Posted in Gardening, My garden, Nature, Uncategorized on May 25, 2013| 30 Comments »
The self-seeded yellow poppy in my garden…
When I think of poppies I usually think of the red ones we wear in Britain on Remembrance Day in November. These red poppies have been associated with war since Napoleonic times, as they grew on the graves of soldiers. But our modern associations are with the poppies that flourished in Flanders fields after the devastation of the land by trench warfare in World War I.
Or maybe I think of bright blue Himalayan poppies, which (more…)
Posted in Books, Nostalgia, Uncategorized, Words on May 16, 2013| 10 Comments »
My first, second and (new) third little red book of books read…
It’s a small thing, but I feel I need to note a milestone in my life. T S Eliot’s J Alfred Prufrock measured out his life with coffee spoons. In my case I have measured out my life in books.
Recently I came to the end of my second little red notebook listing “books I have read”. I was surprised to find I could (more…)
Posted in Gardening, My garden, Nature, Uncategorized, tagged Gardening, Nature, Spring on May 7, 2013| 6 Comments »
Lesser celandine in the garden in April (iPhone image)…
Spring has been a long time coming this year. After auspicious signs of Spring in February, the weather took a cooler turn and although we have had plenty of dry weather, there is not yet much heat in the sunshine.
But the garden is catching up with itself, so here are some pictures taken in April and the early days of May.
On the nature front, there seem (more…)
Posted in Art & Design, History, Uncategorized, tagged design, History on May 2, 2013| 8 Comments »
Carthaginian war elephant by Zig Zlick on deviantART…
I first thought of putting together this image collection about war elephants months ago, when listening to In Our Time with Melvin Bragg, in which he and guests were talking about Hannibal of Carthage and his invasion of Italy, 218-203 BC.
Hannibal, son of Hamilcar, is (more…)
The Squirrelbasket 