Tuesday 28 June 2011

Coming Down to Earth Again

Just about back to normal after all the wedding excitement, though we all keep emailing and face book-ing each other saying how wonderful it was. It knocked spots off the Royal Wedding.
I had a lovely retreat day with Ditchling Friends on Saturday at the Blue Idol, an oddly named Quaker meeting house at Thakeham about fifteen miles away. No one knows why it is called that  There is a particular quality of peacefulness there which just does your soul good. (And we had the usual Bring and Share lunch which Ditchling Quakers excel at and which is always a gastronomic treat)
I went to see a terrible film last night called Bridesmaids which was praised in the Guardian, Observer, Front Row etc.  It was about six really silly women.  It is good to see a bad film sometimes as it shows just how good our film society is in Ditchling Village Hall which always shows winners.
Yesterday I did my usual stint with the Infants at St Lukes. The class teacher is a joy to watch. She speaks very, very quietly to the children and listens attentively to everything they say.  It is inspiring.

Tuesday 21 June 2011

I am still in an euphoric state after my grand daughter`s wedding last weekend, a three day event. The party took place up in the wilds of Northumberland in a Harry Potter style castle, which was until recently a boarding school .So we slept in dorms in rows, though there was not much sleep as we danced the night away (even I with my dodgy ankles) with amazing live music from talented friends and relations.All my ten grandchildren were there plus one great grandchild and another imminent. What a treat.
(Also I was glad to be away on Sunday as it was the London to Brighton bicycle race which goes past my cottage like a swarm of angry wasps)
Today I went on An Outing with the Ditchling Old Folk to Battle (1066 and all that) I have decided I am not really up for coach outings yet, kind though everybody was. There was a raffle in which everybody won a prize. I was very glad that I did not win the Liquorice Allsorts

Sunday 12 June 2011

A Life of Grime

I had intended to spend the afternoon going round all the village gardens in Ditchling which are open today, but it is deluging with rain so I stayed in and gave this cottage a jolly good clean. It always surprises me how dirty it gets with just one old person living in it. Anyway I am now enjoying the pungent smell of polish and bleach instead of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding which was the smell of Sundays in my childhood. I have been thinking a lot about these early experiences as I have finally just about finished my so called memoir, but I am still trying to think of a snappy title. They have all been used up by famous people, yesterday I was reading Alan Bennett`s which is called `A Life Like Any Other which it patently isn`t while mine is
.
Yesterday, the Ditchling Village choir gave a free concert in the Dome in Brighton, in the cafe foyer. Most of the audience just sat eating their paninis and ploughmans whilst reading the Guardian as we belted out Mamma Mia and Only Fools Fall in Love etc, but all of us choir hugely enjoyed ourselves.

Only a few more days and then the Darling clan will all migrate up to the North for grand daughter F`s wedding, so we are prowling round the charity shops for our wedding finery, well some of us are.

Sunday 5 June 2011

Bright Star in Ditchling

Another film in our Village Hall, Bright Star, which is about John Keats. I have seen it before,and though it does not match up to my idea of my hero, it is a beautiful film visually, and has some good moments. The next day I took the bus into Brighton and spent a happy time in Waterstones having a free read of Andrew Motion`s biography. (It is a brilliant shop with three floors with lovely sofas and good coffee, cappucino with a pattern of leaves in chocolate on the froth).   I was glad to read that Fanny Byrne married someone else after three years of grief and lived until she was in her eighties, but wore Keat`s ring for the rest of her life.
Seven year old grand daughter Tiger phoned me from Isle of Wight where she was for part of half term and asked if she can come for a `sleepover` tonight. I asked what she was doing at the seaside and she said she was selling stones. Apparently she collects pebbles from the beach, paints them and sells them. She should be on the Apprentice.