Sunday, October 21, 2007

letter from maman

I got this email from my mum today (she never e-mails) and I enjoyed reading it so much, I decided to post it. She's from England, by-the-way...

* * * * *

Papa and I watched 'The Queen' last night. Papa cried. I thought it was very well produced, and they seem to have pinpointed the characters to form. What I found poignant was the relationship of Charles to his parents. As a child, he had very little, if any, cuddle-time. Nanny was the one constant, while his parents went about their business of state and commonwealth. As an adult, he still feels the distance, coldness and ridicule for his so many inaptitudes.

The other scene that left a mark was Her Majesty, stuck in the river, having a little moment of sorrow, and, turning, there he was, the most majestic stag on the entire 4,000+ acre estate. She shooed him away with her scarf. She turned briefly, and he was gone. On hearing of his ultimate demise, she drove over to the next door estate, which housed the weekend business man who had shot the stag. The gamekeeper showed her the stag, hanging unceremoniously from a hook in the game room, head laid aside to later adorn the great hall of some cold castle. She gently touched his head, noticing that he had been wounded, not a clean kill, as with Henry's Anne. The stag had to be tracked for miles before he was finally put out of his misery. Here was majesty, tracked down and felled.

What strong abodings... Our house is full of ladybugs. Papa has painted the front door a delicious umbric red, and has been chopping and stacking wood. I have been gradually putting the garden to bed: tying up the raspberries, mulching them heavily with peat moss and leaves. I made the most delicious soupe a l'oignon last night, with a slice of toasted Ezekiel bread atop laden with cheddar cheese and popped under the broiler til bubbly and golden brown...simply delicious. Papa went crazy over it!

I tried to take the DogAge Test the other day, which is quite involved, and was almost at the end, where I would get the results for Sadie Wall when it suddenly disappeared, and was gone forever. It took so long to get that far, that I just didn't have the energy to go back and do it all again. They can get stuffed! Sadie is great. She spends her outside time pretty much creeping up on the squirrels as they feed at the bird feeders, then tearing madly after them as they scramble for safety in the retaining wall, or up the pine tree, screaming bloody murder at her for her impossible rudeness!

Latin goes well, and is progressing nicely. I am quilting a lot these days. Wait till you see what I'm up to now... It's a beautiful Sabbathday, so I must needs get me back into the garden... the lavender is in full bloom again! Crazy! Who would think it that it's late October, and 74 degrees F. Love to Colin...I'm really excited about our trip to England. Al of us! What a hoot!

Love, Maman xxx

Penelope

No comments:

LinkWithin - 4 posts

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...