I could not dig; I dared not rob:
Therefore I lied to please the mob.
Now all my lies are proved untrue
And I must face the men I slew.
What tale shall serve me here among
Mine angry and defrauded young?
From Kipling, addressed by an Observer article to Gove and Johnson, have you read the letter one of Johnson's tutors wrote about him? I am not going to reprint though it is on Twitter, but heaven forbid that he should be vying for prime minister leadership!
That is all the magpie has to say at the moment on what is happening the country.
In the garden, flowers are making their appearance, especially the primroses and primulas, and a pretty narcissus. But first lets list the dark side of flowers, the following picture shows Helleborus Foetidus, poisonous in all parts of the plant. It seeds itself quite prolifically around, especially round our village and is probably wild. Pretty pale green flowers appearing early in March, a winter flower.
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Helleborus Foetidus with a cowslip peeping out underneath. |
Cowslips are a favourite flower, not seen in Yorkshire yet but I bought a couple to remind me of Bath.
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| No name, but pretty pink blushed primrose |
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| Does anyone know the name of this gold laced primrose? |
These are two primroses, that produce well, so I have plenty of both, one of the things I do not like about primroses is the tendency of the wild pale lemon primrose will often be fertilised by commercial primroses, giving us those sad pink primroses that dot the verges.
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| pale lemon with darker pollen stamens |
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| The bantams are prolific |
As I write this I am listening to the radio about the Danelaw, fascinating part of the Viking history round here. They mention the battle of Chippenham in Wilshire, and the hunting lodge there. Well i remember years ago digging for this hall, a great post hole which took all afternoon to dig only to be greeted by a small piece of flint.
"There is some documentation of the early history. The Villa Regea (king's country house) of the Saxon kings is first mentioned in 853, and in 878 the Danes attacked the Saxons here. The Anglo Saxon Chronicles say, 'The force stole in midwinter, after Twelfthnight, to Chippenham. They rode over Wessex and occupied it, and drove many of the people over the sea; the other, greater part they overcame'. It is believed that King Alfred escaped from Chippenham and made his way to Athelney in Somerset while the Danes fortified the site at Chippenham. Later that year Alfred had his great victory over the Danes at Ethandune (Edington) and pursued the remnant to Chippenham where he besieged them for 14 days before a treaty was made and they withdrew from Wessex.
https://northstoke.blogspot.com/2008/04/etymology.html
I love the way everything is appearing in our gardens as it does every year regardless of the weather. My primroses and polyanthus have flowered without stop all through the winter and given me great pleasure. It is such a young garden as the previous owners didnt bother with it but bit by bit it is taking shape. My shasta daisies have come and I have planted them, along with various other plants I bought. Saw some lovely Ranunculus in full flower today in Kirby Lonsdale (in a garden shop for sale) the colours were glorious but would need to read up on them and they would have been hard to carry so just looked.
ReplyDeleteYes in Spring we become greedy for the colour of flowers, but of course they only last for a short time.
DeleteWhat is it about politicians that have more hair than brains? Fascinating to find the history of those before us. I AM jealous of your fresh eggs!
ReplyDeleteCould be their blondness;) all those years females have been called dumb, men suffering the same fate.
ReplyDeletePretty plants in your garden and a nice distraction from the hell-pot which is politics at the moment. Whichever way folk voted, both sides have been done over and the country has gone to the dogs.
ReplyDeleteThe Danelaw is a welcome distraction and something we cannot change, so worth reading about! I am deep in Bronte history at the moment, although the book I've just finished (Claire Harman's Charlotte Bronte - a Life.) made Charlotte's life seem so unremittingly devoid of happiness yet I'm know there must have been SOME brighter moments for her, poor lass.
Hi Jennie, Been to your blog this morning and looked at the photos of Haworth. It did look a dismal life, could it have been the house but whatever, they had less distraction from otherworldly things and able to concentrate on their own excellent work.
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