Melon-art, slugs and publishers

Posted on May 20, 2015 by hilarycustancegreen

These are not necessarily connected, but reflect my divergent states of mind. We have been in Prague for (my husband’s) conference and were royally entertained. The food was actually ‘awesome’, both the meals and the continuous supply of irresistible nibbles, and even works of art. For the past thirty plus years I have airily dismissed the ‘slug’ problem. Others had slugs; I rarely saw one. All change. They have eaten all the tulip leaves and shredded and decapitated many of the irises, they have munched the lilies to oblivion before I could see them. They have demolished my precious seedlings – the first from the greenhouse that I planted out two weeks ago. So, I now collect handfuls of slugs every time I leave the house and heave them into the green bin – a variation on squishing blackly and lily beetles. I have purchased a copper collar for my chocolate cosmos and the latest organic control – wool pellets for the veg plot. These are not beautiful and smell somewhat of goat, but I am hoping to save the runner beans. For the last three years I have been looking for a non-fiction publisher for my manuscript Writing to a Ghost: Letters to the River Kwai 1941 to 1945. One of my 2013 emails has just been answered! Am still looking? Indeed I am, and they sound fine … in their field (mostly sport). I never thought I would be able to resist an invitation to submit to a publisher, but sadly I feel that my book will not fit with their other titles (and I suspect their team will not have design and editorial expertise in titles about WWII and women’s roles) and they definitely do not have appropriate trade supply connections. Am I mad?

‘Farmers fear unkindly May, frost by night and hail by day.’ (Flanders and Swann) However the rhododendrons are emerging and the tree peony and guelder rose are in flower. STOP PRESS

Beer works! Thanks to everyone who suggested it.

Maples, martins and some frogs

Posted on May 11, 2015 by hilarycustancegreen

Acer palmatum Trompenberg

It seems I will never get used to the sight of the new leaves on Japanese maples. Lucky me. Going around and checking the young leaves for black-fly is one of my hopeless antidotes at the moment for my depression over the election results.

Acer palmatum Sango-kaku

Acer palmatum Matsukaze

And biggest excitement of the maple year – a new baby.

Every May there is another excitement – the return of the martins. We were a little apprehensive about their reactions, as we had knocked out two of their three regular nests in order to paint the bargeboards round the house. However they are back and seem to be sharing the one nest while building next door. This is a pair.

If you thought the photos of the martins were poor, try my ‘art house’ video of frogs. Actually, best shut your eyes and listen. It is only 9 seconds. It expresses some of my censored comments at the moment.

The books of Borgo Pignano

Posted on May 2, 2015 by hilarycustancegreen

(A post mostly for bibliophiles)

Last Christmas we opened our present from our daughters to find this. On the back it explained that this was a long weekend (half-board) in Borgo Pignano in Tuscany. I am not about to post my 130 odd photos or describe our holiday, except to say that it was an uplifting experience. The ethos of owners of this beautiful 12th and 18th century cluster of buildings was of local, sustainable, organic living. We were happy, extremely well-fed (garden to table) guests, in the most stunning, spacious and peaceful of surroundings.

Among all the delights the one that enchanted me almost to delirium was the library. Never have I encountered such an eclectic mix of good books in such a wide selection of languages (original and translated) in my life before. I suspect it is unique.

For tasters, here is a selection from just one shelf: Conosci L’Italia, il Folklore; Quarterly Review of Archaeology (1959), 4 vols; La Institución de Eserianza y su Ambiente, Antonio Jiménez; Manuale Storico della Letteratura Romana, Ranconi, Posani, Tandoi; Doppelspiel Mit Dame, Irving Wallace; Das Boot ist Voll…, Alfred A. Häsler; Kinder Brauchen Märchen, Bruno Bettelheim; The Fall of the Spanish American Empire, Salvador de Madriaga (many copies of this and other works by the same author in several languages); La Voce Che Ricorda, Ama Adhe (preface by the Dalai Lama); Ottjen Alldag, Georg Droste; Tschaikowsky, Alexander Andreavsky (in German); Secret de Centenaires, Jean Pelissier (Chinese medicine); Be a Goddess, Francesca de Grandis (Celtic spells); La Dottrina Celeste, Emanuel Swedenborg; Mahā, Mudra (Mediation, French); The Twilight of Machines, John Zerzara; Spuren, Eric Ambler (German); Sesso, Antonella Biagioni; Fe Sin Blasfemia, Salvator de Madriaga; A Step by Step Guide to Drawing the Human Figure, John Raynes; Holbein’s Drawings at Windsor Castle, K. T. Parker; Shakespeare and the Emblem Writers, Henry Green. (Well, well, that really fixed spellcheck, it gave up completely.)I found little gems, such as a dual language school version of Coleridge’s, The Ancient Mariner. The text includes little resumés of the action written thus: ‘An Ancient Mariner meeteth three Gallants, bidden to a wedding-feast, and detaineth one.’ Another cover that caught my fancy was Hawking’s Big Bang in Italian.