looking up

Post every day for a month. That's all you have to do.

OK, so this is a challenge.
As someone who can't always manage to post once a week, I've signed up to NaBloPoMo and will try to post every day.
For a month.
Go check out Betty C's lovely blog - she persuaded me!

Having just done that I've remembered that I'm away next weekend with no internet access ...

This month's theme is Looking Up. Fortunately I don't have to come up with 30 or so posts on just that theme (one sure way to get a crick in my neck.)

Things are definitely looking up - only 4 weeks and 6 days until our summer holiday, when I can enjoy the sunshine, drink gorgeous Italian wine, eat good food and take lots of photos.

I'll be your mirror

Couldn't resist taking these close ups of a Harley in Bayeux, France earlier this week ...






When you hold me tight
It feels just like
When you close your eyes
On a motorbike
And it carries us off into the night
The runaway night

Runaway Night, Louis Eliot & the Embers



Reflections in Austin, TX

How I long to live inside a window
By the sighing motorway
Feel the city searching for my loneliness
In all the dust and glass
Reflections after Jane

Reflections After Jane, The Clientele


and in Scottsdale, AZ


I'll be your mirror
Reflect what you are, in case you don't know
I'll be the wind, the rain and the sunset
The light on your door to show that you're home

Ill Be Your Mirror, Velvet Underground

a momentary lapse of reason

In my early teens I could often be found browsing through the album covers in my local record shop. I could seldom afford to buy anything, I just liked to look at the artwork.

One of the 1st albums I bought was Dark Side of the Moon. (I say, "one of the first", because I have to confess that probably the 1st album I bought was David Cassidy's Cherish! Anyway, I got over that little crush in a year or so and then discovered Prog Rock.)
I loved the prism on the cover. It was striking and very different from Roger Dean's fantastic swirls and curves which adorned the albums of Yes, among others. The artist is Storm Thorgerson.

And today we visited the Idea Generation Gallery in Shoreditch, East London to see an exhibition of his work.



Over the years my music collection has grown, but I've been disappointed that, with the advent of CDs, the cover art has taken a smaller second place. Here they were in print form: the crawling figures from Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy, Peter Gabriel sitting in a car in the rain, the man in flames from Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here and the flying figures from Muse's Absolution.



We chatted with the artist himself, bought a print and watched body painting.




The print we bought was A Momentary Lapse of Reason (Pink Floyd again!), which seems an appropriate title as today is our 29th wedding anniversary!
I'll take a photo and post it when the print arrives.

theme thursday - lunch

Dot's Diner, Shady Dell, Bisbee AZ

When our children were small, I was a Lady-Who-Lunched. As a full-time Mum it was good to get together with friends in a similar situation. Usually we went to one another's houses. It kept the cost down and was easier when the little ones needed an afternoon nap. Lunch was leisurely, if frequently interrupted.

Now my girls are grown and I work full-time, lunch is a snatched opportunity. A hasty coffee and takeaway sandwich in my car between visits or soup and bread at my desk as I eat with one hand and type with the other. (My keyboard had to be replaced last year due to irreconcilable differences between it and a bowl of Leek & Potato!) Lunch is still frequently interrupted, usually by the phone, and no longer leisurely.

An article in last Saturday's Daily Telegraph informed us that Gordon Ramsay has re-opened his famous restaurant Petrus in Belgravia and that lunch can be enjoyed for the paltry sum of £25. Of course that's for food only and doesn't include wine (there's a brave little Vérité Le Désir from Sonoma for a mere £195) or service charge, but it's probably the only way Himself and I are likely to eat there. The a la carte menu is a touch pricey. So we may give it a go.

Who, however, could resist this?? - Discover the thrill and emotion in the heat of the kitchen at the horseshoe shaped Chef's Table for up to six people. The Chef will create an exclusive menu for guests to enjoy in the calm, amidst the movement and subtle chaos.

Lest any of you should fear that diners will be put off their "Roasted beef fillet with braised shin, baked celeriac and Barolo sauce" or "Chocolate sphere with milk ice cream and honeycomb" by Gordon running around and screaming F*CK! at the top of his voice, be reassured that the head chef is Sean Burbidge, who seems a much calmer sort of chap. And does anyone know what subtle chaos is?

Today, however, is my day off. I have been shopping for clothes this morning, the full length mirrors in the changing room a shiny reminder that I don't eat as healthily as I'd like, and am now sitting at home in my study having lunch. I'm also blogging, of course. We women like to multi-task!!

There's not much of my lunch left to show you, but it was a very tasty homemade sandwich with wholemeal bread, cheese & coleslaw. Plus a crisp apple and a large mug of hot tea. There may be a piece of flapjack lurking around somewhere, too. One of the cats is asleep on the sofa nearby, the washing machine is spitting out its soapy suds into the drain outside and I can hear the sparrows twittering in the garden. It's sunny, which means I can hang out the wet towels to dry. All is well with the world.

And my lunch didn't cost £25!

greening

I was reading this post by Kimy and was struck by the use of the word greening. It reminded me of this amazing sculpture in Antwerp.

computer ate my post

I work in health care and we use an interesting program at work for documenting patient records. I say 'interesting' in the sense that it is one big headache and has been developed by a bunch of idiots (i.e. not me!) It's not compatible with Windows™ and has its own little system of shortcuts, which I've had to learn.

So there I was on Wednesday night, slaving away on my hot computer to make a Theme Thursday post worthy of praise. Almost done, photos uploaded, humorous text in place when I hit The Wrong Combination of Keys, thinking I was at work.
Poof! The whole lot disappeared. It even overrode autosave (impressive!)
So, no post. And no time to do it all again.

While I wait for the lovely inventive team at Theme Thursday to come up with a brilliant idea for this week, I thought I'd post some more evidence that Spring is well and truly here. Today has been warm and sunny, and we've been out in the countryside enjoying the flowers.

beauty

Finally spring has sprung, albeit with a few April showers.
Just a couple of weeks ago we spent the weekend with our daughter and her partner in Oxfordshire.

Despite the gloomy skies



and the rain


daffodils

there was beauty everywhere.


hellebore


crocus

Happy Easter!