The Artist’s House in Paris – T.F. Simon
After several hectic work weeks and a flurry of socializing, today has been a wonderful chance to be lazy. It is a gorgeous spring day here, with cherry trees and magnolias in blossom, daffodils hanging on (though slightly defeated by a heatwave last weekend), and tulips eager to burst forth. And, best of all, I had nothing I needed to do.
This meant I was free to run my errands this morning in the most desultory fashion, taking the longest possible routes between my destinations before finally wandering completely off to explore beautiful neighbourhood gardens far from any shops.
This afternoon, it meant I could take my book and a travel cup full of tea to a local park and read in the sun for a few hours, occasionally pausing to watch six eagles having an equally lazy afternoon doing laps high above.
Sun on Snow by Alexandra Raife was my perfect accompaniment for the gentle setting. I discovered Raife’s gentle books thanks to this “Can you help?” post back in late 2018, where a reader was trying to remember the name of a domestic novel set in Scotland with similarities to D.E. Stevenson. That book turned out to be Drumveyn, which I tracked down alongside a few other books by Raife, and while none of them were especially memorable, they were just right for quiet Sunday afternoons (much like D.E. Stevenson).
In today’s publishing world, Raife’s books would likely be called women’s fiction. There is always some sort of romance, but it’s usually fairly subdued in comparison to the family or social relationships of the main characters. In Sun on Snow, which was published in 1999 and is technically a contemporary novel but could have been set any time in the previous twenty years, young legal secretary Kate arrives at Allt Faar after a series of dramatic events in London. After a brief encounter with dashing Jeremy, she has discovered she is pregnant and that neither her adoptive parents nor Jeremy are happy about it. Kicked out of her family home, Jeremy has arranged for her to stay with the Munro family in Scotland in the house where he was raised after his parents’ deaths. For Jeremy, this neatly tidies everything up. For Kate and the Munros – matriarch “Grannie” and her three adult children, dull Harriet, widowed Joanna, and only son Max – it’s all rather awkward.
But slowly Kate adapts to life at Allt Faar, learning to pitch in the way everyone else does and proving herself far more capable than suspected. After a lifetime of feeling like she needed to be worthy of the love of her cold adoptive parents, Kate finds it easy to love the good-naturedly judgmental, slightly chaotic Munros and feel part of a family. There are tragedies, but not insurmountable ones, and romances, mostly pleasantly resolved, and it is all just exactly what one should read on a lazy Sunday while basking in the sun.
My usual blogging corner in the spare bedroom has become my office and, being someone who likes to have a clear distinction between work and home, I’ve spent most of the weekend avoiding it. But I’m so enjoying hearing updates from other people’s unusual lives right now that I’ve seated myself down to share a little about how I’m doing.
Adjusting to working from home has been remarkably easy. At a past job I spent 2.5 years working from home so it feels very familiar to be back in my spare room/office each day. I’m not client facing anymore so as the markets crash I’ve been insulated from some of the chaos my colleagues are having to handle on top of everything else. I have however turned into ersatz tech support (as our real tech team are overwhelmed with people experiencing computer troubles) so am now an expert on talking people through how to set up video conferencing systems on their computers.
I am a huge believer in the calming effects of routines (also I know no other way to live) so, no surprise, I’ve settled into my new ones already. My morning alarm has been pushed back half an hour (to 6am), after which I get up, talk a 30-minute walk outside, and then great ready and make breakfast. Work starts as usual at 7:30 and I break around lunchtime for another walk (longer and brisker). I wrap up work around 4 and then take another stroll, right now enjoying all of the cherry trees that are in blossom. The weather this week was spectacular – sunshine and cherry trees do a lot to calm the spirit. Then it’s back home to make dinner, chat with my parents, and watch or read until bedtime. Aside from eliminating the commute (and all my colleagues), it’s honestly not too different from my usual routine and that has been deeply comforting.
Ten years ago today, I started this blog. It seems extraordinary that both so much and so little time has passed since then.
After months of anticipation, a very great event occurred last Sunday: I became an aunt. Arguably, that was the least of the changes: my brother and sister-in-law became parents, two sets of existing parents became grandparents, and a small and rather wonderful girl came into being.
The Captive Reader 