficient that would be!!) it would be the South of France, but the other three are campaigning for Ireland. Now, here’s a good opportunity to hone and perfect one’s rhetorical skills!!
I love to travel, and I love to travel to strange mysterious countries, with pristine, old misty towering forests; semi-abandoned wayside stone churches; remote, lonely. What country am I thinking of, Switzerland, Scotland, or somewhere I have never travelled? Albania? Slovakia? Slovenia? Russia? Denmark? Macedonia? Or the undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns? The ultimate land of the heart’s desire!!
Fri at 10:54
Good morning! Ice to see you!Fri at 11:3
With Zoe’s help, we are catching up with the unpacking, and decluttering from our move from the US five years ago. Three extra snow days, a gift of time to work on and around the house. Yay! Looks like Monday is going to be a snow day too, though the school says they are going to set them homework if that is the case. A vicarious sigh for Zoe and Irene.
Fri at 15:30Massive queues in Tesco, way down the aisle. Obviously people are taking the snow forecast seriously. I have never seen such long queues even on Christmas Eve, or when hurricanes were forecast in Virginia
Inspired by “Julie and Julia,” I’ve bought Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” AND t. ingredients for Caneton Poele aux Navets (duck casserole), Potee Normande Pot-au-feu (beef, pork, sausage & chicken casserole) & Poulet Poele a l’estragon (Chicken casserole w. cream and fresh tarragon).
We’ve resurrected the old table tennis table we had in the barn (living in the country, we have an old horse barn, and a garage; more potential to procrastinate getting rid of clutter). We had a fun game in our new conservatory, parents against children, and we easily won, and I showed off no end about my ping-pong prowess in school never deserting me, until I realized that whichever team Roy was on inevitably won!
Sat at 17:31
“Benson in Oxfordshire” (not far from us) recorded a low of -17.7C, just two degrees warmer than the South Pole and lower than some manufacturers recommend for freezing food!” The Guardian
Roy & I watched “Angels and Insects” a strange, but visually v. beautiful film last night. Based on A.S. Byatt’s novella “Morpho Eugenia;” v. heavily overladen with Metaphor &a Epiphany. Interesting to watch the director translate a brainy, v. literary novel to film. It was an 18, & Zoe declined to watch it with us, saying WE would blush; it was just as well! Visually lovely, rather clever, but not much heart to it.
Hoping the snow will let us get to church tomorrow. My church, St. Aldate’s, is by no means perfect, & neither am I, but it is, to use a glib, over-
used phrase, definitely “spirit-filled.” I.e. one goes there, often empty, distracted, secular in one’s thinking, and yet slowly, mysteriously, one does encounter God there; get filled again with his spirit, his love, his energy, his inspiration, his will to do good & bless.
Watched the heart-breaking, almost unbearably painful, yet v. beautiful Jean de Florette last night. Last watched it almost 20 years ago in our Marcel Pagnol phase. May watch Manon of the Spring tonight, though we have to take Zoe to church since she led an 8-10 year old Sunday School group, and so missed it. Jean de Florette is a terrible exemplar of the character-corruption of greed, and the dangers of naive trust!
Captioning my New Zealand photos. Under Mt. Cook National Park, I wrote “We had joy, we had fun; We had seasons in the sun” after the Terry Jacks song. The wicked Irene suggested instead, “We had stress, we had pain; We had seasons in the rain; And the hills were all too hard too climb!!” Which is also true in a way. Travel is an intensification of living and experience!!
Read my new memoir: Rosaries, Reading, Secrets: A Catholic Childhood in India (US) or UK.
Connect on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anitamathiaswriter/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anita.mathias/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnitaMathias1
My book of essays: Wandering Between Two Worlds (US) or UK