beautiful 2009 (12)

I finish a draft of the introduction to my thesis and it feels good. With two other artists, I man an unheated stall in Nottingham for three days, thanking the universe for the invention of hot water bottles. I make a lot of presents. I go home, and then I go to Belgium. There's a lot of light.

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November:

I go back to Belgium, where very early mornings prove useful for my thesis: I write thousands of words before noon, and spend the afternoons before the Belgian is off work wandering around Gent with an exceptionally heavy backpack, grunting helplessly when strangers assume I speak Dutch. My Dutch improves incrementally. I hang out a lot with Sue, Sriparna, and Zalfa. We make up our own language. I have band practice, and we write a couple of songs which I then become too bashful to sing. I make Thanksgiving dinner for about 25 people, and the next day come downstairs to find water streaming down the wall wth my books. I observe two minutes' silence on the 11th, anti-papism on the 5th, and the elegant lines of staircases on the university campus.

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October:

I sew some patchwork covers for my ugly chairs. A piano arrives, all thanks to the magic of freecycle. Some of my friends help me celebrate my birthday with tea at Lee Rosy's, and I am touched by how thoughtful they are. We see the movie "Rumba" and go out for dinner afterwards. I take another trip to Belgium and meet some mushrooms in a forest. I go home and begin to sew my own. The Beligian comes, there's another Nottingham Poetry Series reading, and I get H1N1.

beautiful 2009 (9)

September:

The Belgian and I spend a happy, magical day walking around London before he gets the train back to Gent for good. We have cake in a café and many serious, funny, and practical discussions. The Eurostar people are concerned by how much I'm crying. I can't explain that this is just my normal reaction to feeling anything, and no, I'm fine, it's all going to be ok. Back in Nottingham, I write a lot of poems about East Anglia and perfect my recipe for banana bread.

beautiful 2009 (8)

August:

I move into my little house, with a lot of help from friends (including Melissa and the Belgian, who commandeer a shopping cart). I go to Leicester some more and print a lot of compound prints. I get offered teaching at the print workshop. The Belgian and I go on lots of walks. He tolerates my eternal taking of pictures. I tolerate his non-tea-drinking ways. I ignore the fact that I now have one year left to finish my PhD, and instead institute poetry meetings at my house once a week.

beautiful 2009 (7)

July:

The garden has lots of basil, lots of parsley, lots of radishes, some poppies, some marigolds, some chard, some tiny carrots, a few zucchini, and a multitude of disgusting grey slugs. The nasturtiums take off beautifully. I go to Latitude festival and have a great time (anyone up for 2010?) even though I miss seeing Lisa Hannigan by about 20 minutes due to a sudden rainstorm. I see Thom Yorke play solo from about ten people back. I see Regina Spektor (mostly hair and a piano) and Nick Cave (mostly swagger and a piano). I teach a poetry course where I meet people who will become my friends and fellow poets.

beautiful 2009 (6)

June:

I go to a conference in London, ditch it halfway through, and go hang out with poets on the South Bank. We walk around, get sunburnt, bother folks in the Poetry Library, then go home (their home) and make dinner and cake. I go to Belgium for the first time. I like the train. I like the seaside. Wow, the ocean is cold. The Belgian obligingly takes me to Ieper, Brugge, Oostende, and Gent. I eat the obligatory waffle. I like fritkot better.

beautiful 2009 (5)

May:

With my amazing friends, I build a garden. Working outside makes me feel so much happier. I go to Leicester a lot. I find Roman baths, a really beautiful cathedral, and a lot of nice places to spend my money. The Nottingham Poetry Series has its first reading, and it is a great success. I like. I meet the Belgian and suddenly the flowers:year ratio goes through the roof.

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April:

I book a ticket to Bergen, Norway, to visit a friend. This turns out to be one of the best trips I go on--ever. Norway is beautiful, and there is so much light already (until 10 p.m.!). The houses are wooden and feel like home. No one bothers me. I walk around the very expensive grocery stores, touching produce. I learn to use a camera, and clear up the eternal mystery of the F-stop. Dave and I go out into the fjords, we walk around town, we talk about art, we make plans, we gossip, we take photos. The birdwoman comes, too.

beautiful 2009 (3)

March:

March is the cruellest month. Isn't that what Eliot said? On the 29th, the clocks move forward for British Summer Time, and finally there is light.

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February:

I'm in Kent with friends when it finally snows. We go outside and have a snowball fight at midnight. The next day, driving back to Nottingham via central London, I see kids playing on roundabouts. Red jackets, snow up to their waists. I fly home for a conference, remember what a wimp I am when it comes to real winters, give a poetry reading, and take two 8-hour train rides in the span of 4 days.

beautiful 2009 (1)

January:

So far north, once it starts getting lighter it gets lighter very quickly.

Looking back, I realise how much harder, longer, and darker early winter was a year ago. I remember taking this photo in January and thinking how unbelievable it felt that there was light until 4:30 in the afternoon.

I love the color of the streetlights here. They're a bright red when they first come on, and then turn orangey-yellow. The specific greys and yellows and oranges of English light are things I won't ever forget--light of foggy days and overcast days, the streetlights, the light just before or after a storm.

beautiful 2009

From December 16 til New Year's Eve (with a gap in the middle for Christmas with my family), I'm going to be posting photos from my 2009 archive that I especially liked. I'll be writing a little bit with them about what happened in the month when they were taken--thinking back on what I've done and how much was good in 2009. If you'd like to do the same or similar, leave a comment so others & I can find you.