Busy week

I have been wondering whether I really can write a blog called Tales from BOA, or if I should just stick to Tales from Cravant. After all we're only going to be here for two months.  Geographically Tales from BOA  would be accurate. But then I thought perhaps two blogs would cause the very confusion I was trying to avoid, as well as being a bit over the top and probably unsustainable. In any case the idea before I left France had been to write a blog in French. But that would mean I'd need a third blog address. Then even I'd be confused. French bits no doubt would start creeping into the English blog and English bits into the French blog. Worse still I could run out of ideas, in any language. Then what? noideasforablog.blogspot.com? So for sanity's sake I'm sticking to one blog, Tales from Cravant, which until 2 January 2013 will cover stuff from Bradford on Avon. As to the French blog - we'll I'll see.

We've had a great first week back. Seen lots of friends. Taken loads of photos, mostly macro. Yesterday morning there was a farewell coffee and cake 'gathering', about twenty of us, at the Fat Fowl for friends Moira and Anthony who are moving to Skye. They leave on Tuesday. Last night we went to Jenny and Rob's joint 60th ceilidh birthday party at their village hall in Holt. Such fun. Got absolutely hysterical at one point. Crying with laughter as everything went hopelessly wrong. I was aching everywhere. This morning, we've been absorbing the Beeb fiasco, and catching up with the papers etc. Also got some bread made, more cutting back done in our garden and made a start on our books. So we've not been idle.


The books are a real problem. Only a few can come to France and we don't want loads of them in storage. But at the same time, when we move back, we want books in the house. So it's complicated. Mike and I are as bad as each other. As you pull them off the shelves the books start weaving their magic, and you have to sit down and read at them. Before you know it - another hour has gone by.  Books are precious friends!  So I'm forcing myself to be rational: how many times have I read this book? What can I remember about it? What did I really like about it. Am I truly going to read it again? I started going through them one by one, which in itself takes a long time. There are some books I must have read at least a dozen times and I know that at some point I'll need my fix and will read them yet again. Some of them I've read every year for as long as I can remember, but only as winter kicks in and Christmas gets nearer. Regressive and at least for me, gems, such as  A Christmas Carol and The Wind in the Willows. The really tricky books are those that I've only read once, but which made such a lasting first impression, that I've not as yet been able to read them a second time. They've been sitting on our book shelves for a few years, offering visual reminders of amazing reads:  Marguerite Duras - La Douleur, Heinrich Böll - Group Portrait of A Lady, The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov, Joseph Heller - Catch-22.  These and a few others I either read straight through in one sitting or over a couple of days. Since then I only have to look at each cover and wham. There's still a powerful response.

Anyway we've not done too badly. There are three large boxes sorted out. One of them contains those books I'm 'joined at the hip with'. The others, books we've both agreed can be sacrificed. Then it's a question of where they go?  No point selling fiction on Amazon. Our local book shop that keeps a second-hand section, looks very overwhelmed. Charity shops probably. Of course amid all this book soul-searching and book angst, what did I do. I bought another book. 

One of the local groups in BOA - the Art Association organises various events throughout the year. I'd booked a place in advance for one which took place last week, just after we got back.  A talk by Persephone Books. Persephone is a small team of two with a turnover of trainees to help, who re-publish neglected fiction and non-fiction by women, for women and about women. I've been on their mailing list for a while. The first book of theirs that I read was written by Winifred Watson in 1938 - Miss Pettigrew Lives for a day. Wonderful writing. Couldn't put it down. Read it in a day. Anyway the talk was held at the Fat Fowl, and came with tea and cakes. Couldn't resist a collection of short stories, available at a special price of £10 and which I have just started to read. The books are available through Amazon and some also on Kindle. So if you've not heard of them, suggest you take a look.
Well worth it.