Wednesday 30 January 2013

One Perfect Rose by Dorothy Parker - Weekly Poem

 
A single flow'r he sent me, since we met.

All tenderly his messenger he chose;

Deep-hearted, pure, with scented dew still wet
-
One perfect rose.

I knew the language of the floweret;
'My fragile leaves,' it said, 'his heart enclose.'
Love long has taken for his amulet
One perfect rose.


Why is it no one ever sent me yet

One perfect limousine, do you suppose?

Ah no, it's always just my luck to get

One perfect rose.


Find out more about the witty Dorothy Parker  (August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) here 

Image : Source

Friday 18 January 2013

Snowy Evening

The debate as to how much snow is going to be dumped on us overnight has continued most of the day.
Our forage man said it would just miss us.
The fruit grower said we'd get 4 inches of snow overnight.
The lady in the petrol station said we were due to get between 8 & 10 inches of snow by tomorrow!
"Surely not here", I replied desperately hoping we wouldn't get any.
Of course I should have known that we'd get some,
the snow still lies on the land from earlier this week,
that's a sure sign of more.

Evening update, the Land Rover green laning enthusiast has been outside and measured the snowfall so far - 2.4cms to be precise.
That I can live with, please no more tonight....

Monday 14 January 2013

Ice on the rabbit's paw - Weekly Poem - Laurie Lee 's Christmas Landscape


Tonight the wind gnaws
With teeth of glass,
The jackdaw shivers
In caged branches of iron,
The stars have talons.


 There is hunger in the mouth
Of vole and badger,
Silver agonies of breath
In the nostril of the fox,
Ice on the rabbit’s paw.

Tonight has no moon,
 No food for the pilgrim;
The fruit tree is bare,
The rose bush a thorn
And the ground is bitter with stones.

But the mole sleeps, and the hedgehog
Lies curled in a womb of leaves,
The bean and the wheat-seed
Hug their germs in the earth
And the stream moves under the ice.

It's the obligatory blogger's snowy post and as the photographs seem to  fit so well with one of my favourite poems I've used them to illustrate the first four verses of Laurie Lee's Christmas Landscape.

Friday 11 January 2013

Friday Flowers - 365 Days of Flowers - Sally Page

Sally Page of Flower Shop Stories fame has set herself the task of finding 365 messages we can say with flowers and has given permission for readers of her blog to send her photographs as virtual flowers to our friends and loved ones. 

Monday 7 January 2013

January 2013 - A New Year Quote

"And what does January hold? Clean account books. Bare diaries.Three Hundred and sixty-five new days,neatly parceled into weeks, months, seasons. A chunk of time, of life...those first notes like an orchestra tuning up before the play begins!"  from Country Bouquet (1947) by Phyllis Nicholson

Friday 4 January 2013

The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding and a Selection of Entrees by Agatha Christie - Weekend Read

A marvellous read whether it be Christmas or not
From Agatha Christie 's Foreword
  "This book of Christmas fare may be described as "The Chef's Selection." I am the Chef!
There are two main courses: The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding and The Mystery of the Spanish Chest; a selection of Entrees: Greenshaw's Folly, The Dream, The Under Dog and a Sorbet: Four-and-Twenty Blackbirds.
  The Mystery of the Spanish Chest may be described as a Hercule Poirot Special. It is a case in which he considers he was at his best! Miss Marple, in her turn, has always been pleased with her perspicuity in Greenshaw's Folly.
  The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding is an indulgence of my own, since it recalls to me, very pleasurably, the Christmases of my youth. After my father's death, my mother and I always spent Christmas with my brother-in-law's family in the north of England - and what superb Christmases they were for a child to remember! Abney Hall had everything! The garden boasted a waterfall, a stream, and a tunnel under the drive! The Christmas fare was of gargantuan proportions. I was a skinny child, appearing delicate, but actually of robust health and perpetually hungry! The boys of the family and I used to vie with each other as to who could eat most on Christmas Day. Oyster Soup and Turbot went down without undue zest, but then came the Roast Turkey, Boiled Turkey and an enormous Sirloin of Beef. The boys and I had two helpings of all three! We then had Plum Pudding, Mince-pies, Trifle and every kind of dessert. During the afternoon we ate chocolates solidly. We neither felt, nor were sick! How lovely to be eleven years old and greedy!
  What a day of delight from "Stockings," in bed in the morning, Church and all the Christmas hyms, Christmas dinner, Presents, and the final Lighting of the Christmas Tree!
  And how deep my gratitude to the kind and hospitable hostess who must have worked so hard to make Christmas Day a wonderful memory to me still in my old age.
  So let me dedicate this book to the memory of Abney Hall - its kindness and its hospitality.

  And a happy Christmas to all who read this book."

My copy was published for The Crime Club in 1960 with an original cost of 12s.6d. it did service in the W.H.Smith & Son Library where it could be borrowed for the charge of :
Up to four days - 2d per day
(Minimum charge 6d)
9d first week 1d per day thereafter

Friday Vintage - January Sale at Essential Curiosities

Just to let you know that there is a half price sale throughout the month of January in our Etsy shop

Happy New Year

Back to blogging after the holidays to wish our friends, family and readers a happy and prosperous New Year.