Goodness, Time Flies
Friday, August 4th, 2006A whole month of inactivity here !
During which I’ve done what seems like a lot of work, but also had a holiday in Delft, a poetry recording in York, a good circular tour to the south and west of the city by bike, and have read Kristin Lavransdatter, and some fascinating history and archaeology.
Delft is a delight - we arrived on a Saturday in July, to find a bustling conventional market, a hopping flea-market and just the end of a stomping jazz/cajun free concert from a barge on a canal. And food ! One does not think of the Netherlands as gastronomically distinguished (compared to its Flemish neighbour, Belgium, say) but by choosing restaurants which advertised dutch / flemish specialities we ate really really well. Of course, if it is so hot that you just have to spend the middle of the day sitting in a plane-tree shaded square drinking iced coffee, beer, and iced tea, and taking 3 hours over lunch, then the world looks incredibly rosy. But it’s such a civilised town - and of course you can hire bikes really cheaply at the station (the shop is open from about 7.00 to 23.00) and potter around the town or head out into the country where there are cycle tracks everywhere and bikes are acknowledged as equal road users with cars.
We went intending to buy some new panniers for our Dutch bikes back home - and were so spoilt for choice we bought 5.
Then, sitting out at the front of the hotel late in the evening, a peaceful canal, whiskey or cointreau in hand. I could get used to leisure.
If you care to go to www.radioryedale.co.uk you will find under “poetry corner”, 1st or 4th August, some pleasant readings, including my own “Barefoot in the Dark” and “Doncaster”.
I think “Kristin Lavransdatter” by Sigrid Undset is as good as “Anna Karenina.”
Did you know that during the Black Death, although the London dead were buried in mass graves, they were not just tipped in from the carts, as we imagine from accounts of the Plague in 1665,but carefully laid out parallel, but up to 5 deep !
That’s enough for now !