The Shepheardes Calender

Such rage as winters, reigneth in my heart,
My life bloud friesing with vnkindly cold:
Such stormy stoures do breede my balefull smarte,
As if my yeare were wast, and woxen old.
And yet alas, but now my spring begonne,
And yet alas, yt is already donne.

You naked trees, whose shady leaves are lost,
Wherein the byrds were wont to build their bowre:
And now are clothd with mosse and hoary frost,
Instede of bloosmes, wherwith your buds did flowre:
I see your teares, that from your boughes doe raine,
Whose drops in drery ysicles remaine.

All so my lustfull leafe is drye and sere,
My timely buds with wayling all are wasted:
The blossome, which my braunch of youth did beare,
With breathed sighes is blowne away, & blasted,
And from mine eyes the drizling teares descend,
As on your boughes the ysicles depend.

-- Edmund Spenser (From 'January')

Winter here doesn't look quite so miserable. The epic amounts of snow are wonderful! Though perhaps inconvenient. Brugge was the most beautiful place, very romantic, but very very cold. Due to the snow, however, we were trapped in Brussels-Midi station - the most terrifying place, but we just about managed to find a hotel at 10pm. But that didn't put too much of a damper on things. It was an adventure. :) And thanks to the ridiculous amount of time I've spent on trains this week, I'm almost half way through 'Tom Jones' - which is AMAZING! Even better than 'Tristram Shandy'. If I'm not careful I might end up choosing it as a module for finals! (But what could replace my beloved Victorian and Art?). It's a fanastic book, with all (if not more) of the humour and generic interest of TS, but with a much more easy to follow style and an interesting plot. TS is much more out there with it's devices, but Henry Fielding prevides constant mini-essays on genre, which will no doubt prove very helpful for the term ahead.

The time in Brugge also inspired much of my artistic inners - I'm now determined to create a travel scrap book, in the style I used to make my art work collages at college. I collected all the little things that can remind me of the wonderful (and eventful) times, and I'll try and do this for future trips. If only I'd done this for Italy! That would have been a wonderful record. The week also made me even more desperate for a good SLR camera, I took so many snaps on my shitty digital one. I'll buy one this year for sure.

Well, I'm back off to uni tomorrow. Have a dilemma over how to buy a new clarinet - found out the cheapest/best place is actually in the village my boyfriend lives in, which I will annoyingly not be frequenting for a few months till term's over. He could go and buy it for me tomorrow (I know which one I want) - but that's a lot of money to spend on something I can't try out first. Hmm. Decisions. :(

Well, of to la pub.