Yes the drought in our region is over. We have had nothing but rain now for about three weeks, of course there has been the odd pause, in its place a sort of dreary humidity, then a sharp frost the following morning, and the odd foggy morning. But like most things involving human perception, now folk are moaning about too much rain, yes, too much wet stuff, severe rain warnings, flooding, rain with winds, darkness falling early – with rain, and any thing else even remotely to do with wet and rain. Mother nature teasing us. I far prefer to look out over rolling (well more like the odd undulation) paddocks of new green grass than scorched land. Hoorah the water tank is full, no more carting the grey/gray water to the trees, and the trees I might add are now upright and smiling – just in time to loose their leaves for autumn! The car looks remarkably clean (because of the rain, Ive not had any cloth or shampoo to it). So while talk of the ‘drought’ has past for now, now it will shift to the ‘flood’. Where I was getting irritated with the dogs and cats shaking off sand and dried grass on the floor each time they came in side, my fickle humaness gets irritated with mud splotchs! Its not really about fickleness I suppose, its about how I view it (heres some guru self-help input) I probably need to remind myself that I love my animals, they didnt force themselves on me, I chose them, and us humans leave splotches too. Is my glass half full or half empty?
While I revel in the rain, I have to also take the flourish of weeds. The erradication of which will remove me from good reading time, well even bad reading time, and housework. Yes bizarre I know, but if I am outside trying to prevent the land from returning to its natural wild state, Im not inside doing the housework and washing, which will then distract me even more from the reading, which in turn distracts me from the writing (though I use this description lightly).
There are so many books that I just “must” read. Like a child that tells their parents if they dont have the latest advertised toy or a pet they saw in a shop and fell in love with, they “must” have it or they will die. Well I know and they know they will not, but the joy of actually obtaining the object of desire is truly wonderful. For example, there was a quote from a book ’Recollections of Virginia Woolf by her contemporaries’ Edited by Joan Russell Noble, the quote was from the cook who had been with Virginia and Leonard for many years, and was reproduced in a blog I recently found (John Bakers Blog). I have for the last couple of decades been fascinated by anything written about/by or to do with Virginia Woolf. I contacted the Dymocks bookshop, was told it was out of print, but to my amazement they were able to get it through Amazon for me, second hand. Well I truly was over the moon and am now the proud owner of a book I wonder why someone would want to onsell but Im ever so greatful they did. Im trying not to rush through it, and savouring each contribution, but it is hard to restrain myself to not devour it in one sitting.
Coincidentally, our national broadcasting radio programme, which runs a saturday morning segment of book reviews, and interesting interviews, broadcast an interview with Hermione Lee, woman of many letters, and biographer of Virginia Woolf, and more recently Edith Wharton. Its such a wonderous occassion when the stars align and all these things come together at once – I had picked up the Woolf recollections on the Friday and tuned to the radio on the way to my daughters soccer game, to hear Kim Hill interviewing Hermione Lee. I was gutted because we had just arrived at the soccer grounds and the interview had just started – my wee transistor radio batteries are dying and the interview was fading in and out, and then parents would ask me something etc. Anyways, daughter made up for it today and what a wonderful world we live in when it comes to Podcasts, dont ask for an explanation I dont know how they work but I got to hear the interview today, no interruptions or static, just clear speaking. Hermione is going to give a talk at the Writers and Readers Festival Week in Auckland this coming week – but this was just as good. A half hour talk and I was rewarded.
As I mentioned, soccer has also started so I will be out every Saturday morning in the rain, doing the parental support thing. There may be some merit in having children who are couch potatoes – the parents stay warm and dry, and get to hear the Saturday Morning radio show uninterrupted. My daughter played two games of soccer on saturday, first one at 9.00am in a town 45 minutes away from here, then another back in our own town at 11.00 (the other team was short of players). Its not unusual for her to do this, she loves her sports, but it wipes me out for the rest of the day, the housework is done late (if I havent done it the night before), I cant read late on friday night because I need to be up before 7.00am to get everyone under way, no gardening gets done because I spend the afternoon thawing/drying out. Its actually quite exhausting walking up and down a sideline! We are not supposed to be team coaching or managing for the first time in years, but the coach had to go off on a holiday overseas so guess what, first game of the season and Man of the house is running around the field refereeing. So gumboots got their first outing for the season.
But all this distraction from reading and writing makes me a little edgy, a bit grumpy, a hint of agitation, so I have to get my groove sorted so that the family doesnt have to put up with my ”reading withdrawal” symptoms, or my “reading separation anxiety”. Hence why I find in some small way, I relate to Virginia’s anxiety.
Some may say I dont need to be reading so many books, but the short answer is ” Yes” I do have to – because I am nosey, I love reading what others have to say, I love learning to a certain degree, I love observing other writers play with words, not just the words but also the themes etc they bring together. With the advent of blogs, online newspapers etc, the world has come into my house, I am not restricted to the library, because there are so many other readers out there sharing their views and knowledge. All this tantalises the bookaholic.
While soccer takes me away from logging on to read the latest blog post of some writer, or overseas Newspaper interviews etc, I am grateful that I get to read for two hours in the car while daughter of house is at soccer practice, and another half hour at the end of the week while she has guitar practice. At least in these venues I cant get up and start doing housework or cooking – I am imprisoned with a book for a set period of time. Doctors waiting rooms use to also be a wonderful place to get a good long read, but they can be unreliable on time and keep to the appointment time, leaving no time for that book in your bag.
Anyways, authors that I have read lately are Ann Cleeves (Raven Black), very good; Frances Fyfield (Staring at the night), good; John Baker (The Chinese girl), very good; Patricia Highsmith (non-fiction, on writing) very good. I have read so much more but havent kept my list up to date. So Im not doing too badly.
