Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Verbal and non-verbal.





Nearly Easter and the weather continues unseasonably cold and wet. Day after day after day of rain. The PONs love these miserable conditions. The ground is gloppy, the mole hills easy to excavate and there are puddles to drink from and mud to roll in . For the same reasons PON owners tend to be less enthusiastic about extended spells of wet weather. 


Today Sophie is in a 'feisty' mood. She bombards me with PON ESP to let me know that it's time to get harnessed up and head off to the bakers. Sophie is adept at combining  verbal and non-verbal communication.


Books I've read this week. For beautiful prose it's difficult to beat this. The unlikely story of a Jewish Communist agitator grandfather who fled Russia in 1909 and set up a new life as a typewriter salesman in London. Written by his son ( who now teaches at Columbia ) with a warmth and insight that borders on the magical. The opening line " I thought I knew Dad well, but the day he died I began to realize how much of his life was unknown to me " skilfully speaks to everyone. History as universal family.



This is a dog breed I'd never seen or heard of : https://twitter.com/PositiveRomania/status/977917848940154881


This is cool : https://cosmosmagazine.com/climate/mediterranean-megaflood-confirmed




7 comments:

Taste of France said...

Thank you for the book recommendation. I was just thinking about how mysterious our parents are to us.

WFT Nobby said...

Thank you. I now have a book to look forward to reading myself and also the perfect birthday present for my Jewish friend Yvonne, whose ancestry is part Russian and whose parents were once members of the Communist Party in London's East End. Cheers, Gail. (cuurently enjoying Thad Carhart's 'The Piano Shop on the Left Bank'.

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari OM
I too will look for this book - am fond of both biographies and history! I recently read Narrow Dog to Carcassone, which I think you would appreciate.

The Bucovino has something of the St Bernard about it... and yes, that was cool! YAM xx

Swan said...

It’s amazing what animals can say without words..Thank you for the book recommendation. I’m always looking for good books.

rottrover said...

The Bucovina Shepherd dogs look like what my Armenian neighbor calls his Gamper dog. Big, sociable and good guard dogs...

Susan said...

Thinking of the bits of a parent's life that we don't know, my sister and I stayed with our father over Christmas. An event that I dimly remember from my childhood came up in conversation and my father pulled out a file full of newspaper clippings. I'm sure neither my sister nor I knew it existed. The file contained accounts of him being first on the scene at a terrible road accident amongst other things. I wanted to ask him about his treatment for depression, which I also dimly remember, and whether it was related to this episode or something else, but the moment never seemed quite right.

Coppa's girl said...

Sophie certainly looks in one of her feisty moods, but poor Bob just looks bewildered, poor chap !
Loved the clip of the Bucovino - interesting dogs.
I wonder if any of us ever know everything about our parent's lives?