My Own Musings

Thought I'd share some pictures that I took today of our garden:

















































And the result:

This is the best thing to wake up to in the morning. A really good laugh!

Went for a long walk today with the hubby. There is a road that runs about 3-4 miles in a large circle out into the countryside from our village, around behind some fields, and then back again on the other end of the village. It's a good jaunt and today was so warm, we decided to take a walk. Besides, I wanted to get out and look again at the plants I see out in the country. I know nothing of the plants in the UK. When I first got here, the rapeseed was yellow at first and the fields of it were beautiful and bright. In late July and early August, it turned a lovely purple-blue color and was ready to harvest shortly after. I'd never seen rapeseed before and wasn't even aware of its existence.

There always seems to be something in bloom and has been every single month since I've been here. If they aren't flowers, they are fruit trees or nut trees. A neighbor woman invited us over to pick her baking and eating apples as well as pears. She also gave us long beans and some grapes. I loved the grapes and beans. Delicious.  I  also love the nut trees growing in our garden and the varieties of berries growing in the hedges by the sides of the roads. On our walk today I saw berries that look like blueberries but have a small pit. After reading about some berries online, I believe they are blackthorn berries (??). There are also many varieties of red berries, one of which I think was hawthorn. One I recognize as holly from the leaves of course. I've never seen a living holly hedge.  I am such a beginner in the plant identification department. I've never before paid much attention to them and have not been around the countryside enough in the States to notice them. Here, the woods are close. The trees are everywhere. And the birdlife is glorious. I also must say that the time off work and not being stuck in an office all day has helped in orienting me to my surroundings. 

My next mission: find the nearest source of natural running water. In America we have an abundance of creeks and streams leading to rivers and lakes. Here there is a reservoir nearby but I think the nearest watercourse is the estuary. Time to investigate. 

I have been reading Robin Hobb's Liveship Trilogy for the past several weeks. These books are very unlike other fantasy I've read and I've not delved too deeply in the fantasy market since I was in high school. I absolutely love these books! The last fantasy I read was Terry Brooks and Orson Scott Card, authors concerned with males and their quests. Fascinating as that is, I grew tired of the dearth of female characters and the slaying of dragons, finding of treasures, and "bromance." In fact, as a literature major, most literature and mythology I've read is focused on the male and his quest toward inner transformation and societal salvation. This is how mythology begins; with a male quest to the Underworld (womb) and the death of a monster (feminine). While, the girl's quest is beginning to make itself known in modern fiction, one was hard pressed to find such a quest in early literature. The female quest was sidelined into the domestic sphere, the only place where women's actions were allowed really. 

Fantasy and science fiction is the new frontier for women and men, and has been for some time. You can create new worlds and imagine new scenarios in the genre. You can see possibilities unconfined by standard literary tropes still found in most contemporary novels.  On the fantasy and science fiction shelves at the bookstore, we don't see segregated novels for men and novels for women set apart with fanciful colors and colors. They are there for either to pick up and enjoy. Hobb feeds that empty place in me that longs to see not just a female quest, but a human one without regard to expected roles and stereotypes. I have to say that she's created a strong matriarchal society though, whether intended or not. In the Liveship trilogy she has created Bingtown, a port where ships come to trade and people's lives are intertwined through marriage and alliances. Liveships are made of wizard wood, different than the ordinary "dead" wood that regular ships are made of. These ships are created by artisans and will not become 'live' until three generations of the same family have lived, sailed, and died on board. They then become liveships who are 'born' and grow and become responsive to the family that owns them. Fascinating stuff.

Hobb's characters are richly drawn and complex. We have matriarchal families, female sailors, artisans, etc. who hold high ideals and struggle against the prevailing sentiments of male sailors and satraps and patriarchal heads. Each character struggles with real issues and there are no extremes of personality as I've found in some male authors' characters (I'm lookin' at you Stephen King!). Life is far more complex than that. I've never enjoyed a created world so much as this one and kudos to Hobb for being so prolific. Her books tend to 800 pages or more in this series. I don't believe she has set out to make a feminist statement; she's just that good at creating it without the didacticism I despise in some novels. One can see her societies evolving and growing, just as her liveships do. Genius idea. I couldn't recommend them highly enough. 

I miss my family and my friends, but there are a few things I don't miss about the United States:

1. Election season: which lasts about a thousand years, or feels like it anyway. This is the time when all of the weirdos come out of the woodwork and make promises that they will never keep. They also bring out the same old issues campaign after campaign and it's only after the election you realize that this was all a ruse to get the electorate steaming mad. Television becomes a wasteland of accusations and outright lies with campaign ads when all it comes down to is that whoever spent the most money wins.

2. Capital Punishment: Last night they just executed an innocent man in Georgia. The plain fact is that executions happens for those who do not have the resources to buy good lawyers or have the backing of powerful people. The states execute the poor, minorities, and the mentally disabled routinely and think nothing of it. As another one of those issues that I've changed my mind about, CP is barbaric and as long as the possibility of killing an innocent human being exists, it should be outlawed.

3. Religious Fundamentalism: It's everywhere. Your neighbors, your co-workers, your small town. I imagine the only way to escape it is to get lost in a big city but it's not so easy to do in the U.S. There's just so much of it and it's easy for religious communities to hide in little enclaves. That's why the Mormons went West to begin with.

4. The Food: Seriously, despite having the FDA, I believe Americans are being slowly killed by their food products. Various pesticides and hormones and fake ingredients nearly ruined my inner system. Since coming to the UK, my bowels have never felt and acted better. Strange.

5. The Suburban Mindset: In the UK, town centres are the prevailing thing and suburban malls are not as prevalent.  I love that. It gives you a connection to the community that can't be found in the USA. 

There. Those are a few for now, but the keenest at the moment. I shall now go mourn for poor Troy Davis.

http://sometimesfaithsometimesnot.wordpress.com/

 I have been busy getting all sorts of details at work wrapped up and details at home taken care of for moving across the sea. There are a thousand and one things to do. Where to begin????? If I'm absent, I'm buried under paperwork, selling one house, discarding things, etc. Massive spring cleaning!

....I married him.

Goddess Tree posted on her Facebook account that tonight is Night of Hecate. I've had some interest in her since my Master's Thesis on Walter Scott's The Heart of Midlothian and finding a Hecate figure in the story among other things. I think Scott was fascinated with witches and fairies among other things and I found some references to such things numerous in his books. I can also say with great relish that weeping willows are my favorite tree and that pumpkins... well, there's not enough one can say about pumpkins!

I can't believe they are starting Christmas shopping displays and music in stores so early, but then again, maybe I'm not so surprised. The world's banks are incredibly sad that people are not shopping themselves into financial ruin and that last year's Christmas sales were so dismal. So, they begin the push even earlier this year. No more is Hallowe'en over than Christmas is afoot. Spend, spend, spend, buy, buy, buy. I am glad that I told one and all that there would be no gifts from me this Christmas due to our wedding, and I hate spending money for some of those things really. It is a very small wedding; 17 guests, all of whom we are asking for no gifts, but are feeding them dinner at a party afterward. We just want them to celebrate with us. Well, what an undertaking even for that few people. But I have hired a local bakery for my cake, a local restaurant (family-owned) for our dinner, and pretty much kept the guests to close family and extremely close friends. It's so dismaying seeing the wedding industry (and I do mean industry) on television and the massive amounts of cash spent on these days. I can't help wondering how many people that could have fed and how little the guests care except to outdo the bride next year with their own weddings. And who in their right mind would pay $6000 for a wedding dress? The operative word is "right mind."  So as the crowds go out to jostle each other and spout rude remarks as they plunk down thousands of dollars on toys and items people will promptly return the next day, I will be at home reading.

Don't get me wrong, Christmas is a time that I enjoy, but not for the gifts. I don't mind the Christmas music at all, it's one of my favorite things. My joy is in the covering of snow over all of the harsh world and the way it muffles everything to a very dull roar. I love coziness and eating meals with loved ones. Playing games with them and laughing. It will be lonely as my new husband will be back in England preparing for a gig and the waiting to be together begins again, but time always passes, albeit slowly sometimes.