Today has been scientifically calculated to be the most depressing day of the year. A psychologist at the University of Cardiff designed a formula considering factors such as weather conditions, debt levels (did you get your credit card statement from X-mas today too?), time since X-mas, time since failed New Year's resolutions, statistics about domestic arguments and relationship break ups, etc. I'm not sure if I buy it, but what do you think?
Here are some reasons that it might not be.
1) The days are getting longer. It's finally almost light when I leave work at 4:30. Whew.
2)The tenderness of wolves. The book, by Stef Penney. Man, am I in love with this story! I'm listening to it actually, and I can't recommend it enough. It's not the type of thing I would normally pick up. It's a murder mystery set in The Hudson Bay Company, northern Canada in the late 1800's. But it's so much more than that! The character development is extraordinary and the plot twists and turns unexpectedly. It's completely absorbing and compelling and so, so good! Go and get it now!
3) The new Band of Horses CD.
4) Although frogging Anouk was painful and heartbreaking, starting it over again to the first season of the Gilmore Girls on DVD is just about the best thing ever.
5) Going grocery shopping on my own late in the evening. I know that sounds ridiculous, but I usually buy my groceries online or make a painful journey to store on the weekends when everyone else (and their screaming children) decide to shop. I popped in to the Starbucks* to get a delicious Chai latte to enjoy while I was shopping and my i-pod on shuffle played You Will Always Be the Same by Ryan Adams as I took my first sip. It's so true!
*When I lived in Seattle, I avoided Starbucks like it was made out of brussel's sprouts and rolled my eyes and scoffed when anyone mentioned the name. There were just so many other options in that coffee slinging city. I now rely on Starbuck's to be one of the few things that reminds me *exactly* of home when I get a wave of the homesickness. I learned this first when I was travelling through eastern europe, in the middle of the coldest winter in 50 years, and on my own. We'll discuss the why's of that situation another time. Anyway, I stumbled into a starbucks in Vienna out of desperation one day and lo! They had sugarfree vanilla syrup! And tazo passion tea! And it tasted just like it did at home! I sorta let Starbucks off the hook after that.
I'm not really much of a list maker. I know some of you out there find no greater pleasure than making long lists of things you've got to do and find particularly great satisfaction in crossing things off of said list. One of my closest friends even includes 'shower' and 'eat breakfast' on her daily to-do list so that she can have the satisfaction of dragging her pen across the page an extra couple of times. My husband is one of these listy types as well, and razzes me relentlessly about making shopping lists and to-do lists and packing lists when we go on trips. I usually manage to make do without one, she says tapping her forehead knowingly with her forefinger.
It's that time of year when everybody starts compiling lists of things that they liked best about the year and though I don't really get the point of to-do lists, I do like making top 5 lists. Anybody who knows me knows that it's music that makes my world go round and I've always sort of fancied myself something a connoisseur of good tunes. You be the judge. Here I'll list my mostest favoritest albums of 2007!
Before we get started with the drum roll and all the hullabaloo, I need to send a couple of honorable mentions out. This was a good year in music for me. Pretty much all of my favorite artists put out new albums, one even posthumously, though regrettably only one makes the final top 5 of 2007. Shocking really, considering I'm the loyal fan type, but damn there was some fine new (to me) music to come out this year!
And the runner's up are ...... Iron & Wine -The Shepherd's Dog (can you believe it, i&w didn't make the top 5!), Wilco - Sky Blue Sky (what? not Wilco either?), Amy Winehouse - Back in Black, Damien Rice - 9, Ray LaMontagne - Till the Sun Turns Black (I know this came out in 2006, but I didn't get hold of it till later and I haven't stopped listening to it since), Kings of Leon - Because of the Times, The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible, Bloc Party - A Weekend in the City and last but certainly not least, Beirut - The Flying Club Cup.
Elliott Smith's New Moon would have made my Top 5 had I not just gotten it for x-mas and have only listened to it a handful of times, but it's absolutely brilliant. Go out and buy it immediately!
5) Coming in at number 5, it's our dear friends Radiohead with their perfectly radiohead sounding album, In Rainbows. Case in point, when my friend came to dinner recently and asked me to put it on, the first thumps of 15 step started off and she proclaimed "Oooh! It sounds just like radiohead!" Also, I'm a big fan of their pay as much as you want downloading scheme. I gave it a good deal of thought, but in the end settled on £3.00 for mine, which seemed fair enough to me. How much did you pay for yours? I read the average paid was £2.99 so as it turns out, I'm perfectly average. 4) Next is Elvis Perkins' pretty little debut album Ash Wednesday. I heard about this thing way before I got around to giving it a listen. I was flying from LA to London on Virgin and I swear that's as good as it gets for transatlanticism. (Oh Virgin airlines... you're so dreamy.) There's all sorts of fun things about a Virgin Atlantic flight, loads of movies, games and music on the little video screen on the seat in front of you and a music magazine to flip through. For some reason this kid's story stuck to me. He's the son of a Hollywood actor who died of AIDS in the 80's, his Mom was killed in 9/11 so there's lots of reasons to expect that this album would be a bit mopey and sad, and it is, but not in the ways that you might expect. It's dreamy and loopy and sometimes a bit poignant and shocking. Swoon. 3) Now, I don't have a whole lot to say about this album except that I listened to it A LOT this year. It's one of those that's completely sing-along-able and for that reason alone, it played while I was cooking or jogging or in the car and in the shower. All I really know about her is that she's Canadian and used to play with Broken Social Scene. Divine!
2) I love everything about Miss Kate Nash. I love the storyteller in her more than anything, I love that she's a teenager, but wouldn't sell her soul to the Britney machine, I love that even though by now you can't get her off the radio in the UK, I'm still not sick to death of her. She came to me by accident. Wilco was playing on Jools Holland, which for the Americans is a late night show on Fridays that showcases all sorts of music and I stayed up late to get some Tweedy action. Instead it was little Kate that grabbed my attention. The only introduction she got was "This is Kate Nash, she's new" and she was only allowed one song. She didn't have an album out or anything yet, but her songs were all over limewire and myspace and the like. I started collecting them as I came across them and if I'm honest, I don't actually own this album, I've only bits and pieced it from the internet. Naughty!
1) Peter, Bjorn and John blew me away this year. I can't stop listening to their album Writer's Block. Here's my favorite song from the record and maybe you'll see why I love it so, so much.
Good stuff. There were a bunch of albums I didn't get to listen to yet like pj harvey and Sigur Ros and Steve Earle and Bat for Lashes and Band of Horses and Caribou and KT Turnstall and Interpol and Rilo Kiley and Spoon and Bettye Lavette....
What are you listening to?
(sorry about all the you tube action, I'm not sure what happened there and can't seem to fix it. besides, you can't have too much of a good thing!)
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned how good it would be for me to revisit some of my favorite photographs and share the where's and why's with you. Well, here you go! These are some of my favorite photos of all: the birds.
Pictured above: Pigeon love on the Charles Bridge, Prague. This one was taken on a jet-lag induced early morning prowl on my first ever visit to Prague. It was literally just me and these birds on the bridge at 5 am, and if anyone's ever been to Prague you'll understand just how precious that kind of solitude is since most of the time the place is a madhouse of tourists, punters, ex-pats, street performers, beggars, stag do's, drug dealers, party goers, puppeteers and other various onlookers and passersby.
Familiar? You saw this little wagtail on my roof earlier this autumn. I absolutely love this photo, it's probably my favorite of all the lucky shots I got this year. I am in love with the sense of movement that the blurred last remains of the sweetgum tree in the background provide. It was only a fleeting moment that the little guy alighted and in this photo you can sense his panic when he saw me in the window behind him.
This little Sawhet Owl turned up to roost on my parents' porch in the weeks leading up to my wedding last year. My folks have a ranch bed out on their back patio, and I like to sleep out there when I come to visit. For whatever reason, I never sleep sounder than when I'm sleeping outdoors. Even when I'm camping I usually just use my tent as place to stash my backpack away from the dew and the ticks and mozzies, while I prefer to sleep under the stars. This little fella woke me up in the early hours one morning when his wingtips brushed my face as he swooped in and perched on the vines only about 4 or 5 feet above, staring down on me with those suspicious and knowing eyes all the while.
Superstitious me discovered that it's a bad omen to see an owl in the sunlight, but an owl visiting in the days before your wedding is meant to bring good fortune. Particularly an owl seen on your rooftop. Leave it to us to just break even with superstition. Go figure!
Another Czech bird, a european Jackdaw (a relative of the crow and the blue jay) eyeing me up for a tasty snack.
And the grand finale, a guardian of Warwick castle here in my neck of the woods.
A final note: you may have noticed that my blogging basically sucks lately. Things are just a bit bananas for me at the mo and I'm hoping to be back on track soon. Think good thoughts for me! Rub your bellies and wish mine better. A little collective healing prayer and energy would do me a world of good!
In Pictures:1) Sharing a breakfast of champions with the man I love and (yesterday's) Guardian. The supplement this weekend was the guide to baking, how auspicious was that?! By the way, the secret ingredient of the breakfast of champions: maple syrup and tabasco, baby. Mmmm.....
2) Going on this walk.... and meeting this kid with his Harris hawk, Thor. Apparently, Thor had his first taste of freedom today - his first flight!3) Discovering where Brussels Sprouts come from.
4) Making these cookies. Oatmeal scotchies...the toll house recipe of course, smuggled in from America and my all-time favorite cookie. 5) This souvenir from my in-laws' recent holiday in Egypt. Those belly dance lessons will be coming in handy afterall. 6) (I said 5 didn't I?) Making a start on my Christmas cards....6 1/2) That in England you get to say Happy Christmas instead.
Okay, so I'm crashing this party. And this one. While I'm at it, I may as well crash this one too. I'm hopping on your bandwagons ladies, look out!
First, let me explain why I think both of these challenges are a great exercise for me right now. I am in a funk man, and how! I think anything that helps me to recognize some of the positives in my day to day is up there with sliced bread and the Hoff.
Challenge numero uno: The five favorite photographs and why section. How can you choose just five? All of these on today's post came from a folder I have where I keep all the pics I've taken that I think just might the bee's knees. So, it's kind of like cheating really. I can't wait till I take the time to go through all of my old photos and see them with a fresh pair of eyes. I think I'll leave the why part for a later post and let you think of your own reasons why these pics might mean something to me. I wonder, what do they mean to you? The second part of this challenge is to list five things about today that were really good. I challenge you to do the same. Go on, I dare you.
The five really good things about Tuesday the 20th of November:
1) There's this 17th century windmill that I drive by on my way to work every morning. When I stop to think about it, I actually have a beautiful commute. Through hilly Warwickshire countryside along an ancient Roman road, so it's built up a little bit higher than your average English country lane and all the more straighter. Kudos Romans. Weatherwise, it turned out to be a miserable blow out of a day. Gusty wind, driving rain, you know the score. But it started out this morning just a little bit fragile. Morning light peaking through low clouds and a bit of fog rising up off the wet fields, this windmill at the top of the hill taking the full force of the sun's first meager amber effort to pierce through the grey. Beautiful.2) Rubbing Bisbee down with his towel when I got home from work after his being caught out in the rain all day. It's this sort of intimate routine we have, where he pretends he hates the rub down but comes back immediately after each 'escape.' His fur is always especially fluffy and clean after he stretches out in front of the fireplace to dry off.
3) My husband's patience. I'm really struggling to cope with my anxiety right now, insomia, inappetence, irritability.... you name it I've got it at the moment. He came home after day one of his three day Big Exams today (the one where he gets the letters after his name and everything) to find me in the midst of a full on panic attack.
I couldn't sleep last night for thinking I might have deleted this file of photos by accident. I backed up onto the external hard drive a couple of weeks ago, and at 3 this morning I woke with a fright at the thought that I made this mistake. Stupid, right? These are the ones from the 2 months I spent with family back in the States last year. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, my nieces and nephews, all the preparations for our wedding. Some pretty important pics. So of course, because I'm acting obsessive and strange these days, I couldn't stop thinking about it all day and as soon as I get home I checked to see if they were there. They're gone of course. I checked all the computers and all the extra storage devices, gone. (If anyone knows any good data recovery software, please let me know!)
At any rate, good thing number three was how my husband is a champion. Pulled me out of my ridiculous state, helped me make dinner, gave me some extra time when I know he's freaking out himself because of the exams. Good thing number three is love.
4) Running into an old friend in an unexpected place.
5) Lists. Top five lists. And lists of the things that I'm going to do this winter so that it doesn't beat me. Including learn to make samosas, read the Painted Veil by Somerset Maugham, use my sewing machine more often, eat more fiber, continue taking belly dance classes, knit with beads, read The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass, watch Into the Wild, and to learn more about balance.
favourite knits...
the arrival of winter birds
harvesting the tomatillos and making salsa (recipe coming soon....)
Step 1: Give that tummy a rub.
Step 2: Get some dirt under your fingernails.
Step 3: Notice the things that go unnoticed.
Step 4: When all else fails, add chocolate.
I'm not really much of a list maker. I know some of you out there find no greater pleasure than making long lists of things you've got to do and find particularly great satisfaction in crossing things off of said list. One of my closest friends even includes 'shower' and 'eat breakfast' on her daily to-do list so that she can have the satisfaction of dragging her pen across the page an extra couple of times. My husband is one of these listy types as well, and razzes me relentlessly about making shopping lists and to-do lists and packing lists when we go on trips. I usually manage to make do without one, she says tapping her forehead knowingly with her forefinger.
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned how good it would be for me to revisit some of my favorite photographs and share the where's and why's with you. Well, here you go! These are some of my favorite photos of all: the birds.
Familiar? You saw this little wagtail on my roof earlier this autumn. I absolutely love this photo, it's probably my favorite of all the lucky shots I got this year. I am in love with the sense of movement that the blurred last remains of the sweetgum tree in the background provide. It was only a fleeting moment that the little guy alighted and in this photo you can sense his panic when he saw me in the window behind him.
This little Sawhet Owl turned up to roost on my parents' porch in the weeks leading up to my wedding last year. My folks have a ranch bed out on their back patio, and I like to sleep out there when I come to visit. For whatever reason, I never sleep sounder than when I'm sleeping outdoors. Even when I'm camping I usually just use my tent as place to stash my backpack away from the dew and the ticks and mozzies, while I prefer to sleep under the stars. This little fella woke me up in the early hours one morning when his wingtips brushed my face as he swooped in and perched on the vines only about 4 or 5 feet above, staring down on me with those suspicious and knowing eyes all the while.
Another Czech bird, a european Jackdaw (a relative of the crow and the blue jay) eyeing me up for a tasty snack.
And the grand finale, a guardian of Warwick castle here in my neck of the woods.
1) Sharing a breakfast of champions with the man I love and (yesterday's) Guardian. The supplement this weekend was the guide to baking, how auspicious was that?! By the way, the secret ingredient of the breakfast of champions: maple syrup and tabasco, baby. Mmmm.....
3) Discovering where Brussels Sprouts come from.
4) Making these cookies. Oatmeal scotchies...the toll house recipe of course, smuggled in from America and my all-time favorite cookie.
5) This souvenir from my in-laws' recent holiday in Egypt. Those belly dance lessons will be coming in handy afterall.
6 1/2) That in England you get to say Happy Christmas instead.
Challenge numero uno: The five favorite photographs and why section. How can you choose just five? All of these on today's post came from a folder I have where I keep all the pics I've taken that I think just might the bee's knees. So, it's kind of like cheating really. I can't wait till I take the time to go through all of my old photos and see them with a fresh pair of eyes.
I think I'll leave the why part for a later post and let you think of your own reasons why these pics might mean something to me. I wonder, what do they mean to you?
The second part of this challenge is to list five things about today that were really good. I challenge you to do the same. Go on, I dare you.
2) Rubbing Bisbee down with his towel when I got home from work after his being caught out in the rain all day. It's this sort of intimate routine we have, where he pretends he hates the rub down but comes back immediately after each 'escape.' His fur is always especially fluffy and clean after he stretches out in front of the fireplace to dry off.
