July 26 - St. Anne's Day - patron of literacy

I've been to see "There Reigns Love" at Stratford again this week. It's a one man show devised and performed by Simon Callow. He is absolutely brilliant in this piece. If you have any chance to see it before it leaves on July 31, I recommend it highly. I hope to go again next week.

I even did something I've never done before -- I wrote a fan letter, and had it delivered by the House Manager.

After the show, people had the option of waiting while Callow changed his clothes and he returned to the stage and to answer questions from the audience.

At the Stratford Festival bookstore, I bought a copy of the sonnets on CD. I won't say who did it, because what I have to say is quite unkind: it is the coldest, most bloodless reading of the sonnets I've ever heard. It's better than a schoolchild's version because it actually works with the punctuation, instead of going to the end of a line and pausing there.

I do wish the Festival would consider taping Callow's performance and selling copies. He conveys such fire and a passion for the poems -- and I would dearly love to be able to see (or at least hear) it over and over again.

Norse Beads

I went to a bead making yesterday at Ragnar and Kadlin's. This was one in a series of experiments about trying to do it in the way the Norse did, about a thousand years ago.

Aislinne walked me through the first couple that I did. I ended up making four beautiful beads -- well, I thought they were beautiful -- but they all cracked. In fact, the group of us (five, in all) tried to make about 30 beads, and all but two cracked. We're not sure what we're doing wrong.

Aislinne was providing Ragnar with some ideas about parameters that we might want to change (one at a time, of course) for later experiments, as we let the fire die down.

Simon Callow

Mandy and I went to Stratford today and saw Simon Callow perform 80 of Shakespeare's sonnets. He did a wonderful introduction, as well as commentary throughout, that gave context to these supposedly random verses, based on Padel's work.

It was amazing. It inspired me to write, yet again.

Unfortunately, there were no CD's or DVD's available. Oh, well. I think I will suggest it to them.

8 more done

I emptied another eight boxes of books since my previous post. I had no idea I had that many cookbooks. What I'll do with them all is a mystery to me. I've only ever used about three or four.

I had completely forgotten how many art books I had, too. Of course, this involved removing a couple of topics from that set of shelves and carefully putting the art books in place -- enjoying each one as I did so. At least I finally found my book of Maxfield Parrish works.

It was a real pleasure to find my grandmother's photo album, too. I think I'll take a wander through that for an hour or so tonight. It should help me relax and sleep.

Books, and more books

Life is so good. It's nice to feel upbeat instead of morose.

I actually feel like I'm starting to get somewhere with my boxes (72 of them) of books. I emptied 6 more of the boxes last night. It's a good thing I hired packers because I would have tried to box the books according to subject matter and historical period. Because they were not thusly encumbered, I'm having fun with the surprises I'm pulling out of the boxes.

Now, I have piles for: Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Viking, ... and every century after that. Then there's the pile for books that span multiple centuries -- like H. G. Wells' Outline of History; Counties of Britain (in two fat volumes); several heraldry books that I wasn't able to sell last year for extra cash.

Just seeing the books makes me more cheerful.

Decorating

Trying to decorate the new house on a minimalist budget isn't easy. I've needed several new bookcases. They're not too expensive at Ikea, but the nearest Ikea is a 45 minute drive from here -- in Burlington.

Meanwhile, I'm proving to myself, once again, that "tool-using woman" is not an oxymoron.

I also saw a really nice stainless steel-topped work bench for $199. If only I could get far enough into my shop to measure and see if it would fit!

Once I get all the books away, I'll be able to organise the shop more effectively.

Sonnet 28

Judge not my love by what I blithely say
When in the company of many men.
For I would have them think that we but play
And my most trusted ally is my pen.
Judge not my love by where my feet do go
When I’m encircled by a boist’rous crowd.
For I would have them think that I am so
Oblivious to you, you would be proud.
Judge not my love by my indifferent look
When you do flirt for ladies’ merriment.
You know, too well, that you have but to look
At me that charming way and I’ll relent.
I pray you, judge my love by what I do
When no one else is watching me with you.

Dominion Day

July 1.

I still think of it as Dominion Day, rather than Canada Day.

Meanwhile, my strawberries are ripening beautifully. The hail we had a couple of weeks ago didn't affect them at all. Now to fend off the birds, squirrels, and chipmunks!