The thing I like about the magazine Country Life is that each issue dwells predominantly upon people, places and affairs having a rural theme. Certainly many of those are decidedly polished – royalty, castles and prestigious equestrian events – but for the most part it strives to expand upon everyday country living and the often amusing and capable denizens therein. Whenever I drive about casually in my motor vehicle there is only one direction for me – and that’s a country drive!
When we look back upon what people were wearing a century ago it is probable that things look a bit “dated”. Even our musical preferences sometimes suffer the identical abrasion. When exactly did we decide that everything began and ended with the Baroque period? Recently for example I’ve discovered Ludovico Einaudi and Alexis Ffrench. They’re both classically trained but their style is decidedly new. Already its appeal has insinuated my tastes and penchants.
Alexis Ffrench (born 1970) is a British classical soul musician, composer, producer, and pianist. Not only is Ffrench the UK’s biggest selling pianist of 2020, he has headlined London’s Royal Albert Hall, collaborated with fashion houses Miyake and Hugo Boss, played Latitude Festival, worked with Paloma Faith, composed several film scores and shares the same management team as Little Mix and Niall Horan.
It is remarkable how suddenly one can become swallowed up in things, silly every day things really. Things like X-rays and ultra sound, annual physical exam, eye exam and new glasses, tooth extraction and implant, merchandise deliveries, oil change for the car, cardiac device check, family and friends’ birthdays and gifts, scheduled contract and service renewals, sister’s wedding anniversary, vaccinations, income tax and the recurring expectations that I am certain everyone has. Not to mention in this lingering lock-down the mounting need for a sensible haircut!
I can’t think of a more innocuous introduction to gossip than the idle query, “What’s the news?” It was the faithful initial acquaintance of the late Raymond Algernon Jamieson, QC whom I fashion my “predecessor” though if the truth be known I only purchased the hardware and contents of his law practice at 74 Mill Street, Almonte where he had practiced law for 50 years or more. I believe he retired in 1975 at 84 years of age after having been called to the Bar at Osgoode Hall in 1921. He sold his practice to Messrs. Galligan & Sheffield, Barristers &c. who hired me in 1976 to plug the hole.
There may indeed be those who’d prefer to have done things differently. No doubt it is a mark of my incurable arrogance that I have never once contemplated doing so. Naturally the entire scheme is absurd, wrought as it is with fancy and denial. What however bothers me more than anything is not its piffling covetousness but rather the casual abandon of what matters. And just to be clear, the only thing that matters is what actually happens. Everything else is unattainable and an unwitting obstruction of reality.
May is a busy month for me. An unscheduled visit with my dentist; a telephone chat with my family physician; an oil change; a cardiac device check at the Ottawa hospital; an eye exam with my optometrist; surgery with my dental specialist; domaine name renewal; web hosting renewal; residential insurance renewal; car insurance renewal; numerous birthdays; a wedding anniversary; and winding up income tax reporting for another season. Whew!
“The exorbitant power of the baron had been gradually reduced. The condition of the peasant had been gradually elevated. Between the aristocracy and the working people had sprung up a middle class, agricultural and commercial.”
Excerpt From: Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1848
“The History of England, from the Accession of James II — Volume 1”
A society sunk in ignorance, and ruled by mere physical force, has great reason to rejoice when a class, of which the influence is intellectual and moral, rises to ascendancy. Such a class will doubtless abuse its power: but mental power, even when abused, is still a nobler and better power than that which consists merely in corporeal strength.
For even the mutual animosity of countries at war with each other is languid when compared with the animosity of nations which, morally separated, are yet locally intermingled. In no country has the enmity of race been carried farther than in England.
Thomas Babington Macaulay,
“The History of England, from the Accession of James II — Volume 1”
The rain isn’t forecast to start until 10:00 am. It’s now 4:51 am. I’ve been up since two o’clock unable to sleep thanks to neuropathy and whatever other afflictions foster insomnia in old age. I reckon based upon the tweeting of the birds I already hear through the windows ajar in the drawing room, the sun will be up in time for me to undertake a purgative cycle before the rain starts. Meanwhile I have been spared the midnight paucity of creativity by having to download software updates for all my electronic devices – iPad, iPhone, MacBook Pro and Apple Watch. Those updates – like the “new generation” models of each of them – afford one a sense of novelty and accomplishment. It is easy to become preoccupied with one’s devices with only the tiniest element of intellect. An accidental discovery of yet another feature on any one of them constitutes a minuscule but nonetheless tangible victory.
To start with, there was no morning this morning. That was my dawn, a grey mournful dawn. With a much diminished gusto. And a Monday to boot! According to the unparalleled accuracy of my Apple watch – the perpetual modern accoutrement – it was literally one minute before noon, 11:59 am when I assembled my rumpled carcass sufficiently from the virginal lair to clock my progress. Humiliating that it was! Well, at least it would be normally were it not for the fact that the atmosphere today – I nearly said “This morning!” – was decidedly damp, raw and uninviting, certainly not inspirational of a casual cycle about the neighbourhood as would regularly be my wont. Instead I thought of peanut butter.