Good Bye January

The last few days of January have been grey, wet and windy - and generally uninspiring. Monday was mostly just grey (not all that rainy or windy). I slept late, but after lunch talked myself into walking into town for a few minor errands: Stocking up on tea from my favourite tea shop, some new crossword pens (with erasable ink) from the bookshop; and a bit of this and that from the pharmacy. 

For some reason (a sign of growing old?), over the last few years I've developed quite an addiction to crosswords - in Swedish, on paper (as a change from so much else being online these days), and not too cryptic. I also really prefer them in books/magazines that also provide the correct solutions at the back... I don't really have the patience to wait to find the answers in a later issue! By then I'm likely to have forgotten all about whatever-it-was I got stuck on, and have just moved on...

The last couple of Christmases, this book has become a standard gift from my brother (here with my new crossword pens on top - just to have some illustration for this post...)

"The Big Crossword Book"

In these erasable pens that I prefer, the ink cartridges (in various colours) can be replaced - but the erasers tend to get worn out after a while... As the book shop happened to have a "buy three, pay for two" offer, I decided to get three new pens this time.

Yesterday I set an alarm, and managed to get myself out of bed a bit earlier. It was raining, but the rain was falling pretty much straight down... I phoned my hairdresser to ask if she was able to fit me in for a long overdue haircut; and luckily she was. So I walked into town again (before lunch this time) and got that over with, at last. (There have been so many weeks of snowy and icy and slippery streets this winter that I've just kept putting it off...)

 "Selfie" taken when I was back home again. And (in case anyone is wondering), in the background you can see a woven image made by my step-grandmother, I think some 45-50 years ago. Inherited from her by my mother, and then by me.

Today I haven't been out at all. Had the laundry room booked in the afternoon - always a good excuse to just stay in! - and outdoors, strong winds have been increasing during the day, and are now making quite a noise, rattling my windows... Remains to be seen how February will start out tomorrow!

Postcards from CJ (2012)

Yesterday I mentioned having received news of a 'penfriend' of mine having passed away. I didn't mention his name or other details then as I didn't know at the time how far the news had spread. But as his brother Graham (GB) also wrote an official memorial post yesterday (on his own blog Eagleton Notes), most of our mutual friends probably know by now. So I'd like to add a bit more today.

John (or CJ) Edwards (as blogger also known as Scriptor Senex) was one of the first bloggers I came into contact with after having started my own first blog back in 2009. I think our paths first crossed on an inspirational website called The One Minute Writer (no longer existing). From there I started following his blog Rambles from my Chair - where in turn I made more friends.

It was also through John that I first learned about Postcrossing.  He joined Postcrossing in February 2012; and that's also when he and I started a private postcard correspondence, even though I didn't join the Postcrossing community myself until May 2013. - I just checked his Postcrossing profile page, and I note that in total he sent 1557 cards to strangers via that website; and received as many.

He and I also continued to send each other postcards fairly regularly for twelve whole years, which means I have quite a collection of cards from him alone. (Well over 300.) So it occurred to me to write some sort of memorial post based on those. But I soon realised that if I tried to just pick some random cards from that whole period, I'd get stuck forever in the choosing process. So I decided to stick to the first year, 2012. I think these cards and quotes actually give a pretty good summary of (some) things he enjoyed and was interested in. Like books, words, writing, postcards, stamps, photography, nature, history...

February 2012

The very first postcard, to be followed by many more.

April, 2012

"Since it's such beautiful weather and we have lambs in our fields, I thought I'd send you a glimpse of our Spring."

 

 

(1st June 2012) "It's the Queen's Diamond Jubilee weekend, and yesterday they issued special Jubilee stamps. The one on the right is a favourite of Jo and I (there are eight all in all)."

July 2012

"I'm sure that when GB moved here in the early 70s, people thought this was how he would be living!"

August 2012

 "This will be almost my last chance to 'legitimately' use an Isle of Lewis card to you. Jo arrives today and on Sunday we leave for the mainland to amble back home..."

 

September 2012

"Is Beatrix Potter as popular with Swedish children as with English, I wonder? I have always loved her books, especially as the backgrounds are The Lake District."

October 2012

"Having just got back from Hay on Wye [on the border between England and Wales, renowned for its books and bookshops] this seemed an appropriate card to send to you. I had a really lovely time and must admit I bought far too many postcards. I shall have to be postcrossing until I'm 90 to use them all!"

The  Cross and Rows, Chester, England

 (November, 2012)
"...when GB comes to visit... he and I usually have a day wandering around the Tudor (16th century) shopping arcades and their modern equivalents, doing bits of shopping and taking photos."

Boreray and The Stacs, St Kilda

 (Dec 2012) "I've just finished 'The Blackhouse' [by Peter May, first in the Lewis trilogy] and I hunted through my postcards for one of St. Kilda. It's not the right rock, but at least it has gannets on it. I picked up a few postcards of St Kilda --- because it's a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a lot of postcrossers collect them."

Life & Death

 

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the death of a close friend of mine, one year ago. And today I received the news that a dear friend in another country (a 'penfriend' if you will) had just passed away. Both of them were on my mind during my walk around the old cemetery today (stirring up memories). I stopped for a while at this anonymous grave with the thin layer of ice because it struck me as a good illustration of the fragility of life. There will probably always be some 'double sadness' connected with the last few days of January for me from now on. But at the same time, that sadness is also mixed with much to be thankful for, and worth remembering...

In the end, it's not the years in your life that count.
It's the life in your years.
- Abraham Lincoln

May you live all the days of your life.
- Jonathan Swift

January Moon

My camera has limited zoom and does not get me very close to the Moon, but this past week there was one afternoon with a clear sky when it was in a good position for me from my window, and before it was really dark yet... Probably my best attempt so far!

 (Tuesday 23 January at 16:11 - maximum zoom with my Sony camera.)

Linking to Skywatch Friday

Did it take long to find me?
I asked the faithful light
Oh, did it take long to find me?
And are you gonna stay the night?

 

(from 'Moonshadow' by Cat Stevens) 

 

More by Josephine Tey (Book reviews)

Having bought them all collected in one Audible volume, I've continued to listen to the rest of the Inspector Grant mysteries by Josephine Tey (pseudonym for Elizabeth Mackintosh). (Cf my review of The Man in the Queue from earlier this month.) 

 

 

 In A Shilling for Candles (1936)  a film actress is found drowned on a beach in Kent. At first it's believed to be an accident, but a button entangled in her hair makes Grant suspect murder... The case of course turns out to be more complicated than it seems at first, though.

 

In The Franchise Affair (1949), a mother and daughter living in a remote house in the countryside (called The Franchise) , are accused of having kidnapped a young woman visiting the area, imprisoning her in their attic, and forcing her to become their servant. The two women accused of doing this contact a solicitor, Robert Blair, to be present when they're interviewed by the police. Blair decides to believe the two women rather than their alleged victim, and sets out on a quest to prove their innocense. A tabloid takes the side of the young girl, though, and turns the townspeople against the two women. In this book, Inspector Grant is really only a background character, and it's Blair who is the main investigator, trying to disprove the girl's story, even though some of the details she's able to provide seem hard to explain if she wasn't really held captive at the house the way she says.

 

  

In To Love and Be Wise (1950),  it's up to Inspector Alan Grant to discover whether a handsome American photographer was accidentally drowned, committed suicide, or met his death at the hands of one of his many admirers...

 

In The Daughter of Time (1951), Alan Grant is in bed in hospital with a broken leg, and feeling bored. His actress friend Martha Hallard (who also appears in one or two more of the books) suggests that he should amuse himself by researching a historical mystery. She brings him some pictures of historical characters, aware of Grant's interest in human faces. With the help of friends and acquaintances (bringing him various books etc) he starts looking into the life of King Richard III and the famous case of the Princes in the Tower. 

(I remember reading this book before - decades ago - because it's such an unusual combination of 'modern' (well, 1950s!) detective story vs. historical mystery. Even after re-listening to it now, I'd find it hard to recapitulate the details of the conclusions, though.)

 

In The Singing Sands (1952, published posthumously) Alan Grant is on sick leave from Scotland Yard and planning a quiet holiday with old friends. Traveling on a night train to Scotland, however, he happens to find a dead man and a cryptic poem (including the words “the singing sand", the title of this novel). Of course he cannot keep from carrying on some further investigations of his own, even if he's not officially involved in the case... 

(Book covers copied from Wikipedia articles or whereever I could find them.) 

* As my favourite in this series I think must chose The Franchise Affair. *

* Each of the books can without problem be read as a standalone. *