Well, we're back
Sep. 24th, 2009 07:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellenkushnerTrip home was easy, as these things go, and we arrived safe back in NYC last night. But in the car to Heathrow, Delia announced that she felt a cold coming on - her timing, as always, excellent, as getting it the day before would have been dreary, and we would have missed a delightful final morning at the British Museum! God, I love that place. I remember when it was a bunch of old things in badly-lit cases - and the loo paper was strangely non-absorbent and stamped "Property of HRM the Queen," and I still loved it. It's a museum of stuff, of the artefacts of cultures. There are, truth be told, only so many paintings I can look at. But I can look at Stuff all day. Especially Stuff with Context & Explanations, and reconstructed Saxon war helmets and Assyrian bronze-and-cedar gates. There's an entire section on Roman Britain. As in, "Here are things we found/dug up that people had/used in Roman Britain." An entire section. Oddly enough, the docent there had never read Rosemary Sutcliff. We hope she will, now.
So![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
deliasherman spent most of today in bed, only rousing herself to see whether all the china we bought in Portmeirion had arrived intact. I don't know how she did it; I believe she has what Justine Larbalestier would term a Packing Fairy. We bought a lot - at the Seconds shop, where its flaws are undetectable & its prices at Target levels. You will be delighted to learn that if you're ever at dinner here with 11 other people, your plate will match theirs - as much as Portmeirion Botanics ever do: you might get the Spanish Gum Cistus, or the Colchicum, or the Aloe . . . And I should add here that it wasn't that many plates; we had most of the service already, as she'd acquired it in her Last Life in a Suburban Victorian mansion). So far, so good. She really is a packing genius: wrapped sweaters in & around them, plus the many grams of raw wool we bought in Wales to give our felting friend. Amazing.
What did I do today (besides make her cups of tea with honey)? I seem to have spent ridiculous amounts of time online, urging people to go and look at the new stories in the Interfictions Online Annex. Which you should do now. Don't forget to play F. Brett Cox (akaparttimedriver)'s soundtrack to "Nylon Seam" as you read it. And if you have a music box that plays "Sing a Song of Sixpence" handy while you read glvalentine's "To Set Before the King," so much the better.
I also went to the grocery, and made a very nice Moroccan chicken stew.
So
deliasherman spent most of today in bed, only rousing herself to see whether all the china we bought in Portmeirion had arrived intact. I don't know how she did it; I believe she has what Justine Larbalestier would term a Packing Fairy. We bought a lot - at the Seconds shop, where its flaws are undetectable & its prices at Target levels. You will be delighted to learn that if you're ever at dinner here with 11 other people, your plate will match theirs - as much as Portmeirion Botanics ever do: you might get the Spanish Gum Cistus, or the Colchicum, or the Aloe . . . And I should add here that it wasn't that many plates; we had most of the service already, as she'd acquired it in her Last Life in a Suburban Victorian mansion). So far, so good. She really is a packing genius: wrapped sweaters in & around them, plus the many grams of raw wool we bought in Wales to give our felting friend. Amazing. What did I do today (besides make her cups of tea with honey)? I seem to have spent ridiculous amounts of time online, urging people to go and look at the new stories in the Interfictions Online Annex. Which you should do now. Don't forget to play F. Brett Cox (aka
parttimedriver)'s soundtrack to "Nylon Seam" as you read it. And if you have a music box that plays "Sing a Song of Sixpence" handy while you read glvalentine's "To Set Before the King," so much the better.I also went to the grocery, and made a very nice Moroccan chicken stew.
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no subject
Date: 2009-09-25 12:52 am (UTC)Re: Justine--I have never read anything of hers before this past weekend, when I idly picked up "Magic or Madness", and I LOVED it. Fantastic. Tell her that if you talk to her.
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Date: 2009-09-27 03:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-25 01:15 am (UTC)that's been on my list forever that I've never gotten to!
I envy your china -- what great memories every time you
use it!
Have to laugh about the British Museum. The first time I
went (1966! eek!), it was like someone's dusty basement --
you could practically grab the stuff and carry it away!
We went to the Cleopatra exhibit back in 2001 -- it was
wonderfully done. Have you been to Hadrian's Wall? If you
love Sutcliff you have to check it out -- amazing!
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Date: 2009-09-27 03:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-25 01:42 am (UTC)Hope Delia's feeling better tomorrow!
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Date: 2009-09-27 03:38 pm (UTC)BTW, we're looking for Auction help - see my next post & links to IAF site! It would be great to have you with us.
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Date: 2009-09-25 01:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-27 03:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-27 04:49 pm (UTC)Stew etc.
Date: 2009-09-25 02:07 pm (UTC)Nancy Werlin
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Date: 2009-09-27 10:11 pm (UTC)And I don't think there's a happier fusion of cheerfulness and tastefulness than Portmeirion ceramics. All hail Delia's amazing packing skills, as well!