My black hollyhock - summer on a stem ... |
We have a new addition to our circle this week. She's called Alexa. We've come a little late to the Alexa party, but she's a really useful girl to have around. She's the Amazon Alexa Echo AI device, who came to live with us courtesy of a half price discount on Prime Day < When did that become a thing? 🤔 >.
Emi seems to have fallen in love with her. He keeps asking her random questions, and then does a little happy dance when she tells him the answer. She's so cool, he croons for the hundred and fiftieth time in an hour. I feel uncomfortable. Part of me groans inwardly at all the questions, as though I'm worried that he's going to exhaust her patience. It's just not polite to ask SO many questions. Then I remember: Duh! She's not real.
So very grateful for my giant blue agapanthus ... |
Her speaker system is really good: much better than that on my mobile phone. As a result I've listened to another couple of talking books, read to me over her audio system. I started the week with Nigel Warburton's A Little History of Philosophy, which was a fun jaunt through Western Philosophy starting with the big 3: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, and then blasting all the way through until the present day with Peter Singer, and his views on speciesism, and effective altruism.
I'm not a very philosophical person. I've got no appetite to wade through hundreds of pages of Hegel or Spinoza (for instance) but it is interesting how the big questions that people ask themselves have changed so much over the centuries, and I've been happily entertained by the little snapshots that Warburton serves up of each step along the way. I've never studied the subject, and, if I'm really honest, most of the little that I know about it comes from Jostein Gaarder's wonderful book, Sophie's World, which I devoured when it hit the bookshops about 20 years ago.
When I got through all the philosophy I moved on to the totally charming novel, The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan. It was un-put-downable: a really, really good
I've been busy with that striped cardigan that I'm still struggling to finish. I've managed to get the sleeve pattern right, and I'm half a sleeve and a button band away from finishing - yeah!
I'm also playing with a blue-eyed bumble bee. Here's where I've got to with him:
He's inspired by all the wonderful bees buzzing around in my garden at the moment.
Maybe, if the wind's blowing in the right direction, I'll get around to adding a hollyhock for him to sit on. I'm totally in love with a splendid black hollyhock that's growing outside my back door. I'm blown away by the drama of those big black flowers against the green foliage. My sister-in-law in Barcelona asked me if it really was a flower.
My favourite black hollyhock |
So, before they catch up with me, I'll wish you a wonderful weekend!
Bonny x
Enjoy these first days of the summer holidays. It is always lovely to have a break from everyday routine and just unwind. Marie x
ReplyDeleteGlad you are getting to relax for a while....your black hollyhocks match my irises that are almost black...and one of these days will post a photo I took of a place that had some. But I was not lucky enough to be able to take close-ups of them.
ReplyDeleteWell I have not had the pleasure of using Alexa but she does sound like fun. - Glad you are able to relax, I love summer break too for that reason. - Wow I don't think I've ever seen a Hollyhock in that dark color before, it's awesome.
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