A Short ride in a very fast machine

Phew!

That took me 20 minutes. I don't think I cut out more than one line which I really didn't like. Maybe I should take some time with the next one; use pen and paper (I have just discovered a close-ruled notebook so all I need is a cartridge for the fountain pen).

This image of the walk across the common has remained with me for years. My companion seemed not to bother with any of the trappings of image which worry other girls ( and increasingly boys) of her age and for that her cool image was boosted. Of course I was too young for anything to happen and far too shy to even suggest it. The poem has been quite cathartic because I have had all those ideas for the images in my head for years. I used to use them as visualizations in times when I was depressed. I hadn't actually thought of them for some time which says something for the stability of both my mind and my life at the moment. But it has been nice to write something about it. Isn't it strange that some of my most comforting images from that time come from the time between school and home. And all because of the images in Wind in the Willows.

I keep thinking that I haven't really done enough in my life for it to be interesting written down. I don't have the literary ability to describe it in any interesting way. Of course people known to me may be interested because they want to know things about me but it needs a spark to make anything of interest to people in general. I caught myself in the depths of vanity the other day, wanting to start at the beginning and list events like this in some sort of autobiography. There have been enought events in my life to make a slight rise above the line of normality, not that anyone I know now would agree but none of it is stuff that hasn't been written about by other people. What makes an interesting book interesting? Anyway - conceited task for the day. Think up the title for your own autobiography. Mine would be ..... The Edge of Winter - er... only joking.

I do seem to have a lack of confidence when it comes to adjectives. A bit like the boy in Fairy Grammar who is gradually taken through the parts of speech by a Slate Pencil called Rammarg ('Grammar' backwards) who handicaps the boy's speech in such a way as to highlight the particular element of language. To start with the boy could not use Nouns which you may think is the worst possible thing regarding language but if you read the book it gets far worse. I need to persuade my Dad to dig that book out as I am pretty sure it is not in print or even available second hand.

The rest of the day has crept up on me.

Addendum 23/02/2012

I found Fairy Grammar as a Kindle Download from The Library of Congress and it was as good as I remember.