A change is as good as a rest, so I have spent today facing the other way on the sofa. It’s important to keep mentally sharp when prone. This way round I get a better view of the bird table and the perpetual battle over the best branches on the Heptacodium. It also means I have my back to the TV, thus deferring once more the temptations of daytime TV.

I re-joined Twitter last week and still feel quite the new girl, but I landed just as the Guardian Media Guilds were announced at a swish lunch last week. Naturally I wasn’t there, but anyone who mattered clearly was and had a fine time, with much reminiscing since by the Twitterati. The upside is that I’ve discovered some superb blogs, and with time on my hands for once have chance to read them. I’m taking my time.

This year’s winning blog was Lia Leendhertz’s Midnight Brambling. It’s beautifully written of course, heartwarming and earthy but with a firm spine of principle.

Another discovery is Mark Diacono’s Otter Farm blog. As far as I can gather though his blog hasn’t won awards his photography and writing have. The blog photography is stunning. I love his November entry about Trent, very moving.

A long running favourite is James Alexander Sinclair’s Blogging from Blackpitts. Part horticulture, part gossip, part erudite nonsense, it was last year’s winner and remains the most entertaining and commented upon of horticultural blogs.

Carol Klein’s marvellous shoes get a special mention in James’s latest blog entry. She’s clearly a girl with at least two rows of shoes in her wardrobe – perhaps even three! It may be some time before I can get into any of the 6 pairs of shoes I own (two of which are gardening boots). In a homage to Carol’s footwear and James’s photography, here’s my latest footwear acquisition.

Dave is gallantly sleeping on the sofa each night so that my foot can have the ‘Princess and the Pea’ treatment it needs with 33 pillows. Naturally, he has to leave the cricket on to stave off the night frights from sleeping downstairs. I put R4 LW on from time to time and we connect silently through the floorboards with mutual knowledge of the state of the Australian innings and the impending rain in Adelaide.

My foot sometimes throbs gently, but I can’t give it more than a pain score of 2, what with me being female. Dave says he’d be at a 4 just looking at the bandage. I’m still taking the painkillers but am now concerned that I’m now partly responsible for the loss of Zoroastrian culture in India. Seriously-ish.

Finally for today, Dave is taking the opportunity to attempt to make sourdough bread the hard way – leaving the flour and water to grow its own yeast. Cyril, as he is now known, seemed fluffy and healthy yesterday, but today he stinks. If he’s the product of our household’s airborne yeasts, we all need a bath.

December 6, 2010  
  , , , ,