I think the photo of my poor daffodils on the balcony pretty much tells the story. I tried to wrap them up in fiber cloth to protect them. They seem to have survived, but didn’t enjoy the weather much. The same goes for me! Actually it seems today that I even contracted a cold… (I know they say colds have nothing to do with cold weather as such, but…)
Have you noticed that Picasa has some fun new editing features?! Among them a HDR style, used above, and Holga style, used below.
This week’s Booking Through Thursday question comes from Bookish Sarah (as usual via Deb):
If someone asked you for a book recommendation, what is the FIRST book you’d think to recommend (without extra thought)?
I didn’t have time to write this post until today, but the first book that came to mind when I read the question was the one I’m currently reading, even though I have not yet finished it: The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (2003).
I’m listening to it as audio book in Swedish, borrowed from the library. What made me add it to my to-read-list in the first place was repeated references to it in various BTT answers. I guess my recommendation would depend a bit on who’s asking; but disregarding that aspect, I’ll just give some of my own reasons why I’m finding it worth reading.
Henry has a genetic disorder which makes him travel in time. In his adult life he is a librarian. His wife Clare, eight years younger, is an artist. When Henry first meets Clare he is 28, she is 20. However, Clare first met Henry when she was six, and Henry in his thirties. The time confusion is mind-boggling; usually, each time Henry appears in Clare’s life until they meet in the their mutual now and get married, the age difference between them varies. For Clare, Henry has “always” been popping in and out of her life; while Henry does not get to meet Clare in her childhood until he is already married to her as an adult.
Henry also timetravels to other places and contexts and sometimes co-exists with himself at another age. His time travelling is involontary, and when it occurs, he can’t bring anything with him, so always lands naked with nothing, and often ends up in quite impossible situations, having to try to explain things to people who don’t believe him. Along the way a few more people than Clare come to know about his condition though, including a physician who is into genetic research.
Although the time-travelling frame of the story suggests science fiction, the focus is really on relationships, and especially between Henry and Clare. I would say it is not just a love-story either though, but also a story of how to live with whatever life or fate throws at us. It is about being utterly vulnerable and learning to live with that vulnerability, whatever the cause of it. It is about clinging to hope and giving in to reality all in one. On the one hand Now is all we’ve got; and on the other, we carry all our “nows” within us, whatever age we are.
So it is about dealing with memories, and the Now, and knowledge, and a future which holds both things we know nothing about, and things that we may know something about even if still not every detail (like when living with a serious disease). It’s about trust and fear; truth and lies; life and death; reality vs dreams; and wanting to but not always being able to protect either ourselves or those we love. It’s about a whole lot of things like that; and that’s why I’d recommend it.
Happy Easter to you all!
A book-treasure chest displayed at the Home & Garden Fair I visited a couple of weeks ago. I loved the way the light hit it.
I took this photo at the Home & Garden Fair I visited recently; and seeing the lemon tree there brought the old song to mind...
♫ When I was just a lad of ten, my father said to me,
"Come here and take a lesson from the lovely lemon tree."
"Don't put your faith in love, my boy", my father said to me,
"I fear you'll find that love is like the lovely lemon tree."
Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower’s sweet
But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat. ♫
Peter, Paul and Mary singing Lemon Tree
Listen at YouTube
In Sweden we often get April Fool’s jokes in the newspapers on 1 April. Yesterday at breakfast I was not quite aware of the date yet so for a second or so a “what?!” flashed through my brain… The story to go with this photo was that the town had taken the decision to officially change its name to a “dot.com” address and had already put up the road signs with the new name.
Do you get April Fool’s News where you live?
The scary thing is that sometimes it’s becoming kind of hard to tell the April Fool’s news apart from the real ones. This one in our local paper I think was a good one - it’s funny without doing any harm. But I read in an online article that some of the false news this 1 April were more questionable and might have caused more serious worry until they were revealed as jokes (like false warnings about medical side effects).
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
… a time to tear down and a time to build…
… a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them…
… a time to keep and a time to throw away…”
(from Ecclesiastes Ch. 3)
There is a lot of tearing down and building going on in my neighbourhood this spring. (See also the Friday My Town post at my other blog.)
Instead of the old factory building (3rd photo) there will be new apartment buildings. All part of a strategy to create more housing in or near the town centre.
Four years ago I was looking for a new (although not brand new) flat myself and had narrowed my search down to two streets or areas. At the end of April, 2008, I got the lease contract on the flat where I now live, which is about 1 km from the sites where all the tearing down and building is now going on.
The other alternative I had in mind (although there were no actual openings there while I was looking) would have been closer to where all the action is now. I’m glad I ended up where I did.
When they’ve finished the new buildings down by the river, I might be able to just see the top of one of them from one of my windows (I think I read one is going to be 12 storeys high) but otherwise my view is likely to remain unchanged. (Well – for a while anyway…) And while they’re working on it, the noise is too far away to be bothering us here.
The housing estate where I live was built in the 1940s but in good repair. I do live among a number look-alike buildings, but they are only 3 storeys high, each no more than three entrances wide, and with lawns and trees etc in between; and I don’t have to walk far to see other kinds of buildings.
From one of my windows I see taller buildings but they are some distance away. In the summer I hardly see them at all because there is too much greenery in the way. Between “here” and “there”, there are trees, a football field, a railway, a street and on the other side of the street an old cemetery with more trees. And between those taller buildings runs the river.
Foggy November morning sunrise.
(In fog the far-away buildings disappear, too!)
End of March fiery sunset (from the balcony).
Linking to SOOC Sunday and Weekend Reflections.
