tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post3693355273549720962..comments2023-10-31T15:39:09.651+01:00Comments on box elder: Chatting to my blogLucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09764296105901909328noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-38240125385702039592012-04-09T17:06:05.051+02:002012-04-09T17:06:05.051+02:00as always, i'm envious of your spring. we just...as always, i'm envious of your spring. we just spent a week in vancouver where they have such a beast, and not until may like ours, and i have great need of green and growing things but, alas, must wait.<br /><br />that quote, my god, it is brilliant. and it makes me realise that i have never actually read the book but only seen the film, many years ago.the polish chickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09929281676865641560noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-111239834843572322012-04-02T23:38:34.938+02:002012-04-02T23:38:34.938+02:00I like the pale violet shade of liquid in the glas...I like the pale violet shade of liquid in the glass, followed by burning beeswax in glass. There's a whole spectrum of colors in this post, in the photos and text.<br /><br />I admire how you can calmly work alongside bees. I've never been able to do that. It's one reason it's difficult for me once the weather gets warm to sit on a bench in the park and read. I'm too uneasy around them.HKatzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17653570160517335758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-13314267233040993672012-04-02T21:32:46.133+02:002012-04-02T21:32:46.133+02:00And again thanks.
LdP - Oddly the main place I re...And again thanks.<br /><br />LdP - Oddly the main place I remember parma violets being on sale was at our local outdoor swimming pool sweetshop, don't know why. I remember My Antonia as an early Virago edition, didn't know it was so old as to be out of copyright. The only Forster I'd ever read was that rather soppy bit if gay wishful thinking 'Maurice', which was around somewhere I was working, though I'd seen various film adaptations. I started with Howards End after reading Zadie Smith's 'On Beauty', because that's modelled on it. I'm glad in fact I read OB first as if I'd already known HE, the former, which I enjoyed, would have irritated me, I think. He is pleasingly aphoristic. That quote is dialogue, and the voice of a rather green, intense and possibly sententious young man, but I liked it anyway.<br /><br />FB - you probably received more or my chatty letters than anyone!<br /><br />Tristan - I saw a lone and battered swallow here late last November. It wasn't snowing though.<br /><br />R - not a gin drinker, I'm afraid, but the orange slice sounds interesting, there are some pretty sounding cocktails that require it. Our swallows' migration patterns may differ from yours, they are different, though similar, species.<br /><br />Dick - they're just little prongs on the old tv aeriel, but I see what you mean! Spring came early this year, and I rather stole a march, (or a March!) on myself...<br /><br />Plutarch - yes, it's a bit too much like blue food isn't it?<br /><br />Zephyr - thanks, we had a nice time.<br /><br />Cat - yes, for a while I though pansies, like petunias, were a bit insipid and formulaic, but I've come to value their brightness and come-again vigour. The ranunculus won't last so long, but they're inexpensive and so dramatic, and I love that they're kind of souped-up buttercups!<br /><br />Marly - oh, you make me feel churlish! It wasn't unpleasing, the children laughed plenty at the daft bits, especially early on, and audiences hereabouts are not spoiled and are polite and appreciative, so he didn't obviously get a poor reception. He'd toured around the world with it and gained awards, so he wasn't suffering from lack of applause. He might have done better to give us the lecture first while we were still fresh and curious and the kids on good behaviour and patient. One of the problems may be, as with a Punch and Judy, that it's a sweet and sanitised compared to what it was originally. But even modern Punch and Judy usually has a lot of characters and quite a long narrative with a few twists and turns, and perhaps Polichinelle story needed to develop and evolve to stay alive, as you suggest.Lucyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09764296105901909328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-71638121668375689032012-04-02T18:25:42.673+02:002012-04-02T18:25:42.673+02:00Rather sad to think of the faun not knowing quite ...Rather sad to think of the faun not knowing quite why his work is not pleasing... And I wonder if it would have been, in its own time, and we have outgrown such things.marly youmanshttp://www.thepalaceat2.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-61699923662838576052012-04-01T19:09:23.660+02:002012-04-01T19:09:23.660+02:00I love your camellia, as well as the orange rancul...I love your camellia, as well as the orange ranculus. And pansies are always wonderful, like petunias.Catalysthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03804837416104556928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-16268767804783815492012-04-01T17:44:36.297+02:002012-04-01T17:44:36.297+02:00Thoroughly enjoyed this springy post. Especially l...Thoroughly enjoyed this springy post. Especially loved the portion about your Princeling.zephyrhttp://www.thegarden.typepad.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-85163782611177075052012-04-01T14:57:56.688+02:002012-04-01T14:57:56.688+02:00That violet drink brought back memories of rather ...That violet drink brought back memories of rather an odd sort. The colour used to evoke the sort of poison that featured in fairy tales. So that when I received. aged 4, a box of chocolates as a misguided birthday present, and was allowed one after meals, I threw those containing violet cream aways, because I was convinced that a wicked witch had laced them with poison. My Mother found them among the roses beneath the window, and never truly fathomed which I had thrown them there. I simply said that I didn't like them.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06972049290586377462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-5942798323635398102012-04-01T10:40:15.707+02:002012-04-01T10:40:15.707+02:00I'm not chatting to my blog enough either and ...I'm not chatting to my blog enough either and I'm not chatting to my friends' blogs nearly enough. Not when I know there will be riches to find.<br /><br />The violet syrup looks just like meths! Beguiling, though. I think they do it in Waitrose. I'll have to give it a try.<br /><br />Your swallows appear to be seated on very well stocked gun emplacements. Nobody messes with the Kemptons!<br /><br />Such glorious pictures of what's happening outside your house. Time to re-enter the wilderness that is our garden to prepare for spring.Dickhttp://patteran.typepad.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-35203477837323729122012-03-31T00:20:41.117+02:002012-03-31T00:20:41.117+02:00I am struggling a bit, here in my first inner-city...I am struggling a bit, here in my first inner-city spring, in noticing the signs ... I saw two geese fly overhead on my lunch break today. Haven't noticed any swallows, so it is with joy in my heart that I view your photos, sweet Lucy. So happy to read that you're working your way towards the Creme de Violette! Taste some and then make a nice cocktail with some quality gin and a spritz of lemon and an orange slice.Rouchswalwehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01393987883437907945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-75620150093606863852012-03-30T17:12:22.538+02:002012-03-30T17:12:22.538+02:00anomalous swallow sighting of yore ... i think it ...anomalous swallow sighting of yore ... i think it was in may 1967 ... flying through heavy snow at malmesburytristanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13268216095376583052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-40572120304690627732012-03-30T17:07:47.895+02:002012-03-30T17:07:47.895+02:00I enjoyed this nice chatI enjoyed this nice chatFire Birdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13518190677399410354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-7813700712194057612012-03-30T08:01:52.388+02:002012-03-30T08:01:52.388+02:00The war affected my beginnings as a reader; aged t...The war affected my beginnings as a reader; aged ten when it ended I found myself reading rubbishy stuff (whodunnits mostly) that belonged to another era since it took time for the post-war publishing industry to get up to speed. As a result my early vocabulary was littered with outdated terms. Notably parma violets. In books from the thirties, now forgotten, villains included <i>people who drank</i> and guess what they sucked to cover up their crime. I had no idea they'd survived post-war. What interests me now is the accidental complicity those forgotten authors invited; phrases like parma violets weren't explained because everyone (that is, contemporary thirties readers) knew what they were. And thus I became part of a strange anachronistic elite. or thought I did until you fractured my time warp.<br /><br />Out of copyright delights on the Kindle. Just finished Willa Cather's My Antonia, which doesn't seem to get much attention from the chattering classes these days. A very detailed account of late eighteenth farming life among the immigrant communities in Nebraska. And if that summary doesn't turn you off, let me repeat it's the detail that counts.<br /><br />The quote becomes <i>echt</i> Forster via the addition of "for all you're worth". He had a habit of using iodiomatic phrases like that which leavened his otherwise lapidary tendencies.Roderick Robinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16828395545197001637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-65708695088825700752012-03-30T08:00:43.029+02:002012-03-30T08:00:43.029+02:00Thanks both.
Hliza - lovely to see you whenever, ...Thanks both.<br /><br />Hliza - lovely to see you whenever, I know how busy you are, and I don't get around as much as I did. I'm afraid it's the garden centre has the green fingers, I just buy them and stick them in the window box! I think quick blogs with a few pictures little and often are a nice way to go anyway, and probably what I ought to try to do more of.<br /><br />Z - I rather liked 'thongs'. Thanks Moby. I have to do that with a dog on my lap often.Lucyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09764296105901909328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-85774238370336148282012-03-30T00:44:29.110+02:002012-03-30T00:44:29.110+02:00things.
I have a cat on my lap, so I'm using ...things.<br /><br />I have a cat on my lap, so I'm using one hand here.Zhoenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03515663141425057088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-54250920018654376192012-03-30T00:43:30.663+02:002012-03-30T00:43:30.663+02:00Funny, I started blogging as letters to a friend. ...Funny, I started blogging as letters to a friend. Long essays, stream of consciousness, and I often in the middle remembered thongs I'd forgotten to say.<br /><br />Gorgeous colors.Zhoenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03515663141425057088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-66831552323686784882012-03-29T23:46:44.487+02:002012-03-29T23:46:44.487+02:00You really have green fingers..which had always be...You really have green fingers..which had always been a thing I'm not..and always make me envious! I have to work out on my planting skills..hehe. Don't worry about the blogging part..you had so far written fascinating stuffs here, letting us to peep into your daily world. I do hope I can do more of that if time permits one day rather than typing one or two lines and adding pics so that the space doesn't look so boring! Hugs to you Lucy..sorry I hardly visit nowadays..HLizahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04501423875033391870noreply@blogger.com