What I Love About Castles

The way that the towers stretch to the sky...

The dizzying drops...

and the scale that dwarfs

the mad angles...

secret passages...

and arches within arches

but I did not like the oubliette...

Half term means castles. Today we visited Kidwelly's. Find out more here

Winter Moon...

...is actually the name of the yarn but it is such a pretty one that I wanted it for the title of my post. It is a blend of merino and cashmere from Posh Yarn. My regular port of call for yarn porn.

I don't knit anymore but gosh, this is making me wish I did.

Cats and Dogs

V and I have a funeral to go to tomorrow. I cannot think how many funerals that brings us to this year...too many for certain.
The last four funerals I have been to, someone's mobile has gone off - one went off right in the middle of the eulogy of all things.

It is going to be a particularly odd occasion tomorrow too. I don't know the family at all well but half of them are not speaking to the other half. Quite a few are on probation and the rest are alcoholics/drug addicts either recovering or practising and the wake is taking place in one of the roughest pubs in town, which for my town is really saying something.

And I believe it is going to hammer down raining tomorrow too.

It never rains but it pours

One deep breath - Conquered.

A long fight and a bad one
Breathless, I admit defeat -
Christ, I'm lonely...

The haiku prompt that I used to do regularly. I might take it up again.

In Praise of E bay...

Armani Trousers for ten quid. I kid thee not. They are second hand of course but hey, it is green to recycle clothes. But that was not the reason why I got these. Freaking Armani Man!!



There are shedloads of other designer stuff for a snip of the original price. I haven't bought new clothes in ages. I think that will be remedied shortly.

Growing Stuff

Curled up on the sofa the other night, reading and I start laughing at something in the story. Apparently I have a particularly dirty laugh that is unique to me when I am reading/thinking something particularly smutty. I didn't know this but V has known it for years and has added it to his arsenal of wife reading skills.

Me: *sniggering like an eight year old*
V: What?
Me: Nothing
V: C'mon...you laughing like that. I know it's rude. Tell me.
Me: It's childish
V: *rolling his eyes* Duh. You're laughing like that - I know it is childish too.
Me: Well, these two teenage boys are arguing and one has just told the other to grow a pair. *sniggers some more* I've never heard that expression before
V: *confused* Grow a pear? Why would he want to grow a pear?

Sniggers escalate to full blown hysteria culminating in asthma attack.

Really, I love laughing that hard.

Favourites

Here are the rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. They don't have to be the greatest books you've ever read, just the ones that stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.

1. To Kill a Mockingbird - the best book ever written. No contest
   
2. A Hat Full of Sky - the ending is so high on life that it makes me feel woosy just thinking about it
   
3. Twilight - Repeat *The Cullens are not real* but Oh how I wish they were.
   
4. The Time Traveller's Wife - Cry!! Did I?!!!! Awash, baby, awash.
   
5. Sun Horse, Moon Horse - My first historical fic. I was hooked aged 8
   
6. The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis, Aslan... nuff said.
   
7. The Brother's Lionheart - First fantasy novel. I think I was 7
   
8. Jane Eyre - A classic. Romance, a sturdy heroine and Timothy Dalton showing Mr "fancypants" Darcy how it's done.
   
9. The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Women Poets - You mean there are other women poets apart from Sylvia Plath?
   
10. The Moon in the Water - My second historical fic and read so many times I can't think straight.
    
11. The Sunne in Splendour - Edward the Fourth, wot a bastard.
    
12. Clan of the Cave Bear series - Sheer bloody awesomeness.
    
13. Rape of the Fair Country - Incitement to racial hatred, probably. But it should be required reading in Welsh schools.
    
14. Duncton Wood - Moles in an allegory of Christianity. You have to read it to get it.
    
15. The Fionavar Chronicles - A more readable and infinitely sexier rendition of LOTR. Okay, it doesn't have Boromir or Aragorn but a little mental substitution goes a long way.
    

Astonishingly heavy on fantasy novels with a smidge of historical fiction. One poetry book...only one *hangs head in shame* but Paradise Lost and Dante refuse to stay with me even though I love them so...

I Dont Know...

I have had a bad ish sort of day. Not as bad as some mind you, but bad enough. The cat, dear darling Zac died today after a minor op. He was okay coming out of the anasthetic and then he had a heart attack and died. Gone.

I want to be sad, but the thing that puts it in perspective for me is that a good friend of mine lost his son last night. Twenty six years old, built like a bull and now he is dead. I have no words at all because I know if anything happened to my kids I would go instantly and totally insane. What on earth can you say to someone whose child had died? Really...what?

So then I go over my blog because I was looking for photos and I find that I am remembering all sorts of things tonight.