Doulton

DUE TO ILLNESS, I AM TAKING A BREAK FROM SWAP-BOT but I will fulfill the swaps I'm currently in.

I am an aging, plump, sort of dowager lady.

My passions are cats, literature, music, travel, film and excellent tv. I like history and languages. I am remarkably illiterate about anything that happened after about 1985 or thereabouts.
I like to write letters and I read a lot--more than most people I know.

I have two sons who are middle-aged and balding; I've been married almost 40 years, and I have five cats.

I probably commit most of the seven deadly sins on a daily basis. I don't think I can change at this point.

My home is absolutely smoke-free but I do have some furry cats. Please contact me if you are allergic to cat hair and let me know how I can send you a "safe swap".

I like to knit and I do a bit of crochet as well. Aside from that, I'm quite klutzy. I have fairly serious arthritis, so my knitting is slow, minimal, and I have to use big needles now.

I have absolutely no talents. I cannot send you cute home-made things or even awkward home-made things. Not everyone has the Martha Stewart gene. I really understand that there are a lot of creative and artistic people here and I am not one of them. I am sad that I am not creative.

I am, however, an appreciator, an audience member, a viewer, an admirer and I love beautiful things.

Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Zadie Smith, Virginia Woolf. Edith Wharton. Iris Murdoch. I like many poets and I'm still in love with Shakespeare after all of these years. Wallace Stevens and Philip Larkin and TS Eliot are my favorite modern poets. Amongst those writing today, I like Mary Jo Salter, Dana Gioia, and Billy Collins.

Network, The Godfather Trio, Chicago, Atonement, West Side Story, Little Voice, anything with Cary Grant, Brenda Blethyn, Imelda Staunton

I love classical music and opera. I also enjoy big band music and classic rock. I love the Beatles and Bach, Edith Piaf and Maria Callas. I like Broadway and some mellow jazz. Recently I've discovered some more contemporary music that I like: Regina Spektor, St. Vincent, Elvis Perkins, Wilco, for example. I love the voice of Johnny Cash and also his daughter, Rosanne. Probably the operas of Puccini are my biggest musical love. I also am quite smitten with Verdi and Rossini.

Update: I like Curb Your Enthusiasm, Big Love, Gossip Girl and have started watching some reality tv.

I also like The Sopranos, which may be the finest series ever. I like 30 Rock, The Office, Dexter, House, Desperate Housewives. I like many of the Masterpiece Theatre types of productions. Dick Wolf productions are good for an easy yet typically riveting hour.

I really love tea; I prefer black tea to green or white tea. I do like flavored tea. I like Chai teas and the kinds of teas that 52teas sells. I also like Mariage Freres and TMW. Although I primarily drink loose tea, I'm not really a "tea snob" and some bagged teas are simply wonderful.

I prefer robust teas; you can find me on Steepster.

Puccini and Verdi; Flannery O'Connor, Jane Austen, Edith Wharton, John Keats, Wallace Stevens, Edward Gorey, Anthony Trollope, Beethoven, Jackie Kennedy Onassis!, The Royal Family, Anne Tyler, Turner, the painter; the Pre-Raphaelites, Edward Hopper, Philip Larkin.

I don't like religious stuff or acrylic yarns. I don't much like eyelash or ribbony types of yarn. I really dislike the smell of smoke and seem to be very sensitive to it. I have a fear of clowns! I don't do "cute". I don't do "New Age".

Otherwise, I'm fairly easy to please.

In books, I don't like Sci-Fi, "romances," "westerns," or anything Harry Potter or Twilight. The supernatural and the paranormal make me yawn!

WHAT TO SEND ME?

Only what the swap calls for. I think too many people expect that one must include extras.

I am eager to send "extras" very occasionally and then as a surprise to the recipient. I'd rather send one person a really nice item once a month then send out cheesy little trifles every day. If you are matched with me and I really like your profile, I might send you a surprise. But as a routine, I would prefer not to.

As for myself, I do like bookmarks and postcards but I expect nothing except the bare minimum that the swap calls for. You can please me with some imagination and flare, with an interesting vocabulary word or image, and with some engagement with the arts.