Blog

  • End of the holidays

    And the holidays are now officially, by almost any count, over: 4 am GMT on New Year’s Day. (I suppose we could hold out for January 6, and Twelfth Night/Epiphany, but that’s probably pushing it these days.) Rain, on what has been a surprisingly warm evening here – and a lovely dinner at Beate’s house…

  • In the lists

    The past couple of weeks, through the holidays but around/after Sandy’s death, have been different than they usually are for me – no travel, not much activity, no real holidays; only a bit of peripheral participation in other people’s holidays (Bennett & Merrie dropping by, Chris Wood’s concert, dinner at blahfeme’s – and tonight New…

  • Concerns

    A disturbing dream of my sister in pain, suffering with the chemo, sleeping, getting worse – at some strangely chaotic, crowded conference; emphasizing the insensitivity of not knowing what she’s going through, of not helping. *** The family seemed calm and even cheerful at yesterday’s Christmas phone call; probably the ones to worry about are…

  • This endris night

    The candles are burning, and some old carols are playing; dinner is cooking – rice with saffron, cranberries and almonds, topped with a breast of chicken rubbed with paprika and nutmeg. Tomorrow I will go to blahfeme’s for Christmas dinner, but tonight is quiet and at home. *** I love Christmas stories, poems, plays, vignettes.…

  • Wassail

    After a sleepy day, recovering from yesterday’s late visit from Bennett and Merrie, I put myself together to walk down through the northeastern suburbs, between the universities, down through the center of a practically deserted Sunday-night town, and over the river to the Sage Gateshead (our dazzling new-ish local concert hall) for a work by…

  • Family pictures

    By which, this time at least, I don’t mean: pictures of my family. We have hundreds – thousands – of those, from the decades of my father’s passionate taking of photographs; I have several made into plates – including one of all of us some time around 1968 or 1969, where Sandy notably has a…

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