I was hot and sweaty yesterday, and didn’t have any knitting
to report. Today has gone better – three rows of Spring Shawl, including a
certain amount of successful frogging.
We had an extraordinary thunderstorm yesterday afternoon –
the cats were alarmed. And in the morning, I found the car battery flat when
Archie and I set off to the supermarket. My dear garage came around and kick-started
it, and I drove around through local streets for half an hour in the hopes of
beefing things up. We’ll attempt the supermarket again tomorrow. I'd be happier with a new battery.
Reading
I’ve finished “Wives and Daughters” and embarked upon Edmund
Gosse’s “Father and Son”. My mother said that it was highly influential in her
life. I read it when I was young, long ago, but perhaps without the critical
attention it needed and deserved. I mean to try harder, this time. I’m enjoying
it, anyway.
My mother’s parents, like Gosse’s, were religious. There, I
think, the similarity ends. Gosse’s father was a Fellow of the Royal Society
and the esteemed author of “History of the British Sea Anemones and Corals”. He
believed strenuously in the literal inerrancy of the Bible; Darwin caused him
great distress.
I don’t know what my grandfather – a good two generations
younger – thought about Darwin. He was an evangelical preacher, shrewd and
intelligent, but no intellectual. His lips moved when he read. My mother was
somewhat emancipated, perhaps even could be classified as a “flapper” in the
1920’s.
I’ll report back.
My maiden name was Gosse, so growing up, Edmund Gosse was a great hero, being the only famous Gosse one vaguely heard about! I named my saxophone Edmund in his honor. You put me to shame though -- it had never occurred to me I could actually read his work! I guess I haven't thought about him since I was a child and the advent of the internet made everything so easy. Curious how you like his work!
ReplyDeleteThere are gadgets called trickle chargers that will gently keep a car battery up to snuff. Some of them are even solar. Perhaps your garage could suggest one.
ReplyDeleteWe had a vehicle that was rarely driven and would loose the charge. Coming up with a reason to drive once a week might be what you need rather than a new a battery, but the garage can test yours and see. We did eventually do as Tamar suggested, get a trickle charger, but had access to a plug in the garage. Now I am off to look at Edmund Gosse.
ReplyDeleteI think I like your mother:)! She sounds a lot like my Grandma - a musician who dressed in the 20s like a flapper but lived according to the morays of her time.
ReplyDelete