12.9.14

















EXCELLENT WOMEN by Barbara Pym

o dear - i have been thinking about and working on this for so long
now i just have to get it out
no matter how good or bad it turned out
.
i don´t know exactly why i´m that into Barbara Pym´s books
they are quite churchy - i a fun way though - and they don´t seem to relate to anything in my life
but there is this fascinating species of "excellent women" 
single ladies, almost thirty (a "desperate age") and always ready with a cup of tea
not all of them seem to care to get married
- men would only need them for said cup of teas or typing up their work - being excellent is not very loveable -
some of them do get married though
even the "excellent woman" Mildred who by the end of this book hasn´t choosen one of her odd suiters
so this we only get to know reading one of the following novels - and i´m not that thrilled by that turn of the story
(something i love about these books: characters tend to return in other stories
i wished for a lot more of Faustina the cat - playing with palm crosses, getting her special lunch of coley cooked
but unfortunately she appeared in Pym´s last book and wasn´t able to make a comeback)
.
i was thinking for quite some time where or who those "excellent women" are nowadays
and i think there aren´t any, they were left behind in the 1960s maybe
and is there even a "desperate age" anymore?
i know there definitely is no need for melancholy women´s lunches
even if there are only left over leaves and dried up cheese and cans of beans
you could always turn those into "excellent" stews and bakes 
(sometimes with beer in it and a bit to drink with it, too)
getting even better the second time warmed up, tinfoiled
being "excellent" in the food department now means Weck jars full of pestos and sauces
thinking ahead of the meals you might get out of the batch 
pasta cooked in vegetable juices
and frozen logs of shortbread dough to slice off and bake some any time
well, at least it does for me
.
and when i´m done filling my days with arranging flowers and putting my aged parent W to work
i might go out and buy myself a spectacular named and looking shade of lipstick
called something like "hawaiian fire"
even though this might be an unsuitable and too exciting colour for me
i´d take it home anyway
.
probably Barbara Pym´s book are not for everybody
she get´s compared to Jane Austen a lot - a fact that might put off a lot off potential readers
don´t be! she really is a treat
DENISE likes her too - we even share the same favorite quotes
Juliette Tang DOES SO TOO






coral necklace from my grandmother, restrung by me
cat plate by ALEX SICKLING
picture of dashing shallow Rockingham by E
(actually it´s not him - i just misused a picture she made of a dear friend)