Well I thought I ought to get in a quick post before the end of July to convince everyone (including myself) that I haven't abandoned this blog. To be honest I have no excuses except that I've been damn lazy and have discovered the delights of Facebook. (If anyone else is on there look me up. Come and be my friend! I'm down as Louise Dawson as Moonpie believe it or not isn't my real name, hehe, don't tell anyone!)
Our Glastonbury recovery was prolonged somewhat by an impromptu visit to another Festival in Kent. Within an hour of hearing about it we were whisked away, traveling down south in a car powered by chip fat courtesy of our good friend Lee.
You see the thing about Glastonbury is that it makes you feel like you've finally made it home, suddenly you are in a place where music and art are at the absolute centre. Where everybody is united in having a good time and people are just so god damn friendly! Getting back to reality hurts! So the opportunity for any festival has to be grabbed with both hands. Obviously the Wye festival was a much smaller affair. In fact their seemed to be more musicians than punters. Our only reference to what the music was going to be like was Adem, a band I've seen several times now (check out their myspace here) Adem are always a treat to see live, they sing songs about things like friendship and make you want to cry (in a nice way.) The best thing about the festival though was discovering Adrian Crowley. Just when we thought the festival had ended Adem, being the headlining act, directed everyone over to a small tent to see Adrian. Well, we were all pretty blown away, so much so we decided to catch him a few days later in Coventry in one of my favourite clubs, The Tin angel at Taylor John's house. Below is a photograph Mick took that night.



The other thing I am terribly excited about is my newly found passion for the books of Angela Carter. I'm a little obsessed at the moment, as soon as I near the end of one her books I have to rush out and buy another (not sure what I'll do when I've read them all, sadly she died in the ninties still only in her fifties.) Funny thing is I keep having strange coincidences or should I say synchronicities when I read her books. For example, a couple of weeks ago I was reading Alice in Wonderland and also a marvelous book of poetry called 'Orpheus' by Dan Patterson. At work we were really quite quiet and realising I hadn't brought either of my books I nipped to the bookshop and picked up a secondhand copy of Carter's 'Several Perceptions' A few pages in to it, on the same page, Alice and Orpheus both get a mention. 'Nights at the Circus' saved me from a hideous six hour coach journey on the way to Glastonbury, it was actually midsummers day and here again midsummer's day kept being mentioned in the book. Then when I finished reading it I lent it to my friend Melanie only to discover that night when I started to read 'The Magic Toyshop' that the main characters name was Melanie. I'm currently reading 'Wise Children' and last night I came across these photographs (see below), they couldn't be more like the image I had in my head of the twin dancers, Floradora and Leonora, that the book centres around. And these are just few examples.
I love it when writing really gets you that way, when you feel so drawn to it it's almost magical, when you feel the world has conspired to make you read it at exactly that time because it's the absolute perfect time to be reading it, a time when the subjects, storylines and language can most fire your imagination.





Last Saturday Mick and I visited Warkworth in Northumberland.
Northumberland is so beautiful. We visited the ruins of old castles, we sat in the light of the full moon on castle walls. I read about local legends and drank in the ancient air. We walked the long deserted beaches, following the trail of broken shells and seaweed that looked to me to be abandoned in the wake of witches. We jumped the concrete blocks, sea defences from world war two and ocassionally came across a washed up dead seabird, puffins with pretty beaks and no eyes. I found a four leaf clover. We took out a rowing boat on the Coquet.....

"Intoxicated with the sparkle, the ripple, the scents and the sounds and the sunlight, he trailed a paw in the water and dreamed long waking dreams" (from The Wind in the Willows.)

.....I wished for everybody to feel such peace.