winding upwards

winding upwards
Originally uploaded by hummeline.

Wouldn't it be lovely to live in a house with this kind of staircase?

I went to visit this Stately Home this weekend, and it just made me want to throw Hunting Parties with lots of cocktails and late-night bridge playing.

...and dancing to a Victrola.

new snow

Last night was rough. Lots of things, I don't want to get into it really - death involved - but what was beautiful is I walked outside at midnight and there was the lightest dusting of snow on the ground. It was so quiet, so still, and covered with sugared coating over the muddy grass.

It was like some sort of present - some secret, shown to me at one of my most vulnerable points - and to prove its secrecy, it was gone the next day.

But I know I didn't dream it.

waiting

waiting
Originally uploaded by hummeline.

We went to a staff party at a friend's restaurant today. There were small children running around, and all the staff were drinking hard liquor in the back of the kitchen. It was rather surreal to be walking back past the cutlery and to have kids that came up to your waist running past you, playing some berzerk game of tag.

I took this photo of La Soeur at Disneyland, and it's rather what I felt like. But isn't that life?

what appears to be a strange love of ritual

And so the rush of the first week of classes subsides. Sort of. I just composed what I hope was an eloquent treatise on how I adore medieval mysticism and would be a willing contributor to class, even though I would audit it, and stopped short of mentioning my color-coded excel spreadsheet of saints' relics. Probably a good thing.

But let's get serious. I'm obsessed with the Old(e?) Catholic Church, which is odd because I am not [a] Catholic or [b] a medieval cardinal, so why do I get so pleased as punch about relics? Look at that abbey, though - it's the Abbaye de Sénanque, in Provence, France, and apart from my nerd-radar loving it because it looks like Gondor, it's simply really neat looking. And Church-tastic, if I may say so.

It's a shame Christmas is over, because I would just about sell my soul for this gorgeous 1950s stove!

The sick part is that it perfectly matches my new mixer, and the color-coordination of that would, frankly, thrill me to no end.

I told someone today that what I do was watch people, and it's never been closer to the truth. Especially now, nearing graduation, nearing god-knows-what the the future brings, I sit and watch. Relationships are falling apart and melding together before my eyes. I feel as if I'm watching it all, and to some extent I am removed. In a few months, this will all seem like it went by too quickly, but I do know I lived every day of it.

How odd that sounds, but perhaps it's the late hour.