Monday, June 18, 2007

Fruit of the Day


Here is a ceramic bowl filled with fruit salad. We had it yesterday as part of a meal with my daughter, stepson and a couple of friends from London. It speaks for itself really, but for the record: mango, pineapple, nectarine, banana, blueberries, grapes; meringues and cream on the side. At the moment I feel as though I could live on this – the signs are therefore auspicious. For the last few weeks I haven’t really fancied the idea of anything other than toast and marmite.


At this point I’m not sure there is anything else that needs to be said – nothing, at any rate, that I would care to identify. It's on the tip of my fingers to say that I may be gone some time but that sounds a bit arctic and final. I quite like the image of Patrick McGoohan in The Prisoner, closing thumb and forefinger before pushing them out into a salute: Be seeing you!

17 comments:

Anna MR said...

What-what? Going? Auspicious?

Suspicious, more like. And thank god for your label "Reasons to be cheerful" - I would be dying of anxiety-riddledom without it.

Sweet Signs - you cannot be going anywhere. There, sorry, that's the way it is. Be seeing you indeed. Around these parts, and lots of it (with a bloody explanation and all).

Thank you.

xx

Reading the Signs said...

A bit of a breather, just, dear anna - the time is ripe (sorry, it's the fruit) - I'll be spooking around.

Anna MR said...

Right you are then, Signs - you are a big blogger, you make your own choices (my typos really want to make that your "won" choices, wrote so twice - I have lately started to note and collect recurring typos).

Anyway, this note here is only really so I can tell you your word ver is jquzhf. There is DEFINITELY a jacuzzi there.

xx

Anonymous said...

ssssssssiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigggggggggggggggggggnnnsss where are you going??? come back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cusp said...

Well if it's a brief sojourn elsewhere you need then a brief sojourn you shall have. Seems like you might be getting over the shingles --- I hope so, because the silence was just beginning to worry me.
Missing you already.

Reading the Signs said...

lzl (ha!ha!) - I could ask you the same thing; make your name any shorter and you'll disappear altogether.

Cusp - hi, I'll be looking in.

Anonymous said...

Your label said, "reasons to be cheerful" but I am not sure I feel so cheerful now.

Take a breather, get well, clear your head, find your smile, but please don't leave us. I liked the fruit salad, I liked the bowl, I like the image of Patrick McGoohan but I really need to keep reading the signs. I do.

Reading the Signs said...

goodthomas, I've added another word to the labels section which you, as an erstwhile actor, will understand - well, in the sense that it's a euphemism.

Mellifluous Dark said...

I admire your fruit.

That's all I have to say on the subject (except: get well soonest).

Mell D

nmj said...

Dearest Signs, I feel healthy & sprightly (well, almost) just looking at that bowl.

Enjoy your wee sabbatical.

Come back strong & happy.

x

Reading the Signs said...

Thanks, Mell D and NMJ - I'll look in.

Pants said...

That looks like my breakfast - that wasn't meant to be an accusation btw. I'm sure lots of people's breakfasts do look like that. Now if you put up a picture of your toast and marmite, I will know for sure if you are a breakfast thief or not.

xxx

Pants

Reading the Signs said...

dear Pants, this was a special occasion fruit salad. I only steal the toast and marmite part of your breakfast. I love it with a great dedication.

The Periodic Englishman said...

Signs, I'm just really dropping by to say hello, and to ask you how you are enjoying your sabbatical. I know that this is maybe a counterproductive move, as the whole point of taking a rest from bloggying is to, well, take a rest, I suppose - and that includes talking to interlopers, too. But there you go.

Still, never knowingly sensitive towards others, I just want to crash your peace and let you know I'm thinking of you and that I wish you well. Always, okay?

Kind regards and an awful lot of warmth,

TPE

Reading the Signs said...

Mr. TPE - it is always good to see you and my peace is all the better for being crashed by your presence. You are welcome to interlope whenever. Well, but you've made me think, and I'm always in two minds about whether this is a good thing. I am happy to be just a pretty face, but - thinks: am I enjoying my sabbatical? Yes, when I remember to be happy. And then again no, when I remember to be miserable. I am Libra, Mr. P.E. so can never find the point of balance.

Warmth and good vibrations back at you, sir.

The Periodic Englishman said...

I am human, Mrs Signs, so can never find the point of balance, either.

It's a tricky one, though, isn't it? There may not be a (critical) point of permanent balance, I suppose, although this fact is hardly likely to deter people from looking for it.

And it can sometimes feel like a burden remembering to be happy on those occasons that seem to demand it. This is one of the reasons I'm not so keen on Christmas. If it would only just sneak up, unannounced, and catch you on a good day - no problem. I would find the seasonal cheer a useful addition to a happy day, then.

But it is the expectation of it all that bothers me. People seem hell bent on proclaiming what fun they are having, and they seem to need to really convince themselves of this - which is fair enough, really. But I've never been able to properly fake it (it used to drive my sisters mad, for example, that I would leave my presents - and sometimes even my stocking - unopened till days afterwards. But I just wanted to wait till it felt like a good time to do so. (Signs, how have I ended up talking about this? Please help me. Please.)

So the point, I suppose, is that I understand what you mean about having to remember to be happy or, deliciously, even miserable, too. It's not as if having a sabbatical, say, is automatically going to trigger either of these emotions - you sometimes need to work on it.

I would just say, though, that as you seem to be needing to prompt yourself to feel either thing, it sounds very much like you are in neutral.

This at least allows you to dip in and out of both misery and happiness from a place of disinterested strength. That's actually not such a bad place to be. (I'm sorry, I'm not one of those people who believes misery should be avoided at all costs - you need to feel miserable or sad sometimes, otherwise you run the very real risk of being permanently happy. And no-one likes an air head, as I feel sure I have mentioned to you before.)

Thinking about whether thinking is a good thing to do, Signs, will always lead you to the conclusion that it's not - if you are in the market for happiness, at any rate. This conclusion is so wrong, however, that it really ticks me off that it's right.

I should go.

Only good things to you, Signs,

TPE

Reading the Signs said...

All this time, Mr. P.E., I have seen my condition as a direct consequence of having been born under a particular zodiac sign, and now you are telling me that it is down to being human. I am going to have to re-think everything. It's good to know, though, that I have this in common with almost everyone else on the planet.

You are a philosopher and a gentleman. Have you been reading Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy? The hub of the wheel is the best place to be. Dame Fortune touches me not. I am, as you say, in neutral, which is a sort of ok place to be.

Sometimes the forces have to stay close to the heart so as to keep everything in working order - the extremities get a bit cold, but it's fine so long as your fingers don't drop off.

TPE, your conclusion is so inconclusive that I feel quite light-headed. I am not an air-head, though.

And another thing: it's only Librans who insist on looking for the point of balance. (But I may have made that up.)

Good things received and appreciated.