Playing . . .

with the Zeiss magnifier supplied with the micro-graphically reproduced Compact O.E.D. held in front of the lens. Regular close-up lenses usually don't work with zoom lenses but this was effective but with heavy vignetting due to the thickness of the lens from wide to moderate telephoto. I've no idea what diopter this might be equivalent to.

       I didn't sleep very well last night so it took me a while to get going today. I've started reading Olga Tokarczuk's DRIVE YOUR PLOW OVER THE BONES OF THE DEAD.  I was also exploring Eva Figes' books as I'm looking for more book group reads. I have Light and Waking from the early eighties and in searching Amazon found that a book was published in 2003:  "Tales of Innocence and Experience" is a captivating exploration of the relationship between a grandmother and her granddaughter as a second baby is about to be born. Alive to the special sweetness of the relationship, Figes also explores the darker side of childhood. How in fairy tales such as "Snow White", "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Hansel and Gretel" difficult emotions like jealousy and anger, fear of death and abandonment are evoked and transformed by the story-teller's art. It is at this point that the author evokes the fairy tale of her own privileged Berlin childhood which was brutally shattered when her family escaped from the Nazis to England, leaving behind the much loved grandparents, who perished in a death camp in Poland. As Eva Figes says, 'Women lose their innocence, not with loss of virginity, but with childbirth', but a new child around allows the grandmother the chance we all seek to sneak back into the garden of innocence."