under another sun

So 2022 then. Lorraine and I found ourselves in Bromyard with Sue and John on the first day of the year. It was also the hottest New Year's Day on record in the UK, around 15C where we were.  Up fairly slowly for a smoked salmon breakfast and then a trip out to Berrington Hall near Leominster. Grounds originally designed by Capability Brown, and a lovely house sat in excellent grounds, with trees planted not in copses but individually and slightly distant from one another. The house inside was okay, but there was one room which I found utterly magical. The dining room, which had been dressed for Christmas with tree branches hung with dried circles of oranges. See below. For me it was worth the whole visit, and put me in mind of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell .     A drive back through a couple of picturesque black and white villages, down lanes strangely busy with bicyclists and horse riders. Hereford is gorgeous even in winter. Home in the afternoon, and after a judi...

Friday, and up to the smoke to see Bob. A fine way to spend a Friday but felt curiously twitchy about being in London as I was waiting for Bob. Still, nice to be getting off at Blackfriars and sauntering down the South Bank towards the Royal Festival Hall, chatting to Mum on the phone. I know the South Bank very well having worked there for a couple of years, apart from all the visits. Met Bob outside Folyes and after a bite to eat and a cup of tea inside the RFH we went to Haywards Gallery and spent a happy couple of hours mooching around the Hayward Gallery looking at an exhibition of contemporary painting called Mixing It Up: Painting Today . It felt great to be presented with work that stretched me, rather than looking at stuff that was simply decorative. Bob and I mooched about discussing paintings at some length. Several works I found really excellent. Kudzanai-Violet Hwami's picture Family Portrait, made me feel uneasy but we were chatting about it for ages. Pictures by Gare...

Up early and working on a film script for the charity, then off to London to meet the Matt and the folks from the agency in the Duke of Sussex  in Chiswick. Sat along from the actor who played Mr Norrell in the recent BBC Series Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. I also had to fend off an offer for work over Christmas as I went. The pub's big back room which now is used as a restaurant area, and it was full of tables with a big office party on it. Ours was smaller. A good meal (duck for me) and cheery company.  I couldn't help thinking of Bob, also known as Mad Dog who gained this nickname in this pub in the days of yore, when it was a pool room, and he was charging about it with a pool cue champed in his teeth. A pleasant meal, then off to another quieter pub to have a quick drink with Matt, with Jo and Dave before I answered the call of the seagull and headed south. Also phoned up the doctor's surgery. The tests were back and all were clear, as I'd come to expect. T...

Off then at the crack of dawn, feeling sweaty and wretched up to Red Lion Square where the annual poetry book fair was being held. I stupidly left my phone in my study so missed calls and so on. Wheeling a case heavy with cards and stuff to give away on the Telltale stand. Not feeling well, but I  managed to enjoy the day. Said hello to a few people I know, and have nice chats with Sarah Barnsley and Siegfried Baber and Robin -- made it so much better being in a gang. Said hello to some old acquaintances such as Tamar Yoseloff, and Nancy Mattson, even Dinah Livingstone, who did not remember me but (naturally) remembered  my old palTim Gallagher, and lots of people I vaguely recognised. Also chats with people on their stands, one told me I looked like a radio personality. Later he came up to Siegfried and I grabbing a sandwich in the park, and told us he had a head injury. Nice friendly guy. But the world of English poetry in London is a strange aquarium. It made me think o...

Due to evil orc foot. I had to phone Mum and Mas to cancel our visit. Instead Lorraine and I stayed in the bedroom, me with leg horizontal and the French Windows open and the cats looking down on the seagulls. So, when not trying to walk, which was excruciating, really rather a nice day with Lorraine talking about tables and life and watching her do her new Pilates stretches on the bed. Spoke to Mum again later and listened to a radio adaptation of Hawksmoor she had recommended. It's quite a complicated book so adapting it for a 2 part, one-hour-a-piece job was always going to be hard. Remember really liking the book though. We also watched the final Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell on my laptop. Excellent series. Mum later forwarded pictures of sheep with telephone heads, that Joan had sent her. Sad to hear that Chris Squire, legendary bass player with Yes, had died. I have few heroes, but he was a massive one to me in my teens and was always my favourite member of my favourit...

Ruefully hungover leading to a virtuous tea-sipping kind of day. A fulsome late breakfast helped. But Lorraine on a bit of a mission so sort out the water butt we had bought recently which involved sawing and struggling with guttering. Beth returned after being away for a couple of days with her pal Laura, and much general hilarity about struggling to drill holes in butts. Laura looking really skinny after going on a protracted diet. In the end Lorraine and I repaired for a little sleep instead. Before going back to lurk in the garden, planting and watering beans to supplement the few that are growing. A bit of destination TV this evening. The Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell series, which I am still liking a lot, and then a new series called Humans, about androids set in the very near future also quite promising.

Beth cooked breakfast for everyone this morning, after John had got up and sourced some sausages. Lorraine and I, apart from going to dump several heavy bags of garden stuff in the recycling centre, and popping into the hardware store and buying a hose (though sadly no doublets were available) spent much of the day in the garden with the cats cavorting about around us. Everywhere flowers are emerging, such as an aromatic purple rose at the bottom of the garden. Garden now something close to spiffy. It is hard to describe the satisfaction we are getting from doing all this. Aching and having had lots of sun, we ate a good Sunday dinner, and later watched Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell again. Rather good it is too, although it could be a lot scarier. The central performances excellent. All in all, simply a happy sunny Sunday.

A dreary rainy morning. All at Kenny Towers up early, however. Beth off to a day of children's performances, many of which she had directed. Lorraine and I up and doing work. Lorraine also rewiring an old standard lamp. I worked on the pitch most of the day, with little forays into doing some work for my French client. Lorraine and I did however make some time this evening for a walk, as the weather had cleared, into our favourite walled garden. Then we popped in the The Park View for a bite to eat this evening. They were playing extremely good music and the grub wasn't hideous, nor was the pint of Harveys bitter I gulped down rapidly. Later, at home, Lorraine and I drank some of the gin we'd bought in Guernsey airport, and watched the excellent Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Then I packed and got ready for tomorrow for I am going up to London tomorrow and will stay overnight at Mum's place. Below in the walled garden at Preston Park. Really beautiful. Finding ...

Another poor night's sleep, but slept in a little. Downstairs for leisurely cups of tea and coffee with Mum and Mas. Over breakfast, I was sent a lead from a friend for a client I'd love to work with, but as I followed it up during the day the opportunity had evaporated, still an interesting new contact. Ate toast chatted to Mas about his latest project which involves desalination of water, and mum gave me a lemon scented geranium, and drove me off to Mill Hill Station. The plant smelling lovely all the way down to Brighton. Home fairly straightforwardly and back to work this afternoon, but not before eating a bowl of miso and noodle soup in the garden. There is a purple lilac tree at the bottom of the neighbour's garden which overhangs ours, and it is scented and gorgeous. The plants we put in the other day have survived, thanks to Lorraine putting in cat baffles such as circles cut from plastic bottles into the ground. Lorraine and Beth both out this evening, so when ...

A delicious breakfast and a sorting out of the door lock problem had us feeling much happier with our bed and breakfast today. We had planned a rigorous day of fierce gym work, but in the end I felt rather wussy first thing and instead we hired two deckchairs and sat in the sun reading books. I finished Brighton Rock at last. An unpleasant novel in many ways, but very well done. Lorraine reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell on Anton's persuasion. I also did some ham fisted sketching. Lunch on the beach before watching the Punch and Judy show in the afternoon. I don't now why I love Punch and Judy so much, but I do.  I like everything about it, the little kids calling up at the puppets, the crocodile and the policeman and the sausages and the mistreated baby and more. All good fun. Home and realised just how much we had been burned by the intermittent English Sun.  Slept for a little before a light supper in Tawny's and a trip to the White Swan, a fairly rubbish pub...

Interrupted by pie and thunder Thunder woke me, so up early and began straight away working on my poems in the light of yesterday's conversation - and seeing some instant improvements. What is slightly maddening is that several of them are reverting to how they were a while ago. There is a lesson in this, and I hope I am learning it. But thanks to Brendan a short collection of about 22 poems has suddenly revealed itself. At 10 I went off to LA Fitness and had a swim in the empty pool. I was reminded of the Westworld movie - with the gym being populated by a few unspeaking automata - but maybe that's just Sunday Morning. Something cold about this, but I prefer it to the thrashing about and child dodging of the public pool. Then a mooch in the damp flea market by the station but, apart from two sweetcorn cobs, nothing took my fancy. So I returned home for a very sensible lunch of brown rice, fish, veggies and a glass of sparkling water with a squeeze of lemon, and was just se...

Getting organised First morning in blighty. Grey all day. How can us Brits live without ever seeing the sun in summer? No wonder so many of us are busy stabbing each other. Slept well though in the cool night, however, but woke unfeasibly early and got up after an hour or so to sift my email backlog. Spent the morning setting up another interview for next monday - and a possible one with Bill Bryson on the horizon, which if it came off would be a fascinating. I seemed to have a million things to organise today: Ash text nagged me to book my ticket to Eire, and Marcella followed it up with several emails, telling me I needed to bring a suit and so on. Marcella's wedding is on November 1st in her home town of Westport on the gorgeous west coast. I went there a few years ago with several pals to celebrate Marcella's birthday, and Matty boy drove me off to the grave of my hero WB Yeats. Also researched the local gyms, and have narrowed it down to two. Then internet groceries, ...

A family Sunday Nightmares, dreaming that I was grinding my teeth and woke up to discover I was in fact grinding my teeth. Another where I was trying to complete some important form and found I was unable even to write my name. Some snickering and weird stuff in the Twitten woke me up at 3 am too. An early start as I was going to travel up to Edgware today for a family Sunday lunch. I listened to my audiobook of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - what an achievement that book is - in a carriage full of perky German students, and hungover Pride revellers. Mas picked me up at Stanmore station and after collecting Mum and Toby we all drove off to Wheathampstead, which is the other side of St Albans - a place that mum lived in during a former life in the time of the Romans. Here we went to the splendid Golden Elephant restaurant, which is in a very low-beamed old English building. In fact the beams are so low that one of them has black cushioning attached to it to prevent its clientele brai...