Dames Violet -Taken from;
Ptelea - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27068768
1) Dame's Violet, Hesperis Matronalis - Sweet Rocket. I had been reading a book about our village and the author had mentioned phlox down by the river. My mind said surely not and then realised he had meant the delightful Dames Violet, which I had seen near the crab apple tree and old gate, growing amongst the nettles. I have been in love with this flower for years but reading the Wiki entry on it, and apparently it is a terrible weed in America and Canada, not so in this country I think but an escapee from the garden a few centuries ago. Anyway I still love its frail whiteness and scent, though you can get a lavender coloured one to.
What else struck me this weekend; a large queen bumblebee, feasting on the tiny white flowers of an evergreen shrub in the front garden as I was collecting some last roses for the house. The lawn is covered in leaves as they fall in this Autumn weather.
2) Hilma af Klint; 1862 -1944, Swedish abstract painter. Came across her in a magazine, first abstract female painter before Klandinsky and her paintings were not seen till way after her death, though her conventional work as an illustrator supported her. I suspect, apart from the fact that she did not want to show her 'life' work, was the company she kept, when I mention such words as Theosophy and Anthroposophical (and you can pick me up if it is spelt wrong) and this spirituality coloured her thinking. To me the paintings follow the forms of amoebic creatures, and the paintings themselves had a life of their own according to her. Springing onto the paper already formed.
I mention her because female painters are hard to find in the lexicon of artists, yet there were some fine European painters during her time and earlier.
3)The Skinningrove bonfire; Do you reckon Santa is about to be burnt? I remember a few years ago coming down a steep lane from up above into the village of Skinningrove, it was dull and wet and the village so downbeat that it left a feeling of misery in one's heart. Yet every year they build a great bonfire to be burnt down, it is a tradition. The village terraced houses were once where the mining people lived, iron was mined in the area but industrialisation of this area slowly came to a halt in the 20th century giving it a somewhat bleak aspect today. Near Saltburn on the East coast.
Interesting post today Thelma. I don't know Dames Violet at all p haven't seen it round here. Love those paintings too.
ReplyDeleteI suppose it is like Himalyan Balsam, very prolific with its seed.
DeletePhlox grows all over here and I don’t care how invasive it is, it is always lovely to see.
ReplyDeleteWe have a small town nearby that was in a very depressed state after the steel mill closed down. The old foundry was in decay with broken windows and holes in the roof. The main street reflected it’s rundown state. Every year, though, the townspeople built a wooden Phoenix and then burnt it as a symbol that they, like the bird that gave them the town’s name, would rise again. Because of hard work by the leaders, and money from wise investors, it is now the place to be and the only thing missing is enough parking places for all the people who want to come there. The bird is still burnt and it is bigger and bigger every year. Unfortunately, many locals can’t get in town because of the thousands of tourists.
It sounds like the burning of the Viking boat on the Shetland Isle, Up Helly Aa. Interesting about it being a Phoenix, the North East has of course lost its heavy industrial base, as has so many places in America, and the stagnation becomes a reality. What moved me most was the allotment gardens grown on a steep hill.
DeleteYou live in quaintness and charm and I am glad you share this!
ReplyDeleteWell Tabor not sure it is quaint but each year I remember this place on bonfire night when we are supposed to burn Guy Fawkes for trying to blow up Parliament. There have been many more modern effigies of politicians burnt on the 5th November though.
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