shopping
Given that I have been rude enough to see the 'OPEN' sign and the door left ajar as reason to walk in and interrupt her quiet inventory time, the very least I could do would be to damn well buy enough to make it worth her while.
behind the scenes
"You've moved everything around!" This will be today's cri de coeur from everyone who walks through the door (who's been here before, obviously) as I have boldly, nay, recklessly, indeed moved everything around.
books
And Inspector Alleyn and Hamnet and William Morris and John Donne and Olive Kitteridge and Deborah Levy and Lucy Mangan and...and...hopefully, you've realised this will be a post about what I've read this wild and woolly March. If, however, you are labouring under the
history
...the fort opens out in front of you, this wide grassland expanse on the top of the hill and this lovely weathered lump of oolitic limestone (satisfying to hold and say) really can't be mistaken for anything other than the creature it's named for.
walking
We go left. This is the path I walked so many times, so long ago, with my dog, his tail a plumed marker. Each step is familiar, each tree and hedge. I can anticipate where the path will dip, fall away, regain itself.
Museums
Welcome to the first of my dispatches from behind the scenes at the museum. Any museum, frankly. One of those universal truths is just how many biscuits volunteers can get through in a week.
What I am doing. For some time, certain friends have suggested I write a Substack. "Do it! You love writing! People will pay you!" they'd shout in varying stages of inebriation. And for ages, I, in my own varying stages of inebriation, have declined. Resisted. Rolled
News
This is Old Stones, a brand new site by me, Tonia, that's just getting started. Things will be up and running here shortly, but you can subscribe in the meantime if you'd like to stay up to date and receive emails when new content is published.