Queen Victoria, Winnie The Pooh, The Samaritans

There is a Chinese saying, I think. May we live in interesting times. I am about there. I have had cardiac dramas, not mine. A couple of suppers with the most unlikely yet deeply amusing group of people.

Anecdotes about past generations - including peerage earning wonderfulness. I met a nice Milanese insurance man ( nothing dodgy just business ) in a fabulous Italian restaurant in the City - the chicken liver parfait the stuff of legend and my scallops just perfect.

I went to Eucharist at St Paul's  - the Colet Court choristers in rehearsal an extra joy.

I have been commissioned to write about City churches. I stumbled, literally across St Stephen's Walbrook. I'll be brief but designed by Wren, the dome the prototype for St Paul's. In 1953 the then Dean Dr Chad Varah commissioned a social outreach programme - the birth of the Samaritans.

The Foundling Museum - I am the descendant of a Foundling and my book is based on this wonderful inspiring hospital as was - will curate the Found exhibition.

I am going to post here and Facebook which has become my new playmate ideas on that - an object - which object -makes you think you couldn't live without or sends you into a madeleine reverie.

I am thinking still.

May the 24th 1819 was the birthday of Queen Victoria. Those who know me know I am huge fan of the Victorians' - social engineering, literature, pioneers, engineers, the Great Exhibition. Hard to know what image to select to celebrate her so I went for this, a book I love and refer back to daily :

James Smithson who would go on to found The Smithsonian graduated from Oxford on May the 26th 1789.

This from the Bronte Society on Facebook. On May the 26th 1853 Charlotte Bronte would find Arthur Bell Nicholls by the Parsonage Gate in 'paroxysms of anguish.' A friend went through one of those earlier this week.

Food. I'm off to the South of France next week. Has to be the pan bagnat this links to Hugh FW's great article and recipe but if you have a chance take a look at this :

Petit Prince, Off Days, Revenge

Antoine de Saint-Exupery published the magical Le Petit Prince on April the 6th 1943. I have found it inspiring since I first came across it and still do.

Look at www.goodreads.com should you need some quotes. He also lived a very interesting life.

I was looking at the life of Daphne du Maurier and her marriage to General Sir Frederick Browning. Lots of food for thought for a later day.

Here is Le Petit Prince :

I came across a great article in The Telegraph about gifted writers having an off day....Shakespeare, Shelley, Wordsworth on the list.

I thought their off day up their with most people's top day. Shakespeare compares envy to the colour of an orange. This from Wordsworth :

And to the left, three yards beyond,

You see a little muddy pond

Of water--never dry

I measured it from side to side:

'Twas four feet long, and three feet wide.

On my mind and at discussion over the table is revenge, retribution, divine justice, anger, how to deal with those who have wronged us and who commit acts of great evil in general.

Should we stand back and be free of enmity and let 'karma' takes its' course ? Should we acknowledge that wanting revenge 'digs two graves.' Should we realise that to be free of whatever malice has been done to us we 'walk away.' I have saved a great Radio 4 Off The Page Audio to listen to - Grudges.

I am trying the latter - saying to myself whatever harm has been caused to me at least I don't have to live with the fact that I have caused harm to that extent.

Food - mmm. Saw a Tom Aikens tweet which was all beautifully verdant and spring green. I thought of watching Nigel Slater by the fire later. This should keep me company :

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.