A grey, wet day.
A new Sky+ digibox was installed this afternoon by the grandson & great-grandson of the woman who played Tess of Tess Of The D'Urbervilles in the 1920s play of the novel. The grandson's aunt is now 98, the last person living who knew Thomas Hardy personally. The barn behind the post office & village store in Evershot, of which I was a loyal customer between 1999 & 2002, is themost-likely physical location that Hardy used for the meeting between Tess & her lover. ?
Stuff & practising.
19.41 Oh! the joys of a local. What is an English pub? Nowadays, it is increasingly rare. We arrived in Deepest Dorset just as the local was becoming a gastro-pub. I enjoyed The Acorn as a fine gastro-pub, but it wasn't quite a local-of-modest-aspiration featuring the cream-coloured walls stained & darkened by 40 years of tobacco smoke. The Sun & Moon of Bredonborough remains a local. Its walls are cream-coloured and stained by at least 30 years of tobacco smoke. It is a local and it is my local. The publicans know that I prefer a pint glass with a handle, and I no longer have to specify the drinking vessel of choice: I arrive, the glass is taken from the shelf.
This evening The Sun & Moon is close to psychedelic. Coloured flashing lights of the Christmas variety are attached to most every surface: ceiling, walls, the beam above the fireplace & the perimeter of the floor. All of them flash. It is almost alarming. The publican has stretched up to alter the control box on the ceiling; the few lights that had not been flashing have joined the party. ?
"What we hear is the quality of our listening."
