Povey Prattle

Via Dave M of North Haven, ME Via Nancy D From the Web   The two cat cartoons are from the website "Rhymes with Orange".

I had lunch today, poolside,  at the Longboat Key Club in SRQ. The Club is an "upscale" Resort. The food was mediocre, to say the best. Ne'er mind. For I had a lovely time with my dear friend Diana E. She is the wife of another good friend the Revd. Fred E. (onetime Rector at St. James Church, Greenfield, MA). Fred has already departed from SRQ to their summer home on the island of North Haven (ME), in the Penobscot Bay. Diana has lingered in FL,  so that she can enjoy the spring time warmth in SRQ for a wee bit longer.  Diana (I call her "The Fair Diana") and I miss Fred. Nevertheless we had a blessed and happy time over lunch today. Here we is! Florida life ain't bad!

I have been bingeing on the novels of Ian McEwan. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_McEwan  ) It all started when on April 18th 2015, at the New Books stack of Sarasota County's "Fruitville Library"  I picked out McEwan's 2014 novel "The Children Act". It has to do with the effects of an Act of Parliament in Great Britain (The Children Act) and a High Court case involving a 17 (almost 18) year old boy, a Jehovah's Witness, and whether or not his parents could refuse a blood transfusion which could  save his life. I was immediately hooked on McEwan's novels. Since April 18th I have read "The Comfort of Strangers"  1981 (a dark and somewhat gothic novel). "Amsterdam" 1998  (three old friends meet at the burial of a woman who had been married to one of them, and the lover to two.  At the funeral they have an unpleasant encounter with the British Foreign Secretary.  But are they truly friends?  The plot thickens as it l...

Yesterday,  as I walked out,  for reasons which are beyond my ken, I began to think about "Farley's Rusks". According to Wiki. "A rusk is a hard, dry biscuit or a twice-baked bread. It is sometimes used as a baby teething food" The most famous brand of rusk in the U.K. was made by the Farley Company in Plymouth, Devonshire. Since I have five younger siblings I am very familiar with Farley's Rusks.  They were all but omnipresent in our home.    A s it says: "they were a baby teething food". T here were five babies in our  home  after me (from 1950 - 1956), each of whom needed Farley's Rusks as they "teethed" and moved from breast or bottled milk to solid foods. Lord alone knows if I cheated my younger sibs out of their fare shares of rusks, 'cause I liked them too. They were so tasty in warm milk, or smothered with butter. QUESTION.  "What trick of memory made me remember "Farley's Rusks" yesterday...

OR SO THEY SAY: 1.  "To be perfectly honest........": 2. "I am telling you this for your own good......": 3. "I may be wrong but........."; 4. "You may be right but........."; 5.  "I don't want to interfere but......"; 6. "I have heard a rumour that....."; 7. "This is in utter confidence but......"; 8. "I would never cheat on you....." FINALLY  "Dear, sweet, gentle, loving cat............ (get out from under my feet!") ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ PLEASE ADD YOUR OWN "OR SO THEY SAY" TO THIS LIST.

1.  I have kept silence for two days, fearful that I would say too much or too little about: a.  The British General Election (disastrous from the point of view of this unrepentant "leftie"). b.  The fabulous novels of the English author Ian McEwan (I have just "discovered" him, and will no doubt wax critically eloquent about his books ere long- you have been warned!) c.  The sad implosion of the Church I attend. (Maybe more about this later -  when the dust has settled). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2.  At 11:00 a.m. today I began to walk the  1/3 of a mile to the home of my friends Bill and Pat for the lovely Mother's Day Brunch they had prepared. I encountered three young lads  (maybe aged 13-15) who were fishing at the east end of the pond in Bill and Pat's "development".  They called me over.  These nice lads were b...