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Last night I was a gypsy kid, trying to escape, with some siblings of mine, from someone we had embarrassed, and the night before last I was a refugee from war and plague. Although in both dreams things were looking up at the end - it seemed as though the guy took pity on us and was forgiving us at the end of the dream last night, and the night before last we found a couple of kids still alive in a line of dead who were waiting for burial, and then found a quiet place to camp where there was even a store which had fruit for sale, and I bought a white peach. So I guess over all I'm hopeful, and haven't completely lost my faith in humanity?
We were up early and got the car out of the garage, and I went out and gassed up the van (have to go to an Irving station because we have this rewards card, and let me tell you, it was low enough on gas that the trip made me nervous). After that I had an appetite and when I got back I maued down 2 eggs, 4 pieces of toast (two of them with cashew butter and some good 'tri-berry' jam that Eor got for Christmas from a coworker) and then an orange. Buying a white peach in my dream of night before last made me think my body was trying to tell me to eat fruit.
They did a nice job cleaning our street last night, but it's snowing again. :P
Over breakfast I read What Is And What Seems To Be (Arthurian Legend, about Guinevere, by Lesserstorm) and 1918, by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rabidsamfan (and now I'm sucking up all the drabbles on his/her journal.)
The other thing I've been reading compulsively, lately, is "A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century" by Barbara W. Tuchman. I've been working on this book for at least all year, quite possibly more. I'm starting to ship Baron Enguerrand de Coucy VII with Baron Olivier de Clisson. They make the perfect disparate couple: Coucy was highly prized by the French king, Charles V, as both a diplomat and a leader of armies because of his cool head, and Clisson was hot tempered and rude (nicknamed The Churl).
Clisson was a big axe-fighting warrior who avenged the death of his squire (captured wounded and then killed when they realized the guy was his personal squire) by not only taking the English stronghold, leaving only fifteen defenders alive, but then allowing each of them to leave the prison tower one by one - and beheading each with a single axe-blow on their way out the door. At the time when they met Coucy had been separated from his wife for a couple of years (because she was an English princess and he had decided he needed to be completely devoted to France and couldn't afford the conflict of interest) and then she had died, but he hadn't bothered to get remarried (and didn't for seven years, which Tuchman points out was unusual, as nobles most often quickly remarried for purposes of inheritance and allegiance - my take on this is that possibly he didn't really want any allegiances which might end up compromising his position as a diplomat.) and he had also just lost his previous close companion, Owen of Wales, to an assassination arranged by the English.
Anyhow, Coucy and Clisson became close companions, "always in accord" (even with Clisson's hot temper) and when Coucy was offered the position of Constable, the chief military officer of France (outranking the princes) he declined and advised the King to appoint Clisson to the position. In fact, Clisson wasn't a very politically appropriate choice given that he was mortal enemy of the person they most wanted to pacify and bring back to the side of the King - Montfort, Duke of Brittany. In fact Coucy had a much better chance of accomplishing that, given that he and Montfort had previously been married to sisters (English princesses), which made them 'brother-in-laws' even though their wives were both dead. Although honestly, it's possible that nobody really wanted the position of Constable at the moment, with King Charles near death and a lot of people poised to make trouble as soon as he was gone.
That's my summation of pages 347 to 358 - torrid man-sex, right?? :)
Oh how am I so distractible! The Recently Deflowered Girl (a long-lost Edward Gorey book) just grabbed my attention. Must make this link as I am NOT going to read the whole thing right now (am halfway through it) and I'm sure the rest of you will find it enjoyable. :)
I have been neglectful of keeping track of the books I've read so far this year. I guess I read "The Affair at Styles" on our way to Florida on the train, so that actually goes as the final book of 2008...
Book #44) "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" - Agatha Christie. (a Poirot mystery.)
At for first book of 2009 I get to claim:
1) "Daily Life In Victorian England" by Sally Mitchell. A little repetitive due to the method of dealing with each aspect of life separately in order to show attitude and technology change over the era, but interestingly enough written to keep even Short Attention Span Do-Do amused.
2) "The Man Upstairs" - P. G. Wodehouse: in fact I hope I didn't already claim this one as read, because for some reason I'd thought I'd finished it, but when Eor mentioned something about the last story I was confused and went back to find that I had only read a little over half the book. Short stories, why I hates them.
I currently have in progress "A Distant Mirror," "The Horse Stealers" (a collection of Anton Chekov's short stories), "The Clicking of Cuthbert" (another collection of Wodehouse short stories) and "The Shadow In The North" by Philip Pullman. Ugh. ADD much?
We were up early and got the car out of the garage, and I went out and gassed up the van (have to go to an Irving station because we have this rewards card, and let me tell you, it was low enough on gas that the trip made me nervous). After that I had an appetite and when I got back I maued down 2 eggs, 4 pieces of toast (two of them with cashew butter and some good 'tri-berry' jam that Eor got for Christmas from a coworker) and then an orange. Buying a white peach in my dream of night before last made me think my body was trying to tell me to eat fruit.
They did a nice job cleaning our street last night, but it's snowing again. :P
Over breakfast I read What Is And What Seems To Be (Arthurian Legend, about Guinevere, by Lesserstorm) and 1918, by
rabidsamfan (and now I'm sucking up all the drabbles on his/her journal.) The other thing I've been reading compulsively, lately, is "A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century" by Barbara W. Tuchman. I've been working on this book for at least all year, quite possibly more. I'm starting to ship Baron Enguerrand de Coucy VII with Baron Olivier de Clisson. They make the perfect disparate couple: Coucy was highly prized by the French king, Charles V, as both a diplomat and a leader of armies because of his cool head, and Clisson was hot tempered and rude (nicknamed The Churl).
Clisson was a big axe-fighting warrior who avenged the death of his squire (captured wounded and then killed when they realized the guy was his personal squire) by not only taking the English stronghold, leaving only fifteen defenders alive, but then allowing each of them to leave the prison tower one by one - and beheading each with a single axe-blow on their way out the door. At the time when they met Coucy had been separated from his wife for a couple of years (because she was an English princess and he had decided he needed to be completely devoted to France and couldn't afford the conflict of interest) and then she had died, but he hadn't bothered to get remarried (and didn't for seven years, which Tuchman points out was unusual, as nobles most often quickly remarried for purposes of inheritance and allegiance - my take on this is that possibly he didn't really want any allegiances which might end up compromising his position as a diplomat.) and he had also just lost his previous close companion, Owen of Wales, to an assassination arranged by the English.
Anyhow, Coucy and Clisson became close companions, "always in accord" (even with Clisson's hot temper) and when Coucy was offered the position of Constable, the chief military officer of France (outranking the princes) he declined and advised the King to appoint Clisson to the position. In fact, Clisson wasn't a very politically appropriate choice given that he was mortal enemy of the person they most wanted to pacify and bring back to the side of the King - Montfort, Duke of Brittany. In fact Coucy had a much better chance of accomplishing that, given that he and Montfort had previously been married to sisters (English princesses), which made them 'brother-in-laws' even though their wives were both dead. Although honestly, it's possible that nobody really wanted the position of Constable at the moment, with King Charles near death and a lot of people poised to make trouble as soon as he was gone.
That's my summation of pages 347 to 358 - torrid man-sex, right?? :)
Oh how am I so distractible! The Recently Deflowered Girl (a long-lost Edward Gorey book) just grabbed my attention. Must make this link as I am NOT going to read the whole thing right now (am halfway through it) and I'm sure the rest of you will find it enjoyable. :)
I have been neglectful of keeping track of the books I've read so far this year. I guess I read "The Affair at Styles" on our way to Florida on the train, so that actually goes as the final book of 2008...
Book #44) "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" - Agatha Christie. (a Poirot mystery.)
At for first book of 2009 I get to claim:
1) "Daily Life In Victorian England" by Sally Mitchell. A little repetitive due to the method of dealing with each aspect of life separately in order to show attitude and technology change over the era, but interestingly enough written to keep even Short Attention Span Do-Do amused.
2) "The Man Upstairs" - P. G. Wodehouse: in fact I hope I didn't already claim this one as read, because for some reason I'd thought I'd finished it, but when Eor mentioned something about the last story I was confused and went back to find that I had only read a little over half the book. Short stories, why I hates them.
I currently have in progress "A Distant Mirror," "The Horse Stealers" (a collection of Anton Chekov's short stories), "The Clicking of Cuthbert" (another collection of Wodehouse short stories) and "The Shadow In The North" by Philip Pullman. Ugh. ADD much?