Robin McKinley's Blog, page 171

Memory FAIL†

 

This morning†† I received the following email from my husband: 

Hey!  That's nothing like all I know.  That's where

        As I went down the water's side,

        None but my foe to be my guide

comes from, and then that wonderfully bathetic verse straight after.  And I've never tried to sing it.  It doesn't have a tune in my head.

                        XOP*

 *Despite feeling bitterly traduced.††† 

When I arrived at the mews later‡ Peter said, Did you get my email?  Yes, I said.  It's Helen of K...

Favourite bits

 

This is probably obscene, but hey.  This blog is too clean anyway.  I worry about all the nine year olds and Great Aunt Gladyses who read it.*  The way the stories come is the way they come, and you can like them (I hope) or you can read something else.  But I took the decision way back before Day One on livejournal that I was going to restrain expression of my natural sordidness and depravity. 

            So.  Obscene.**  I mentioned over on Twitter that I was enjoying reading the...

Pansies

 

Oh, stop that.*  It's not midnight yet.**  It's not.***  It can't be midnight†, I'm still eating dinner.††  Um . . .

            So I had Computer Men underfoot most of the day again today††† doing inscrutable clicky Computer Men things, and . . . my email now semi-works to a whole new unsettling schedule.  Am I now getting all my email?  I have no frelling idea.  I've had less than usual the last two days but . . . sometimes you do just get less than usual.‡

            Because I am also at p...

Madhatterington

 

I've had a Revelation.  I haven't become a crazed bell junkie because I love bells*.  I've become a crazed bell junkie because of the drama.**

            I've told you that Madhatterington recently had its bell tower done up, its old bells restored and (I believe) two new-to-this-tower bells installed*** for a total of five.  Which is lovely and all that, barring the bells themselves, and the fact that the village is Deeply Divided over the issue:  there are the people who love bells and...

First Rose

 

 (Oh.  Sorry about the white speckles.  Atlas had been sanding over her head.)  Which, given the weather we've been having—I had my dahlia cuttings indoors overnight again two days ago—is pretty frelling good going.  This is Old Blush, who does have a quite extraordinary drive to produce flowers.  She does the usual repeating-rose thing of a first big flush, followed by a rest, followed by a second not-so-big flush.  But Old Blush's speciality is that she starts early, goes on till late...

Brainscramble

 

It's eleven o'clock on a Friday evening* and I have to write a blog entry.  Chiefly I'm busy—and preoccupied by—wringing my hands over my email.**  I have a variety of issues about my email*** which Computer Men† declared will all be gloriously solved†† by a change of server.  I have a somewhat complex set up as it is, or rather, as it was, and shall be again†††, and the virtual digging of post holes while fending off the local rabid tarantula population, the (virtual) cementing of posts...

THE DEMON'S LEXICON by Sarah Rees Brennan

 

I liked this book enormously.  And I liked it from the very first paragraph:  "The pipe under the sink was leaking again.  It wouldn't have been so bad, except that Nick kept his favourite sword under the sink."  Fifteen-year-old Nick, the practical one, gets on with the repair, while eighteen-year-old Alan cooks dinner.  "There was only an instant's warning . . . Then the window exploded inward, a sharp burst of glittering shards caught in the fluorescent lights. . . . In through the...

Recital preparation — Goals and worries, by Bratsche

Giving a recital is a great chance to practice what I preach.  One of the things I work on with every student who is getting ready for a performance (or audition) is setting goals.  There is often an obvious goal already attached — win a spot in the orchestra, win the competition, get a good grade for lessons*,  etc.  However, I believe it's important to set additional goals that aren't focused on the end result of the performance.  In an audition, where there may be 40 or 50 players vying...

Bluebell Wood

 

 To my considerable bemusement I've had two or three requests for bluebell photos.*  Maybe the photos look better if you're not surrounded by the real thing.  Although it's a funny thing about bluebells:  even though they're almost overwhelmingly magical in person, even I feel the Must.  Go.  There.  of bluebell photos.  Even these not-very-satisfactory photos, because bluebell photos are never satisfactory, do have that effect—well, on me anyway, and at least two or three of my blog...

First Things

 

I heard my first cuckoo of the spring today.*  I thought I'd heard one about a week ago but I wasn't sure—today I was sure.  Although since I was hearing it from pretty much the same spot, I probably was hearing it a week ago.

            One 'first' is also a good moment to inaugurate another blog thread:  answering some of the questions you're assiduously sending to Askrobin.**  But before I begin on a few I am going to answer:  pleeeeeeeease remember, before you submit a question, to do...