Be to her, Persephone,
All the things I might not be;
Take her head upon your knee.
She that was so proud and wild,
Flippant, arrogant and free,
She that had no need of me,
Is a little lonely child
Lost in Hell, -- Persephone,
Take her head upon your knee;
Say to her, "My dear, my dear,
It is not so dreadful here." - Edna St Vincent Millay
Monday 31 March 2008
March goes out like a wombat
Winter is waddling out of Ottawa and taking its own sweet time. Woke up this morning with an iron-grey sky and black thoughts. Pep-talked myself, applied a little dab of the musk eau de cologne that my elder daughter brought back from Provençe. (Never mind the fact that Cologne is, in fact, in Germany; I was trying to cling to items of love and beauty to save myself from myself.) By the time younger daughter and I tackled the long hill to school, it was snowing outright, coating the filthy fossilized remains of old drifts with a creamy wrap, the muddy shards of ice poking through.
On the way home, still trying to stay high-minded, I took photographs of: frozen explosions in the park below younger daughter's school and: deadly red former evergreens in the merciless grip of a winter's worth of snowplough droppings:
I was just angling myself to take a snap of piles of garbage bags against a backdrop of more frozen waste, when I felt my boot slide out inexorably sideways, and as I tried to regain balance, my other boot slid out in equal inexorability in the exact opposite direction. In agonizing slow motion, I made it to the ground in an ungainly split. I straightened out my legs and lay in the snow atop the black ice and wondered dispassionately if I would be able to get up. Two Russian women whose daughters attend younger daughter's school glanced in my direction from the corner where they were chatting, then resumed their conversation. I managed to regain my feet, figured my left knee, although throbbing painfully on the inside edge, would take my weight and hobbled home, cursing the posh apartment dwellers who never touch the sidewalk outside their building.
I'm now following the R.I.C.E. prescription (rest-ice-compress-elevate) and praying I'll be able to manage the trek to younger daughter's school to pick her up. So far, I'm managing stairs and have even done a load of laundry, gingerly picking my way down two flights, so I imagine I'll be alright, but am glaring sourly at the "to-do" list I'd optimistically posted on my brand-new iGoogle home page this morning.
Expletive deleted. Time for another Doctor Who video. This one, by exceedingly rare YouTube poster "HuaidanSam" combines an unlikely song ("I Wanna Talk About Me" by Toby Keith) with clever cuts and witty associations, resulting in a hilarious and rather sexy fanvid which tells Rose to get her head out of her navel:
There. I needed a good giggle. Time to get the gel pack from the freezer again...
I live in the capital city of Canada....and I'd rather not! I'm like Persephone, doomed to spend 10 months of the year in Hades and two months in my hometown. Except that Persephone got to go home for six months out of the year.
Ottawa Genealogy Double-Header
-
On Saturday, settle in for BIFHSGO and OGS Ottawa Branch meetings. BIFHSGO
has a hybrid meeting, starting at 9 am with I’m Sorry—We Don’t Have Your
Grand...
7 More Things That Should Never Be On Cake
-
And now, as a service to our readers' dieting endeavors:
*7 MORE Things That Should Never Be On Cake *
7. Anything that looks like a spleen
Also, why is...
Duel
-
Now that I'm doing Substack properly it seems a little odd - somehow
disloyal - to essentially be blogging regularly again after all this time,
but not t...
November Update
-
A brief update as I don’t post here anymore, and moved my blogging to a new
page: In the 1940s, Ladies Home Journal ran two great photo essay series.
One w...
Links for OGS Memorials Webinar 2 November 2023
-
Ontario War Memorials, by Tim Laye
https://ontariowarmemorials.blogspot.com/Canadian Military Memorials
Database (now Military memorials in Canada)
https:...
The war memorial - and beyond
-
For several years I have been researching the names on the war memorial in
the town where I live, Chesham, in Buckinghamshire. I know from the
enquiries...
Square Eyes
-
Do they still say that if you watch too much television you’ll get square
eyes? Or is that an expression that went out of fashion when kids started
spend...
Come Walk With Me
-
At least I walk most days in these “unprecedented times”—a phrase I am
thoroughly weary of. I decide to head out about 3pm so I can walk before
the sun, we...
Canada Day
-
I was pretty much unaware of Canada Day this year. I grew up in Ottawa and
it was always a huge deal there. Just packed. The streets were always too
conges...
Preparing for RootsTech London 2019
-
With less than a week to go before RootsTech London 2019 opens at London's
Excel Centre, I thought I would give a brief update for those who are
planni...
Quid pro quo
-
A lovely lady called Chirping Norton (well, I assume that isn’t actually
her name, but) asked me very kindly if I would update the blog and then she
said s...
Adjust contrast of a pdf free
-
Closer to the eye of the shooter, this is because Preview is quite
literally applying a filter to each individual page of the PDF you are
saving. the proce...
"Late May Light"
-
From a recent Red-winged Blackbird serenading,
Barn Swallow swooping, Wild Rose Scented,
Linnyland Painting Adventure...
------------
*"Late May Light", ...
It's a Wonderful Life
-
So here is the new and lovely cover for my latest book, *It's a Wonderful
Life*, which is coming out in November. Woohoo! I am particularly excited
abou...
Another Goodbye ... and another Hello!
-
I've kept a blog for 10 years now. My very first blogpost (here) was about
big pants. Since then we've discussed everything from the existence of god
to...
Coming Soon!!! The Blogtor Who Regeneration.
-
Welcome to 2016!!
Blogtor Who has a new owner and new management. However, what we don't
have today is a new look website. It has been a ter...
and yes I said yes I will Yes.
-
OK, so my good intentions didn't get many posts written, eh? Of course,
like everyone registered to vote in Scotland, I've been a bit preoccupied
just rece...
Happiness is a turquoise lip gloss fairy
-
Today is my birthday and I am home on the couch, mildly hungover from
overindulging at a wonderful party last night. The Fucking Cats are lying
beside me, ...
Wave Hello ... Say Goodbye ...
-
This is my very last post on this blog.
It has been very good to me this past four years but it's starting to go
all wonky and haywire and it's becoming to...
2 comments:
Now tell me your use of the word "trek" in there wasn't some deep Freudian echo of Whn All Is Said And Done......
You, sir, are a devil! I think I lean more toward Jung than Freud, if only because I get a little fed up with mums getting the blame for everything.
Thanks for visiting! Lovely to "see" you...
Post a Comment