Month: November 2020

A Clean Break

 

I always enjoy my house being clean but I’ve never been able to become excited about the process or to schedule reminders connected to doing certain things. (And I have known these people – though not well, perhaps tellingly.) They have laminated sheets and clipboards; Sunday morning stove scrub-downs and allotted days for vacuuming and laundry. I do not aspire to be part of this group.

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Three Questions

As November lurches to a close and we remain in Covid-19 lockdown mode, The General and I still marvel daily at how lucky and privileged we are to be able to hunker down without the added responsibility of entertaining (and educating) young children and maintaining a job. We also never lose sight of the luxury that is called having a door that opens into a back garden. I remain fascinated too by how long this has been going on and how we have been able to adjust to restrictions that would have been considered unfathomable only a year ago.

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A New November

Each year I dread November. As well as unconsciously shuffling through tightly compressed memories of my mother’s death (43 years ago) and all the associated bleakness both outside and within, I can hardly bear the early darkness that creeps in after a five o’clock sky, flecked with pink. I am flooded with memories of living in Britain and that particular deep reaching dampness that can only really be remedied with a large Scotch in a steaming bath. (And at seventeen, as now, I don’t even drink Scotch …)

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