We arrived yesterday morning in London and powered through the day with lots of walking, one nap, and a respectable early bedtime. Today we increased our step count exploring Knightsbridge (think Harrod’s Food Hall) and spending time in both Hyde Park and Green Park. The rose garden was mostly over except for one or two last blooms.
RECENT READING
The Latter Days by Judith Freeman
Continuing my reading of memoirs by writers and reporters, I read this one by novelist Judith Freeman. She was brought up in the Mormon faith, but strained against its strictures and rules from an early age. Certainly by her teen years, she was rebelling internally, being given talks by one of the church elders, and subjected to little chats with her mother who admonished her to behave more like her older sister, Marcia.
Somewhat surprisingly, Freeman married a local boy at seventeen, got pregnant very soon thereafter and surrendered any thought of college for herself. Later she and her husband moved from Utah to Minnesota and grew even farther away from the church.
Freeman’s memoir is straightforward and plain as she recounts a childhood starved of warmth and thin on material goods. I found some of the early chapters slow, but appreciated more her later discussion of the turquoise notebook she found from her high school years and how she was eventually able to quench her thirst for learning and channel her desire to become a writer. She has written several novels based on her Mormonism.
All photos copyright JWFarrington
Love the header photo of window box of flowers!
Isn’t it great to be retired and just do as you please? All but 3 folks (out of 11) were retirees on our bike trip which was fun ( I never cycled more than I wanted to) and nice interesting people.
Today is re-entry day- personal training at 8 and now laundry before grocery shopping. Visiting Tomee on the way home( she fractured her patella at airport when coming home from visiting her daughter about 3 weeks ago).