The Night Manager

Another year, another re-reading of a Le Carré novel, this time "The Night Manager".
For a change the hero gets the girl in the end, but there is the same beautiful exact prose describing loss, betrayal and yearning to belong which flows through all of his books.

I'm pleased that I re-read it, as the sentiments mesh with my spring melancholy in spite of the wonderful sunny April.

:o)

Stir-fry

I'd been planning to have leftover curry for dinner tonight, but didn't fancy it.
As Moonface wasn't eating, I ransacked the fridge.

100g cooked pork, leftover.
A large carrot, slightly wrinkled
Some rather old broccoli
A few mushrooms
A small aubergine (very cheap this week)
oil, soya sauce,

chopped, mixed, chucked into the wok to make a stir-fry

The result was very good indeed, and very quick to cook.
Tom liked it, too.

:o)

Sparrowhawk

On this sunny Spring day I walked into the garden for a blast of fresh air, to see a flash of grey fly past me on pointed wings. It followed the contours of the wall and shrubs, then rose to perch on the neighbour's roof.

A sparrowhawk: small, fast, beautiful and deadly.

:o)

Blue Skies

It's a clear, cloudless morning: the most perfect I have seen for years.

For once there are no contrails blazing above us since all flights above the UK have been grounded due to volcanic ash in the air from Iceland. I really cannot remember how long it is since I saw the sky like this. It's quiet, too, as we live under one of the flight-paths from Bristol airport.

:0)

Goodbye, van

I sold the Iveco van last night, and both Moonface and I felt strangely sad about it, so much so that as it drove away (picture above) I was almost tearful.
We'd had some good times with the Iveco, Moonface more than myself since it was her festival hotel, and selling it was a wrench but with the new Ducato under construction it was time.

There were curious symmetries about our ownership. Both our first and last nights aboard were spent at Dead Woman's Ditch in the Quantocks, and after being prompted into this quick purchase of the van by the death of a doctor friend through cancer, we sold it to a woman doctor who has recently been diagnosed and has just started treatment for it, too.

We know that she'll have a good time with the Iveco.

:o/