It's not personal. It's business.

"It is so easy to believe that you'll always be ready to handle everything life presents to you, but a day--many days--arrive and you can't bear it, you can't even dream that you have it within you or around you to cope or to survive. Hold on to that emotional, dreaming person--the one who feels--and keep family and friends and the things you love and the things you live for deep in your head and your heart. Eat and laugh a lot; love deeply; give fully. It doesn't just go by fast; it comes at you with alarming speed and stealth and damage.

"You will not be prepared. You will be knocked off your feet, your foundation. Make sure it's a strong foundation, and make sure you know how to get back to it and on it and re-build it.

"No one is ready for what ultimately arrives, but some are lucky and are able to not only survive but to get others through it all.

"Work on that. Feel more. Laugh a lot. Draw a circle of loved ones around you."--

Marlon Brando/Interview with James Grissom

Happy Birthday, Marlon Brando April 3rd 1924.

Summer is a Verb Not a Noun - Thank you Jack Wills

It's a gorgeous day. Yesterday I sat outside and read the papers with a glass of Rose.

I decided to shop. I love Jack Wills - for the children and yes for me. Same vibe as Mumford - amidst all the dross and grimy old mangy old you knows it's clean, healthy, civilised.

I took the title for this post from their website. I thought it inspired. Very good marketing people.

Look :

My daughter has a summer birthday like me - every year since she was tiny I buy her a birthday dress and a dinner dress - so she can change for dinner !

She now has the most wonderful collection of exquisite  i love gorgeous dresses.

Look :

Today marks the anniversary of Graham Greene's death. Interesting article here.

Look :

Whilst on books this is lovely :

As for food I really enjoyed reading this.

Now go and make hay everyone ! Happy Sunday.

Zola, Sandhurst, Martinis, Van Gogh, Crayola

Emile Zola was born on April the 2nd 1840. Here is the Wikipedia link, he's a fascinating man, I did my dissertation on L'Assommoir and Le Ventre de Paris is fantastic.

I understand from my new friend Facebook that the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst was established in its' current guise on this day in 1947.

I just read Belgian Waffle's post - eyes left. She talked about Martinis. I had a Martini incident with someone quite unique - nothing grimy or rude just bloody funny and once in a lifetime.

I may write about it at some stage.

It's also Alec Guinness's birthday. 1914. This wonderful book gave me the idea ( and my sister ) to play on Facebook - yes I know about 300 years after everyone else.

This from Vincent Van Gogh to his brother :

'Admire as much as you can, most people don't admire enough'

I read this in Aix then went on a pilgrimage to Arles as I was in the neck of the woods. It is lovely. Gauguin came to stay and they had these wonderful discussions about whether or not they could afford to go for a drink or buy paint. 

Just came across this wonder from Ottolenghi which has to be done. Heading out for a sunny day tipple so will come back re Crayola.

Pencils, Doctors, Twitter, Gougeres, James Joyce

Bit of a rush today as I have and am pleased to be able to help get various people I care lots about get to various doctors appointments.

There's a sentence.

I have only just found Facebook. So far so good. I was guided by Potty Mummy very very well as to how to start a blog. I did and it was great fun but it was a few years ago and I got a couple of trolls and stalkers and thought sod this and closed it down.

I wish I hadn't. It was quite a laugh. Also an example of me capitulating to being bullied which I really really hate. Bullies are cowards - stand your ground and tell them to fuck off.

Anyway.

I have always loved Twitter - many say it has dark sides and the bullying and abuse can be worse there than anywhere but I keep in touch with museums all over the world and the 'font of information' is amazing.

Today's blog post is all courtesy of Twitter and in that vein brief and character limited !

James Joyce had lifelong problems with his eyesight. I heard somewhere but I need to check that his father had a pencil factory.

Today is #NationalPencilDay.

I have always had a thing for Caran D'Ache.

It's also #NationalDoctorsDay - there are so many amazing, pertinent, hugely important things I could post here. The marvellous Agnodice from Oxford Academic, one of my favourites on Twitter.

Thinking too about an initiative from the Soil Association looking to working with hospital food.

It's also #Hug A Medievalists Day. Damn right.

My dog went for an, ahem, extended stroll the day before yesterday. It was very frightening. It was fine he was taken in by a neighbour but he has never done it before. He loves cheese.

So these babies are happening today for this fella :

An idea, like a ghost, must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself

It's Easter

We have ‪#‎Brexit‬ and Trump, atrocities, enmity, footballers being paid walloping amounts and Addenbrookes in administration.

Ministers taking money from the disabled, servicemen fighting, religious wars, return of Scarlet Fever, Frederick Forsyth talking about sexting and admitting like me he has no idea who the Kardashians are.

We have ugly vegetables being rejected, dairy farming in the red, twenty somethings that can't get on the housing ladder. An education system third from the bottom worldwide. Maths curriculum that doesn't add up.

We have more trinkets and toys and gadgets than ever before, acquisition of things the new false God. 

I am not sure I see altruism, benevolence, kindness. I worry we are becoming desensitised. I see the countryside snaffled up by voracious developers. Cornish fish sold to Spain. Poets, heroes and heroines forgotten. Pioneers and industrialists not spoken of. 

We have to tax sugar as we have an obesity epidemic. We had the might and majesty of the London Olympics which I honestly thought would cause an existential national shift - for the better. We have reality TV. 

I usually bang on about Dickens - post title - or poets or obscure Italian authors but today my mind is with :

Many many actors have made a career playing Holmes. I will tell you about the Benedict Cumberbatch kissing me on the cheek after Rhinoceros another time. 

He wrote the Holmes series as he needed to make money to send his wife to Switzerland for treatment for his bronchial problems. He was the inspiration for Julian Barnes' mighty Arthur and George. 

He believed in life after death. I always feel he would be a really really good man. 

In my garden I have a magnolia older than the house. I have been on a run which costs nothing. Last night supper was made for me and it was heaven. 

Easter a time of sadness but also renewal no ? When people say they are bored or fed up I always say - and mean - read Dickens. His life as well as his work. I think we need a him to transact and make sense of all of this - via the written word. 

I was listening to something rather lovely on R4 at oddball 'o' clock about a Jewish family. Had some beautiful prayers. I wanted to make something different for Easter. Have a look at this.

Easter wishes to you all.

Getting lost - literally and metaphorically

Whether it's the midlife crisis kicking in, lovely open conversations with people who share anecdotal notions of how to come through hardship, feeling at though the worst is possibly over, wishing such pointless, self indulgent dross hadn't happened in the first place...

I feel slightly edified. We get damaged, we get sad, we cry a lot, we pray - if one is inclined. We read and talk and hope. 

Is it part of the human condition to believe in the essential goodness of life ? People ? 

Yes it is in my case despite at the moment heavy duty reason not to.

I am researching Mr Fortnum and  Mr Mason. My mum has always said I could get lost in Fortnum's - I don't have a very good sense of direction....

I love the idea of enterprise, endeavour, the human spirit fighting for goodness. 

I can't get though an hour let alone a day without Charles Dickens.

Here's what he wrote about Fortnum and Mason :

"Look where I will - I see Fortnum and Mason. All the hampers fly wide open and the Green Downs burst into a blossom of lobster salad."

We are here to be kind - let's try to be kind. If for some reason there are issues ( from where I am standing insecurity, jealous and anger are the big ones ) get some therapy.

I am going to eat this.

Moomin Mamma, Michaelangelo, Invictus, Alec Guinness

Happy Mother's Day. One and all. Be you a mother or not in the literal sense. I am sure you are a mother in some sense - not least to all our wonderful animals.

I have been following the wonderful, inspiring Tania Kindersley's blog for a good few years. The writing is evocative, powerful, funny, touching, hate to use a publishing cliche but she has a unique voice.

Astonishing photos. Glorious, courageous honesty. I mention this here as Tania wrote something this week which went bammmm in my head - something I have felt to be an absolute truth since the age of about 14. That life can be understood, deconstructed and better savoured, simplified by reading A Room With A View.

It is and will always be my favourite film.

A second thought came to mind today, I was asked to engage in a mind melt thing about children's literature.

I thought of the Moomins. On Mother's Day I give you Moomin Mamma :

'You have to go on a long journey before you can find out how wonderful home is.'

Today is Michaelangelo's birthday. Born in 1475 at Caprese. I'm including a link to The Ashmoleum. One can call up and arrange an appointment to see the collection.

You know when words bash around your head, familiar, sometimes in slivers, portions. I have been thinking about the poem Invictus, the poet William Ernest Henley an inspiration to me when I was younger.

Right. Food. There will be banquets and banquets for Mother's Day. Tomato sandwiches and salads. Cakes and clafoutis.

My super, mamma food - white asparagus or any asparagus and oysters with frisky shallot vinegar. Not by the six or twelve but by the trentaine.

Happy day.