Ink on my fingers

Just a simple Sunday

Not much doing. No baby yet. I'm sinking into my writing... and remembering how much I love this song:



What you doing today?

~ The other side of the bed ~

If everything goes to plan I’ll have something really exciting to share with you on Monday; this exciting thing has been taking up a lot of my time recently so I’m sorry I haven’t been round these parts as often as I normally am.

A while back I responded to a meme on Penny’s blog offering respondents five questions; I couldn’t resist, so here are my five questions answered. If you’d like five of your own, leave a comment and I’ll email you back five juicy ones…

Tell me about a book that changed your life

It would be impossible to choose just one as I feel like every book I’ve ever read has changed my life because I’ve either learnt something, recognized myself in the pages or my brain has expanded and new words have crept in. I’ve always been a book worm; I remember late nights reading Danielle Steel and Stephen King as a teenager; I remember the first time I picked up a novel by Jeanette Winterson and dove into the words; I remember reading practically non-stop in my first year of grief as a way to escape the world, soaking up every drop of poetry I could lay my hands on later as I started to feel again. Lately I’ve been dipping into Michele Roberts’ memoir, Paper Houses, and the way she describes her passion for words is exactly how I feel too.

If you could photograph anything or anyone, what would that image be?

Two situations immediately spring to mind – the second one is me, Saffron Burrows and an afternoon spent taking Polaroids in Paris. Saffron is extraordinarily photogenic and I’d love to capture her eating a pink macaroon from Laduree while wearing ballet pumps and a floral tea dress, all cheekbones and luscious lips.

The first one involves me, a wonderfully charming and worldly man who is no longer here and an afternoon picnic on a sunny summer’s day; I’d love to have the chance to photograph him just one more time.

 In the vein of Ally McBeal, what's your theme song?

Ooh, I have so many for different moods and occasions, different memories and emotions. I guess the most obvious one is Unraveling by Deb Talan – I was sitting at my computer on January 1st 2007, wondering what the hell I could call my new photo blog when this song started playing. It was one of those meant-to-be moments because from there the word has taken on so much significance for me and the work I’m doing.
However, when I need to get moving and want to shift my mood into one that's happy and positive I listen to Good Times by Chic - I'm lucky that I have so many good associations attached to this song. It's the one guaranteed to get me up on the dance floor.

What rituals do you have?

I’m embarrassed to admit that my whole day is one long ritual; living on your own and working from home means you tend to do things the same way over and over as there’s no one else here to break the routine. Some days I make a point of getting out of bed on the other side, and brushing my teeth using my left hand – I’m not joking - just to mix things up a bit.
 
Who would you like to play you in a film, and what would the storyline be?

A few people have told me they can see a bit of Jennifer Aniston in me so I’d either choose her for that reason, or Julianne Moore because I think she’s a great actress (and I once had an idea for a book/film where I could see her as the main character and have never gotten past that thought). The storyline would be: screwed up young woman survives a personal tragedy, fights to save her sanity and in doing so discovers the world is a magical place after all. Or something along those lines. Julianne would carry a Polaroid camera at all times, obviously.

~ My mother's day* ~

From Blossoms

From blossoms comes
this brown paper bag of peaches
we bought from the boy
at the bend in the road where we turned toward
signs painted Peaches.

From laden boughs, from hands,
from sweet fellowship in the bins,
comes nectar at the roadside, succulent
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold
the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into
the round jubilance of peach.

There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the backgroud; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.

Li-Young Lee, From Rose

* Happy Birthday, Mum. I love you xo

~ The Dream ~

Still poorly. Boredom threshold has now been reached and i want to get on with things but having to listen to my body and slow down. I think I've been over-doing it recently and this is payback. Will i ever learn? (very unlikely)
Happy Friday, everyone!

The Dream

Sometimes a dream lands so hard
it flattens you.

I liked it better before, you moan,
waving my dream like a silk handkerchief,
light and soundless above my head.

It could have been anything,
a kite, a bird, a large balloon
with three passengers.

Instead, it landed in your lap,
you asked for it,
secretly you had been reeling it in for months
like a trapped fish.

Too big for the net--
it loves you more than you love it.

It wants to stay here forever,
smiling and cuddling
in the bosom of your days.

~ Naomi Shihab Nye, from Words Under The Words

~ Thank you ~

Gosh, thank you so much for all your comments so far - my feel-good folder is now bursting at the seams with your kind words! And they were so very needed today - I'm on day three of a head cold which has poured all my productivity down the drain and I'm trying to see my way through blocked sinuses and phlegm (fun!), so your feedback has been just what the doctor ordered. There's so much I need to do here in the united states of unravelling, yet my body is telling me it needs to be horizontal and it needs to rest. Which is really frustrating.

I'm going to take on-board all your suggestions and comments - I've got some great interviews lined up over the next couple of weeks which i think you're going to enjoy; i'll also stick with my haphazard posting plan of whatever-i-fancy rather than organising anything more structured - the minute i feel i ought to do something is when i lose my inspiration - do you find that too? I think it's better to stay focussed in my work-life and allow more freedom in my blog-life. 

Stay tuned for posts about my well-organised sock drawer and my thoughts on world peace ;)

Love this song so much: Half Acre by Hem (turn the volume up)
Love this photo so much, and this one too.
Love this website that my sister found... makes me want to take up sewing in a BIG way.

~ Dreaming of tea parties ~

Emma's lovely dress has got me thinking about vintage floral fabrics and tea parties, cream-filled scones and a chilled glass of Pimms. Summer is on her way and i'm going to greet her in a dress, flip flops and pretty painted toenails; it's time to get my girlie on.

Today's song: Child I Can See Ya by Katie Herzig

Photo credits: Weeder's Digest at Design*Sponge; Paul Smith via Lobster & Swan; Dandelion Ranch via 100 Layer Cake; Clarinda Blossom by Designer's Guild; Lisa Stickley London; Scarlet & Violet; Barefoot Roses by Tanya Whelan at I Just Love That Fabric

~ Nothing but blue sky ~

 

~ Erica Jong ~

I simply had to share this - i adore her work and it's so nice to hear her read her own poetry.

~ You can't hold it back ~

Lingering in Happiness

After rain after many days without rain,
it stays cool, private and cleansed, under the trees,
and the dampness there, married now to gravity,
falls branch to branch, leaf to leaf, down to the ground

where it will disappear - but not, of course, vanish
except to our eyes. The roots of the oaks will have their share,
and the white threads of the grasses, and the cushion of moss;
a few drops, round as pearls, will enter the mole's tunnel;

and soon so many small stones, buried for a thousand years,
will feel themselves being touched.

~ Mary Oliver, from Wild Geese

~ Play it again ~

Hello, and a very good evening to you all. Just a quickie to say i've added a music player thingy which you can access via the button over there on the left <- - i'll try to update it regularly with the tunes that are helping me bake cupcakes.

Also, the winner of the Jonatha Brooke CD giveaway is.... Erika Rae!