wsake

EXCELLENT WOMEN by Barbara Pym

o dear - i have been thinking about and working on this for so long

now i just have to get it out

no matter how good or bad it turned out

.

i don´t know exactly why i´m that into Barbara Pym´s books

they are quite churchy - i a fun way though - and they don´t seem to relate to anything in my life

but there is this fascinating species of "excellent women" 

single ladies, almost thirty (a "desperate age") and always ready with a cup of tea

not all of them seem to care to get married

- men would only need them for said cup of teas or typing up their work - being excellent is not very loveable -

some of them do get married though

even the "excellent woman" Mildred who by the end of this book hasn´t choosen one of her odd suiters

so this we only get to know reading one of the following novels - and i´m not that thrilled by that turn of the story

(something i love about these books: characters tend to return in other stories

i wished for a lot more of Faustina the cat - playing with palm crosses, getting her special lunch of coley cooked

but unfortunately she appeared in Pym´s last book and wasn´t able to make a comeback)

.

i was thinking for quite some time where or who those "excellent women" are nowadays

and i think there aren´t any, they were left behind in the 1960s maybe

and is there even a "desperate age" anymore?

i know there definitely is no need for melancholy women´s lunches

even if there are only left over leaves and dried up cheese and cans of beans

you could always turn those into "excellent" stews and bakes 

(sometimes with beer in it and a bit to drink with it, too)

getting even better the second time warmed up, tinfoiled

being "excellent" in the food department now means Weck jars full of pestos and sauces

thinking ahead of the meals you might get out of the batch 

pasta cooked in vegetable juices

and frozen logs of shortbread dough to slice off and bake some any time

well, at least it does for me

.

and when i´m done filling my days with arranging flowers and putting my aged parent W to work

i might go out and buy myself a spectacular named and looking shade of lipstick

called something like "hawaiian fire"

even though this might be an unsuitable and too exciting colour for me

i´d take it home anyway

.

probably Barbara Pym´s book are not for everybody

she get´s compared to Jane Austen a lot - a fact that might put off a lot off potential readers

don´t be! she really is a treat

DENISE likes her too - we even share the same favorite quotes

Juliette Tang DOES SO TOO

coral necklace from my grandmother, restrung by me

cat plate by ALEX SICKLING

picture of dashing shallow Rockingham by E

(actually it´s not him - i just misused a picture she made of a dear friend)

BEER BAKED BEANS