Rather sensible mother

I have been listening today to 'The Bridges of Madison County' by Robert James Waller, it is a film that I love but a book I have never read. It was wonderful to discover that the film captures so beautifully the essence of the story. While it has been criticised as being a sentimental love story I find it poignant and heartbreaking. Written partly as if by a journalist documenting a real life story it is told mostly from the point of view of Francesca, a middle aged farmer's wife, who falls in love with Robert Kincaid, a photographer visiting the area to take pictures of traditional local bridges. It is a story about two people finding each other in the unlikeliest of situations, and finding there the thing that their life had been missing. It is about a 'rather sensible mother' who sacrifices her own desires for the life with her family. It is a very sensuous book, much of the story being taken up with each observing the other and the description of the minutiae of their behaviour when together. It captures the contrast between their life experiences and then draws them together in this undisturbed and isolated rural setting. I find it poignant because of the way that their feelings for each other continue to affect them throughout their lives, but not in a devastating way, but in way that gave them some indefinable quality; the ultimate example of 'tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all'. 

It was the perfect accompaniment to brewing up a concoction of apples and blackberries:

giving me 17 and a half pots of luscious jam:

I am not much of a shoe buyer, and when I do they are eminently sensible. After over 12 years with my last pair of DMs (a pair that were originally white nubuck but have long since been indescribable) I went out with Creature to the DM shop on Market Street and invested in a new pair. While they do all sorts of lovely flowery or embroidered designs they are only in what is called 'women's' style, which were unfortunately too narrow, so I ended up going back to some unisex purple ones. I thought I might document how long this pair lasts me.