Tag: beautiful

A woman named Julie

July 12, 2018

Jack noticed a new regular sitting daily at the same table.

Always reading, her slender fingers had not escaped his notice.

She would turn pages, the glare from the sun masked by sophisticated shades.

He made sure he walked past at the same time, waiting for her to look up.

Where was she going or whom was she meeting? No-one it seemed.

He knew the waiter and her choice of refreshment was always the same.

Today he sat at the next table sketching; he’d watched her for 12 days.

He started to draw her, to sketch the dainty feet tucked beneath.

She paused in her reading and smiled across at him and his heart skipped a beat.

He smiled back and continued his work, as the waiter emerged,

“Your lunch Mr Vettriano!”

🥂

Per Ardua ad Astra ⭐️

July 10, 2018

So many of us will have today seen snippets, part formations, different batches of aircraft joining the ‘queue’ from different stations around England. Those who were not close enough will see the highlights on the news and it will be forever displayed on YouTube … but how lucky am I to have stood between the potatoes and wheat while many of them flew almost over the top of me?? (I’m still calming my nerves now and I apologise for the swearing in my video if it loads, because the sound and rumble was just to die for 💪🏼🥂).

Everyone will see the clever 100 formation that twenty two Typhoons created over Buckingham Palace, but this is the loose formation as they flew over me, approx 9.5 minutes earlier… (warning – turn your sound down!!! 😂🙈)

SO exciting ….

He had his binoculars, bless. Things are a changing since he joined in 1967.

I’m sure it is …. defense from attack is taking a different form nowadays.

Does just make you proud to be British 🇬🇧

RAF motto: ⭐️THROUGH ADVERSITY TO THE STARS⭐️

Right. How the hell do you expect me to calm enough to work on rugs now??

😂

PS .. mother didn’t come with him … hmmmm … interesting in itself!

A glass of Caburnio, onyx and silk stockings …

June 1, 2018

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Giovanni had saved her favourite table.

A Friday evening in Mid June, a cobbled street behind the Duomo di Milano and as the sun dropped away, the gothic spires took on their evening facade.    Sofia was five minutes early and ordered two glasses of caburnio as she wouldn’t be waiting long.  The heady smells of garlic and herbs hung in the air and each time the swing doors to the kitchens opened at the far end of the restaurant, she could hear Chef’s expectant voice punch the air with commands.

The onyx earrings Sofia had been presented with on their second date matched her black dress perfectly and the satin stockings felt good beneath her own fingers, and she was looking forward to her date’s hands running across them later.  But there was a worry; their last conversation had been awkward and difficult.   Sofia’s boss wanted her to move and open up an office in Rome.

Giovanni swept effortlessly up through the tables, missing nothing, topping up wine glasses, replacing empty water jugs.   He ran one of the best venues in the city and tables were always booked weeks ahead, but she was a regular and Giovanni always accommodated his favourites.

The minutes ticked by.

She lit a cigarette.

The roses on the table teased of the possible romance ahead, yet her life was about to change forever, one way or the other.    Sofia turned Giovanni away again when he enquired whether she would like some more olives.    She sipped the second glass of wine and checked her phone but no message sat on her screen explaining about traffic or delays.    She had tried hard to ignore the feeling that it had been too good to be true, but thinking retrospectively, maybe it just had been.  Watching the people pass by in the street outside she noticed it had started to rain.

She toyed with the glass stem and accepted her fate.

Chiara was not coming.

* * * * * *

Retrospective

(Photo … from the Jack Vettriano 2018 calendar – June)

I don’t do book reviews but I’ll share my opinion about the start of The Samurai’s Garden #wordprompt

March 27, 2018

I spent so long on WordPress yesterday, reading blogs and posting three, if not four pieces, I decided I would focus on my clients today and if spare time came by and waved at me, then I would devour a few further pages of Gail’s book.

I feel so there with the characters, in the Japanese beachhouse garden. A short walk through the sand dunes to the sea which some days is calm and a backdrop worthy of an oil painting.

Then another day, that same sea delivers destructive powers to rip through the zen garden, damaging the main characters in the process as a tsunami hits the shore.

As Stephen-san‘s journey is evolving, I am fascinated by his 20-year old view of the world and his genuine intrigue at meeting new characters and the natural biology taking place when a girl comes onto the stage in this 211 page play. (Nothing changes where some aspects in life are concerned).

Gail’s words weave a harmonious and exquisite story from simplicity itself.

No-one has shown anxiety over the devastated gardens, no more than Sachi showed resentment after forty years of being in ‘hiding’ in the mountains due to her being a leper.

The quiet calm with which these characters are leading their lives, accepting their fate and holding no-one else accountable for anything negative which happens carries so many messages which resonate with my new look at life.

I am hungrily turning the pages and find on each one some gem of mindfulness. It’s like my monk friend brought me to this book to back up his instruction manual …. Joseph, are you really my monk in disguise????? 🤗👏🏼

How are you enjoying it Ortensia?