Garden antiques?

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Our new neighbours have been clearing out their garden shed. The house had belonged to a 92 year-old lady who had lived in it for 90 years. Among the gardening tools, they found this.

unidentified garden tool

unidentified garden tool

Has anyone any idea what it is for? Suggestions? It is about 18 inches/45 cms long. It has an iron head and the shaft has a leather handgrip. It looks a little like something a medieval knight might have wielded, but not something a well-bought-up lady would be using in her garden.

PS

It is clear from pictures on the Internet – thank you Koji – that this is a flanged mace. This was used as a weapon in armed combat in Roman and medieval times (for penetrating armour) and is still used for a variety of ceremonies today. As this one is relatively light and short and presumably modern (i.e. within the last 150 years), I assume it is ceremonial, though these usually have rounded flanges and more ornamentation. It is, in spite of its size, a dangerous weapon.

Woman versus holly and magpies – two:nil

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Though it didn’t look very promising at half time.

Holly root

Holly root

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I won eventually.DSCN5004

We have been putting up coconut halves full of fat and bugs for the birds. These have been a great success and we have much enjoyed the antics of a pair of long-tailed tits. They are thinking of nesting, but are convinced that our garage houses some rivals, so they spend much time attacking the windows.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAHowever a much more serious threat has appeared. A pair of magpies have been eating from these coconut shells, and even investigating the seed feeders. We have found a simple solution, which might be useful to others. Two hanging baskets joined together make a really good guard. Small birds in, Magpies out.
DSCN5032DSCN5030I shall be away from my blog for a few days. I should have put up another POW post, but the garden demands have been non-stop so this will now have to wait until I return. I wish I could leave you with a picture of the miniature cherry or the apricot, but though both have started to flower they are not yet looking their best, so here are the current stars.

Camellia Mary Phoebe Taylor

Camellia Mary Phoebe Taylor

Anemone de Caen

Anemone de Caen (flowering now since late December)

Dig up your Che Guevara T-Shirts girls and boys

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I think this is the most impressive ‘political’ speech I have ever heard.

gerard oosterman's avatarOosterman Treats Blog

Amsterdam Amsterdam

The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.
Che Guevara.
http://junkee.com/tony-abbott-slammed-by-greens-senator-in-jaw-dropping-speech-of-the-year-we-want-our-country-back/30146
Brilliant, watch the video!
“We’re a few weeks out from the Western Australian Senate election on April 5, a do-over after 1370 votes were lost from the September 7 poll. Greens Senator Scott Ludlam was one of the likely losers of the initial botched attempt, narrowly missing out on a seat – and yesterday he stood in front of Parliament under the guise of inviting Prime Minister Tony Abbott to visit his state, and gave the Coalition one of the roundest shellackings you’re likely to be treated to.

Delivered flatly, calmly, just short of menacingly, his speech covers everything from environmental policy to penalty rates; from school funding to broadband; from the Trans-Pacific partnership to the shark cull. It includes so many incredible lines that it’s hard to…

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Chaos, crocus and broccoli

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The site for the new greenhouse has reached (I hope) the lowest point in its development. We have removed the old green plastic affair,DSCN4916and begun to clear the area.

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Then we made some more mess,DSCN4951

and attempted to cut the root of an old philadelphus in half.DSCN4953This is not a bright idea, but this shrub is one of the original ones and has such sweet-smelling flowers I am reluctant to dig it right out, even though the root will make it hard to get past the new greenhouse.

In the meantime every crocus in the garden is out, not to mention some early tulips and the garden is awash with primrose and miniature daffodils.

crocus Blue Pearl

crocus Blue Pearl

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Finally, I can’t hide my pride in our first broccoli. This was cut and eaten on February 22nd.

purple sprouting broccoli

purple sprouting broccoli

How Intelligence Happens

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DSCN4649This is a great read for anyone who likes to keep up with the research on how brains work, or who likes to understand better how they themselves make decisions. It is extremely readable (and a slim paperback), though there are some passages that made high demands on my ageing mental capacities. I kept shouting ‘yes’ as I progressed, though I found I had stuck post-it notes in at intervals and I didn’t agree with everything, but where would be the fun in a book on this subject that was cut and dried. This is open-ended research, there are many questions still to answer, but there are also many convincing answers to fundamental questions here.

Enjoy!

Carmen last night – again

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I like this opera but not that much, and we have seen quite a lot of Carmens over the years, but last December we went to Carmen at the Royal Opera House because we wanted to hear the fabulous mezzo Elina Garanca. Sadly we had failed to note a later cast change. To make matters worse, the opera was conducted at a funereal pace and in spite of fine singers in the cast, the director had opted for an ‘earthy’ interpretation. So we watched the unfortunate female leads (some strapping) singing in a permanent squat, with theirs skirts above their less than seductive knees.

So on Tuesday, when our opera friends came round to watch a DVD of Carmen, I was not wild with enthusiasm.

We had put on the Luis Lima, Maria Ewing, 1997 recording from the Royal Opera House, (not sophisticated in today’s filming terms). I had forgotten how simply fabulous this recording is. Luis Lima, his voice clear, warm, melodic and infinitely touching, and acting his socks off is a vulnerable, passionate Don José.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17iFl8kwUeM

Maria Ewing has the voice and style to carry off the very tricky combinations required of a Carmen. She makes the singing look easy! She is sexy, languid, fatalistic and proud and clearly prizes freedom above her life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHQCOk_7tZ8

Escarmillo (Gino Quilico) has a good strong baritone, with plenty of colour, he is proud without any over-the-top narcissism. Micaela (Leontina Vaduva) was sweetly pretty in both voice and appearance.

Top of the bill, however is Zubin Mehta’s conducting. The spanking pace gives the drama extra edge and the sense that we are caught up in fatal events over which we have no control. The amazing contrast achieved by this speed and Ewing’s deliberately slow pace, gives the whole drama enormous tension.

One very happy opera fan here. Luis Lima deserves to be remembered more often.

The garden moves

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After creating havoc and shifting (with much help) a rhododendron in a barrel (Yakushimanum) and removing a couple more in large plastic posts, we got stuck into the mud and sand and repaved the area.

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Then we replaced Rhododendron Cupcake (above in grey pot) and tidied up,

DSCN4882feeling pleased that we had solved the Rhododendron-meets-giant-hosta-and-blocks-passageway problem.

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Hosta Sum and Substance

Hosta Sum and Substance

But we still had another problem – the second big grey tub, one small (elderly, decrepit) trolley and two (ditto) people.DSCN4865

DSCN4869DSCN4871 DSCN4876 - Version 2And there it will have to stay until other works are finished round the front of the garden.

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Hercules Editions – small and mighty

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On Thursday night I attended the launch of a small book, The Heart Archives, by Sue Rose (a poet with a published collection to her name and another due later this year). Sue has photographed things meaningful to her and accompanied them with a series of sonnets, many relating to her own family. The poems have a sweet rhythm and a deep undertow, with mortality lurking in the background. Each is titled with a number in reference to the heartbeats recorded by Christian Boltanski and played continuously for his installation, Les Archives du Coeur. Sue’s book is one of two published by Hercules Editions (http://herculeseditions.wordpress.com), a press that came about to fill a need – the combination of photos and poetry.

DSCN4805The other book, Formerly, records disappearing London in photos by Vici MacDonald and poetry by Tamar Yoseloff. If you have ever wandered those streets of the city that have lost favour or are due for ‘redevelopment’, you will recognise in the photos the traces of the people who once lived and thrived here. The poems are sharp, bright, funny and heartbreaking. I love the verbal high jinks within them and the way they capture the flavour of what has now  disappeared (http://formerlysonnets.wordpress.com).

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One poem and photo, The Rose, took me back to my time as a struggling sculptor when my flatmate and I rented two bedrooms and a studio in The Rose and Crown in Deptford (long since demolished). The Studio was in the old strip bar (complete with appropriate murals). One of our bedrooms had to be given up to the Great Dane (who lived there too) to occupy with her puppies. I remember one day being told to stay away from the bar for a few days as Mick would be out (of prison) tonight. The barman then hid the rifle that used to hang above the bar. Exciting times!

Garden havoc

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Because we are about to put up our first greenhouse, we have been clearing a chaotic corner of the garden, cutting back rampant lilacs and tearing down even more rampant ivy. Our neighbour has been doing the same on the other side of the fence and, what with the gales and the age of the fence, there has been a grand collapse. DSCN4761

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In the meantime, kind friends who had come to stay took me up on a lighthearted suggestion that we all move the rhododendrons in tubs on the other side of the house, which had grown so big that they were closing the passageway. This was not a trivial task.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

But they weren’t put off and so project number two is now underway.DSCN4775

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DSCN4780Today a bolt of sand was delivered and somehow, in the next few weeks, we will create suitable hard standing for a greenhouse and three giant tubs of rhododendrons, as well as repairing the fence and creating a new log store.

I like a spring challenge. As far as nature is concerned, this is spring. The plum tree is in blossom. DSCN4784