Joe – Louisa Parry

Reflections, shiny, brilliant

1. Joe watches me via the mirror and when Katherine comes back into the room with the curtain hooks, he shuffles around so we’re both in the frame.

2. The new greenhouse glass is so clear, completely unmarked, that it looks hyperreal. I’m reminded of the glass church in Oscar and Lucinda: my cathedral to homegrown veg.

3. We watch vintage Simpsons from its golden era (seasons 4-9) and are reminded of its genius: laugh out loud funny instead of meh, character-driven episodes, being touching without being sappy and great animation touches that didn’t rely on being flashy 3D.

3BT – new project, on anti-cry patrol, quiet time

4/6/2010 / louisa / 0 Comments

1. She started but didn’t finish embroidering the linen table cloth. For 50p, I take on the challenge.

2. After giving Katherine hell for a week, poorly Joe is all smiles as I push him around the supermarket. It’s the exciting boingy hair and buy one get one free offers that get his interest.

3. While John watches Star Trek in the living room, I spend the evening on the sofa in the dining room reading, with a cat on my belly and a dog by my side. A wonderfully relaxing end to a mostly wonderfully relaxed week.

3BT – favourite things, tongue, heart

23/2/2010 / louisa / 0 Comments

1. I look at the menu but know in my heart I’ll get the same thing I always do – the chorizo and potato salad with baby spinach, a poached egg and red pepper aioli. If they added cheese and a cat to it, it would be all of my favourite things in one shiny white bowl.

2. Joe’s all smiles when I return him to his favourite lady after her haircut. All smiles and sticking his tongue out. Today’s the day he discovered he has control over the floppy thing in his mouth and boy, is it fun to stick it out into the open.

3. The cats, circling my ankles, call out to me to hurry up as I sliced the freshly roasted ox heart into smaller chunks for them.

3BT – doggies!!!, growing, yum onion = yumion

12/2/2010 / louisa / 0 Comments

1. The tree surgeon brings his dogs with him: the little girl watches her human and pines when he dips out of sight while the sleek but strong black lab pads about the garden carefree. Throughout the day, I nip out to check on them and to talk to them, and Katherine comes over earlier than planned to meet them too. I can’t wait until we have our own.

2. Sat up on the sofa, Joe looks almost like a real person.

3. I just don’t know how they make the onions so delicious. I could eat them all day.

3BT – bright, underage pub goers, salty slices

28/1/2010 / louisa / 0 Comments

I’ve been neglecting my beautiful things of late. Naughty louisa, naughty.

1. Even though I wake up earlier than normal, I feel thoroughly refreshed and ready for the day. The sun shines brightly into the room.

2. The bar is overrun with babies. There are six downstairs (in three separate parties) and upstairs in the restaurant there is a full antenatal group meeting upstairs. The lovely barman runs to the door whenever someone arrives with a pram to welcome them and point them in the right direction. He rushes up and down the stairs carrying prams and generally being cheerful. All the babies repay his kindness with silent stares and contented chunters.

3. Pink meat sliced so thin it melts on the tongue.

3BT – wide awake, sleepy, somewhere else for a moment

21/1/2010 / louisa / 0 Comments

1. Despite promises that he’d go to sleep if I walked around the block, Joe wide-eyed stares with a concerned look on his face, wondering why he’s being pushed around by a strange fuzzy lady. Then, about ten minutes in, he realises I’m cool and is all smiles for the rest of the walk. When we return to our starting point to wait for the end of his mum’s appointment, I throw milk over the both of us. I think he’s rather glad when his mum reappears to wipe us off.

2. Heads nod rhythmically by the time we hit Rodley. The air on the bus is stifling, coma-inducing but the traffic is on our side and we sail through Calverley with barely a pause. Stepping out onto the pavement reminds me of the plunge pool at the Turkish baths.

3. Caius accidentally knocks over the heater in the office. The bang jolts us all for a few seconds. Later, at home, the tongs snap apart as I’m loading the stove and I’m jolted again. Our brains are frighteningly unaccustomed to the out of the ordinary.

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