Bliss!

Right, I shouldn’t by rights need to buy any more books until at least this summer (yeah like that’s going to stop me!), my order of the Richard and Judy 2008 list came today, too late for me to read the first,  A Thousand Splendid Suns (I’ll have to read that one at the end) but plenty of time for me to read the second Random Acts of Heroic Love however only if I stop a fifth of the way through my current read; C. J Sansom’s Dark Fire which to be honest hasn’t overly impressed me so far, it’s an ‘ok’ read but in a world where there are lots of mind blowing, fantastic reads, I’m not sure if Dark Fire is worth my time, not at the moment anyway, my new box of books looks far too good. In a way I feel a little sorry for Dark Fire for my attitude towards it, I am well aware that my opinion of a book is often coloured by what I’ve just read and having just read Suite Francaise which has just joined the fairly select ranks of my personal all time favourite books, whatever I read next was going to suffer a bit in unintentional comparison. It has also been clouded by me having recently read Kate Mosse’s Labyrinth and Sepulchre which although both not perfect seemed to have a level of multi-layered complexity that 100 pages into Dark Fire, seems to be lacking. To me, so far Dark Fire seems a little too predictable although hats off to Sansom for his creation of Tudor London atmosphere, which is very effective.

A little hint of Spring Sunshine

Maybe it’s an advantage of being a ‘soft southerner’ but Spring seems to peep it’s sunny head up a little earlier round here than when I recall living in more Northerly or Westerly parts of the UK and yes I know it’s still only January and even in London’s cosy urban microclimate the wind is still on the chill and bitter sidebut there seems to be a quality to the sunshine now that we’ve past the shortest day, that shows promise of what is to come. There’s furry little buds on the trees, just a whole brightness about the place (as long as it’s not raining of course) and when the wind stops blowing for a second a little hint of warmth, bliss.

If I keep this blog up for long enough (which I hope I will, as I enjoy doing it) and anyone other than me actually reads it for long enough to, they would come to see that I’m the impatient sort when it comes to seasons; half way through winter I want it to be spring because I’m fed up of being cold; half way through spring I want it to be summer because I’ve remembered once again that spring isn’t all what it’s cracked up to be; half way through summer I want it to be autumn because I’m fed up of being hot, having hayfever and I quite fancy the change of wardrobe back to my winter clothes which hides a greater multitude of chocolate related sins; although half way through autumn I never want it to be winter, yes I could skip winter altogether if I could, ok I’d have a mini-winter, guaranteed snow up to and including Christmas then instant spring, now that would be nice. But no, that’s a dream world, all I have to do now is wait, watch with growing impatience the multitude of signs pointing the way and think wistfully about when I can next put all my washing out on the line instead of battle with my washer-drier which is a drier only in name,to be able to go out without bundling my children up as little michelin men, actually be able to go to the playground without everything guaranteed to be wet, sigh, roll on spring!