while you're ahead...

– 2018/138 – a weekend away

Monica Dunkley

August 7, 2018

I’m back.

I’m tired.

I’d like to get back to bed but I have a lunch date with a friend, a laundry room that is so full I need to excavate the washing machine in order to use it, half a dozen 13yr olds coming later on this afternoon for a get together (they’re not call parties anymore…) and a list of calls to make as long as my arm. One child is in Turkey with friends, one child is on work experience (I’m using ‘child’ in the loose sense of the word obviously) and one is trying to convince me that his friends don’t care if the basement is messy. That maybe so but I still need him to sort it out. And nobody likes warm J2Os… no matter what his lazy self tells me.

Sigh.

Also I must have gained 4lbs in the three days I was away and I’m trying to convince myself I’m not hungry.

I’m not.

The other reason I went was to help mum take photos of their Tuscan house to put it on the market. They settled really well in the UK and so this is the logical next step.

The house is gorgeous, an old stone house in the local style, with green shutters and thick walls, three double bedroom and a single, two lounges, an enclosed porch, two bathrooms… a lovely garden with a workshop and a shed…

and has the most amazing views (this was taken from my bedroom window on the 2nd floor just after dawn… pretty special, isn’t it?)

and it’s in a super cute hamlet, called Arsicci, about 40 min from Arezzo)

surrounded by other gorgeous villages,

(this is the atrium of their local church San Michele Archangelo in Badia Tedalda)

Interested? know someone who is? email me… I have tons of photographs…

In the meantime… cheers!

(dad is drinking a very red Campary and I’m on the Aperol Spritz of course)

– 2018/137 – music Friday

Monica Dunkley

1 comment

August 3, 2018

I’m off to Italy for the weekend to see family.

Alone.

Feeling giddy and slightly giddy in equal measure.

(as a child I used to love the movies with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis… and we chose Dean’s song “that’s Amore” as our wedding song. I’m ever so fond of the old crooner)

– 2018/136 – small steps

Monica Dunkley

4 comments

August 2, 2018

As a family of five we drink a lot of milk everyday, probably 2 to 3 pints each day and sometimes more and I was starting to feel guilty about the amount of plastic we were bringing into the house. Yes, we recycled it…. but… still…

Stop drinking milk wasn’t an option and neither was getting into dairy farming to produce our own. Can you imagine Mr M’s face if I’d told him “darling, I’ve bought a cow, tomorrow is your turn to milk it before going to work…” !!

Then one day I saw a milk float driving around my side of town and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of it before!

Now twice a week, early in the morning, we get delicious milk delivered to our doorstep (one less thing to buy) and in glass bottles. So terribly cute and old fashioned, isn’t it?

The bottles are very sturdy, and when we finish with them we wash them and leave them out to be picked up and swapped with full ones. As easy as that.

And they also make really cute flower vases, if you feel so inclined. I love when we get the ones that are all scratched and have obviously been around a lot. Makes me feel even better about the whole thing.

AND the lids are made of aluminium foil and are recyclable too. So there’s no waste at all.

None whatsoever.

(In the interests of information the milk is a little more expensive this way, but we think it’s worth it)

(we get our milk from here, they also sell a whole load of other products I haven’t explored yet… so stay tuned)

– 2018/135 – Cosmic Sweater

Monica Dunkley

1 comment

August 1, 2018

I can’t even remember when I started knitting this… which tells you a lot about my knitting mojo of the past few (lots of) months. I blame it on the super hot (and marvellous weather we’ve been having, but I’m not sure that’s the real cause. I don’t seem to have time for anything these days. How is that possible that I had more time when the boys were small and toddling about? I just don’t get it.

Anyway, the mojo is back. I’m working on another sweater that keeps my attention and it’s slightly more involved than normal and all is good. A part from the lack of time thing. That is still more relevant than ever.

Have you ever tried one of ‘Wool and the Gang’ kits? They’re really good. I find their yarn excellent and this cotton one didn’t disappoint either. I just wish I’d remember to really size down my needles because when I knit with cotton, my normally loose gauge gets really really floppy.

The green is gorgeous. AND more importantly didn’t bleed at all when I wash it, which I amazed me, having just turned a whole load of t-shirts/shirts green because of a Patagonia t-shirt. Let’s move on swiftly or I’ll cry.

Now, if I had read the instructions more attentively I would have realised I stitched sweater inside out. It was supposed to be wrong side on show… but whatever… I actually prefer it this way, it seems tidier.

I knitted the sleeves a couple of repeats longer because I’ve had my fill of 3/4 sleeves… I wanted a snuggly sweater and that I most certainly got. This cotton is super super soft.

Now, the neckline is very wide (as you can see from the top photo) and I’ll probably stitch it tighter/close it a little. I’m not into the ‘off-the-should’ look.

And like I said, if I were to knit it again, or knit again with this yarn I’d size down a whole needle size, but for now this will do.

Just as well the weather has turned cooler for a while!

– 2018/134 – poetry Monday

Monica Dunkley

no comments

July 30, 2018

The Pursuit of Poetry (by Jennifer Compton)

It’s later afternoon. It’s always later afternoon.

Pick up all you want to carry. Walk out the door.

Walk towards the setting sun. It’s very importan

to walk towards the setting sun. Of course it means

turning away from all the people you are leaving

with cold eyes unnameable cold eyes.. You could say

I’m going. Don’t know why. I don’t know where.

(Never say goodbye.) Take what you will want.

(This is always very little very little things.)

Now you have walked out of the house where everything

means too much. Now you are walking yp the street until

you don’t know where you are. (Abandon what you thought

you wanted to carry._ You are becoming unclean forgetting

the passwords walking like dancing talking without meanin

back under the moon you never tough you’d see again

speaking

in a voice you have heard for a long while white lines

stone tree

guessing lamp post guessing moon at the confluence of

memory something

smell right something jerks twitches flutters something falls

down lies there –

there is the next front door right there.

It’s really important to walk towards the setting sun.

And to never tell where you have been, what you have done.

– 2018/133 – music Friday

Monica Dunkley

no comments

July 27, 2018

ok…

the boys are back from their tour and the house smells of sport kits wore for two weeks and occasionally washed in a sink… if you catch my drift… but you know what? I don’t care. I’m happy they’re home, I’m happy they’ve had a fabulous time and saw some of the world out there.

I’ll sleep well tonight.

So it seems fitting to play this a little cheesy but lovely song from the movie ‘Mamma Mia here we go again’ which I saw this week with my sister.

Enjoy.

– 2018/133 – 48 years of books (1980)

Monica Dunkley

no comments

July 26, 2018

Emmeline (by Judith Rossiter)

A laugh a minute it ain’t, but I really enjoyed reading it.

The story is a fictionalized account of the life of Emeline Bachelder Gurney. Both anecdotal and documented evidence have been found about Gurney’s life.

Emmeline is 13 and when her farming family in Maine falls into hard times she is encouraged by her aunt to go to work in a textile mill in Lower Ma. Here she struggles to make friends and misses her family. She’s very young and completely naive and is then cynically seduced by her boss who gets her pregnant … her aunt comes to the rescue, the baby who she believe is a girl is given for adoption and Emmeline goes back home. Sad.

THEN the story moves to 20 years later, she’s still not married, having refused any proposal and looks after her family… till… no I’m not going to tell you anymore because the twist is something else and I did not see it coming at all… and I think you should read it and find out for yourself.

A step too far? Read it and come back to tell me what you think.

It reminded me a little of Moll Flanders and a lot of Tess of the d’Urbevilles…

I can’t really explain why I enjoyed reading it. Emmeline is a very passive and meek character on certain aspects but shows incredible strength in other and so to me is quite real. I found the historical context very interesting. I didn’t know much about life in the textile mills the period. How so many young girls left their family and boarded together working long days in really harsh conditions… it was so hard, and they were so young… work practices during the early days of the industrial revolution were not what they are now for sure! Child labour was accepted as standard and it’s good to remember these things. That the world has gone better … (could be better still, right?)

I read the Persephone re-print and as usual is a pleasure to read these editions. The paper, the type, the fact they stay open… a real treat.

And they always look good!

So… yes I would say, worth a go, harrowing yes, but the fact that it is based on a true life makes it real and strong. Go for it.

The list so far:

2018 Mr Hanckock and the mermaid

2017 – Magari domain resto (Lorenzo Maroni)

2016 – Upstream (Mary Oliver)

2015

2014 – Annihilation (Jeff VanderMeer)

2013 – Careless people (Sarah Churchwell)

2012 – Wonder

2011 – The Paris Wife (Paula McLain)

2010

2009 – Let the great world spin (Colum McCann)

2008 – The White Tiger (Aravind Adiga)

2007

2006

2005 – Never let me go (Kazuo Ishiguro)

2004

2003

2002 – Everything is illuminated (Jonathan Safran Foer)

2001 – American Gods (Nail Gainman)

2000 – Coram Boy (Jamila Gavin)

1999

1998

1997 – Paradise (Toni Morrison)

1996 – Wilfred and Eileen (Jonathan Smith)

1995

1994

1993

1992

1991- Regeneration (Pat Barker)

1990

1989 – Like water to chocolate (Laura Esquivel)

1988

1987 – Norwegian Wood (Haruki Murakami)

1986

1985 – Oranges are not the only fruit (Jeanette Winterson)

1984

1983 – Heartburn (Nora Ephron)

1982 – The colour purple (Alice Walker)

1981

1980 – Emmeline (Judith Rossiter)

1979– The bloody chamber (Angela Carter)

1978

1977

1976

1975

1974

1973

1972

1971

1970

– 2018/132 – last postcards from Paris

Monica Dunkley

1 comment

July 24, 2018

You will be glad to see this is the last post about our stay in Paris… as I’m writing this I’m sitting at my kitchen table at home having just been food shopping, having sorted out a locksmith because our front door won’t let us out, sorted out the gate people because they didn’t show up, I’m on the second load of washing and the ironing pile is mounting up. I need to do a trip to the dump because we miss the bin men when we were away, I need to pick up a parcel from the post office and return a couple of hats to a friend who needs them soon.

I feel like I need another holiday!

Mr M and No 3 told me they need a holiday from the holiday we just had because I made them walk too much…. what???? Wimps.

On the last morning they refused to get out of bed so I took myself on a last stroll trough the streets of Montparnasse and the left bank and it was bliss.

I had a croissant and a cappuccino sat at the counter of a cafe, surrounded by people drinking ‘noisettes’ (expressos with milk) and reading books. French people read in public a lot. Also, and this is just wonderful, there are so so many independent bookshops in Paris… I haven’t seen one big chain anywhere… small, independent, small and dark or bright and modern. Wonderful stuff.

I walked to the Church of St Germain des Pres

then to St Sulspice. I’m Italian, I can’t help it, I spent half of my days visiting churches there are so many there… and I like them. They’re cool in the summer and always different. And they smell nice.

somebody up there was playing that huge organ and it was magnificent.

I walked till I got to the very French Jardin du Luxembourg… I sat by the big fountain and watch Parisians walk by with their little dogs, with their baguette (a cliche, but true) and soaked the atmosphere…

I had all intention of entering the Pantheon but the queue was too long and I needed to get back to the apartment and pack…

I know that some of you might think we’ve had a strange visit to this city, but it was all intentional. Mr M and I had both been a couple of times before and we’d done the big sights… The Louvre… The Musee d’Orsay… even the Centre Pompidou… AND No 2 is at an age that he really doesn’t like museums and thinks art is boring. Most kids go through that and whilst I believe that a certain amount of exposure is good for the soul and the brain, I also don’t believe in forcing them. I’m sure he’ll come back to Paris when he’s older and he’ll check the ole Mona Lisa out and be disappointed of how small it is like we all were… and he’d marvel at the Impressionists like we all do… and hopefully he’ll appreciate the whole thing much more.

If you are looking for something different do check out:

The Fondation Louis Vuitton, and if you have small kids, the area of the park in which the amazing building has been built it’s really good.

Atelier Lumière a different way to look and experience art. Really worth a visit.

Pere Lachaise Cemetery buy a map from any of the flower shops outside the museum, it’s impossible to navigate/find anything otherwise.

Ok then, back to the washing machine.

SaveSave