stiff upper lip

One of the best people I know reminded me that I should find a stiff upper lip in my passport, right next to the lion and the unicorn. I must remember to have a look for it in the morning.

I miss my ocean

I'm having a hard time settling in here.

This story is from Orford, Suffolk, near where I was born. I think it's terribly sad.



'Men fishing in the sea caught in their nets a wild man. He was naked and was like a man in all his members, covered with hair and with a long shaggy beard. He eagerly ate whatever was brought to him but if it was raw he pressed it between his hands until all the juice was expelled. He would not talk, even when tortured and hung up by his feet. Brought into church, he showed no signs of reverence or belief. He sought his bed at sunset and always remained there until sunrise.

He was allowed to go into the sea, strongly guarded with three lines of nets, but he dived under the nets and came up again and again. Eventually he came back of his own free will. But later on he escaped and was never seen again.'


(Recorded by Ralph of Coggeshall, a 12th-13th Century Cistercian monk, later abbott, and English chronicler.)

hair

I am still experiencing... shall we say... very intense culture shock. I've been getting my ducks in a row and working to secure studio space to use while I'm here. Not much else to report, but I have received some amusing comments about my hair this week. Riding in the car one of my cousin's four-year-old twins told me my hair looked like a monster. It was perhaps the best hair compliment I've ever received. Then today I was queuing in the library and an elderly gentleman said, "It's just not fair! You have all that hair piled at the back of your head and I don't have any!" It made me smile.