Women Travel Books

Wanderlust: A History of Walking by Rebecca Solnit. This is an exceptionally interesting book with an unpromising title. She covers how humans evolved to walk, famous walkers, the benefits of walking along with more philosophical considerations like the appreciation of landscape and nature, exploration, and politics. I was especially grabbed by feminist critiques of thoughts on human evolution, why walking puts you in touch with society, the development of the idea of the healthy outdoors and early social commentators walking the country in the C18th. Fascinating book to dip in and out of, full of thought provoking ideas.

Leibster Award a Quiz from Steff

A blogging questions challenge from my friend Steff. Here blog address is below and it is really worth reading. Also thank you for your kind words Steff. I am not very blogliterate so apologies if I missed out all the links and things.

http://www.deepgreensandblues.co.uk

Please feel free to comment or share your own thoughts...

1. My favourite musician....I am not a knowledgeable music person but would have to go with Elvis or Kate Bush. I love a really distinctive voice.

2. I don't believe in love at first sight, it is the person's character that makes you love them. Lust at first sight maybe!

3. My happiest childhood memory is a long walk in West Bridgeford with my family, finding frogspawn along the old railway track in the summer. Generally I tend not to remember things though, I have a terrible memory.

4. Something I'm proud of is still getting a First in my degree, it took everything I had. (See below). 

5. My favourite ice cream flavour is salted caramel, especially from the restaurant Montparnasse 1900 in Paris.

6. And my fantasy place to live is a flat on the left bank in Paris, near an outdoor market.

7. My book for a desert island would be Alice in Wonderland. I always return to it, it is almost like a religious text for me. I like the weirdness, it is also obsessive which appeals to my aspergery tendencies.

8. But I don't believe in God.

9. I am an Aries and find astrology entertaining but am not a believer.

10. I started blogging in 2010. The paintings were a challenge from my husband Alistair as I had been in a massive creative block since I finished my design degree in 1996. I haven't done a big painting yet though, they are just little sketches.

11. I don't have any really unusual hobbies now but I can do Lancashire Clog Dancing which I learned at school. Sadly it is all ceilidh up here which I am very bad at. 

Fairy Tale

Yesterday I was at Craigievar Castle for the day. I used to work here a few years ago when the castle was being restored. Craigievar is a frankly unbelievable confection in sugar pink which looks like a giant marshmallow. Inside, it is a maze of tiny quirky rooms. The building dates from the early 1600s and was the home of the Forbes family. It was lived in into the C20th and yet has no lighting or heating. A time capsule. 

Marvellous Mausoleum

A few weeks ago, I went with some friends from work to view the Fraser Mausoleum. This small classical gem graces a quiet, sunlit graveyard near the pretty church of Cluny. The mausoleum was built for Elyza Fraser of Castle Fraser by her lifelong friend James Byers, antiquary and little known architect. It is a very beautiful and moving site, the last resting place of the now extinct Frasers of Castle Fraser. A group is raising money to restore this rare and special building.

Fantastical Fruits

When I had broken (ok, ligament damaged) my foot, I went through a few weeks feeling really rubbish...feeble, pasty and bloated. Cue a serious healthy eating bender. Part of this involves replacing snacks with fruit, and buying as many weird fruits as possible. Stopping off in Tesco, I managed this haul of lychees, kiwis, flat peaches and granadillas. I can report that lychees are odd but delicious but that the granadilla is full of grey frogspawny stuff. My kiwi drawing resembles some enraged hairy potato...

Travel Reading

Just an update on my travel reading...I have gone through a few women travellers books since I last posted. 

My favourites were Travels with Myself and Another by Martha Gellhorn. Martha is a famous American journalist and writes very sarcastically and entertainingly about the worst places she has ever been,mostly in the 40s and 50s. China during the Civil War in the 1940s was the worst. Worst companion prize went to her African safari driver who couldn't drive and hated the countryside.

Transwonderland by Noo Saro Wira was my other favourite, about her home country of Nigeria. Noo's father was the murdered democracy campaigner Ken Saro Wira. She writes very movingly about her love for her country, but her frustrations with it's corrupt politics and endemic poverty.

I like travel books that discuss the politics and history of places, looking beneath the surface rather than many which seem to be about 'aren't they funny here' or 'my dream cottage in Provence'. I am also annoyed by priveliged people going out to discover themselves or partake in a spiritual journey, grossly self indulgent.

Go for Baroque

On Saturday we had a lovely day in the local market town of Inverurie, buying model tanks, local strawberries and cheeses. The small country town is dominated by the spire of the town hall which is bizarre in the extreme. Looking like something from a wedding cake, or from the Taj Mahal, it was designed by J Russell Mackenzie in 1862, inspired by the baroque churches of Vanburgh and Hawksmoor in London.  

Also one for my clock towers series!