Summertime makes me happy. Rain, sun, wind - what does it matter as long as the geraniums are on the back step and the peas and beans are growing in the garden?
I have been looking after my two godchildren all week - both girls, one aged 12 and the other nine. One is a vampire and thinks that sunlight will kill her - actually, it's just that she can't see the computer screen; the other is a little outdoor tyke who made me plant 120 sunflower seeds, which have now grown into around 100 sunflowers.
Planning my week was really about planning their week and it had to begin with a visit to the Borzoi bookshop in Stow-on-the-Wold, near my home. I let them choose six books each while I took the cats to the vet for their flea jab (oh, the glamour of a country life). Then we all went swimming (not the cats).
I have a little house in London in Spitalfields, and a deli on the ground floor, which does the best coffee anywhere. Whizzing up there for the day (kids safely parked with my lovely ex-wife, and please bear in mind I am an ex-wife, too, not an ex-husband), I discovered that someone is pretending to be Jeanette Winterson. My neighbour Tracey Emin was down in the shop and she said that there was another 'Tracey Emin' living in Southend, who she imagined was a prostitute, and that my doppelgänger was probably a prostitute, too.
My whiz to London included lunch with Ali Smith at my favourite restaurant - Alastair Little in Soho. There is no finer food to be had, unless it's from my garden, and Juliet Peston is the sort of chef who makes cooking into a miracle. It is simple but perfect.
I rushed back to the Cotswolds because another bit of English eccentricity - the Guiting Power music festival - is featuring my friend, cellist Natalie Clein, and I want the kids to hear her play. The last time I saw her live was in the Albert Hall playing Elgar's cello concerto, and now she's in a tiny village nearby with other world-class musicians, doing it for love.
Life has to be about love and life has to be about finding happiness where we can and not letting the shadows in our lives block out the happiness. I am having quite a tough time in some ways right now, but this has been a week of simple, contented life.
The bad stuff so easily wipes out the good and maybe it needs to be the other way round. Shadows, rain, but if the sun shines, stand in it.
Jeanette Winterson
The Guardian, August 2008
14 comments:
Nigel Kennedy is the most known cellist in the world at this moment.
there are lots of thiings that are wiped out such as love who is kind,respectful and never laughts of somebody's problems,but but love is still wiped out
maybe I am,maybe I'm not a bit rude,maybe I am doing lots of thngs that are forbidden.maybe people don't like how I am but i really don't care I like it and I am contented with he way that I have choosen:)))
1.You`re tyke is behaving badly.
2.My favorite cellist is Laura Buruiana.
my boyfriend wipes out of me when I'm nervous or angry, because he said that i look funny..
Sometime my classmates behaviour proves that they are tykes..
I wish i could get a chef at a big and famous restaurant
I don't like people who are tyke
who's your boyfriend ...? ... Alyna..
Usher it is my favorite cellist because is hot..:))
Yesterday i was served of the most charming chef of the world...
my favourite cellist is my sister...lol..i'm contented about my life
God made man in his own image, but certainly the monkeys were created to replace all those tykes around music school.
Even the dog kisses the hand when he's fed...so...there cannot be tykes among people. The way Eliza looks up in the mirror is just stunning...The book is a mirror, so even a donkey that tries to take a look inside may not look like an apostle...That's just the way I feel.
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