Cruisin’
Walking
It rained overnight, but I woke to the sound of a skein of geese straggling eastwards to the coast. After my moaning yesterday about constant greyness, this morning was chilly under blue skies, everything defined by the low sun. I went for a walk and everyone’s profile looked like it was painted by Rembrandt, cheeks highlighted, uplit from time to time by light flaring off wet pavements. Squirrels grubbed around in allotments; rooks croaked lazily in the crowns of trees. The walk was only seven or eight kilometres, but, after a couple of weeks of indolence, it did the trick enough for me to take a nap later this afternoon.
Obviously I’m hoping that the sunlight and fresh air will help banish the lingering lurgy. I feel better than I did a couple of days ago, but nowhere near 100%. On the other hand, it is, to the best of my knowledge, just a seasonal cold; I have friends with the other one who are in my thoughts.
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Never far away
I mentioned John le Carré yesterday and, over breakfast, came across this interview with Jon Snow from a couple of years ago. There’s plenty of interest, but I was fascinated by his writing technique (towards the end of the interview). I hope it plays outside the UK. https://www.channel4.com/news/le-carr-betrayed-by-bad-lot-spy-kim-philby
As well, I read Tom McTague’s assessment in the Atlantic, and James Parker, also in the Atlantic on Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Both worthwhile short reads.
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I opened up the work in progress for the first time in three weeks, intending to try and get a couple of hundred or so words written, just to get back into the habit. I was pleased to find that what I’d previously written read reasonably well. But my good writing intentions were foiled by that nap I mentioned earlier. I could either sit at the desk and soldier on, or take forty winks. Forty winks won the day. I may get a bit more done this evening, but I can sense another early night beckoning.
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Music: a random record from my shelves, the debut album by David Lindley and El Ray-X. I saw Lindley performing solo, except for a dreadlocked sheepdog and a bottle of Newcastle Brown, at a Cambridge Folk Festival, I think the 17th. He played lap steel that night, albeit highly amplified. He’s made a career as a multi-instrumentalist sideman, but his solo performances are worth tracking down. This is his take on KC Douglas’s Mercury Blues. The second video is the original, first recorded in 1948 as Mercury Boogie.
The third video features Lindley as a sideman, playing autoharp for Dolly Parton, Linda Rondstadt and Emmylou Harris on Parton’s Wildflowers.
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