Reflecting (FMTSO)

Friday My Town Shoot Out, Feb 6: Reflecting
“From literal reflections in your town to your thoughts on events past. What reflections can you share with us?”

Having no recent reflection photos, I flickered back through photos from last year to see if I could find something not already shared… My eyes fell on the communion vessels on the altar in one of our churches. These photos were taken when the church was open for visitors in connection with the harvest festival back in September. There were also a few short organ concerts given – a good opportunity to sit down for a few minutes of private quiet reflection, away from the hustle and bustle going on outside.

“Now we see but a poor reflection; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
(1 Corinthians 13:12-13, NIV)

Book Review – Runaway by Peter May

Runaway
*****
by Peter May (2014)

'… where did they all go, Dave?'
’The years. The dreams.' He turned a pale smile towards the other man. 'I never thought I'd be old, Dave. Never felt old. Not really. Always just a boy in my head. Until now.'

Like the previous books by Peter May that I have read (The Lewis Trilogy and Entry Island), this one too tells a story from the double perspective of the past vs. the present. The main narrator is Jack, born shortly after World War II, and growing up in Glasgow in the fifties and sixties. Back in 1965, he and four friends (like so many teens back then inspired by The Beatles) started a band, and in pursuit of a musical career ended up running away from their homes in Glasgow, to seek their fortune in London. Three of them returned after rather a short time away. (Remember how a few weeks seemed to last so much longer back in one's teens than they do decades later??) Two of them did not.

50 years later, in 2015, memories of their adventures back then catch up with Jack and the two old friends in Glasgow with whom he is still in touch. A piece of news read by one of them (Maurie) in the paper, about a recent murder in London, makes it necessary (Maurie insists) that the three of them retrace their steps and go back there. This time, it's not their parents they have to secretly run away from, but their children… However, to go through with it, they do need a younger chauffeur and assistant; and Jack manages to persuade (or trick) his grandson into accompanying them.

Their present day journey south to London turns out as adventurous as the one back in their youth. It becomes a mix of ”road movie”, nostalgia and insights. Peter May manages to capture the spirit of the times perfectly – both the past and the present. His use of language to paint mental images is just superb. Possibly it helps even further for me, though, that my own teen years weren't that far behind (and the general spirit of the early 70s not so different from the mid 60s) – and I also have my own memories of Britain from around back then; both from travelling with my own family, and one month spent living with an English family in Yorkshire (in 1972).

Besides the Kindle e-book I also bought the Audible version of this book (as I only had to pay a few dollars extra for that). The superb narration by Peter Forbes in Scottish accent added even more to the reading experience. (It was just a little bit annoying to find that the ”whispersync” with this book only worked one way, though. The audio book picked up where I was on the Kindle; but the Kindle did not pick up how far I'd listened to the audio. However, it was not too difficult to sort that out manually.)

All in all, I was ”swept away” by this book and really enjoyed it. The murder mystery in the background serves to keep the story together and link the past to the present; but it is really the characters, and the reflections about the passage of time and the role the memories of our youth still plays in our old age that will stick in my mind from this book, I think.

Teaser Tuesday (Feb 3)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

“The rails themselves had already been lifted, and were laid along the side of the track awaiting collection. There was a sad sense of abandonment about the place, haunted by the imaginary ghosts of all the passengers who must once have passed this way, the distant echo of forgotten steam trains lost in the mists of railway history.”

Peter May – Runaway

The setting of Peter May’s new novel shifts between 2015 and 1965; the scene above is from 1965.

This is a postcard I recently received from a friend in England, which  came to mind when I read the quote above – an old station and railway no longer in use…

The novel and the postcard both connect to my own memories from holidays in Britain back in 1969-1974. My dad was a railway and steam trains enthusiasts, and every family holiday, whether in Sweden or Britain, always included various abandoned dilapidated old stations, as well as steam train museums…  Peter May manages to bring those memories (and others) to life without using photos! I’ve not yet finished the book – will probably be back with a review when I have.

Snowy Walk in B&W

Even though I’m not a huge fan of snow under my feet, I have to admit that visually, it does make winter a lot more “interesting”…

Spot the Magpie

… “Spot the magpie” …
Just a little game I play with myself on a snowy day!

The pictures in the collage above are from today; the photo below from just over a week ago. Snow has been “on and off” any number of times in between, as the weather has kept shifting back and forth between snow and rain.

Mid January seems a bit early in the season to me (for the magpies to be nesting, I mean – cf my magpie post from last year), but perhaps it’s got something to do with winter so far having been rather mild. I also can’t help wondering if these two are the same couple that I watched two years ago trying, but then failing, to build a nest in the same tree. Back then, they gave me some good laughs as they seemed quite unable to figure out the art of nest-building and just kept dropping the sticks back on the ground, and finally gave up and (presumably) went in search of some other tree.

Well, whether the same couple or not, these ones now seem really determined, in spite of the snow  causing some confusion (like “oops! where’s my door?”)

Same builders or not, there are now magpie nests in both the trees in the yard outside my windows: