Just Moving Along

If there is anyone out there that has been patient enough to tune in once again, after my rather long absence from this blog, God bless you!  I have been remiss in the writing department. I was aghast to see that I have not blogged a word since December, as if life was suspended for all these weeks...

So here is the lowdown. I've been doing so much and so little of any consequence at the same time. The tedium of the same old, same old,  hunts me down. I'm busy enough, dashing about like the proverbial chicken sans head. Accomplishing little, but fulfilling the duties required of teacher, wife, daughter, mother, friend.

In the midst of the duty calls, I have found two exquisite delights - tuning into  Downton Abbey and watercolour painting. The first requires no effort at all, just a good beverage, an empty house and a comfortable chair. (My husband and I succumbed to an attack of the flu over the holidays and said very little except, "Want to watch another one?"  Good friends had leant us the first two seasons of Downton on DVD and we were hooked.) What is it about this series that is so enthralling? For a period piece, sumptuous in its attention to detail in attire and setting, it moves rather quickly, as each episode leaves you hanging. Favourite characters are cheered on in their challenges as either the ridiculously privileged upstairs-dwellers, or their wonderfully loved and understood servants on the lower floors.  What I love about the whole thing, is that living in a country with very little class structure, it is so curious to me, this great divide. This line of thinking is so distant from small town Canada. Yet, the beauty of Downton is that I can feel empathy for those sitting at table and those waiting behind it.  People are people. I look forward to each new episode. If you do tune in, check out the first 10 seconds. There is a shot of a dog's behind walking toward the castle...it is just plain clever.

Mr. Carson, my most favourite character...