Letter from home

I like Meryl Streep.

I liked her in Out of Africa 

and I liked her in Little Women.

So I hope it’s clear - I like Meryl Streep.

And I love Nora Ephron - you know that.

But I do not like Meryl Streep reading Nora Ephron. I bought the audiobook of Heartburn and the narrator is Ms Streep and I cannot stand her narration! It is so mannered. Maybe she knew Nora, and Nora was mannered when she read her stuff out loud, but I cannot imagine it. I have always imagined the narrator/main  character of Heartburn to be casual, offhand, deadpan. But Meryl Streep reading Heartburn is like those actors who read poetry and put so much of themselves into the reading that the poem and the poet’s voice get lost. It is incredibly annoying. 

So, I have given up on that audiobook with some harrumphing, and have returned to listening to series after series of Ed Reardon’s Week while I paint. I LOVE Ed Reardon, he is outrageous in his mockery of modern culture and successful writers and he is wonderfully grumpy. I love it when he’s writing and someone comes to the door or calls on the phone and he groans. He expresses my inner grumpiness. (If Dave were reading this he’d say what do you mean “inner” grumpiness?)

But Dave has his own problems.

We needed a new cooker and after flirting with the idea of buying one for months and not being able to find what we wanted (a freestanding double electric that was white or cream and had an induction hob, and with a specific height) we bought one in a hurry last week. It is stainless steel with a black hob. 

And one of Dave’s Aspergery quirks is a hatred of black. Is drives him nuts. The first time he was sold a desktop screen with a black frame he hated it so much he made a white cardboard frame to slot over the top to obscure it.

Yesterday he bought an aluminium offcut to fit on top of the hob when it’s not in use, and it’s pretty effective in hiding the black. Thank goodness. An Aspie in full complaint mode is not someone you’d enjoy meeting, let alone live with.

So what else has been happening?

Yesterday I saw a wonderful video of a mouse tidying someone’s shed.

I must find this mouse and set him loose on Dave's shed. Then his study.

And last week we had hundreds of twitchers surrounding Hassop Station and clogging up the Monsal Trail with cameras the size of vacuum cleaners (said twitchers oblivious to the fact that the Trail is a thoroughfare for walkers and cyclists) because a flock of waxwings had decided to visit. It was very exciting…for the birdwatchers. As you know, I am not a birdwatcher. Here is a link to the video in case you are.

Something more exciting for me personally has been entering two of my paintings into the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2024. I shall have to wait a couple of months to find out if they want them. As my only remaining painting ambition is to be exhibited in the RA, my virtual fingers are crossed, and crossed again

In the meantime I am working on one of our kitchen (without the offending hob) and after that I am going to attempt a painting of the view from the bedroom window on a January morning.