"It was imprudent of us, in the first place, to become authors. We could have become something regular, but we managed not to.
We were lucky, but we were also determined." Roy Blount Jr

"I don’t change the facts to enhance the drama. I think of it the other way round, the drama has got to fit the facts,
and it’s your job as a writer to find the shape in real life."
Hilary Mantel

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Sunny Sunday Stroll



I've been super-busy with activities diocesan and legislative since returning to the great Granite State. Also, Jewel and Ruth have monopolised my time and attention. (Clever beasts, they doubtless recognise the significance of the omnimpresent luggage still scattered throughout the Lodge...I'll soon be on the move again.)

All of which explains why I'm offering up a stroll my mother and I took earlier in the week....

The Villa, the very first house on our street. My parents' home is two houses farther along.



Mother reminded me that many years ago, when a new owner moved in, I hand-delivered a plate of home-made cookies as a welcome-to-our-neighbourhood gift. At the back are extensive walled gardens with fountains, canals, and pools...I couldn't help but equate them with the similarly mysterious ones featured in The Secret Garden, my favourite childhood book. I spent many of my early years striving to peer over the walls. I was similarly obsessed with the inside of the house, which was palatial.

A big gingko tree on the college campus across the road from my parents' house.



This lake provoked many memories.



I took another photo of beautiful kudzu as my mother was walking a labyrinth on the lakeshore.



These horses graze in a meadow where, in childhood, I rode my own horse.



The stables where we boarded our horse. Unchanged. But the paddocks are new.



Walking round the lake, beside a woodland where my friends and brother and I played and explored and camped out, we meet a turtle sunning on a log.



View of the lake from the opposite side, looking towards the equestrian centre.



We came upon a garden of native plants, enclosed by a wooden fence. Here's an arbor of wild grapes.



A beauty berry bush. Impressive!



On the way home, we stopped at the art gallery to look at an exhibition. I fell in love with this porker.



If you'd like to keep strolling, go here!


No comments: