Robin McKinley's Blog, page 166

Handbells. Mwa ha ha ha ha

 

B_twin is loose in England at present* and she and Southdowner have been catapulting about the countryside doing all those great tourist things you only do when you have a visitor** as excuse.  They're in this area today and tomorrow but due to a combination of events, chiefly the 23.2% of everybody I've ever met passing through Hampshire this fortnight, plus the frelling weather***, the ME is gnawing on me more than is either necessary or friendly†, and they can Tell Me About It.  ...

Night off (nearly)

It's been a long day and I have three guest blogs pending . . . all of which need something done to them before I can use them.  SIIIIIIIGH.  But it's still Wednesday, and I need a night off.  So let's have a few arbitrary hellhound and Hampshire countryside photos, and then I think I might try the going to bed early* thing again.

            Because Wordpress is an evil ratbag from Orthanc's subbasement, I'm not going to be able to attach individual text to the photo where it belongs** so...

The V&A, part two

 

But first, a message from our sponsor: 

YAAAAAY TREE FROM HELL* IS TOAST

 . . . or at least chippings to mulch the flower borders.  Got back to the cottage last night to a message from the Tree Man.  He'd had the unofficial okay from the Arboreal Department** of the county council some weeks back but the paperwork has only just come through.  YAAAAAAAY.  22 July is the day I am to be rid of this turbulent . . . I mean this ungleblarging tree.*** 

            And then the fun begins.  The...

The V&A, part one

 

Today just vaporised.   It did not start well when the birds were singing and the sky was already blue and hot when I finally got to bed* this—er—morning.   Hellhounds and I went out for a sort of floppy lurch—IT'S TOO HOT.  HAVE I MENTIONED RECENTLY THAT IT'S TOO HOT?—and then I hit my desk and opened my email and—GAAAAAAH—there has got to be a better way to keep up with your friends than visits.  We've now got relatively immediate global text delivery**:  when are we going to be able to...

Hot Culture

 

So I put friend #2 on the train yesterday afternoon and was looking forward to a nice slow day today* of . . . frelling laundry, and picking up some/any of the stuff that seems to have accumulated on all flat surfaces,** preferably before the next visitor onslaught*** arrives and (conceivably) wants to put its suitcase down.† 

            . . . Having forgotten we were supposed to go to Tosca†† tonight at Grange Park.  Tickets were of course bought long before I found out that 23.2% of...

Aaaaaugh! Yet More Bell Ringing!

 

Cathy is GONE.  Taking FINGERZILLA WITH HER.  I meant to have one more blast of extreme, repellent* violence before she went but it was one of those things that fell out of the last-day schedule, the way things do fall out, especially of last days.  I wanted her to take some photos of me and the hellhounds.  I wanted to look at the quilt book she bought at the V&A.  I wanted more time to stroll her around Mauncester**.  There's leagues of standard hellhound-hurtle Hampshire countryside I...

Ringing Maestro Robin (guest post by Black Bear)

 

I'm sure all of you are wondering just what it's like to go bell ringing with Robin.  (And if you weren't, why on earth weren't you?)  I've done this before, mind you.  But I've never visited Robin's home tower—and certainly not when Robin's been deputy-ringing-master-temporarily-in-charge-while-Niall's-away.  I had the pleasure of having beginning How To Pull A Rope Without Killing Oneself instruction (again—it might almost be sticking a bit) but I figure you all can find out about the...

Mottisfont

Was it last year or the year before I gave you a Mottisfont post?  Maybe both.  Well, here's another one.  You can kind of figure there's going to be a Mottisfont post most years:  National Collection of Old Roses?  Hellgoddess?  . . .  Any questions? *

        Given the lateness of the hour and the fact that Wordpress will doolally my text anyway, I'm going to declare the following self-explanatory.  If any of them aren't, post questions to the forum and I'll answer. **  I do wish to state...

The many uses of technology

 

So I put one friend on the bus to Heathrow this morning, galloped home, galloped hellhounds, galloped into going-out-to-fancy-restaurant clothes, galloped to Mauncester to catch a train to London . . . first piece of major luck was an actual real-live parking space within galloping distance of the Mauncester train station, which even in a country full of tiny cranky medieval towns that have expanded into large sprawling modern cities with tiny cranky centres, stands out as an unusually...

The Terror of London, guest post by Black Bear

 

I'd thought originally that I might write a guest blog about something pleasant, like a trip to a museum or a luncheon out at a fancy place in the Big City.  Little did I know, however, that I was bringing a weapon of mass destruction along on the trip… namely, my iPod.  

I got an iPod Touch for myself as a holiday present last year, and it's still new enough to be endlessly fascinating for me.  Like everyone who owns one of these jiggers, I have downloaded enough silly time-waster games...