Page 124 - Through a glass brightly

because I was reading endlessly about coronavirus and obsessed with the news. I always say to people that I don’t read newspapers because they take up too much time. If I read them, I would never have time for books. This has been proved in the last few weeks. I took a subscription on a daily newspaper’s newsfeed and have read it obsessively every morning. Interestingly I have reverted to my old habits and am no longer so obsessed - what a relief. I get all my news from radio and tv and have gone back to books. I can’t quite cope with Hilary Mantel yet. I suspect it might be that I’ve become rather attached to Thomas Cromwell and can’t quite face what I know it going to happen to him. As Ruth says, reading it does involve immersing yourself in beheadings and cruelty.
So I have quite a back log of books to read and can’t yet quite settle to one. I’m used to this. All of a sudden I will get my teeth into something and get on a roll, reading a book a week or less, until I either jam on something factual that I have to read for some reason or some event like corona, and come to a halt for a while. So some of my favourite authors have put new books out, (or not so new as I’ve been jammed for a while. ) There’s Andrea Camilleri’s latest Montalbano. Now I’m worried about that one as I know that he has killed off Montalbano in his last book. Well which is his last book? - he’s recently died himself, so I’m worried this might be it - or did he have a penultimate book up his sleeve and the last one is yet to be published? So am I safe to read it or am I going to be terrified every time I turn a page? (The disadvantage of kindle is it’s not easy to sneak a look at the end....) Anne Tyler, who a couple of years ago announced that she had written her last book, seems to have published two more since I last looked, so they are waiting. If you don’t know her, she is wonderful. There’s a new Alexander McCall Smith. I thought that might break me in gently, but maybe I’ve grown out of them, I just couldn’t get into it. There’s a new Donna Leon waiting and a new Faith Martin - both really enjoyable detective novelists. And then there’s Rebirding by Benedict Macdonald - this is essential reading as it is what my son is planning on doing on his land. I’ll probably get jammed on that!
Yes, I think lockdown is slightly easing. I can’t imagine going into a shop on Monday - it’s going to feel really strange. I have begun to spread my wings a bit. Yesterday I met 4 friends from Ramblers, 3 of them isolating on their own, to have a coffee at the café garden that is open and go for a walk along the river. We were so happy to see each other - and be out and be walking together - and have lots of people to talk to. The only downer was that the café was inexplicably closed. We did try to stay apart but quite honestly we weren’t always and that seems to be generally so of the people you see out around here. And we had my younger granddaughter Maeve’s third birthday in the garden yesterday, but when it really poured we went indoors - or they did, I didn’t, and there were only two child guests plus a godmother. People down here seem to have just got past really distancing, though they pay lip service.
Off to watch Springwatch - none the worse for lockdown.
Monday, 15th June
From Glenda at 13.09
Reading Val’s “misplaced” emails (which are now where they should be – thanks Val) I was reminded of something which I had always wanted to tell someone in school about. I spend much of the summer at the theatre in Pitlochry. Pitlochry, which some of you will know, is set in the most glorious Perthshire countryside. Although it is sometimes touristy, I love the work which has gone into developing paths around the town, the tumbling peaty rivers of the Tummel, the Garry and the Tay, the railway station, the fish ladder and the fact that it is set well back from the A9 which is the main road through the Cairngorms to Inverness and beyond.
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