side real

"He writes only because he reads, and he reads only because there are these authors to read time and again. He 'owes' them something or, perhaps, everything, if only because he could not write without them: their writing exists as the precondition of his own…" Judith Butler on Jacques Derrida (London Review of Books)

This is something I read and took note of while spending time in a small town I had never been to and am unlikely to return.
My ongoing dilemma- how to balance the reading life- which is one of removal: silence & solitude, with life which based on immersion? Do I participate in the action, or am I a witness?




But in the meantime, while I excogitate upon that- here are some delightful scenes of a garden tour I took yesterday (Sunday)-