More specifically concerning: housekeeping
the doubtful guest
17 November 2011, around 8.50.
Mrs. Boswell reacts to a visitation by Samuel Johnson.
a definite achievement
6 January 2013, around 7.01.
Wittgenstein on organizing one’s library
A view (44)
2 September 2015, around 11.20.
midday, Portland
audax
13 April 2016, around 10.37.
A rather large spider has taken up residence in the living room. Well, it is not so much that the spider is large as that it has, shall we say, presence: one notices this spider. Indeed, it notices one right back, turning and glaring (if indeed spiders may be said to glare) when one comes […]
angular
7 May 2019, around 10.11.
Noticing new angles.
imperfective
28 August 2020, around 5.06.
In the mending basket were three pairs of trousers waiting in diverse states of wear and disarray. They had been waiting there for some months, and weighing on my mind for longer – indeed, since I gathered them together with patch and thread and needle to undertake the task of repair, before setting them aside […]
household humors
22 April 2021, around 13.54.
I don’t think the illustrator got the phthisical phiz of Lorry Slim quite right in this dapper sketch of a portly parson. Idleness does not cause disease primarily and in itself, but by means of excess. For parts of the body characterized by idleness become weaker and less robust, as each excess comes about due […]
destressing
5 October 2022, around 13.55.
The historian’s relative choice, with respect to each domain of history he gives up, is always confined to the choice between history which teaches us more and explains less, and history which explains more and teaches less. The only way he can avoid the dilemma is by getting outside history: either by the bottom, if […]
other work
27 March 2023, around 14.23.
It is the itchy time of year, that small collection of days when one notices the dusty cobwebs gathered in the corner and along the picture rail, when the dirty streaks on the window vex a spot of sun that shines too brightly but does not linger long. The piles of books pulled out for […]
ambient
10 April 2023, around 14.48.
If you lose the spirit of repetition, your practice will become difficult. —Shunryu Suzuki (Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, p. 55) These waters must be troubled before they can exert their virtues. —Edmund Burke (A Philosophical Enquiry into […]the Sublime and Beautiful) Monotony is the most beautiful or the most atrocious thing. The most beautiful if […]
qualms before a storm
1 May 2023, around 15.55.
Not a skunk cabbage. The swamp discourages casual camera-carrying. It is the short period of the year when the ground is damp enough, but the weather is dry enough, that fires for burning yard debris are permitted. A week of sun has more or less dried out the massive pile containing three years’ worth of […]