Like herding cats

Dreamed last night
I was lined up to see the doctor.  I had with me Mum, and I think Dad, maybe Kate + Daniel. After a while there was an old man called Lyle. Lyle was childlike harmless. He sat on my lap, and I analysed how I felt about it but decided it was OK.

Mum and Lyle kept getting distracted, talking animatedly to different people in the queues, wandering off. As I’d go to retrieve them I’d lose my place in the queue.
I tried to think what I had to tell the doctor for each of us. I knew Mum thought she had a broken leg, but she seemed to be walking around well enough.
I imagined myself saying to the doctor about my charges, ‘It’s like herding cats.’ And then we’d both laugh.

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Station Eleven

By Emily St. John Mandel

Set in the days of civilization’s collapse, Station Eleven tells the story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.

One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies onstage during a production of King Lear. Hours later, the world as we know it begins to dissolve. Moving back and forth in time—from the actor’s early days as a film star to fifteen years in the future, when a theater troupe known as the Traveling Symphony roams the wasteland of what remains—this suspenseful, elegiac, spellbinding novel charts the strange twists of fate that connect five people: the actor, the man who tried to save him, the actor’s first wife, his oldest friend, and a young actress with the Traveling Symphony, caught in the crosshairs of a dangerous self-proclaimed prophet.

Emily St. John Mandel is Canadian.

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25 July 2021 – return to WordPress

Since Mum died in February, mostly feeling lost. Feeling like I’m treading water, waiting for life to begin again. Scribbling colour over colour with gloved arthritic fingers, while listening to medical thriller audiobook.

“Harvest”, Tess Gerritsen


Lockdown: not much different to my regular existence of chronic illness – going out makes me sick. Sicker, I mean.


Facetiming with friend next door. Ludovina lost her mother 2 years ago. Checking with each other: You need anything? How’s your back now? Both of us laughing at ourselves wearing woollen hats and scarves indoors.

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Spiritual advice

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” – 14th Dalai Lama
“True religion should be the pursuit of self-realization, not an exercise in the accumulation of facts.” – Lama Thubten Zopa

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The Way of Tea, by Popchong Sunim

Tea. The Way. Knew it.

Buddhism now

Green Tea setIn preparing green tea one should first bring the water to the boil. Then one should pour it into a largish bowl and let it cool to about 60 degrees Celsius. If the water is too hot, then too much of the tea’s bitterness will be extracted into the water. At this lower tem­perature the fragrance of the tea is extracted more slowly. The teapot and cups should be warmed with some of the water. After warming put the tea leaves into the teapot, pour in the water and let the leaves infuse for two or three minutes. It is important when pouring the tea to make sure that the taste is evenly distributed in all the cups. Therefore, never fill each cup in a single pouring, but fill them little by little — up to three servings each. While drinking the tea, refill the teapot with water.

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For your eyes only

Delightful! An old garden nurturing birds!

Le Drake Noir

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Not a drive-in restaurant but a fly-in restaurant.
In terms of visits, a five star Michelin restaurant worth.
From my parents’ garden – a very large old overgrown garden.
Perfect for small wild birds, which especially my mother’s huge passion.

The inspiration comes from “Restlessjo” and her “Monday walk” themes.
A small walk just outside the house of my old parents.
At the risk of meeting perhaps 20 different species of small birds.
In addition, pheasants, ducks, geese, oystercatchers, jays, lapwings and more.
Not to forget, hedgehogs, deer and occasionally a fox too.

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The hedge-sparrow very often guest with their nests just nearby.

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Yellow-hammer do enjoy the dinnerparties along with the pheasants, a very friendly bird..

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The wagtail examines the lawn thoroughly for insects.

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Common-pheasant, according to himself the king of the garden and not common at all.

The bird doesn’t bother knocking on the pane of the…

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