Idle Rambling
First of all, Mr Nicholas, nice try, but these are elderberries my friend:
A little darker red than the mystery berries you'll notice. I still have no clue what those super bright red berries are though. We need to get Loula on the blogging scene because she would definitely know - she is the queen of wild flora and indeed of foliage in general!!
Secondly, your 'prize' for having made the best attempt at my little hedgerow challenge....a little something to satisfy your self-professed interest in signs:
And finally, whilst providing photographic evidence of the idle ramblings I have been undetaking whilst - perhaps pre-emptively - luxuriating in the long summers afforded those of a teacherly disposition, I would like to share with you a little something that tickled me today, as I was idly reading a couple of books I had bought today in my favourite cafe in Durham - which never fails to serve me deliciously frothy hot chocolate - the chapter on 'The Ramble', penned at 5 p.m., by the great Idler, Tom Hodgikson, author of my new bible, How to be Idle:
"...the act of ambling is a revolt. It is a statement against bourgeois values, against goal-centred living, busy-ness, bustle, toil and trouble. For the creative spirit, the act of walking harmonizes work and play."
Long live the Wold's Way, I say!!!
I can imagine my revolutionary brother having loved this sentiment when he read it!
And just for the sheer ticklement of it:
a) I loved the citation of Victor Hugo's reference to buses as 'travelling balconies'...exactly why I far prefer to be transported around London by bus than the stinking sweaty tube;
b) I was amused to read something I had never heard previously on the subject of Wordsworth and Coleridge, that a spy, sent - because the Home Office was suspicious of their seemingly aimless amblings in the countryside (as well as, let's admit it, their radical views) - "to monitor their activities saw the two poets taking notes on the riverbank and assumed that they were plotting to bring firearms from Bristol for a planned insurrection." When of course they were just letting their creative spirits roam....highly suspicious!!!
posted by Lisa Charlotte @ 5:43 pm
8 Comments:
Ooh! Thanks, that's very thoughtful! A good prize. The Parking Prohibited sign is expecially nice - including showing subtly the importnce of the content through use of type size. And it's metal and says SUNDERLAND BRIDGE PARISH COUNCIL whichis splendid. The other one has a rather corporate smell, with a confusion of font styles and a muddled information heirarchy; although it does have a clear and useful intent which is quite nice.
I am reading T. Hodginson's wonderful book too, it's 3 a.m. in mine.
oh cooool i hadn't realised you were reading it too! it's an awesome book i have just bought it for mister beard. and rich bought it for charlie's birthday. and rich says he seems to remember he was originally reading it because of you. i find it most helpful, soothing and reassuring, not to mention inspiring, with the wealth of literary and philosophical contributors cited in the case for 'creative' idleness. nice.
MMmmmmmmm, idleness is good, in fatc I'm being idle now, after e-mailing my latest bit of work to my supervisor.
What happens at 3am?
On the subject of idleness, just heard these lyrics:
you can put it down to lack of patience,
you can put it down to lack of sleep,
but it's in my head to stay in bed,
tucked up under the sheets,
they said if i try it get on, i'd get on,
they said there were chances,
but now my chance has gone,
now it may be a sad reflection,
on the way people feel,
but early monday morning,
is losing its appeal
i open my curtains at 7am,
just so you think I'm up with the rest of the men,
you'd do yourself a favour if you gave yourself a break,
but that's one risk you'd never take,
the evening's yours, the morning's mine,
but don't knock me i'm doing fine,
you'd do yourself a favour if you gave yourself a rest,
but just for now, you know what's best.
We're not deep. Housemartins, 1986
Right, maybe I'll cycle to work now. Bye.
3 a.m.: Party Time. Where he goes on about ecstasy and raves. To wit: "3 a.m. is the point in the day when the responsibilities and realities of the previous day have gone, and the responsibilities of the net day haven't yet arrived. ... At 2 a.m. you're wishing you'd gone home earlier; at 4 a.m. it's getting cold. But 3 a.m. has that magic about it."
Or, you can be asleep.
The chosen lyrics are likely to be apposite to some of my very own thoughts/fantasies, in about 10 hours. Marvellous.
Also lisa dear thank you for your choice of the bus quote, as I was in London the next day requiring to get from Euston to Paddington at 9 a.m. ("Toil and Trouble" in H.T.B.I., by the way), and chose to go by travelling balcony, which I might not have been mindful enough to do w/o your chosen words papering my unconscious (in various pastelish shades).
(Although, the bus ticket machine ate three pounds of mine. As did a Cadbury's chocolate machine eat one pound, on the same day.)
Also there is a Quaker meeting mouse by the bus stop opp. Euston with a very nice peaceful garden.
I was going to edit the word mouse above to say house, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.
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