The new header is Solva in Wales, a place I visited each year and spent many a happy hour wandering about. Still miss it, but my wandering days are probably over. So photos will have to take the place of being there.
So what do I take forward from the last days.
Well there was a large bag of gooseberries kindly given by R when she came to see Paul, also a stack of magazines on 'How things Work', not that Paul does much reading nowadays. So the first photo is a gooseberry crumble, though my favourite is gooseberry fool. Always forget how SOUR gooseberries are. The next photo are the late variety of strawberries from Pearson in Sinnington, sweet and ripe and very strawberryish. I heard a man on the farming programme this morning, change the nature of words to describe herbicides and pesticides, we are now to call them plant protection, well we know in whose pocket he is in!
Books; I am not reading any books, something that nags, so I went to my bookcase and selected three books to read, you will see it is an eclectic choice. There was the 'Secret lives of Cows' or 'Meadowlands' on offer and Mcfarlane has brought out a new book called 'Underland' I think. But decided on Adam Nicolson though he has not written another book of interest for me, his book on Sissinghurst might be worthwhile investigating.
I loved 'Sea Room' for its description of the Scottish Isles, their bleakness, the cow that shat on the fisherman as they lifted it off the island on to the boat, and then the rats that occupied the small house that Nicolson would holiday there, often by himself.
What else, something that makes England come alive, this book takes me round the country I love, the original W.H.Hoskins words are interpreted/clarified by a logical archaeological landscape man, Christopher Taylor. Also reminds me of another book that will take me round the buildings of England, no, not Pevsener but Alex-Clifton Taylor ' The Pattern of English Building'.
Surprising perhaps but Scotland and Wales do not feature, though they also have indigenous buildings from the materials around.
And then the last book, 'The One Straw Revolution' by Masanobu Fukuoka. A strange book and man, who found that just actually allowing things to grow without ploughing or killing weeds, that what grew was about the same amount as all the effort we put into industrial farming. The book was printed in India, therefore has thick creamy pages and is bound by thin twine.
In modern times, we have witnessed so many tragedies. Some of them are newsworthy and "in your face" like terrorist outrages or earthquakes but others are slow and stealthy like the gradual loss of regional characteristics in building projects. Before you know it everything starts to look the same from Cornwall to Caithness.
ReplyDelete"Sea Room" sounds wonderful but is it personal or densely historical with references etc.?
Everything looking the same, unfortunately it happens with new building of course. Daphne Du Maurier created a lovely word 'bungaloid' to describe the bungalows in Cornwall. But Cotswold stone has created some beautiful homes. Everything in the beginning relied on the natural resources around,we have timbered homes such as in Lichfield, East Anglia has plastered homes often decorated with images. Tis grey stone down here in Yorkshire, and I don't like the dark/black stone of the Calder valley, find it depressing.
ReplyDeleteIt is historical to a point from the early cairns to the 'pillow' of a monk found on his grave. But it is mostly reminiscences about the island and himself, not many of the family liked the primitive existence in a rundown old house.
I love books on Sissinghurst - just as I loved the garden. Such thought went into its planting and it is beautiful every year.
ReplyDeleteYes it is certainly a beautiful garden and well kept.
DeleteSome interesting books there - I have Sea Room somewhere in the piles still to read . . . I have the Hoskins in the bookcase behind me - perhaps time to revisit. I am looking through more books with a view to rehoming them, and it's nice just to browse the books you've forgotten having.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the goosegogs. I just had one picking off my bushes due to late frosts.
Some of my books have been given away but Jennie I have bought another copy of others because I miss them so.
ReplyDeleteIt was such a sweet gesture of Rachel to bring them, about three pounds, because she had also top and tailed them before putting them in her freezer.