In Norcia

Writing from an enoteca on St. Benedict's Piazza. Just been to Compline. Will be here a week.

Modernia, the Asteroid 2.0, the War and the Apocalypse can all just get on without me for a few days.

Working, but no posts.

Go pray the Rosary or something.



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Bloody new people

Shutting down.

Go say a Rosary. Or do the crossword. Or read the stupid Pollyanna stuff at Patheos.



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Right you lot, I'm off

I'll be not blogging for a week or so. Working, but absent here. If you've been misbehaving, I'll find out about it from Dale or Steve, so be good.



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Luke, I'm shutting down the power now...

Out of things to say.

Thanks for all your help and encouragement.

But I think I'm too tired to do this now.

Small update:
Mammogram and ecomammaria report came back all clear.

Other small update:
All other ecography shows clear. First follow-up appointments completed, awaiting test results, but so far all well. Prob. back after Lent. Getting a lot of things done w/out FB and blog.


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Off my game

Sorry, everyone. I guess I'm a little preoccupied.

Truth is that I think I've finally run out of things to say.

I'll get back to y'all later.



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Because I felt like it, that's why

Yes, we're back. As you can see, I've made a few cosmetic changes, and I'm going to be doing things slightly differently here, I hope.

Thanks to all the people who wrote asking to be allowed in during the refurbishment. If any of you feel inclined, you can just keep sending those "Oh Hilary you're so cool and smart, I want to join your club" emails, those were just great.

Truthfully, things haven't really been going well in the personal realm lately, so I am trying (yes, again) to effect a kind of re-focus. I thought a change would be as good as a rest, and in this case if the change means spending less time looking at the end of the world, and more time looking at the flowers and insects and birds and architecture and whatnot, that would be as good as a rest-cure.

I'm also taking a lot of B vitamins, and riding around a lot on my bike. The famous Tony Gray "Green Vegetables and Exercise" regimen that cures everything.

I realise that a lot of people who come here do so because of my uniquely acerbic take on the End of the World and All Good Things, but you're just going to have to go get your weird jollies elsewhere. This is a happy-place now, so bugger off.

You can see that I've trimmed down the sidebar links and labels, and added one that I think will become increasingly important, more on which in a bit.

I think I've found something really important that I didn't know about before. I've discovered something amazing about drawing. It shuts off the chattering part of your brain. It's a real left-brain verbal slap-down. Like someone has thrown a switch and shut off something noisy and irritating - like a top-40 radio station - that you were so resigned to, you hardly noticed any more how miserable it was making you. Seriously, drawing: it's better than any drug. Try it when you can't get your brain to shut up and let you get a word in edgewise.

So, there's going to be more on this drawing business; art and art theory, the revival of traditional, classical or academic styles, atelier methods, etc... that I've spent the last week or so reading about while I wasn't here saying clever things.

I'll level with y'all: depression, the actual clinical, not-enough-serotonin, anhedonic-no-fun-allowed-here, sleep-disturbanced, mood affective disorder has reached the "highly symptomatic" stage, and I just can't stand to look at the disasters so much these days. At least, not outside of working hours. (And before anyone gets started, due to a pre-existing condition, I'm contraindicated for the drugs, so just forget it. And for anyone who can't resist the urge to offer sympathy, advice, suggestions or commiseration - particularly in the form of their own stories - I'm sure there's someone out there you can talk to in real life, isn't there?)

So, anyway, I'm hoping this will be the new, warmer, fuzzier, friendlier O's P.

More pics. More art. More beautiful music. More laughs. More Italy (the nice bits). Maybe even more religion, though I'm a bit off it lately.

Generally more stuff that is not calculated to make me want to stay in bed all day with the blinds down and the covers over my head.

The apocalypse will just have to get on without me for a while.

I'm sure it will manage.

Sorry guys

I thought I was ready to come back blogging, but really just don't have the mental energy to spare right now.

Maybe later.

...and to all a good night

I'll be back after Christmas...

if the world's still here.

Lent

It's Lent. What are you doing reading blogs?

Go do something holy.

I'm horribly bored

I've got the travel bug rather badly lately, and can't concentrate and so can't think of a single interesting thing to say. Got a long weekend until Wed, (Dominion Day) and am going to charge up the camera batteries, pump up the bike tyres and see if I can get to see St. Winifred's Well at Holywell.

Have started going for walks again after months of skulking indoors, which is good, only to discover that my hay fever, after a 20 year hiatus, has returned to celebrate the new pollen count and interesting, previously unknown species of grass and flowers, which is bad. I'm going to try an ancient home remedy: tincture of nettle, a batch of which I presciently made for myself, anticipating that my immune system would be confused by its new surroundings.

But perhaps it is time for a respite from the blogging scene. Maybe in a few weeks I'll be more interested in the world and have something to say.

When there are photos, I'll put them up. But don't expect more than that for a while.

H.