366 Photos - 231 and 232/366 - and so the week ends...

[byslantedlight]

Thursday - a rather dramatic (and slightly apocalyptic, if you ask me *g*) sunrise (well, morning *g*) and late summer thistles.
And then a rather blissful evening, all balmy air and reading a good book on my lovely garden bench...

And then today - the deliciousness of rain from a warm sky, and angel clouds, and lovely buffeting wind.< It's been a funny few days, mind - Job 1, and then in the midst of thinking about the upcoming Job 2.5, a surprise recurrence of Job 2, so that I wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but it got sorted in the end. Had a haircut, and am all short again, though I'd half thought I wouldn't be. Excellent books, the kind that make you feel like you're in the wrong world. Chat for a new volunteer gig, though it'll take ages to kick off. Landlord reckons he's going to fix my shed roof, which would be fab, and help keep me here a bit longer, odd as that might sound...

And the best thing - it's Friday night. Friday night, and I have books, and there's a new Fleabag to watch, and I still have the last Game of Thrones from series five too - maybe tomorrow. And there is apparently going to be gorgeous wrack and storm (and I have moved Tall Sunflower down to be beside Lower Sunnflowers, just in case). Come wind... *g*

Oh - and I had a Reading Idea this morning. Come term time, I'm going to go back mumblety-mumble years, and re-read the books we read in English, way back in high school, cos I do still have them, and I don't think I've read them since. And I really don't think it's a school booklist the like of which has been seen here for many years... *g*

How're you do-in'...? *g*

Comments

Re: Reading Idea

[(Anonymous)]

Helloo! R, here!
Now, that is one fabby Reading Idea *g*
With the A Level results out this week and Goddaughter's grades eagerly anticipated (A* for Textiles, which was the only one that mattered - has a place at Birmingham - "Well Done C!"), this got me thinking of, oh so many Jurassic Periods ago, the books I read for A level English. And wondered if I still had any them, possibly to re-read, myself...
I quickly recalled all but one:
Poetry: Selected Poems of TS Eliot (including The Wasteland, Prufrock...); The Nun's Priest's Tale (from Canterbury Tales) - Geoffrey Chaucer; The Metaphysical Poets - a collection including Christopher Marlowe, John Donne, Andrew Marvell...
Plays: King Lear and The Tempest - William Shakespeare; The Wild Duck - Henrick Ibsen (the first year a play-translated-into-English had been studied in England at A level...)
Novels: Little Dorrit - Charles Dickens; Emma - Jane Austen; and... and...
Nope, cannot for the life of me remember the third novel and it's not on the bookshelf.
But they can't have all been bad, as every other tome is! *G*
Happy re-reading! Will look out for what your titles are/were, and how you feel about them now, vs. back then.
R

RE: Re: Reading Idea

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Hello! And first of all - hurrah for C! *g*

And gosh - what a very different reading list yours is from mine (also Jurassic Periods ago, and of course Across Oceans *g*) Although we did include poems by Donne and Marvell - and of course a Shakespeare play, though not either of yours. *g* I suspect I'm conflating some of my Year 11 (and maybe even Year 10) books with my HSC ones, but it would be interesting to read them again too anyway.

Aha! Have dug into my trunk/coffee table and found the 1984 HSC general syllabus thingie (for all subjects though, not just English - that's perhaps a bit deeper down than I have the energy to excavate just now. but this is what it looks like so far:

English (3 parts for the exam)
- a "single text" (two to be studied) I rather think these were The Long Prospect by Elizabeth Harrower and... something else. The Grapes of Wrath, maybe? Or was that Year 11? Hmmn...
- Thematic study - four core books and supplementary reading around the theme - ("Confronting the Future"). I remember Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, and 1984 by George Orwell (cos it was *g*) and two non-fiction books, Confronting the Future by Charles Birch and Sleepers, Wake! by Barry Jones.
- general essay (two short pieces of writing in the exam).
Also a Writing Workshop folio - minimum six pieces of writing.

English Lit (3 parts to exam again)
- twelve set poems
- Shakespeare (Macbeth
- Other literature - a novel (The Leopard by Guiseppe de Lampedusa) and a play (Electra)
Also a Project/Theme - "Women in Fiction and Contemporary Society":
- two novels (Monkey Grip by Helen Garner and The Millstone by Margaret Drabble
- examination of how women are portrayed in society, particularly through the media
(Assessment - a taped interview, a taped character study, essay comparing women in literature and in contemporary society, essay comparing the presentation of women in two pieces of literature, class participation/involvement).

Hmmn, very interesting, now I've fished this out!

[loxleyprince.livejournal.com]

Nice thistle pic! There's something very aesthetically-pleasing about lilac against green.
Love that last cloud photo! Angel clouds is a perfect description. :-)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

D'you know, that thistle wasn't even lilac coloured any more - and yet you can still see it in there, how fab! They've mostly lost their purple now, and are all brown and sort of waffley, which I rather like, too!

And that last cloud was such an angel cloud! You can see where people got religion, sometimes... *g*

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

I really like your very arty picture of the glass and book. I can well imagine sitting there, a drink in one hand, a book in the other. Nice.

When I saw your comment about Game of Thrones, I thought, hey, I'm there, too. Except on a second look I realized that you're talking about a different season. I have one last episode to watch in season six. Then, no more for another year. :-(

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

It was rather nice sitting outside the other night! Since then it's become rather more damp... *g* And thank you!

Yeah, I have to wait until the dvds come down in price before I can justify them, so it'll be a wee while before I get to catch up with season six. *sighs sadly* I almost wasn't going to carry on after season three, actually, but I'm quite glad I came back to it. *g*

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

I know of a couple of people who quit watching, just sort of faded away around that time. I can't remember if the show got bogged down or not. There are an awfully lot of characters whose story has to be told. I'm certainly loving it.

[snailbones.livejournal.com]

What gorgeous piccies!

I hope your weekend continues with the theme of relaxed reading and glorious windy sunny days - yay!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It has been moderately gloriously windy but also rather damp over this way - which is also nice, in many ways. *g* Hope your days were good - and you weren't too near the beach when it collapsed!

[freetraveller15.livejournal.com]

I like the sound of your relaxing weekend... Great pics, and I love your "angel clouds" definition :)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

They were such angel clouds, I thought - just the kind where you can imagine people in ancient times really feeling their religion come alive! And thanks! *g*

[miwahni.livejournal.com]

I'm only four episodes into season ONE of Game of Thrones - quite a late starter I'm afraid. I read the books a few years back and have had S1 sitting on my shelf since mid-2012, just never got around to it before. I am enjoying it hugely though.

Your reading list was quite interesting - Monkey Grip is still on my want-to-read list. I like Helen Garner's non-fiction - The First Stone was quite a read, and she's recently released a book of essays that I'd like to get my hands on. The only books I remember from school are Animal Farm, The Day of the Triffids, and A Tale of Two Cities - have to admit I loved that last one to bits.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I was a pretty late started to GoT too - and I've not read the books yet, either (thought I'd wait until the end of the series). I almost went off it after the first couple of seasons - so many mostly-naked women and men taking advantage, in such a 1980s-male-wet-dream kind of way, but it got better, and there's even some somewhat-naked men around... *g*

The thing I remember most about Monkey Grip was how often the characters said fuck, so I'll be interested to remind myself that there was more to it! I keep thinking I've read more Helen Garner since, but can't think what... You seem to have had a much more traditional reading list than we did - I always wondered if our teachers were being particularly hip in their reading choices, or if all HSC English was like that. *g* We never did any of the English/European classics at all, except for Shakespeare - unless you The Leopard, which I've actually seen in Waterstones recently, to my surprise.

I must find out when schools go back - maybe I'll do English/Lit on lj! *g* (Ooh, 1st September, that's handy - next Thursday!)