Random postalisings
Jul. 11th, 2012 11:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
desperanceKaren went to yoga last night after work. Me, I went on working. US Civil War ghost stories are difficult, when you know barely the first thing about anything and don't speak the language. As ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
matociquala says, though, if it wasn't difficult it wouldn't be fun. Butter Day! I have read pages & pages on the dairy industry of New England in the 1850s, because one web page told me that market day in St Albans was Tuesday, and called Butter Day. How often do you get the chance to do that? (And bless whoever scanned those pages in: your labour was not wasted!)
When Karen came back, she brought Katherine with her; so dinner was for three, and then I got to walk Katherine home afterwards. Spontaneous socialising, and walking barely-known streets with a new friend in the dark: it's all so much like thirty years ago, when I was a stranger in Newcastle and all my friends were new. Almost makes me feel young again, almost.
And as I was coming home I found a floor-lamp in the street. Back in N'cle, anything you didn't want any more, you put out in the back alley and it would be informally freecycled away, usually within the hour. People do the same thing here, only stuff goes out front (no back alleys!) and often has a sign on it, to say that it's free to a good home.
So I carried this floor-lamp back, as I was feeling so young and feckless; and it was heavy and mighty awkward but worth it all the way, because it works just fine and now I have it installed beside my desk, uplighting and desklighting both at once. It is a cool stainless steel with creamy shades, and I love it. And apparently I still love scavenging for freestuff, though I do also love spending gazillions of cash and unboxing things that are infinitely new.
And talking of infinite newness, Cliff will be coming by in a few minutes to take me to a SETI Institute talk about Kepler and exoplanets and such. Heh.
Also, I need to tend my tomatoes and fix some kind of trellis for the boysenberries. This afternoon, I shall do that. Me in the sunshine in the garden in my shorts. I may be reliving my winsome youth, but this is so not Newcastle...
[On the flipside, though? I miss my friends. I do. And my city, and my old ways, and and and. Les neiges d'antan are molten in the sunshine of Year Now, but the water-table isn't that deep.]
matociquala says, though, if it wasn't difficult it wouldn't be fun. Butter Day! I have read pages & pages on the dairy industry of New England in the 1850s, because one web page told me that market day in St Albans was Tuesday, and called Butter Day. How often do you get the chance to do that? (And bless whoever scanned those pages in: your labour was not wasted!)When Karen came back, she brought Katherine with her; so dinner was for three, and then I got to walk Katherine home afterwards. Spontaneous socialising, and walking barely-known streets with a new friend in the dark: it's all so much like thirty years ago, when I was a stranger in Newcastle and all my friends were new. Almost makes me feel young again, almost.
And as I was coming home I found a floor-lamp in the street. Back in N'cle, anything you didn't want any more, you put out in the back alley and it would be informally freecycled away, usually within the hour. People do the same thing here, only stuff goes out front (no back alleys!) and often has a sign on it, to say that it's free to a good home.
So I carried this floor-lamp back, as I was feeling so young and feckless; and it was heavy and mighty awkward but worth it all the way, because it works just fine and now I have it installed beside my desk, uplighting and desklighting both at once. It is a cool stainless steel with creamy shades, and I love it. And apparently I still love scavenging for freestuff, though I do also love spending gazillions of cash and unboxing things that are infinitely new.
And talking of infinite newness, Cliff will be coming by in a few minutes to take me to a SETI Institute talk about Kepler and exoplanets and such. Heh.
Also, I need to tend my tomatoes and fix some kind of trellis for the boysenberries. This afternoon, I shall do that. Me in the sunshine in the garden in my shorts. I may be reliving my winsome youth, but this is so not Newcastle...
[On the flipside, though? I miss my friends. I do. And my city, and my old ways, and and and. Les neiges d'antan are molten in the sunshine of Year Now, but the water-table isn't that deep.]