A lovely fat biography of LM Montgomery arrived yesterday, taken a couple of weeks to arrive so was delighted to receive it. I started reading it and then put it firmly to one side as I knew what was going to happen – I would sit all day and not do a thing once I got into it. So no post on Saturday as I decided to be terribly noble and practical and do the necessary and mundane chores that really had to be done.
I had started painting the doors in my flat a few weeks ago and what with visits to Cambridge, Upper and Lower Outwell, London, going to the opera and Hay on Wye etc this is a job that has been 
languishing unfinished for some time. Yesterday I was determined to get on with it and so out came the gloss and the roller and off I went. I still have the walls to do and my bedroom also has to be tackled, but that can wait for another day. I spent three hours with the old paintbrush and managed to finish. Can anybody tell me why, when I have covered the floor with dust sheets that paint still manages to seep through and then needs a frantic scrubbing of the carpet? OK my carpet is not exactly Wilton, but it is still annoying. Also why oh why do I end up totally bespeckled with paint – in my hair, on my nose, under my finger nails and my feet? Just look at this totally unrealistic photo – bet she has never used a paintbrush in her life. Grrrr….
I also took time yesterday to go to the post office and report that the copies for all winners of Henrietta's War are now winging their way towards their new homes: 3 in the UK, one in Belgium and one in the USA. I am looking forward to making sure they all fulfill the rules of the competition, ie – that they love it and rave about it…..
Lay in a heap on the sofa last night, as usual on a Saturday nothing much to watch so I put on the DVD of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. As well as a reread of the books, I have been watching the movies from the beginning, now that I know the outcome of the series, and interesting it is to pick up on things that I spotted and queried earlier on and now know the answers to. And with each film, Alan Rickman gets better and better. Watched it early so by the time it finished I was able to switch over to BBC2 which was showing a Prom from the Albert Hall. Had to be revived by a strong cup of tea when I spotted this – Classical Music on the BBC, anathema, anathama! Holst The Planets conducted by darling lovely Sir Charles McKerras, a favourite of mine, great performance too.
And so today I felt that I could read the LMM biography with a clear conscience - started it at 7 am this morning and have just finished it about half an hour ago. Oh my goodness me what a stunning book and had me in tears at the end. The contrast between her outer and inner life amazing and I gather when her journals were published in the 1980's (I am on Vol 3 at the mo), people were staggered at the revelations contained therein. Amazing thing about all this of course is that there were people alive then who remembered her. One tends to think she lived a long time ago but when these journals came out she had been dead about 50 years and her son was alive and others who remembered her well.
Anyway more of that tomorrow as I need to sit and digest what I have read.
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