Sunday, July 25, 2010

Sunday 25 July

~  Turns out there's a new, very full edition of Rilke's poems, translated by Snow, and with the German (and presumably French, where applicable) text in parallel.  Hit the one-click button!


~  Last week we stumbled on Robbie Coltrane's B-Road Britain.  Tonight he travels through Yorkshire and Lancashire, and we are  quite delighted by the lawn-mower collection, the dock-leaf pudding contest and most of all by his conducting the Grimethorpe Colliery Band playing Elgar's Nimrod. 

~



Water melon and hydrangea, a piquant little combo.  The watermelon I bought first for its miniature beauty - a whole full-sized one is too much and the pre-cut chunks always seem to be a bit mushy and need to be eaten quickly.  This one was no bigger than a honeydew and claimed to be pipless, though in fact it did contain very small and quite swallowable seeds.  It kept very well, and while internet browsing for recipes I found one for a salad, containing, along with the watermelon, cucumber, feta cheese, red onion and Kalamata olives, dressed with some honey and a lot of mint and lime juice.  Apparently such salads are all the rage, and the recipes urged not to be put off by the oddness of the mixed flavours.  I baulked a little and served the onion and feta separately, but the combination really was zingy and delicious, with the lime and mint tying it all together.


~

I've been doing the Three Beautiful Things format for about a month now.  It's been a great help, and generally very satisfying, but I think I'll ease up now.  Once again I must express my admiration for those who have kept it up over a very long period.  Being terse but not banal really is a challenge and a discipline.  I may still do one now and then, perhaps every week or so, or if I'm feeling a bit blog-blocked or in need of the good medicine it provides, or just for the joy of it.

However, things will be getting busier here for a while now, one way and another, and I'm not good enough at the being terse bit to find the time to keep it up.  Also, I think I'd like to get back to writing more, less often, perhaps the odd poem or some of the writing ideas I've been working on the side, or simply just some more series of photos - I've still got a backlog of damsel-flies!   

So thanks to Clare for the idea; had she been able to patent it and claim royalties she'd be able to swaddle Baby Badger in ermine.  And thanks to the rest of you who have stopped by, read and commented. See you around.

7 comments:

leslee said...

This photo set looks so perfectly summery! I rarely get watermelon (usually too big, as you say), but my mouth is watering now. :-)

Pam said...

What beautiful colours! That blue is particularly stunning.

The Crow said...

Good photo montage, Lucy, and - as Isabelle has said - beautiful colors. I especially like the blossom-end shots of the watermelons.

Lucas said...

A delightful collage of colour and shape, redolent of late summer. Each scent and surface suggests warm days. The recipe sounds good too.

20th Century Woman said...

I'm buying the Rilke book. I love Rilke, and my German isn't good enough to read it in German without help.

Clare said...

Ah no, a fleecy blanket will be good enough for BB -- I couldn't stand all those weasels on my conscious. Mind you, looking at the price of some of the baby stuff, it's probably not far off the cost of ermine.

Well done for keeping up with your beautiful things. It's surprising how much longer terseness takes. I'm sorry I haven't been popping in more often, but the move has thrown everything into chaos. Things are coming back to normal now.

Rouchswalwe said...

Just when my busy time is finally winding down, yours revs up, Lucy. I'm going to go back and really enjoy your July posts when my new laptop arrives next week.