Rainy Sunday

The Guardian newspaper has a Blind Date column; you can apply to feature in it, have a meal with a complete stranger and afterwards  give your date marks out of 10.

Last week's couple:

she: 42, development manager
he: 42 advice sector deputy manager

What are those professions? Any ideas?

How about vicar for her and vicar's wife for him?

Rainy Saturday

The gardens are loving it.
I think the raindrops tickle the leaves and make them giggle.
And the giggling makes them grow.

With that in mind I took all the hanging (and other) plants off the screenporch and put them outside. These are the plants that survived my lack of care over the indoor winter, so we know that they are strong specimens.

I can hear them tittering and chuckling from here.

Keeping The Peace In Europe Gets Trickier

Naturally you won't be surprised to hear that a return trip from Amsterdam to Leeuwarden on Saturday night involved a lengthy detour and a spell on a German Intercity ( again ) . I should really start Twittering my travel plans .... it would be kind to warn others of my intentions so that they can , at least , choose another day to venture on a train .
But , be that as it may , there we all were , standing four-deep on Amersfoort platform as the Schiphol to Bad Bentheim train drew in . And in we all streamed . In the last couple of months , the line north undergoing extensive repairs , we northeners have become remarkably used to this little diversion . The occasional German traveller less so .
We now all feel thoroughly at home . Refreshments are eaten , shoes are eased off , jokes are shared . Gezellig, hoor !
But this time there was a slight frisson . There was something unspoken in the air ....
Till one Dutch woman joined in a conversation about menu plans for the following day . They , she announced , were going to eat lots of salad . Cucumber salad . "So HEALTHY !! ".
Fortunately the train drew into Deventer at this point and we all got out , leaving the German passengers in peace .
Anyway , now it's Tuesday and it's BEAN SPROUTS that are the culprits . With any luck , now the outbreak seems to be subsiding and Dutch cucumber growers ( who don't diversify but have placed all their bets on that one vegetable) can begin to harvest and sell their produce again .
But when my favourite little cucumber , origin unknown , will reappear , Heaven knows .
But I wished the rather nervous couple left in "our" carriage a pleasant journey before I fled .

Jonathan Franzen’s 10 Rules for Writers

1. The reader is a friend, not an adversary, not a spectator.
2. Fiction that isn't an author's personal adventure into the frightening or the unknown isn't worth writing for anything but money.
3. Never use the word "then" as a ­conjunction – we have "and" for this purpose. Substituting "then" is the lazy or tone-deaf writer's non-solution to the problem of too many "ands" on the page.
4. Write in the third person unless a ­really distinctive first-person voice ­offers itself irresistibly.
5. When information becomes free and universally accessible, voluminous research for a novel is devalued along with it.
6. The most purely autobiographical ­fiction requires pure invention. Nobody ever wrote a more auto­biographical story than "The Metamorphosis".
7. You see more sitting still than chasing after.
8. It's doubtful that anyone with an internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction (the TIME magazine cover story detailed how Franzen physically disables the Net portal on his writing laptop).
9. Interesting verbs are seldom very interesting.
10. You have to love before you can be relentless.^[3

Jonathan Franzen, author of The Corrections and Freedom, among others.

How Times Change

Everybody has now seen - or at least heard of - the film 'The King's Speech'.

How about this little episode for an understanding of the king's speech:

Between coming to the throne and the outbreak of war, sometime between 1936 and 1938, George VI and his Queen visited Canada.  Getting off the train on a whistle-stop tour to go walkabout they were greeted by enthusiastic crowds of people.

One horny-handed son of toil shouted: " Hi ya, King".
To which the King replied: "I'm fine, thank you, how are you".

Mantra Dancing

Sonata:

I saw this poster on the notice board in the supermarket

Tempted? No dance skills required , apparently .

I wonder what mantras are chanted . Do you think they begin in a circle , cups of chamomile in hand , and throw it open to discussion ? Or does the leader choose ? Perhaps , as the dance develops and they're all weaving about , it grows organically .

But , if you get to pick your own , I think mine might be "this too will pass" .

( Hands up all those who , at first glance , thought it said Mattress Dancing . Just me , then ?) .

P.S. I'm not deliberately ignoring everyone else's posts . Fridge Soup commenting is a privilege I seem to have lost .... Blogger is such a bundle of surprises ! And Google Chrome is definitely a step too far for my 9 year-old computer that was , granny-like , so proud of its Windows XP prowess .

Sweet relief.

We have gone from March weather to July weather here. From too cold to be able to do anything outdoors to wanting to be outdoors every minute, and not wanting to miss a minute of it all in sleep.
In the Cold And Dark Time my world shrinks to house, barn, work and the drive thereto and therefrom. Every bit of it is work: stoke the fire, bring in wood, listen and feel the car on the icy, snowy roads. I need to be in control of my environment for safety and comfort.
In the Light And Warm Time, Life goes on without my contribution. Birds dart and sing, leaves and flowers grow, I am physically comfortable without any effort.

It's such a relief to let the world take care of itself!