Monday, October 01, 2007

(I know about stoneware.)

He has sent me my things from across the planet. Much has broken, but that is hardly surprising after all that's happened.

The broken things include my two favourite bowls. I unpacked them, saw they were broken, and decided I'd try a jigsaw glue job on them. Then I decided I wouldn't be ridiculous, and put them back in the boxes with the other broken things. Then I decided I would, and took them out again. They are on my desk now. I will glue them whole again, piece by piece. The seams will always show, but it doesn't matter.

One of the things that didn't break was the bunnymug I got from Mick the Prick when I turned thirty-two. It is my favourite mug, a nice hue of blue, stoneware, with a white rabbit for a handle. My mother took one look at it when I first showed her it and said, that will break in no time. No it won't, I said, it is stoneware. Stoneware is durable. Now, my bunnymug has been to the end of the world and back. It may well be the best-travelled bunnymug there is, and I am very pleased to be reunited with it. I've had it for quite some time, and it is just the right size. Like an old friend, in fact.

I took a break from unpacking and sat on the threshold of my balcony for a cigarette. The late autumn late afternoon sun shone at my eye level. The silver birches have now turned golden, and will remain that way for this week, maybe for the next. I thought their leaves go yellow because they lose their blue. I also thought I wouldn't give away what I have, not for anything.


17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Give vitun away,beautiful Anna..
with it goes a little part of you,broken or not.xxx

Kahless said...

That is a mighty fine Bunneymug from Mick the Prick! And I like the composition of the photo with the apples.

Personally, I seem to have this thing for drinking tea out of china. Is that a british thing?

basest said...

congratulations on being reunited with your bunnymug. let me echo kahless' admiration for the photo. Love it.

Reading the Signs said...

I like your bunnymug.
I like how the light falls on the green apples.
I like your deliberations about the broken things.
I like (oh yess) the thought of cigarette on the threshold.
I like that you have silver birches turning golden.
I like your riches, Princeling - do not trade them, no, neither for silver nor gold, which you already have in good measure.
x

trousers said...

Sorry for this newsflash but you have an award to pick up c/o the press, or house of housut if you will.

Hope you don't mind (and no need to treat it like a tag either)
x

Anna MR said...

Ms LBlue - thank you. Yes, the bits that are left (of me) are so few and far between that I really need to hang on to them for the rest of my natural. I doubt if I can grow any new ones, and the seams that are more like gaps will become chasms, if I allow any more pieces to come loose and/or get lost.

Lovely to see you, girl.

x

Anna MR said...

Kahless, Basest, hello (Basest, long time no see, how nice that you're popping over) (Kahless, good that you're on your own name again, incidentally, failed to mention it in the post below - this must mean the tight spot has passed?), um, yes, hello, my newly-formed Bunnymug Appreciation Society (BAS). How forward-thinking of you, Basest, to name yourself after your membership in this finest of organisations.

I am surprised and pleased by your praise of my photo, as I really really am no photographer (no, really - you can stop acting so surprised now) and my photos are the result of crappy snapping, which is the Gandhian alternative to happy slapping (doing pointless things for a laugh, but sans violence).

Incidentally, have you two met? Now that you're in this comment together, let me consider you formally introduced. There. Oh, how easy it is to network, really. Everybody could be friends.

Dear both, I have had a funny old start to this week and I may sound a little peculiar. Fear not. My peculiarity has nothing whatsoever to do with circumstances, being more of an intrinsically inherent nature. Yes.

I think I'll go now as I'm truly sounding more than a mite strange. I'll go and pour the bulk of it on Signs, because she really is an oddball and won't notice. It has been lovely, as always, to see the pair of you here.

x x

Anna MR said...

Signs of the Kolmio, Our Lady of Väistämisvelvollisuus, I know your name and it is Readingthesignskins. Now pull off your own leg. Go on, it'd be a hell of a party trick to pull off. (Can you tell I've missed you? I can tell I've missed you.)

Right. Let's get to the reply and stop this bollocks before it takes over.

I like you.
I like how you spot things in bits of writing.
I like the fact you liked my bit of writing.
I like not just the thoughts but the actualities of cigarettes on thresholds. I would like to recommend you be nice to yourself and give yourself the odd one of these, once in a while. They are actually really good for you, the "health issue" is all a Government ploy to stop people from experiencing pleasure. Yes.
I like the silver birches too. I don't so much like the fact that they look absolutely brilliant from my balcony, particularly as they stand goldenly against a backdrop of hugely tall moss-green fir trees and Scots pine, looking, as I think (oh yes) I just said absolutely fucking stunningly lovely and photogenic and somehow meaningful, the bastards, yet I cannot for the life of me capture this thing photographically. Neither do I like the fact my iPhoto library is cluttered by my absolutely woefully shite efforts at it.
I like your writing, Signs, I like the way you say things and I like the sentiment you express here. I like it a lot. I would, in fact, like to do a little Princeling curtsey-bow (I do a fine line in both) and say thank you very much, revered Signs, for your beautiful thoughts beautifully worded. I'd like to thank you, my Pirate Princeling Pal. I like seeing you here.

Anna MR said...

My oh my, housut - I need to say thank you and pop to the press tonight to have a look at this wonder thing you speak of. Thank you, obviously, and I'll see you at the house of housut in a wee while.

trousers said...

No problem anna. I'll remember my manners too and point out that I enjoyed reading this post, though I feel that everyone above has, once again, expressed more than adequately what needed to be said by way of a response.

One can only wonder at the memories and associations that these things carry for you.
The last sentence was a fine way to complete it too.
x

(ps is someone stealing all the consonants frmo the word ver?)

Reading the Signs said...

Har! Ms Princeling, I will stamp my foot into the ground - and still keep both my legs on, for how else am I to keep on spinning straw into gold, as we both must do (don't argue, it is laid upon us), but really so as to please ourselves, innit? Tell that to the magicians, kings and swineherds, m'dear, and that you can always spot a princeling by the yarn s/he spins.

Yes, I agree, we must stop this bollocks. We must talk cigarettes and the fact that I can't lay my hand on the Good Book and deny that my lips haven't embraced the odd tip in the last week or so. But on it goes, the agony and ecstacy (the Marlborough Menthol kind).

Here on the edge there is silver birch a-plenty, and often I have felt them to be spooky and mysterious, especially when shrouded in mist, as they often are in a certain spot of forest.

Here's lookin' at you, signspotter - good to be hanging out here.

(and what the blithering heck is Väistämisvelvollisuus?

Anna MR said...

Hei again, young housut, thank you and glad you liked it, but hey, no more of that "once again everybody else said it better and quicker" nonsense, alright? As I recall, down at my stary mirror post you nipped over first and were richly and deservedly praised for your very beautifully put and thoughtful comment.

Besides which, you can waffle on about anything around this house. Many others do, too, and they are right in so doing.

x

Anna MR said...

Straw-Spinning Signs, you stun me with your acrobatic turns of thought. Dance on that trapeze of letters, Princeling of the Pirates. I am a little slower now (but by God, it's only because I spent my energies on that earlier reply to you (and kissing the magician, king, and swineherd a hundred times, whilst spinning the gossamer golden thread out of the bedding of the swine). Yes.

Nah, no such thing as an oath on the Good Book against lip-embraced tips. We can't be doing with that, sweet Signs, because they feed the needy within, reaching the parts that, well, not having them doesn't.

(Väistämisvelvollisuus: n. duty to give way at crossroads, esp. in (traffic) Sign speak)

Mwah and mwah, Signs - somehow I neglected to leave you one at the previous comment. Here's looking at you, kiddo - and that holiday of yours didn't sound too far off the perfect day from your Sauce and substance, I noted with nodding approval.

Anonymous said...

Hi Anna, I do like your bunny mug. I was imagining bunnikins and was relieved to see the photo. I have a fondness for stoneware, especially things like your bunny mug that look like they have been turned on a potters wheel. They remind me of my childhood and all things secure and right (my aunt and father used to pot, they are both too potty now unfortunately). I don't know who Mick the prick is but its a shame that the mug comes from someone named such. I also want to wish you a happy fortieth - it must have come around by now but I've been away.

Anonymous said...

upwswHi Anna, I do like your bunny mug. I was imagining bunnikins and was relieved to see the photo. I have a fondness for stoneware, especially things like your bunny mug that look like they have been turned on a potters wheel. They remind me of my childhood and all things secure and right (my aunt and father used to pot, they are both too potty now unfortunately). I don't know who Mick the prick is but its a shame that the mug comes from someone named such. I also want to wish you a happy fortieth - it must have come around by now but I've been away.

Anonymous said...

oh so that's where my verification code ended up. no wonder it didn't post first time round!

Anna MR said...

Hei Bindi, how nice to see you. I had started to worry you'd disappeared, you know (please take this as a light-hearted thing, okay - it is nice to see you here again, but there is no obligation or any suchlike thing). Mick the Prick was so called because, well, he was a prick, but at the same time, he was okay in his own way. Many people had a problem with him but I considered him a mate (so his appearance in the post carries no secret weight, it's just that he did give me the bunnymug) (and I absolutely cannot bear cutesy either, Bindi, it should be disallowed from the world).

I am sorry to hear about your aunt and father only being potty rather than making them, these days, but pottery must have been a lovely thing to have around in your childhood. I used to really like making things out of clay as a kid. Never used a potter's wheel, though - I used to make, for instance, landscapes to represent those I'd encountered in books I'd read (think Anne of Green Gables here). (Yes, I was and am an only child. Slowly getting used to the idea I'll never have a big brother.)

And thank you for the birthday greetings. Yes, it came and went and as I now begin with a four, we can go back to that conversation you were opening on the tricks Mother Nature plays...

Hope you are well, Bindi - as I said, truly nice to see you here at my house again.

x