Friday 31 August 2018

Scarlet And Black

I suddenly thought about this book yesterday, for the first time in years. I bought it and read it in 1975 when I was a student. I had a boyfriend who was studying French and he said it was essential reading. I remember nothing about it - and I cannot find it on my bookshelf now. I recall that it is set in France, two hundred years ago, and that's all. And it is not as good as Madame Bovary  But that's all I remember, other than the title.What brought it to mind was what happened yesterday afternoon;
Cycling home from Lunch Club at church, I noticed some brambles growing alongside the cycle path. 
I stopped and picked blackberries for 10 minutes. When I got home, I remembered there were a few blackcurrants on the bush in the garden. I took the berries in, and came outside with another bowl to pick the currants. 
There was a loud noise, and suddenly overhead, I saw the Red  Arrows, circling in the sky above, clearly practising for the Bournemouth Air Show this weekend. It is always so exciting to see them. I wasn't prepared for taking a photo, and I am no good at shooting planes anyway [I once attempted to take pictures of the Red Bull Display in Budapest and ended up with lots of shots of clear blue sky!]
But the bright scarlet colours of the planes contrasted with the juicy black fruit in my bowl - and I remembered that neglected volume.
I hope to read Madame Bovary again sometime. My attempts to pare down the shelves and rid myself of volumes not worth keeping are going very slowly. I have that terrible Hoarders' Habit of "I must just check it through before I let it go". Someone recently sent me this cartoon as a warning!



2 comments:

  1. I love that cartoon - it could very well apply to me too - even though I have been giving away a good number of books in the past year - and I have been making good use of the library so actual new purchases have been kept to a minimum. However, I estimate that there is still at least 150 books on my shelves that I haven't read as yet (even though I go through an average of 3 books a week)!
    AND - various planes have been zipping bye for the past couple of days as they prepare for our annual airshow this weekend here in Toronto. I was downtown today so even closer to the lake (they practise over the water) and the noise was ear shattering at times. A lot of tourists who had no idea what was going on were looking a bit worried so people were busy explaining that it was nothing to worry about! :-)

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  2. How lovely to live in a place where you can pick blackberries by the path!

    That cartoon is too funny!

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