Everyday Life

 

Photo from 25 January 2025 (Female Mallard)

For nearly as long as I've been blogging, I've also been making a photo calendar from my own photos each year - just for myself +  as Christmas presents to family and one or two friends. (These days I'm down to just ordering three - for myself, my brother and my aunt.) 

The female mallard above, photo taken in January 2025, became my choice for January 2026. I'm really only showing it here now because I haven't been out much lately - so desperately turned back to last year for inspiration. But if I remember, I might continue to show my other chosen photos for my 2026 calendar month by month. 

Yesterday, my main achievement was that I managed to take another bag of recycling stuff to the designated containers, as enough snow had thawed away to make access possible. 

This morning, there was a new flurry of snow going on outside my windows, lasting all day - but not very much actually seems to have settled on the ground. I haven't been out for closer inspection, though. I had the laundry room booked for the afternoon, and in between turns down to the basement, watched the last two parts (of three) of a BBC documentary about Jane Austen. (Well worth watching, if available on some channel you have access to.)

Black, White and Sepia

 

The sun went into hiding again on Tuesday, and after my excursion to the city centre on Monday, "me and my knee" were quite content to mostly just stay in and rest again. (Just a few extra steps outdoors in connection with taking out some rubbish to the bins.) Today, still grey, just below freezing point and with some extra wind-chill; but the streets dry and mostly free of snow and ice. After lunch I persuaded myself to go for a short walk over to the old cemetery and check out the conditions there.The major paths turned out clear of snow, and dry - but snow still lingering on graves and grass and minor paths. I snapped the four photos above to show you. I kept to the ice-free paths, and 20-25 minutes felt enough. 

Last week, I wrote a post about my impressions of the latest TV version of The Forsytes vs the classic one from 1967. Having found the 1967 one to still be ruling the memories of it in my own head, it hit me to check if perhaps the old one might be available on YouTube. And actually the whole series is available there - 26 episodes, and restored in HD (still in black & white of course). If you're interested to check it out, just type "the forsyte saga 1967" into the search box on YouTube. (Since Saturday I have watched four episodes so far, and intend to continue. Already in the very first episode it struck me how clear the introduction of the characters was right from start, compared to later versions. But again - maybe that's just because it fits with my memories!) 

A Sunny Day

Over the past week or so, thaw and rain have been working away at the thick layer of snow we had before that. It's been a slow process though, and the nearby surroundings have been such a mess of slush and ice that some days even the few steps to the dustbins at the corner of the building have not seemed worth the risk. 

 

Yesterday, I manged a somewhat longer "reconnaissance tour" in the immediate neighbourhood, though, trying to assess the general situation - and I found the streets now for the most part fairly ice-free and dry. And with the forecasts for the beginning of this week suggesting temperatures to remain around freezing point, but no further rain/snow falling, I gathered up my courage to at last try to get myself into the city centre for a by now seriously overdue haircut. (The combination of my unfortunate fall and knee injury in early October, and the snowy winter following, has made it difficult for me to walk much; and even to try taking a bus part of the way hasn't felt safe.)

 

Today even seemed to promise some sunshine, and after having washed my hair in the shower in the morning, I decided to call my hairdresser. I was in luck: she could fit me in at 11:40. I decided that my best option was probably to walk along a major street towards the railway station/travel center (about half-way), because if I felt too tired when getting that far, I'd be able to take a bus from there to a place closer to my goal. However, having reached the intersection where I needed to make that choice, I felt ok to continue walking. I also found I had time before the hairdressing appointment to visit a nearby pharmacy (for a few non-prescription things). I arrived at the hairdresser's at 11:30, and found her ready for me. She was efficient as usual, and when she was done, I felt relieved to "be myself" again. Actually I almost felt like about ten years younger...!  (Not in the sense back to 60, but at least back to my actual age, from lately having felt more like 80!) 

 

AI image reused from some previous occasion.

 

Thus rejuvenated, from the hairdresser's I walked to a nearby bus stop, prepared to take any of three buses passing by there back to the travel center. One came in just as I arrived to the stop; and as it turned out, at the travel center I could then change directly to another bus taking me a further two stops closer to home; with only ~10 min left to walk from there. 

 

I had left home at 10:45, and was back at 12:15; and the whole adventure went more smoothly (and with less knee pain) than I had dared hope for. 

 

The photo at the top is the only one I snapped on my outing: Looking back at the street where my hairdresser's salon is situated, before I walked on to take the bus back home.

 

 

The Correspondent - (Audio) Book Review

 

 

The Correspondent - A Novel
by Virginia Evans (2025)

Audio book (8 hours 36 min) narrated by Maggi-Meg Reed + 13 more

The format of this book is  rather unusual for our time and age, as it consists only of letters (and e-mails), written to and from the main character (Sybil Van Anwerp) over a number of years, in her old age. Sybil has obviously been a letter-writer all her life, and still enjoys writing letters by hand - but also uses email when that is required or more convenient. 

The selection of letters is not restricted to her correspondence with just one other person, but involves quite a wide variety of people - like her brother, an old friend since way back, a current neighbour, a couple of authors she never met in person but whose books she read, someone at a university refusing to let her to audit a class in English literature - and a certain staff member at the customer service of a company handling DNA analysis results... 

Through this variety, we gradually get to know Sybil quite well, and learn a lot about her past as well as her current situation - which also involves being in a slow process of losing her eye-sight. 

I was a little bit sceptical about how a book of this structure would work as audio book - but it actually works extremely well, thanks to the variety of voices reading the different letters. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it, and getting to know Sybil; and I did not find it difficult to keep track of who was writing what.

In some ways, it also reminds me a bit of how one gets to know some people through blogging - gradually learning from "bits and pieces" both about their current life and their past, and how they interact with others.

The book was on the New York Times' Bestseller list for 2025. 

Audible's summary about the author:
Virginia Evans is from the east coast of the United States. She attended James Madison University for her bachelor’s in English literature. After starting a family, she went back to school for her master’s of philosophy in creative writing at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. She now lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, with her husband, Mark, two children, Jack and Mae, and her Red Labrador, Brigid.

 

 

 

Thaw

 

Over the past few days, we've gone from really cold weather to thaw, slush and ice here. Lots of daily reports about really slippery conditions and road accidents for the whole area - and definitely not looking good for walking just outside my own windows either. It's four days in a row now that I've just been staying in. (Haven't even been out to the bins since Monday...) 

The best I can hope for just now is really that it will keep on raining and thawing until the old snow is all gone, before it starts over...

Meanwhile, indoors, I have continued to take down most of my holiday decorations. But the electric candles and window stars will stay up for a while yet; and I usually also keep some red table runners and other textiles until mid February or so - for a warmer feeling while it's cold and colourless outside. 

Triple reflections in my triple glazed windows...