Saturday, August 29, 2009


Towards the end of our holiday in England, I proposed that my only siblings, my two brothers and I, go off on a day trip together and do something we had never done before, so that we would remember it for a long time. I remembered a time about thirty years ago when we found ourselves skiing together, just the three of us, and my younger brother had remarked how rarely we do things just in each other's company.
First we set out for Kipling's house on the edge of The Weald. There were wonderful gardens and plenty of reminders of the stories that were read to us when we were children.


^

^
Then we drove on to Herstmonceau, which was purchased by a Canadian millionaire and donated to Queen's University. Those lucky students.
^
^
From there it was fairly obvious to drop down to the seven sisters. My young brother was driving and my older brother brilliantly navigated us to this quiet country lane which led right down to the beach.
^
Finally, as the sun was setting, we went up to the highest point on The Downs, Ditchling Beacon. Would a fire have been lit here if Napoleon had invaded England? We could imagine it would be so.
^
Brothers three the



Back in Toronto.

TEACH BOYS TO WHISTLE

This came to me at 3.33 AM, but I was too sleepy to get up and post it.

I have my proposal for NEW IDEAS all packaged and waiting for postage.

David yet again took my laptop off this solid table and I found it on the tiny table with rickety legs. I am trying to leave him the desktop we have been sharing and set up my own. Starting over is hard.

No news is good news.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello Marc Aural, Welcome back to the land of the living(rooms)where all good things go on in front of us at a comfortable viewing distance from the couch. Since you have not been subject to too much insanity during your sojourn home, here is a little tidbit of YouTube video called "Auto-Tune the News". This is #5 to which I am currently addicted http://boingboing.net/2009/06/22/auto-tune-the-news-5.html Take it viral, it deserves the widest possible audience - it's pure genius! Anon.

marc aurel said...

I'll try it as soon as I get home. No utubing at work. We went away for the week end.

AphotoAday said...

Hey Marc, let me ask you a question -- are you a Mac man or do you use that nasty Windows?

I switched from Windows to the Mac about two years ago and it's made my life immeasurably more logical... Anyway, I'm a convert and just wanted to pass it on...

marc aurel said...

My son has a mac. I use google chrome through the darned windows. In all truth I don't use computers enough to notice windows' dissadvantages.

Anonymous said...

Hello Marc Aural, Been thinking about your son and his 'habit' of leaving your laptop on the rickety table. Not much chance of changing your son but you can smash the living bejeesus out of the rickety table or at least toss it into the dust bin. It's thinking from the "Can't raise the bridge? Then lower the river" school of thought.

marc aurel said...

He gone back to using, or abusing, his own

Hels said...

You saw Kipling's house on the edge of The Weald, with its wonderful gardens. It is now a museum, owned and run by the National Trust, and well worth seeing. I only discovered the estate when I was preparing for a course on Literary Pilgrimages.

It certainly does have plenty of reminders of the stories that children read, but back then I always felt he was more of a writer for boys.

marc aurel said...

Hels, it's nice to know that people read this far back on my blog. We went to the house on a lovely late summer's day. Pucker Pook's Hill lay before us and there was the sunken stream up which the Vikings made their way. The house was rather dark, but full of the most interesting books, including one which I dared not touch by Arthur Whaley, one of my favourite Victorians/ Edwardians. The gardens were splendid.