I started the day with a clear plan. So far I have had a bacon sandwich and three cups of tea, replied to comments, written a haibun prose section (which came to me as I was outing my socks on) and caught with paosoren, a wide-ranging blog relating to Australia. I now know a lot more about poisonous caterpillars and slouch hats than I used to. The plan had also encompassed reading more blogs, but I’ve had to shelve that. It’s mid-day already and it doesn’t seem to be much to show for a morning’s work. Of course, as the “morning” started at 9.45, I can’t expect too much. It could have started at 6.45, but after looking at the clock and thinking for a few minutes I decided that 6.45 was too early to start on Sunday. Even if I had got up at that time I would probably have fallen asleep later in the day, so I wouldn’t have gained much.
I didn’t exactly cover myself in glory regarding the wakefulness front last night. After posting, I went and watched the last half of a programme about Victoria Wood. As Julia decided to go to bed when it finished, I used the “plus one” channel to watch it from the beginning again. Unfortunately I only manged to get part way through before falling asleep. As a consequence, the middle years of her career are still a mystery to me.
It was interesting to find that she was a hard-working perfectionist who said that lots of people could do what she did. This reinforces my belief in hard work and determination being the way forward. It’s a shame I wasted most of my life thinking you needed talent to be successful. That, it appears, is just the icing on the cake. The ability to be successful without having talent certainly explains a lot of things I have seen on TV over the years.
Daffodils in Nottingham
Nearly 1.00 now and time to make lunch. I’m not entirely sure what it’s going to be, but I have a few minutes to think. After my disastrous failure to order the groceries online, we are a little short of provisions this week. However, we have beans. We have bread. If I was in the habit of representing my menu choices diagrammatically the intersection would be beans on toast.
The picture of a Herring Gull perching on the head of the Cook statue at Whitby can be taken as a metaphor for our history of colonialism. Or it might just be that I was looking for a bird photograph that didn’t have a robin in it.
That was taken in April 2017. The daffodils are from April 2018 and the Magpie from April 2019. \by April 2020 the photos are all downloaded from the Library, or feature food and eBay purchases. I haven’t been getting out much.
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I love your style of writing: snappy and dry. That makes you sound like a twig, though, which wasn’t my intention.
Also completely agree re: the Victoria Wood thing. Being a hard worker with a Dream Topping layer of talent is the elusive answer to life I’ve been looking for too.
Thank you. It’s a long time since I’ve been compared to a twig! 🙂 We will have to bear the famous (though probably apocryphal qoute in mind – “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”
It takes effort to convey a worthy stream of (un)consciousness.
🙂
We don’t have magpies in Maine, either. I really like their striking colors. I had never heard of Victoria Wood and followed the link. Gosh, she died young! Talent is necessary but not sufficient. Persistence and hard work count for a lot, too. Even then, no guarantees.
Yes, I am now the same age as she was when she died. It is, as far as I am concerned, very young indeed.
Too darned young!
With so much more to write. 🙁
A judicious selection of photographs. Interest was maintained to the very end.
:-)Thank you.
The statue does not look pleased at his position in life. I like the magpie! We don’t have them here and their coloring is striking.
They are fascinating birds – black and white in dull light but full of colour in the sun. You can sense Captain Cook thinking “I sailed to the other side of the world. and now my head is covered in guano.”
Except that he was a sailor, so he may not have used the word “guano”.
🙂
People are very strange.:-)
Talent? Ha. I was whining yesterday that my most popular post ever wasn’t really a post, but a borrowed idea with a well timed question…
Yes, it sets all your hard work in perspective. When I used to bother with Twitter I could always double the views with a picture of a cute small animal. Apart from the rabbit stew photo. It seems they prefer them alive.
who would have thought that?