So You Think You Don't Like Poetry

Two poems this week by British poet Stevie Smith (1902-1971), whose work initially struck me as a little slight, but upon further/closer reading, I now quite admire. These poems vary significantly in tone and though neither are in a recognizable, conventional form (like a sonnet), they both employ repetition to great effect. Smith is a perfect example of a poet that often writes with form without necessarily writing in form. (Forgive me for having form on the brain - I just pitched a formal poetry workshop to the Cambridge Center for Adult Education). Anyway, enjoy!

Not Waving But Drowning

Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.

Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he's dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.


Valuable
(after reading two paragraphs in a newspaper)

All these illegitimate babies . . .
Oh girls, girls,
Silly little cheap things,
Why do you not put some value on yourselves,
Learn to say, No?
Did nobody teach you?
Nobody teaches anybody to say No nowadays,
People should teach people to say No.

O poor panther,
Oh you poor black animal,
At large for a few moments in a school for young children in Paris,
Now in your cage again,
How your great eyes bulge with bewilderment,
There is something there that accuses us,
In your angry and innocent eyes,
Something that says:
I am too valuable to be kept in a cage.

Oh these illegitimate babies!
Oh girls, girls,
Silly little valuable things,
You should have said, No, I am valuable,
And again, It is because I am valuable
I say, No.

Nobody teaches anybody they are valuable nowadays

Girls, you are valuable,
And you, Panther, you are valuable,
But the girls say: I shall be alone
If I say 'I am valuable' and other people do not say it of me,
I shall be alone, there is no comfort there.
No, it is not comforting but it is valuable,
And if everybody says it in the end
It will be comforting. And for the panther too,
If everybody says he is valuable
It will be comforting for him.

Clementine/Mandarin orange candles

I was so inspired by Apartment Therapy's new vimeo workshop on making these sweet clementine candles (we would call them Mandarin oranges here in Australia. Clementines are way redder.).

How To Make a Clementine Candle from maxwell gillingham-ryan on Vimeo.

So sweet. Would have been perfect for the simple winter dinner I whipped up for my in laws earlier this week. I used mandarins in my salad.

On the table, twice cooked field mushrooms with cream, oregano, garlic; chicken with dukkah and a salad of mandarins, walnuts, grape tomatoes, raddichio, butter lettuce and rocket with my fav cheese: bocconcini! :)

Yummmmm

SKYMALL

Oh, the things you can convince yourself you need at 36,000 feet.


Come on, who DOESN'T need a Sumo wrestler coffee table???

I think from here on out, I'm going to ignore wedding registries and buy all wedding gifts from SkyMall. "Hey bride and groom, I know you wanted a Williams-Sonoma garlic roaster, but I got you this Bacon Genie instead!"


The utter futility of this product has already been discussed on this blog. Basically, bacon genie allows you to cook bacon in your microwave....which is already a stupid idea, unless you like your bacon chewy and dry. Bacon is meant to be FRIED. Anyone who loves bacon enough to buy bacon accessories knows this.

In all seriousness, I kind of want this:


Your eyes do not deceive you, that is in fact a Wine Glass Holder Necklace, combining two of my passions: drinking and wearing jewelry. Throw in a straw and I'd be good to go. No more awkwardly holding my drink at parties!

Finally, since Father's Day was this past Sunday (click here to read my tribute to my Dad from a few years ago), I submit this for your consideration. Had I been more on the ball, I would have gotten this for our home yard in St. Louis:

I can just imagine the look on Dad's face every morning as he gazes proudly upon his Yeti lawn statue. Maybe next year, Dad.

What to do with our courtyard?

While the interior of the house is more-or-less completed in terms of livability (as far as affordability and space), the backyard, front yard and courtyard leaves plenty wanting.

Because it's just a rental (up to the next 2 years), we have to pace ourselves, both pocket-wise and ambition-wise. Everything has to be easy to move around.

The yards are just grass... nothing exciting. Very boring, in fact, but at least it's neat and clean.

The courtyard has commanded plenty of frustrated what-if scenarios. All in all it's a really poorly planned space.

Big Picture: A plain, if poorly, concreted area, with a slope down to the backyard. (in green, below)



Small Picture:
1. Where the two walls meets, there is a drainage hole. But the builder has stupidly built it on a slight mound! So nothing drains.

2. There are no covered areas.

3. Some mad architect (maybe owner builder) built is so that the only rooms facing the beautiful morning sun from the North are the bathrooms! The courtyard (and rest of house) is on the opposite side and gets almost no sun!

4. The walls of the courtyard aren't really usable either, it's very utilitarian with air conditioner split unit, dustbins, windows and doors. (see illustration above)

After almost 2 months of what-ifs

I think this is the plan with the easiest layout:



Even in winter, I often love to sit out to have a short read or a tea. I think I have settled on a sandstone outdoor setting. Something like this would be great since it's weather-proof.

From here

I brought Sir Lancelot with me, although right now, it's not in a good spot. We left our lovely potted gardenias and birdbath back in Melbourne for our tenants to enjoy.




I love swings.

I still want badly a swing in my garden. My mother had a gorgeous 70s wrought iron garden swing, in this style but more ornate:



For furniture, I'd love to have an expansive sandstone table like the one below with some (much more) comfortable chairs:



Maybe something like this, hardwearing and rustic. This image has been foremost in my mind:



Our tenants asked us to leave my beloved yellow breakfast Colebrookdale setting in our property, so I love the fact that they enjoy it so much!



We still have those white wicker pieces, but since there's no covered area here, they have to languish away in storage.

I'd love to have a courtyard filled with ferns and greenery, in a bright spot, much like Halle Berry's beautiful pied-a-terre:

Via here

Of course it's a smidgen larger than our previous courtyard-cum-frontyard-cum-backyard!

Keep on coming back to see how I create living spaces for me and my small family :)

Sports

Wow, I can't believe it's been several weeks since my last post. Guess I got swept up in Bruins playoff fervor!!!!!!!


If you've ever met me, you will know the above statement is false.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that they won the Stanley Cup. I was less thrilled that the streets of Boston were filled with loud, drunk people last night. What is about sports fans running up to people and screaming in their faces? What is the purpose of that?

I spent last night doing the exact opposite of watching the game: I went to a literary magazine launch party/author reading and then took in the latest Woody Allen film. I was listening to poetry when the Bruins scored their first goal.

Sports fandom has always mystified me. It's not dissimilar to religious fervor. Fans can't control or predict whether their team will win, but they believe they can win and more importantly, SHOULD win. The chants of "U-S-A! U-S-A!" confused me last night, until I remembered that we beat a team FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY, making the victory all the more sweet. It was a triumph for AMERICA, you guys. We might as well have been playing [insert dangerous Middle Eastern country du jour] or Libya or North Korea.

Most likely my dislike of sports stems from my complete and utter inability to play them well. Watching sports churns up feelings of inadequacy dating back to my middle school and high school days. I am uncoordinated and not fast, nor am I graceful or agile. I am a good swimmer and a decent skier, but anything that requires hitting, passing, kicking, throwing or catching a ball is beyond my capabilities.

I had the misfortune to attend a high school where sports were very important and all students were forced to play a team sport two out of the three seasons. The real athletes hated this policy because people like me were bringing them down and the non-athletes hated this policy for obvious reasons. Not being athletic was just another strike against me, right alongside not having a sufficiently WASPy name or driving an SUV. And since I wasn't good enough to really play on any teams, I had to suffer the indignity of being the "manager" -- i.e. running the scoreboard at games, putting the equipment away after practice. One afternoon during my duties as JV Girls Volleyball manager, my "teammates" decided it would be funny to spike volleyballs...at me.

So yeah, I guess it's no wonder that I'm not a fan of sports or sports fans. Musical theater fans are much more my speed -- I mean, no one got stabbed after the Tony Awards.

She's out of my league

I finally watched 2010 romantic comedy She's out of my league, starring Jay Baruchel, the beautiful Alice Eve and T.J. Miller.

I quite liked her bachelorette pad, set in Pittsburgh, PA ... very chic, simply decorated with shades of taupe. I normally like bright and airy spaces, but at night when these scenes were shot, the dark, moody feel added to the chic-ness of it all.



I love the purply-grey walls and darker brown architraves/trims of the apartment, only a move if your room gets plenty of light during the day. (And this apartment is, if the twinkling lights of the night is any indication - of course this is a movie-set illusion...)

The bright pink pops around the apartment makes it feminine... makes the wall darker, more romantic and the pink more... pink! I love orchids too, hey that might make a good indoor plant for my office space! *planning* Right now, I have the ONLY faux floral arrangement in the place. And it fools my flower-crazy-and-green-thumb MIL every single time!

The picture hanging next to the door (which incidentally reminded me instantly of Carrie Bradshaw's old apartment) has a subtle pink going on, which echoes the pink of the orchids in its foreground. I think it's a painting of an orchid... but could be one of my favourite flowering trees, the Luculia.

Actually the more I compare images, it does look like Luculia!



If you don't know its merits, go to a nursery, ask for it and then when it flowers, breathe in its extremely heady (and addictive) perfume! It only flowers in winter (and prefers mountainous areas) ... which make it desirable for anyone who loves colour in their garden in winter! I'm trying to grow two from cuttings.



The apartment is mostly monochromatic, and keeps it sedate... and the flowers offer a beautiful respite from the "masculinity". The pink candles again add that pop. I think the set designers wanted Alice Eve to be the focal fair maiden of this space. (And they succeed with her white frock and gloriously blond hair!)



The kitchen again is stark with its stainless steel benchtops and splashback and the dark wood cabinetry. Even the Kitchenaid mixer and blender she stands in front of is black. Softened only by Eve and the flowers and fruit.



The apartment isn't large, but the expansive flooring makes it feel spacious, whilst the furnishings and wall keep things cosy and intimate. Here you get to see that the apartment is high above, and overlooks some spectacularly beautiful gothic-style churches.

Again the very tall pink flowering spray to the left the pale pink posy on the coffee table. Everything else is kept in very earthy tones, even Baruchel's clothing. I don't normally like blinds but in this case, the open blinds frame the large windows... and it becomes a picture in itself.



The only wallpapered wall in this movie. (Notice how every recent movie has beautiful wallpaper??) The floral motif softens the rather masculine colours again. I love it.



I really loved the surprise of blush pink in Molly's bedroom. The wall really brings out her sweetness and femininity. Everything else has hard straight lines and colours. I did like the touch of the lamps against the wooden headboard though. Very chic.



And I added the above photo because I've always liked to see where designers place bedroom furniture around the room. I like that the room extends beyond our purview to reveal a dressing area (and where I assume the bathroom is). It allows the bed to be the focus of the room... and gives the feel of a walk in closet and dressing room. Nice.

All in all, a beautiful room.

Barbie art

Again, I can't say I did it first! How many times do I have to have that "hey I have a great idea! I'll do it, it'll be so cool and unusual" and find it already done.

I went through my newest collection of ideas-file collected over the last few weeks and stared at the wall of the above image and realised what I was looking at.



I was going to frame all 12 months of my Barbie 2011 wall calendar and do as above (in much less luxurious surroundings).
{If you've been reading my blog a while, you'd know I appreciate Barbie!}

Bleh. (Although I'm sure the designer/owner in the room above got the prints NOT off this calendar!)

Still going to do it anyway. One day.