beautiful things

Easter hols are nearly over - this fact fills me with some remorse as I haven't managed to do much. I have, though, managed to get some quality relaxation time in, which is unusual in itself and worthy of some comment. And pictures. But I don't have my camera right now so words - though not thousands - will have to do. Scotland is beautiful. I want to live there in a white house by the sea with a wood-burning stove in the lounge and the sea crashing outside. I might never get sick of collecting shells and rocks - so a little garden with a fence would be necessary for holding them all. One of my favourite books is Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn; one of my favourite literary characters is King Haggard - not just for the dickensian name: the sea, he says, is the only thing he can look at forever - he tires of everything else. I love him because he is evil and horrid but so very human and like me, beautiful things pain him in a strange, pleasurable way, a catching in the throat and a fullness of breath that feels like an emptiness - though unlike me, he collects beautiful things and hides them away from everyone else. It's the having that satisfies Haggard and the sea is something he cannot have because it is never the same.

I also love being in places that people I love have loved.

And I got to drive. I had fun - though I could use more practice. I managed to get our little kia cee'd up to 60 mph with the handbrake on... which does beg the question: how effective was that handbrake?

And now I'm home alone while Nas plays in Paris.

Pictures will follow!