Housebound at Taymount

Housebound still.




As I look out of my window, it is snowing again. It is a bit hard to see but there is snow whirling around!! I am happy to admit I am a wimp. I still haven't made it down the hill to the shops. I did try twice today, but the slippery icy sludge on the roadway and the icy patches on the foot path scared me back to the flat.

What am I doing day after day? Today I decided to get a little bit of exercise by walking/running up the stairs inside the building. Of course the view from the top floor was so amazing that I forgot about the going down again for some time. I can see toward London Dockland and it is snow everywhere. I did the up and down the stairs a few times and felt virtuous. I decided to copy out a recipe for Irish Soda Bread while my internet connection was working. My internet is dependant on mobile phone reception, and it varies up here from low to very low or not at all. Soda Bread will come in handy if i don't get to the shops before I run out of bread (very soon). I have made bread and butter pudding out of stale bread...yum yum. I am showing you the pud before I ate half of it a short while ago.

This is an opportunity to read some of the few books on my shelf. If you haven't come across William DALRYMPLE, then don't leave it too long. What an interesting travel writer he is. It is not only that he effortlessly passes on such fascinating information, he does it with such style. The book I have just read is City of Djinns; a year in Delhi. His previous book I read and also enjoyed greatly was In Xanadu.

In City of Djinns, he unravels the history of Delhi from the more recent Partitian, where we hear it from those who were directly affected. Then he delves back far into ancient times. It isn't just the history he is looking at, but the day to day life he is leading - telling us of the heat, the dust, the stomach upsets and the foibles of his landlady and her extended family.

Last night I finished Georgina Howell's Daughter of the Desert: the remarkable life of Gertrude Bell. What a story Howell tells. What a woman Gertrude Bell was. I had heard bits and pieces of her story before, mainly to do with archeology. I had no idea she was the first woman mountain climber. I knew a little of her adventures in the desert and her friendship with Lawrence of Arabia but no idea of her political involvement in the setting up of Iraq. It adds such pathos to the story of what has happened to Iraq in recent decades. I didn't know that the Museum that was looted when the Americans invaded, was set up by her. Did you know this? I learn so much about what is now Iraq, and so much about Gertrude Bell, and along the way I began to understand something of the complexities of the people who live in that region. My heart ached for her when the love of her life died on the Western Front. She never really got over it. A woman writing about a woman does see significance in different things than a man might. For example, we learn how Gertrude managed about clothing - first as a mountain climber at a time when women couldn't be seen in trousers, and at a later date when she dressed the part of a Queen in the desert to gain entree to the world of the Sheiks. Interesting stuff this.

Unlike William Dalrymple, Georgina Howell does not have a gift of language or a developed ability to talk about complex situations with clarity. I kept getting confused as she jumped from 1914 talking about the Great War, backwards and then forwards. Never mind, all is forgiven as the subject overcame all obstacles to leap out the pages of the book and into the very room I was reading in - that is the 'life on a rug' room as I have no other!

I have also read a much lighter book based on the recollections of a retired lecturer, of his first headship in a small village school in North Yorkshire in 1978. Jack Sheffied is on a winner here, as these stories are full of nostalgic charm and the usual cast of village characters. It was a gentle chuckle all the way. My last book, the one I have just started is Judith Levine Not Buying it: my year without shopping. This is part of the Living Simply movement. I have to say I love the IDEA of her book, but find it a bit pretentious. Do I really want to read about Plato at the same time as hearing about what she plans to not buy for the next year? I will keep reading because I want to learn how to live on less so I can not have to go to work part time. Right now because of being too scared to venture down the icy hill I am not spending at all, so I am getting into practice for Living Simply.

Will this weather ever improve? What am I doing here when I could be floating in my swimming Pool in the Bend of Islands in 35 degree heat? Am I mad? Do I really need to come this far to find my purpose in life? I could always go up the local mountains to the snow in winter if I really wanted to expereince snow. At least there they would know about snow chains for cars, snow ploughs for the roads and would be prepared for the weather.