Blogging again

A Rant

Having taken a break from blogging for a while, I' returning with a rant about library cuts. Although much in the news last year,but less so this, yet they are still going on. 

What makes local councillors think that closing a local branch library in a city suburb a good idea? The library was built 80 years ago, at a time when the local area was being developed, including the street in which my home is situated. It also has a fairly large council housing estate very near to it, a secondary school just up the road, a primary school near as well. It is just across the road from the university campus, and about 3 minutes walk from the university library. It was suggested some years ago that this branch be closed and the local residents use the university library. That is not an option for most of the users of the public library, as the university library has totally different collections of books to the public library, nor does it provide the services which are provided by the public library, such as rhyme times for toddlers and pre-school children, events for school-age children, computers free of charge for all who wish to access them to use the internet, to search for a job, help with their homework, and so on. The university library is set up to provide academic resources for its students and staff, not for the educational, information and recreational needs of the general public.

Currently the branch is staffed by unqualified, but trained staff, supervised by qualified librarians based in the central library. I spent 18 years of my career as a qualified Chartered librarian in branch libraries in the city, but there are now no full-time qualified librarians based in branches within the city. The city council has recently held a consultation on its proposed plans for the library service, plans which include the possible closure of 5 branches within the city,  unless volunteers or some other organisation can come forward with sustainable proposals to run them. Four of these branches are situated in areas of some deprivation and where schools are not all of the highest standards.

There is an excellent description of the problems which can arise with the use of volunteers in a publicly funded service here: https://deefinch.wordpress.com/2015/04/05/the-truth-about-volunteers.

Reading hiatus

Well, we are almost at the end oh October, so what happened to August and September.?Part of these months were spent in France, n our house in the Cantal, part in England at home. Both were busy months; in August we spent more time working on our French house, but also managed a visit to Sarlat-le-Caneda, one of the most beautiful villages in France, and to Beaulieu-sur -Dordogne, another beautiful place, although smaller and quieter than Sarlat. The Dordogne department is not too far from the Cantal, about two or three hours drive away and is very different in character. It is hilly rather than mountainous, and being at a lower altitude, its climate is warmer and its vegetation lusher.
Sarlat is somewhere we had not visited previously, so going in August was a treat for ourselves. We found a pleasant hotel/ bed and breakfast, which also had its own car park, within a short walk of the town centre. There was ample choice of restaurents in the town for dinner, despite it being August and therefore extremely busy. The weather was also ideal, as it was warm and dry, which it wasn't for quite long periods in the summer in the Auvergne - the visitors to this area were somewhat disappointed at not being able to get out and enjoy the countryside.
After a few short weeks in England in September, we're back in the Auvergne, enjoying beautiful sunny, clear days at the moment.

This view is of Le Falgoux, at the head of the Vallee du Mars. The river starts in the Cirque du Falgoux, below the Pas du Peyrol, a popular viewpoint, especially in summer when the carpark gets jammed with cars, and camping cars. Its also a regular climb on the Tour de France cycle race.The valley is much quieter at this time of year, even though its the school holidays.

Because we have been quite busy, working on the house here and catching up with gardening at home, less reading has been done,

Holidays?

We've been here in the Auvergne for nearly three weeks now; the first week was warm and sunny, the next slightly less settled and this last has been unremittingly wet, either with rain or cloud. It has however improved over the last couple of days. One benefit, if it could be called so, is that the many waterfalls in the valley are all full and rushing down the hillsides. Many are not easily visible, but there is one the other side of the valley, which we can see from our house.It was just a small trickle when we first arrived in late June, but is now in full flow.

The other day as a change from working on the house, I made some of these lavender strawberries. They smell really lovely.
This morning I decided to bake a savoury cake, with ham and Parmesan cheese. I've tasted savoury cakes at some of the receptions we've been to here, but not tried one until now.It turned out well and would be delicious with a glass of white wine or cider. The recipe I used came from a French magazine,   ( Modes et Travaux, I think) bought a year or two ago

The recipe.is as follows:
Ingredients: 150 g plain flour, 3 eggs, 80 ml olive oil, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 2 large slices cooked ham, 60 g grated Parmesan cheese, a small bunch of parsley and the same of basil, 100 ml milk, salt and pepper.
Preheat the oven to 180 centigrade. Gas 4. Wash and chop the herbs,and mix with the milk. Cut the ham slices into small squares..Beat 2 eggs, half the flour and the olive oil  with an electric beater in a large bowl. Add the 3rd egg, the rest of the flour, the baking powder and the milk with the herbs.. Season with salt (a little, because the cheese and ham are salty) and pepper.and mix well. The mixture should be smooth. With a spatula fold in the ham and the cheese. Pour into a buttered  2lb loaf tin and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Serve with an aperitive, or a glass of wine. This loaf can also be part of a meal, with salad.

Because of the weather, we've managed to do quite a bit of work on the house, such as my husband laying vinyl, which he has never done before, putting up tiles in the kitchen, repairing the supports to the balcony and other jobs, including painting.

I've also been able to read most of the books I picked up on a visit to my local library before leaving England for France. I did a rapid trawl of the shelves and picked four novels and one book on local history (left that at home). I found a new copy of Penelope Fitzgerald's The Gate of Angels. I've never for some reason read any of her books and this one was a good introduction. The story of Fred, who works as a junior fellow, and junior or assistant  to almost everything else in an all male Oxford college. One day while cycling to an appointment from outside Oxford, Fred is involved in a collision with a cart and another cyclist, a girl called Daisy. Both are rescued by the people outside whose house the accident happened, and end up in the same bed.  After many twists and turns, Fred and Daisy do meet again....
Another book which I picked up on my quick trawl was Alice Walker's The Colour Purple. I'm not sure how I came to miss this when it was first published in 1982, but catching up with a good read even years after all the hype about it has faded into history, is usually rewarding. This one definitely falls into the Well Worth Reading category and I'm glad I've finally caught up with it. I've not yet seen the film, either, so something else to look forward to.
Two more recently published books I gathered in the same swoop were Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behaviour and Marina Lewycka's  Various Pets Alive Or Dead, this last I have yet to read.

A Year of Reading Dangerously, by Andy Miller,  which I've just finished, was an interesting read, though not to me particularly dangerous. It was refreshing to read about a man who reads fiction in the way that Andy Miller does, but I suspect he his not totally unique. Many years ago I did a survey of male readers in the library in which I then  worked. One of the questions I asked was to name some favourite authors. The majority of authors named were male, which I don't think was surprising. Given that one of the many reasons people read is to reflect on their own lives, surely  men will favour male writers and women will choose female authors on the same basis. But all real readers will choose authors of either gender if what they say has some resonance with them. Looking at Andy Miller's List of Betterment, he includes 39 male authors and 11 female, probably a slightly higher proportion of female writers than that chosen by those readers who responded to my survey. Certainly his reading was wide ranging, not genre-based and fifty books in a year , or about one a week is a good average for an average-speed reader. But its not how many books, or how fast  you can read that matters. What really matters about reading is that you read, with curiosity, interest, enthusiasm and hopefully some degree of enjoyment and even enlightenment. Just keep reading. Which is where I totally agree with Andy Miller.

A few good reads

Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch comes in as a good read for me, and as I haven't yet read either of her earlier works, a good introduction to her earlier works. Although I thought some of the writing, particularly the descriptions of places and weather somewhat overblown, I still enjoyed the story.The plot centres on Theo's theft of a picture, The Goldfinch by Carl Fabritius, during a disaster in the Metroploitan Museum of Art in which his mother dies. Much of Theo's life after the death of his mother is concerned with his ideas of what to do with this beautiful little painting, as well as coming to terms with the loss of his mother. The story kept me engrossed as the characters who helped Theo, some almost despite themselves, were all fascinating although all were also flawed human beings, with their various weaknesses.

Anne de Courcy's tale of The Fishing Fleet:husband -hunting in the Raj is about the many women, mostly quite young, who left England to go to India to find a husband. Many had been born in India, and were returning to family after being educated n England. Others were joinng a fiance they had already met and become engaged to back home, but many were out to seek a husband, having failed to find one in England. The Victorians encouraged women and girls out to India, after the East India Company was pretty much taken over by the government, as it was considered more suitable for the men- soldiers, government  servants, and others to marry Englishwomen rather than Indian women. Many of the stories which Anne de Courcy relates are from the later part of the Victorian era and from the inter-war years, the 20's and 30's. Some of the stories of the women and their husbands are scattered across several chapters. Having had a colonial childhood,  although in West Africa rather than India, and much later than the period covered by this book, I enjoyed the read.
I have to add that I read both of these titles on my Kindle, which as it is a couple of years old, did nothing whatsoever for the illustrations in this last book.

One book I did read and enjoy as a printed book was Maureen Lee's Flora and Grace.
I don't remember reading any of Maureen Lee's many other titles, but this one was an easy and enjoyable read, fairly light despite some of  the themes it encompasses. Flora, a 17 year old orphan, has been sent to a small school in Switzerland, and one beautiful spring day during the war, is  standing at the local station when a train rumbles slowly through. Flora hears groans and moans and realises there are people inside. Suddenly an infant is thrust from one of the trucks to her, and she hears the plea. "Take him. His name is Simon" and Flora is left holding the baby as the train continues its journey. The plot then follows Flora's life as she eventually returns to England together with Simon, to her aunt, who had placed her in the Swiss school.

A pair of Alexander McCall Smith's

Just finished Alexander McCall Smith's "2 1/2 Pillars of Wisdom" a collection of stories about Dr Marie Moritz von Igelfeld, Professor of Romance languages. Very amusing and enjoyable and an ideal antidote to another book I have recently read. Back in February, I went with my Book Club to a talk at Winchester Guildhall by McCall Smith, and he was very funny, especially on the subject of this book. The audience had a good laugh at von Igelfeld's expense.
The other title I had read by A M S was his most recent, The Forever Girl. Set in the expatriate community of financial wheeler-dealers in the Caicos Islands in the Caribbean, I had found this on the shelves of my local library only a few weeks after its publication earlier this year. The atmosphere of the small community of Europeans working away from their home, going to the tennis club, the yacht club and generally finding ways to entertain themselves on a small tropical island with little in the way of sophisticated life is depicted very well.   The relationship of Clover and James as children is tenderly done, but when Clover, as she decided to call herself aged four eventually goes to the same Edinburgh University as James, yet doesn't see him or encourage him in any way, I felt I wanted to shake her. This was an OK but not too gripping read.

Cuckoo's Calling

I read Robert Galbraith's The Cuckoo's Calling for a Book Club read, and I enjoyed it more than I had expected. A murder mystery of a fairly classic kind, it has good page-turning properties as to plot, and more-or-less believable characters. Actually written by J K Rowling, it is clear she has moved on from the fantasy world of Harry Potter and into the adult novel world. This is a fairly accomplished read, hopefully with more to come. I enjoyed meeting the main characters, Robin and Cormoran Strike, and found the set-up of their office realistic. The setting in London in all its variety is also well described and believable. Although the plot , the death of a young but troubled super model in a fall from a snowy balcony is a classic did she fall or was she pushed example, nevertheless, it hangs together well. The supporting characters of elderly,dying mother, distraught brother, a fellow model.a gay fashion designer are quite believable , even though most behave quite badly and selfishly. I'm planning to read the next one , titled The Silkworm.
Here in the Auvergne, we have heard a cuckoo calling up the hill ever since we arrived a few days ago.