charmed
Friday 28 March 2008
Charmed... that is what I feel like today! I finally got a good night's sleep, a full 10 hours!! I know sounds like too much, but I've been lying awake for hours on end the past few nights with my brain on overdrive, finally falling asleep around 3 am then waking around 8 am. I am and have always been a must have 8 hours of sleep or I'm not very happy kind of person (I can survive on less if I absolutely have to but prefer to have 8 hours).
A graveyard in bloom in St. Andrew's Church Yard
Today has pretty much been a lazy day. It was raining this morning as I laid in bed reading from Middlemarch then a bit from The Voyage Out (I love how the Dalloways make an appearance in Woolf's first novel). The sun started to creep out, and having an entire wall as a window my room began to get nice and warm and I started to feel a bit sleepy. So like a kitten I curled up in my super soft sheets and took a wee little nap. But then I jolted awake thinking "Good God there's sun!" I needed to get my butt outside before it disappears because as I said yesterday the forecast shows rain for the next 5 days. After a quick shower I grabbed my camera and headed to the little cemetery on Rodney Street (more on that later). I got some pretty good photos, the pyramid was lit up by the sun and it was just perfect.
Then not wanting to go straight home I crossed the street to check out a little used bookstore. What a charming (that is my new word) place! Wooden floors that creak, shelves and shelves of books in absolute no order so it is a real treasure hunt, and there were some treasures: little old cloth bound copies of Emma and Pride and Prejudice for £2, a red hardbound copy of Nicholas Nickleby with gold foil lettering and much much more. I was hoping to spot a copy of Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. I'm going out of my mind people, I want so desperately to read this book. I just can't buy the brand new copy sitting in Waterstones without feeling waves of guilt, £12 (or $24) can get me through a week of food. Wait, I just checked the Liverpool library website and they finally ordered 1 copy! 1 copy for the entire city! It's at a different branch so I'll have to put it on reserve.
But I digress... back to the little green used bookstore... I did not buy anything, I was just browsing but I think I'll be back. So yes creaky wood floors, a ton of books and the old man looking over the store was sitting in an old wooden chair behind a wooden table with a crackling fire by his side, yes a real fire in a real fireplace. And to make sure we all remember that we are in the 21st century, before him on the table was a laptop. It was just too much! It really made me smile and that let me tell you hasn't happened in awhile.
I popped into Tesco before going home knowing full well that the sandwiches would be all sold out because it was going on 2 pm but I was wrong! There were sandwiches, but more importantly there was the BLT I had been craving! Happiness!
Song or Mistle Thrush busy eating worms
Between Tesco and my flat there's a little strip of green grass with trees. Last weekend I spotted a bird I had never seen before, a brown bird about the size of a pigeon with a spotted chest, quite beautiful. I researched it on the internet when I got home and it's either a song thrush or a mistle thrush, both birds look very similar with the mistle thrush being about 2 inches longer. Everytime I walk by now I look out for him/her. Well today having my camera on hand I was really hoping to spot it so I could snap its photo for my birdwatching mom. There it was hopping along whipping worms out of the ground, it looked like it was eating from a plate of spaghetti. I got a few pics but then it moved too far away to get a real good shot. I turned a bit to the right and there was another one, a bigger one with the same spotted chest but brighter and more defined. It was going at the worms as well until a pigeon swooped down on it trying to steal its worm which resulted in both thrushes crying out and flying off one up into the tree the other to another lawn. I'm afraid my pictures of them are less than stellar but I blame my sad little camera, it's only a 3.1 MP with 3x zoom... my other nicer camera was stolen in Mexico last summer. *sigh*
Song or Mistle Thrush
But anyway that was my Friday, the rest of the evening will be spent reading from Middlemarch, The Voyage Out, Les Misérables and The Ladies of Grace Adieu. Definitely not going outside this evening it's grey and rainy again.
. listening . end it on this . no doubt . tragic kingdom .
Labels: book, liverpool, photos
posted by Ashleigh @ 17:32,
2 Comments:
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At 28 March 2008 at 18:46,
Danielle said...
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I'm hopeless when it comes to nature sorts of things. I can never tell birds apart and can't identify most flowers or trees to save my soul, but I've noticed that Spring must really be here as I can hear birds chirping in the mornings when I leave the house--a very nice discovery after a long, cold winter!
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At 28 March 2008 at 22:01,
Ashleigh said...
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My mom's a big birder so naturally I keep an eye out for interesting ones and I've been getting better at being able to identify them. As for plants... well only if they're absolutely obvious will I know the answer. Yay for spring! It looks like we're getting into the 50s here so it's warming up - but still so very different for me when it's already in the 80s back home!
