Tolstoy, Woolf, Fitzgerald, Rachmaninov

It's been a while. Less than two weeks since I last wrote a blog post; honestly I didn't think anyone would notice. But an outcry from my readers has motivated me to get my head down. I used the excuse that "I am sitting in the middle of some workmen replacing a gas boiler and associated building works." Which is both true and stressful. And ongoing. Of course, the new football season has begun and the TV is getting my full attention. I've also developed am obsession with the Times Quick Cryptic Crossword; not the full Cryptic, I have yet to graduate to that. Most days I can complete it, although yesterday's was full of Dickensian references and I simply didn't know that "women's hats" referred to Dolly Varden, a character in Barnaby Rudge, whose name was used to characterise various items of fashionable female clothing in Victorian England.

Am I simply lacking motivation? I think not, except that lethargy brought on by an inability to find a way to expand items of news which I found interesting into full-blown essays. Here are some examples:

Scientists have concluded that a duck in Australia has learned to speak English. Addressing the scientist directly, the duck says "you bloody fool".

Speaks for itself. Which effectively stopped that potential blog post in its tracks.

Apparently all US states have official songs. For instance, Georgia's is ... obviously ... Ray Charles' Georgia on My Mind. New Jersey is the only exception because the Governor in 1972 vetoed the "I'm From New Jersey" proposal. I think he thought it was too prosaic. You can see a list of all the US state songs on Wikipedia. It lead me to wonder what song my English county - Cornwall - should adopt. And that's the point at which inspiration - and enthusiasm for the topic - ran out.

Maybe I have been suffering from some form of Writer's Block. Pretentiously putting me on a pedestal alongside the eponymous Leo, Virginia, Scottie and Sergei.

You may be pleased to know that I'm trying. Works on the subjects of the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway, replacement-level fertility, spoken poetry and pooh sticks are on the production line. Amongst other drafts in progress.

For the moment, though, there's footy on the telly.