It’s still unseasonably warm and sunny here, even for Southern California. If it wasn’t for our imminent departure for London and colder climes I think we might fly off the edge of the world altogether.
All in Literature
Of Hounds And Other Essentials
We’re back by the fountain again. The sun is casting his forever shine and across the way in the courtyard of City Hall a large ceremonial gathering of the local police department celebrates some occasion of importance.
Sugar and Candy
The sunset streets unfold around me as I move towards the freeway listening to Handy Dandy and thinking about America. He has long been a favourite of mine this insouciant protagonist full of braggadocio and vulnerability in equal measure whose very name itself means simple and easy
Of Life, Family and Homer
I sit in my white chair in the late afternoon gazing out into the sky. Through the open window I hear the birds idly gossiping, the odd car door slams and voices murmur in the street below.
Voices of Love and Theft
I’m teaching Virgil again. It‘s hard to believe that it’s been ten years since I last taught this greatest of poets. Although the school room has turned into a kitchen table and the student is my fifteen year old son rather than a group of girls from London,
Voyagers
We are at the beach once again but it’s a different beach today. Perhaps it’s because the months have turned to December and the seasons have slid into their final movement of the year.
A Camera Eye
Resting for a little longer in the land of in between, the time has found us thinking, talking and reading this week.
Calling Voices
In these long dog days of confinement, with life before a distant memory and life after an unknown, it is only when sitting beside the ocean that any clarity of thought returns to me. As I sit gazing silently through the waves I hear voices calling.
A Blowing Wind
Rough winds and frigid temperatures blew into Los Angeles last night hard on the heels of a heatwave. We were woken suddenly from slumber at midnight by the banging of a loose door on our roof terrace. Comically large palm tree branches festooned the streets this morning as we drove to school
Of Medicine, Memories and a Mermaid
We woke up to rain today. With the air of excitement and impending chaos that rain conjures here in the sun drenched climes of Southern California it was a fitting backdrop to my daughter’s return to school. She’s been out of action for over two weeks with a cold that slid inexorably into a pneumonia that had us all more worried than I can ever recall being with her.
An Enchanted Vision
There’s a painting I’ve loved for a long time now. It depicts scenes from the life of the Cyclops, the famous one eyed monster of Greek mythology. I first discovered it completely by chance a few years ago when searching on the internet for something or other. Ah the wonders of google! You can see a photograph of it above this piece. It was in fact one of several wall murals that were discovered during the excavation of the Augustan Villa at Boscotrecase in Italy.
A Reading Hour
When I look back into the past I can not locate the moment at which I first discovered the novelist Mary Stewart. In the days when, as teenagers, we would make weekly family trips to the library I was always happy to discover one of her novels unfamiliar and unread. In later years the delight came from rediscovering one to read again. I must have read all of her novels ten times over or more.