Liz Williams's Blog, page 54

Dog training

I have decided to get Lily into training before she becomes something huge and unmanageable. Thus we headed out for Mark village hall this evening, fortifying ourselves in the White Horse beforehand, and did an hour of dog training.

Lily is the youngest. She was very well behaved, although she has a tendency to bark at random people (people in peculiar hats, people with the wrong sort of beard), in a pattern which is not yet obvious to me. However, she loves the trainer and got on well with the

Neda and Iran

The images of a young Iranian protester being shot are all over You Tube, so I won't give links. The Iranian protest seems increasingly to be becoming a female phenomenon: there was a good article by an Iranian journalist in the Independent the other day, describing how the regime has become systematically more repressive, with the re-emergence of the morality police, to the disgust of even devout people in her own neighbourhood. It is, she thinks, as a diversionary tactic to draw attention away

Something for Monday morning

Oh DEAR!

*

A couple go for a meal at a Chinese restaurant and order the 'Chicken Surprise',

The waiter brings the meal, served in a lidded cast iron pot.

Just as the wife is about to serve herself, the lid of the pot rises slightly and she briefly sees two beady little eyes looking around before the lid slams back down.

'Good Lord, did you see that?' she asks her husband. He hasn't, so she asks him to look in the pot. He reaches for it and again the lid rises, and he sees two little eyes looking aro

Happy Solstice!

To everyone. A bit cloudy here and there are a lot of people with the pagan Thousand Yard Stare (1000 people on the Tor this morning in time for dawn).

Avebury

We made it up to Avebury in good time, and the weather held out. We found a parking spot without difficulty although there was a queue when we left, waiting to come into the car park. We also had a nice lunch in the Red Lion, which was quite quiet. So the only drawback was the absence of the people we were supposed to be handfasting: this arrangement dates back to April and we'd laid on staff. T had an email on Thursday to ask if we were still on and I replied with my mobile number, and asked fo

Racing rain

I gather it has been raining in the US and I think the edge of the storms has made its way across the Pond as it has grown extremely dark here suddenly, after what has been a sunny day.

We had to see a supplier in Taunton this morning so went down to the Blue Ball for lunch, then a quick walk up on the scarp of the Quantocks. The verges are filed with bright pink foxgloves. When we got back, our co-gardeners were here and I have picked a bowl full of redcurrants, trying to beat the rain.

Blowing someone else's trumpet

I'm delighted to note that fantasy writer Robin McKinley's* husband Peter (aka the Hon Peter Malcolm de Brissac Dickinson) has just been outed in the Queen's birthday honours list for an OBE for services to literature. Check out the following for Peter's thoughts on the deal and, uh, on pantyhose: http://robinmckinleysblog.com/2009/06/14/guest-post-by-the-hon-peter-malcolm-de-brissac-dickinson-frsl†-obe/

*She's footnote-tastic so as a tribute, I will be too, and note that McKinley's books were so

Somehow...

...I never got quite this far with the old yoga:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/06/16/Unbelievable-Matrix-Like-Acrobatics-.aspx

(although a friend of mine did once fake the over-the-car stunt on video).

Tuesday food

It has been hot. T has mowed the big orchard. I have made a salad from lettuce from the vegetable patch - Arthur and I suddenly discovered them this morning, lurking between the beans. Also grilled pheasant burgers, with new potatoes, carrots in honey and mustard sauce, and broad beans.

Letter from the Royal British Legion

Got this from purplecthulhu this morning.

http://www.britishlegion.org.uk/about-us/media-centre/news/general/an-open-letter-to-nick-griffin-chairman-of-the-bnp-and-mep-for-north-west-england

As the link says, it's an open letter to the chair of the BNP. Makes interesting reading.