Under the Wild Plum Tree

Monday Recap

2012-01-02T05:45:00.000-08:00

The New Year came and went and I was blissfully oblivious to it all. My love and I spent the weekend at home, shared a bottle of wine, fell asleep around 10:30 pm on Saturday night and only knew it was New Years because of the fireworks.

It was beyond bliss, it was sheer heaven

I finished Daisy Hay's Young Romantics and watched two more episodes of Downton Abbey.I thought that Hay's book about the loves of the Romantic poets was decent. I was unfortunately looking more for information about Charles Lamb but alas couldn't find a thing except for a few mentions of him in the book. Mainly the book centers around the Shelley family and the Hunt Family. I don't care how many times I read it, I still feel my heart break when Shelley drowns.

I am setting aside a little time this year to read books that I started and couldn't get in to or finish. I'm not sure what I will tackle next as a box of books just arrived thanks to a gift certificate from my mum. The Jeeves and Wooster looks so tempting in the box. I'm developing a real crush on Wodehouse.

Off to the next thing.

Downton Abbey ITV1 promo

2011-12-30T14:50:00.000-08:00

I've not been round lately but I've not forgotten about my place here. I've been out and about..I'm slightly exhausted and looking forward to my quiet New Years eve. I'm planning on reading Thomas Lamb's essay on New Year's Eve and be very introspective and such.

Lately I've been slightly obsessed with the tv show Downton Abbey. OMG! I think abouthttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif this show at work which I suppose goes under the very obsessed category. Here's a clip for you to savour.

Ahhhhh,......

2011-12-28T14:12:00.000-08:00

Just when my day seemed bleak and lifeless, just when a person I work with irritated me, just when I's had too many buttered popcorn jelly beans (I detest them but they resemble vanilla bean) I pop open my post and there lies my John Keats looking slightly worn but bright and clean.

I am renewed once more.

Rain in the Morning

2011-12-27T05:59:00.000-08:00

This is my last day of Christmas Break. I'm satisfied that its rainy out and dreary. I don't have to do anything now, if someone asks "what did you do over Christmas Break" I can say "Oh nothing" with certainty. I'm content this morning, less neurotic than I was yesterday. B came home and I'd worked myself into a frenzy. He got me calmed and I read for most of the evening. Today, he squeezed me extra before he left for work. I will fill the hours in between his departure and arrival. He'll have funny stories to tell me and I'll make us dinner. That is the way of our days together; full of laughter and quiet. When I left off in the book I was reading Mary Shelley was about to give birth to her first child. She was 17 and had run off with an already married Percy Shelley. I think he was a cad. I think she was young and impressionable. I'm judging too much but I'm over 10 years older than her and I don't even understand love sometimes. The rain has stopped. Its quiet in the house without the metallic tinkle of rain on the tin roof. I could go to the library but I'm simply too content to stay here and watch the morning pass.

Axioms

2011-12-26T06:10:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting quietly, drinking a cup of coffee, and luxuriating in the silence. Two fast, talking, laughing, carousing daze of Christmas and now the sweet let-down. When I was a child, I used to panic a bit after Christmas. What did I have to look forward to now that the presents were all opened?

My friends, New Years is my favorite holiday. I am quietly contemplating the wonder of rebirth in the dead of winter. What will 2012 bring to me?

Today I read a letter from John Keats to his friend John Taylor when I came across this sparkling paragraph:

Another axiom- That if poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree, it had better not come at all.- However it may be with me, I cannot help looking into new countries with "O for a Muse of Fire to ascend!"

Although I don't wish to no where near compare myself to him, I would like to think that I too am in search of new countries so to speak. Where are my muses? I've seem to have lost them but I do hope that somehow they will appear once again as the new year rolls in.

Christmas Tour of Madness 2011

2011-12-24T05:07:00.001-08:00

I'm up early as I went to bed at a matronly 10:00 last night. I made Christmas candy (and managed to eat only a little) and wrapped presents. This is our first Christmas together and we have the bad luck of having all four parents divorced. So, we're starting the Christmas Tour of Madness 2011.

While I really do want to see my family and his, what I really want is to stay home with a book. I want to read until I'm in a dreamy state of blindness. I want to sip tea all day and fix a nice dinner. I've set aside reading a chapter a night out loud of Great Expectations to my love. We're reading it together you see. I'm have hoarse this morning from doing the escaped prisoner's voice.

I want to be quiet today.

Wherever you may be, I wish you a Happy Holidays, even if its a quiet one.

Status : Impatiently Waiting

2011-12-23T13:55:00.000-08:00

When we first moved in together, we lived in a no bedroom apartment. Cramped for space and deeply in love, I donated over half of my book collection to my childhood library. This was a massive undertaking. There went my Keats..there went Shelley. I drove off not looking in the mirror, not looking back.

Now that we're settled in a larger space, I'm rebuilding my poor collection. This time, I would like to make it better, finer. I'd like to think I got rid of the things I didn't really love (an some things that I truly loved) to make room for books that really mean something to me.

So all of that leads me to this point:

FOR GOD'S SAKE PLEASE LET MY KEATS BIO by AILEEN WARD COME IN THE MAIL!

I'm beyond anxious for it, my heart racing a little when I pull up to the mailbox. I received a gorgeous edition of Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb but mainly I want my Keats Biography.

I know the postal service is busy but I'm very impatient.

The other night I started reading Keats poems to my love, he took it all in stride and asked me what did I get drunk on? Mouth wash?

Winter Memory

2011-12-22T14:49:00.000-08:00

The ice cracked
As you fell back
upon the ice.

Trying not to laugh
I stifled a smile.

You lay back, slightly
Staring at the stars
A cold night empty

The world was ours.

Photo prompt courtesy of Magpie Tales

Let's Dance

2011-12-22T14:33:00.000-08:00

This blog existed a long time ago. It was grand, verbose, and slightly neurotic. I was in love with someone who wasn't sure of their feelings for me. I was also involved in a poetry scene that left me feeling empty. At the very end, I stopped everything including the entries, the poetry readings, the man who tortured me. I just stopped it all and took a deep breath and picked up a book.

I started reading just for the joy of it. I read Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, I read On the Road (again) by Jack Kerouac. I started feeling better, taking walks, getting my head cleared.

What happened? My love came back to me. We spent a year pulling our lives together and now we live in a cute little house in the burbs.

I live a charmed life.

In fact, my fortune said "Your creativity will take you to new heights."

It must be a sign, surely it must be!

I'm just here, writing...it feels good to be back here. I won't put myself under any pressure to fill your time..I just want to be back for a while and to enjoy the sweetness of writing.