Teaser Tuesday - October 9

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

He must go immediately to the Boquería market to buy twenty duros' worth of boiled chickpeas and take them without delay to Police Headquarters (in a taxi if necessary) - or he must prepare to present his balls to him on a plate. Would you like me to repeat it?

Getting rid of the naive policman set to follow you in Carlos Ruiz Zafón's The Shadow of the Wind (again from the book group's book of the month).

Church at Bourg Trégastel

Church at Bourg Trégastel, a photo by rajmarshall on Flickr.

The intention for the last day was to take a boat around the Sept Îles unfortunately the tides meant there were no boats that day from Trégastel. If you're doing this walk look ahead the tides may be better from one of the earlier stops. Instead we walked to the Vallée des Traouïero a rocky wooded area inland and then walked along the coast in the afternoon. Both evenings we spent at Trégastel we ate out at local restaurants by the port watching the sun set. Unfortunately in Bourg we just missed a concert by the church fitters but we spotted a poster

Mutterings - Oct 7

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Exorcise :: Evil
2. Theory :: Gravitational
3. Possible :: Art of the
4. 1600 :: Pennsylvania Ave (& Bernstein)
5. Feeling :: Emotion
6. Excuse :: Any
7. Mortality :: Death
8. Trivial :: Pursuit
9. Pupil :: Eye
10. Challenge :: Risk

Blind Long Jumping

So this is how a world might
become small, coming down
to a clap, a beat, a voice
calling you on.

She’s heard it growing for years,
exploring where it goes, learning
its lead. Now she knows it well
enough. Who cares what has been
lost or found; there is only the beat
of hands clapping, a private rhythm
everyone understands .

If there was nothing else, it would
still be enough. She has faith.
She has it all. The silence, the breath,
the sound. She steps, she runs,
she leaps into dark, into light.
Into orbit at last.
(London Paralympics 2012 - Rachel Mann)

No doubt you've all seen this already - but having mentioned it at the quiet day, David Runcorn was talking about the trust and intensity of blind long jumping where the jumper uses a helper who stands in the track clapping while the watchers keep very quiet and the helper flings themself out of the way at the last minute! Let me quote it here - that quiet day was a fortnight ago now! - if you enjoy the poem keep a close eye on Rachel Mann's blog from which I've pasted it!

That link to David Runcorn's pages was tricky to find - there's lots of dead links to mac.com... let's hope citing it will improve its chances in google! My photos from the queit day at Cliff college are here.

Teaser Tuesday - Oct 2

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

She kissed me shyly, and I planted a couple of noisy kisses on each cheek. She laughed. In her eyes I could see she was waiting for me to ask her about Clara, but I had decided not to.

A bonus sentence as the second is so short! From Carlos Ruiz Zafón's 'The Shadow of the Wind' our book group's current book for the month. A story of attempted book burning..

Incendies

It's a little time ago now but the first showing of Macclesfield silk screen's 2012-2013 season was Denis Villeneuve's Incendies

Incendies Trailer HD by eOneFilms
Here's a review a film telling of a family caught up in civil war in a Lebanon like country, told partially in flashback partially as the children discover the history of their mother. Raw and emotionally gruelling but strongly recommended! At the quiet day we attended the weekend after, somone was saying from a reading of Lucy Winkett's Our Sound is our Wound that for humans singing may have predated speech this, for me gave an added edge to the character of 'The Woman who Sings' in the film.

Le Sentier des Douaniers

DSCF8874, a photo by rajmarshall on Flickr.

The next day of the holiday was walking Le Sentier des Douaniers and old smugglers path over to Trégastel. Spectacular rock formations next to the sea - and the weather behaved! Probably the most popular part of the coast but it was much enjoyed lots of little rocky harbours. The rocky outcrops reminded me of the Staffordshire Roaches with the tide in! Here's the link again to the flickr album.

Mutterings - Sept 30

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Desire :: Wish
2. Paint :: Ball
3. Sides :: Rectangle
4. Gauze :: Muslin
5. Telegraph :: Bush
6. Slip :: Many a
7. Recommend :: Reference
8. Amused :: Laughed
9. Sorted :: Bubble
10. Canvas :: Tent

Teaser Tuesday - Sept 25

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

The lagoon is full of secret currents, shoals, clinging water-weeds. Over most of its expanse, if you lie in the bows of your boat in the sunshine, with a hamper beside you and an arm around your waist, you can see the slithery foliage of its bottom scudding obliquely beneath your keel: until, rashly taking a short cut, you find yourselves soggily aground, your propellor churning the mud around you and your idylls indefinitely postponed.

A last lingering look at Jan Morris' Venice - a reminder of warmth and sunshine on this cold very wet day here in NW England!

Perros Guirec

Sundown, a photo by rajmarshall on Flickr.

The next day was a rest day, we spent it wandering around Perros Guirec, a trip round a museum of local hostory, lunch at a creperie and a wander along the beach. Dinner again at the Manoir du Sphinx admiring the sunset.

Mutterings - Sept 23

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Familiar :: Spirit
2. Style :: Magazine
3. More than :: words can tell
4. Glistening :: Treasure
5. Obstruction :: Swallowing
6. Orifice :: Hole
7. Hugely :: Annoying
8. Tempest :: Shakespeare
9. Sauce :: HP
10. Herbs :: Garden

Teaser Tuesday - Sep 18

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

She closed the file, and for half an hour or more sat at the desk with her head in her hands, paralysed with shock and indecision. She could not reveal what she had found, and yet how could she live with the knowledge?

Approaching the end of The Thread - by Victoria Hislop - and a real teaser!

Mutterings - Sept 16

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Social :: Media
2. Fairy tale :: Cinderella
3. 0 :: 1
4. Football :: Match
5. Action :: Man
6. Setting :: Bone
7. Boomers :: Baby
8. Rough :: Smooth
9. Words :: Speech
10. Account :: Book-keeper

Plage de Trestignel from the Manoir du Sphinx

DSCF0955 Plage de Trestignel from the Manoir du Sphinx, a photo by rajmarshall on Flickr.

Day three started with a taxi ride to Port Blanc and then we walked to Perros Guirec for a 2 night stay at the Manoir du Sphinx - a long walk by the shore. Route finding was sometimes tricky. The weather was much better and the port of Perros Guirec was a good resting place before the final hill up to the hotel! The photo was taken from our room and the hotel restaurant jutted out over the hotel lawn giving stunning views as we ate - we were lucky with our table - some tables were further away from the windows!

Teaser Tuesday - Sept 11

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

The four walls of her magnificent house were like a cage, within which she was safe. Food was brought to her, clothes were sewn for her, the hairdresser attended to her hair at home and now her son came and went without need for guidance or help.

Victoria Hislop's The Thread - our book group book for the month A pretty trailer but doesn't tell you much more than is on the back cover, The story of Greece (or maybe a story of Greece..) in the 20th century...

Mutterings - 9th Sept

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Middle :: Earth (pig in the...)
2. Runner :: Do a ... (bean)
3. Umbrella :: Stand
4. She :: Rider Haggard
5. Album :: Stemp
6. Speak :: Easy
7. Completely :: Honest
8. Underestimated :: Miscounted
9. Self-esteem :: Worth
10. Compartment :: Railway

A quiet lane in Tréguier

A quiet lane in Tréguier, a photo by rajmarshall on Flickr.

Day 2 of this year's holiday was a walk to Tréguier along the coast past Neolithic remains and the Jaudy estuary. This was the day it rained - cleared up once we got there and the hotel for the evening had a starred Michelin restaurant.

Teaser Tuesday - 4th Sept

Try not to laugh (too much) it's been a busy week!


Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

In the plushy cafés of St. Mark's (Regency stripes and spindly chairs) spruce listen with deference to the interminable reminiscences of immaculate uncles: and in the cafés on Christmas eve 20,000 families giggle before the television sets, drinking Cinzano and eating sticky cakes, while the favourite melody of the day is passed from shop to shop, from square to square, down one dark alley to another, like a cheerful watchword in the night. The Christmas services are warm, bright and glistening; the cribs are crude but touching; the choirs sing lustily; and Venice feels less like a grand duchess than a buxom landlady, enjoying a glass of stout when the customers have gone (except for the mysterious permutations of clergy, gold and crimson and misty with incense, that you may glimpse passing and repassing the open doors of the Basilica).

A wonderful extract from Jan Morris's Venice - in the off season (if it now has one) - irrestible and draws one back! Soak in the atmosphere - this is a re-read for me - but probably a little old as a guide book.

Mutterings - 2nd September

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Tenure :: Common (oh dear, church administration!
2. Baptism :: Growth
3. Holders :: Loo Roll (sorry! our church warden had an accident while drilling new holes for these a few days ago)
4. Irritation :: Itch
5. Academics :: Pale
6. Mug :: Tree
7. Charge :: Lightning
8. Percent :: Point
9. Clears :: the runway
10. Selfless :: Loving

Troezel Vras

DSCF0931Troezl Vras door hidden by hydrangeas, a photo by rajmarshall on Flickr.

It's been rather a long time since we returned from our summer break - again an Inntravel tour, this time the Granite Coast of Brittany. So while I still remember it a few comments: we spent the first day on a circular walk around Troezel Vras, country lanes and coastal walks, we went past a large house which has some connection to the du Mauriers. Returned in time for a trip to a local wine merchant - this was one reason for going by car! The fish eater very much enjoyed the evening meal - we should have alerted them in advance that one member of the party isn't keen on oily fish! As you can see the accomodation came with a lovely courtyard. The complete set of photos from the holiday is here