Well, it’s been a funny old week – spent mostly on very long journeys for very short hospital visits. Ten hours driving in three days – exhausting for my poor husband. Also we remembered – we’re not very good at remembering it – that yesterday was our wedding anniversary – the 49th, actually. But by the evening I was feeling too dismembered to do anything other than look at the bottle of champagne we’d optimistically bought on the way home. So I raised a glass of water and Richard raised a glass of sherry, and we determined to do better next year.<\/p>\n
Anyway, instead of a proper blog, here’s a poem by Thomas Hardy, suitably austere; melancholy but with a note of hope, about a long married couple and their relationship. <\/p>\n
Between Us Now<\/p>\n
Between us now and here –
\n Two thrown together
\nWho are not wont to wear
\n Life’s flushest feather –
\nWho see the scenes slide past,
\nThe daytimes dimming fast,
\nLet there be truth at last,
\n Even if despair. <\/p>\n
So thoroughly and long
\n Have you now known me,
\nSo real in faith and strong
\n Have I now shown me,
\nThat nothing needs disguise
\nFurther in any wise,
\nOr asks or justifies
\n A guarded tongue. <\/p>\n
Face unto face, then, say,
\n Eyes mine own meeting,
\nIs your heart far away,
\n Or with mine beating?
\nWhen false things are brought low,
\nAnd swift things have grown slow,
\nFeigning like froth shall go,
\n Faith be for aye. <\/p>\n
Thomas Hardy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Well, it’s been a funny old week – spent mostly on very long journeys for very short hospital visits. Ten hours driving in three days – exhausting for my poor husband. Also we remembered – we’re not very good at remembering it – that yesterday was our wedding anniversary – the 49th, actually. But by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=105"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108,"href":"http:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions\/108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/francesthomas.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}