Friday, his only full day here, is fragmentary. In preparation for a group he belongs to he attempts to read Christ Stopped at Eboli but only manages a page here and there. His Iphone burbles the arrival of messages, one from a long-standing friend who passes on his reaction to Gorgon Times, saying it resembles David Lodge in some ways. I am absurdly pleased by this.
It's raining. Knowing there'll be a leg of lamb that evening we set out for a "light" pub lunch and end up at The Duck in Ewyas Harold, one of Hereford's pleasingly named villages. The return journey is deliberately stretched out through Grosmont, Skenfrith and St Weonards on deserted narrow roads that are glorious in summer and only slightly less so in winter, evoking the monochrome tiers of a Chinese water colour.
Emails from The Crow and Joe tease away at aspects of short-story writing and VR's lamb comes with sweetheart cabbage deliberately divested of its thicker veins and cooked (with caraway seeds) for three minutes in butter. Whereby it ceases to be an accompaniment, becomes a dish on its own. VR announces she wants to transfer her book reading records to the computer and I argue with Sir Hugh about the relative merits of a database versus a spread sheet.
Now it's 7.16 am and I finish this, wearing my new fleece dressing gown, adjacent to dark windows.
Pic: Ewyas Harold memorial hall, where VR is tutored in painting
Has VR tried GoodReads? It's the fastest way I've found to keep track of my books online, and there's something pleasing about seeing the covers of all the books I've read in a year. You can either invest very little time into it or add details about each book you've read.
ReplyDeleteHere was nostalgia for me passing by The Bell Inn at Skenfrith where you picked me up and dropped me off next morning on my walk round the Welsh boundary last year.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the hospitality, and as always VR's splendid fare.
A diary entry. It is one of my regrets not to have kept a proper diary with entries like this. A full life.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed the names of the pubs and the villages. Ewyas Harold is I suppose a reminder that Herefordshire is next to Wales.
I can understand the David Lodge association but your book is more serious. Lodge writes farces.
Julia: Tried GoodReads, fell at first hurdle (FaceBook). Am presently using MS Works database.
ReplyDeleteSir Hugh: As VR said, wish you came more often.
Joe: Only Nice Work seems to overlpa; othersie it's mostly academia. We share the same birth year.