Hythe High Street. Act I.

A pre-dinner constitutional with my beautiful girl and my beloved camera in the village and I came home with these images.
I simply adore this place. So calm.

By the way, the launderette is where I froze my toes off during this snowy winter as our washing machine was triumphantly broken. (Not that much worked in there either... The washing machines, when spinning, always sounded as if they were getting ready to be launched into orbit. I would always have to pull my little girl closer to me for fear she might get launched into outer-space along with them.)
The jewelery shop is the one where J bought my engagement ring (a little 1920's diamond ring- when J gave it to me he warned me that it would be the only diamond I was ever going to get. Charming.).
The bookshop is where I get ripped off. But oh, I keep going back for more!
The greengrocer's shop, which looks so perfectly British, is actually owned by an Italian!
It's a small world after all...

British Museum's lost photos.

We went to the British Museum in London a few months back and forgot to blog about it! I'm not such a good blogger yet! I know blogs are supposed to be all about the here and now but I thought I'd put these up anyway.
The British Museum is such a gorgeous place. Every time I go I have to literally look at the floor and drag myself out of it!
Every time we go we do a different section: this time it was all about the Babylonians and the Romans: beautiful.
But, walking about London and the museum in itself takes its toll so afterward we had a lovely hot chocolate for us girls and a nice drink at the charming "Museum Tavern" just outside the museum. Lovely.

Reflections on mortality.

I watched "Hotel Rwanda" last night.
We all know about the ferocious genocide that happened there in 1994.
This film is set back then, featuring the story of a truly kind, loving man who risked his life to save over 1000 lives.
Amazing.
The savage, bloodthirsty hate of some is truly demonic, but at the same time the kindness and generosity of others lead one to believe that it is possible for humans to be good again, to see harmony among men again.
The elements are all there, we just need a little bit of extra help to get there.

I went to this graveyard a while back, I've already posted some photos of it, but I had a few more I wanted to turn Black and White.
These made me think of all the innocent, slaughtered people who were ruthlessly murdered for no reason in Rwanda and who never received a dignified burial.
Time presses on, we're busy with our own lives and how quickly we forget...

Sonnet 19
Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws,
And make the earth devour her own sweet brood;
Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws,
And burn the long-lived phoenix in her blood;
Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleets,
And do whate'er thou wilt, swift-footed Time,
To the wide world and all her fading sweets;
But I forbid thee one most heinous crime:
O, carve not with thy hours my love's fair brow,
Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen;
Him in thy course untainted do allow
For beauty's pattern to succeeding men.
Yet, do thy worst, old Time: despite thy wrong,
My love shall in my verse ever live young.

"The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver

I cannot even begin to say how much I have loved this book.
I read it in two days (while recovering from a nasty bout of Gastroenteritis, just to feel closer to some of the characters!) and completely sunk in the story.
Set in the Belgian Congo in the '60s we follow a family of Baptists missionaries as they settle in a tiny village in the jungle. The story is told by the different points of view of the daughters and the mother.
There's an overzealous Reverend father who is the epitome of the distant, domineering, cynical father who leaves his daughters suffering in very different ways.
Their mother does what she can and we learn to understand why she acts the way she does.
Religion is definitely a major issue in the book, as is language and interpretation, family relations, relating to a new culture, pride and adaptability.
But the main character is without a doubt Africa, in all its fierce wounded presence, the political turmoil, its nature, its contrasts, its scary relentless diseases, its people's generosity and empathy but also the ferocity and anger some harbor for various reasons.
You can tell Kingsolver was a little white child who was brought up in the Congo, she can explain places, smells, tones of voices, gestures and feelings in a way only somebody who lived something on its skin can.
The author skillfully interweaves personal plots within the fabric of the politics of Africa, relating things in a caring, intelligent way.
I loved this book with all my heart. I shall cherish it forever and recommend it to all my friends who have even a passing interest in the sad situation of Africa.
As in the book one night a great army of Soldier Ants, 100 meters wide and several miles long, invade the village gnawing everything that is not mineral they find, I include a photo of a few little, harmless but no less determined ants I found in my tamed English garden!




And in today's Guardian there's a lovely collection of photos of ordinary people from Congo, as it's 50 years this month from Independence day, which was June 30, 1960.
It made my day.

www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2010/jun/12/photography-congo-stephan-vanfleteren

"The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood

Set in a dystopian distant future after a nuclear catastrophe has erased much of normal life as we know it, "The Handmaid's Tale" is the story of a woman trying to live in a repressive, religious based, dictatorial society that has taken away every right and freedom from women.
Very disturbing, and chilling, we listen to Offred (not her real name but one the Government assigns to her) as she relates what life is like under the system, her humiliations and obliterations and as she suffers painful flashbacks of her life before the dictatorship, when she was a woman who loved her husband and daughter and was loved back.
Atwood tackles many issues here: women's rights, government's rights, abortion, pornography, religion, relationship between men and women, the problem of having things, not having them, appreciating people, showing them affection, how people behave under the grip of fear and peer pressure.
I found it chilling just as much as I found it a compelling read.
"1984" will always be the best book as far as dystopian futures go, but "The Handmaid's Tale" is definitely second after that.
I reccomend it.

I hide myself within my flower.

Once in a golden hour
I cast to earth a seed.
Up there came a flower,
...The people said, a weed.
Then it grew so tall
It wore a crown of light...
- Lord Alfred Tennyson

I went for a walk and came across the most beautiful flowers: vibrant, alive and perfect.
The older I get the more I love flowers.
I shall buy a big tome and learn all the names. At the minute I only know about 10. It's disgraceful!
My absolute favorite are daisies, I had them everywhere at my wedding: in my hair, in my hands, on the cars, on the guests, in the restaurant.
Daisies are so simple, unassuming and perfectly pretty.