I’ve finished reading Under the Tuscan Sun (Frances Mayes) and am now deeply into Unless, by Carol Shields, that deceased but nevertheless still contemporary and amazing Canadian writer who turns the ordinary into the sublime. My life these days is partially defined by what I’m reading: I find I think and write in the style of the particular novelist or poet, although it’s usually a novelist. Mayes has an easy way of talking, unsurprisingly, since her topic is rather laidback, renovating a house in Tuscany, making delicious food, not worrying about the bank balance. Shields is more descriptive, analytical, a tad desperate but also reassuring. I wish over and over that it would have ever been possible to have tea with this woman, but I never knew her and now she is dead and gone.
Life is good when the latest news is about the tractor. I don’t care if I sound like a hermit to some, this is how I’m happy these days: tea, my book, my feet up. Or, working, and kept busy by tourists, clay, cleaning, music. The summer starts to speed up (visitors, holidays, tours, weather, plans!!) and I start to dig my heels in, the Taurean nature hating change and hating chaos, but I will ease that part of me into the odd social engagement. Now time for Baddeck for a day off, to wander my mother's garden and see what has grown in the past week. And maybe get to that shouting, "pelting" Internet and see what else people are saying...or not.
(I think that I should be careful, soon I'll have no friends, no-one will want to talk to me, when I try to be alone so often! As I said to Kathy today, "But guilt is my favorite emotion!" Then again, there's something to be said for the occasional bout of self-imposed monkhood.)
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the human behind the bean
I'm a 27 year old Canadian woman. I grew up on Cape Breton Island, although my parents and their families are from Quebec and Ohio. Currently I live in Cape Breton, in a small town by the Bras D'Or Lake.
I can make a good soup and tie my own shoes. I've worked as a nanny, a potter's assistant, a shop clerk, and a janitor. I've also worked in a library, and taught computers to seniors. I've travelled to Australia and New Zealand and across Canada by train. I spent two and a half years in university before I left. I like the way the air smells in the Fall.
Since 2002 - this is my blog, a place for me to write about life, what I experience, to share my photography and my writing. I'm glad you're here!
I can make a good soup and tie my own shoes. I've worked as a nanny, a potter's assistant, a shop clerk, and a janitor. I've also worked in a library, and taught computers to seniors. I've travelled to Australia and New Zealand and across Canada by train. I spent two and a half years in university before I left. I like the way the air smells in the Fall.
Since 2002 - this is my blog, a place for me to write about life, what I experience, to share my photography and my writing. I'm glad you're here!
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