Universal Truth

 Dear Reader

                                                             Our first two sweet peas out today

 

Absolutely my favourite flowers are sweet peas.  They smell so completely delicious and are so beautiful. Francis planted them as seedlings and I run to look at them before breakfast every morning, watch how they grow.  And today these two flowers were out enjoying the sunshine and I was thrilled. I thought you might like to see them.

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The Green Man, as in the picture, is believed to symbolize the cycle of life, death and re-birth.  The symbol of Godhood within the male and its relationship with the transcendent life force our Goddess, the female expression of divinity.  He is a Pagan symbol who heralds Spring after a long winter and the renewal of lush vegetation.

As a religion it is Christian/Judaic, a derived motif relating to the legends and medieval hagiographies of the Quest of Seth, the three twigs/seeds/kernels planted below the tongue of post-fall Adam by his son Seth (provided by the angel of mercy responsible for guarding Eden) shoot forth, bringing new life to human kind.

 The Green Man is a feature of much pastoral lore in the Celtic countries, including Great Britain and Ireland where he has been a constant for thousands of years.

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From William Cowper, 1785, June 25th in Buckinghamshire

'I write in a nook that I call my Boudoir. It is a summer-house not much bigger than a sedan chair, the door of which opens into the garden, that is now crowded with pinks, roses, and honeysuckles, and the window into my neighbour's orchard......Having lined it with garden mats, and furnished it with a table and two chairs, here I write all that I write in summer-time, whether to my friends, or to the public.'

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Universal Truth

Everyone knows
that Philip Larkin wrote:

"They fuck you up,
your mum and dad,
they may not mean to,
but they do".

And what Philip Larkin knew,
I know to be true.

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With very best wishes, Patricia                                                                              

 

 

My novel : Victoria Scott's Dilemma is available here. It is rather a charming romantic tale with lots of laughter.  Look on Amazon under books - Patricia Huth Victoria and it will come up.

 

 

                                                            VICTORIA  SCOTT'S  DILEMMA

 

 

                                                                 

 

Bedroom Arles 1888

 Dear reader,

 

 

I am not a great photographer, it has to be said, but this was my best shot of the rose bush that flourishes in my garden. Last week I wrote on Face-book that I wouldn't put up a photograph of something which was to do with the week's poem, as this didn't seem to be very popular, and not the sort of thing viewers wanted to see.  But perhaps it is a different view you blog readers have so I shall from now on put two different photographs, one the Face book page and one the blog. I am not a great gardener either so there won't be any more of garden fare, plants or shrubs. Just something that I think might interest you.

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Hazel dormice are small, native rodents with golden-brown fur, large black eyes and long whiskers. They are the only British mammal with a furry tail.  Dormice are active in late spring, summer and early autumn in the trees and shrubs and they hibernate in nests on the ground over winter. Dormice can be found in a variety of habitats and landscapes particularly old woodlands over the last century, the lack of management of those that are left, and the removal and neglect of hedgerows no longer needed to enclose stock.

However, a group of thirty eight dormice are being re-introduced into a Derbyshire woodland as conservationists hope to turn around the decline of the species.  The population has fallen by around half since 2000 and they are now classed as vulnerable on the Red List for Britain's mammals.

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From James Woodforde, 1799, 19th June in Norfolk

'Very cold indeed again to-day, so cold that Mrs Custance came walking in her spencer with a bosom -friend.'
 

xx  Mrs. Custance as a lady of fashion, would have worn her gowns low cut, in the bosomy manner so often drawn by Rowlandson: in cold weather she would have needed the fashionable item of clothing know as the 'bosom-friend.'

From D.H.Lawrence, 1916, June 19th in Cornwall

"Foxgloves now everywhere between the rocks and the ferns.'

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Bedroom      Arles 1888

A small yellow chair
straw-seated, propped
against the door
a small mirror
a shawl hanging from a peg
a brown table with water jug
washing bowl and hairbrush
a shut drawer and a tumbler
a shelf for hats and clothes
another small chair
a large wooden bed frame
ruby blanket throw
small pictures on the walls
country scenes
uneven brown and green tiles
on uneven floor
green shuttered windows.

A certain sadness in the air.

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My novel : Victoria Scott's Dilemma is available here. It is rather a charming romantic tale with lots of laughter.  Look on Amazon under books - Patricia Huth Victoria and it will come up.

 

 

                                                                    VICTORIA  SCOTT'S  DILEMMA

 

                                                                                    PATRICIA HUTH

 

With very best wishes, Patricia

                                      

Afternoon Tea

 Dear Reader

                                                            Mexican earrings

 

This week I have been trying to write a poem describing Vincent Van Gogh's bedroom at Arles, painted in 1888.  But it is not easy.  Nevertheless I will do it by next Sunday.

Vincent Willem van Gogh was born on March 30th, 1853 and died in 1890. He was a Dutch post-impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history.  In a period of ten years, he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings most of which date from the last two years of his life.

He was not commercially successful in his career and suffered from severe depression and poverty which eventually led to his suicide at the age of thirty seven.  He did not eat properly and drank heavily.  His friendship with Gauguin ended after a confrontation with a razor, when in a rage, he cut off part of his left ear.  

He is remembered as an important but tragic painter whose troubled personality typifies the romantic ideal of the tortured artist.  Van Gogh's works are among the world's most expensive paintings to have ever sold, and his legacy is honoured by a museum in his name, The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

                                                              

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From Horace Walpole, June 14th, 1791 in Middlesex

'It froze hard last night: I went out for a moment to look at my haymakers, and was starved. The contents of a English June are hay and ice, orange-flowers and rheumatism.  I am now cowering over the fire.'

From Francis Kilvert, June 15th, 1873 in Wiltshire

'The sun and the golden buttercup meadows had it almost to themselves.....One or two people were crossing the Common early by the several paths through the golden sea of buttercups which will soon be the silver sea of ox-eyes.  The birds were singing quietly.  The cuckoo's notes tolled clear and sweet as a silver bell.'

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Afternoon Tea

If the woman had had
choice of mother,
she would have chosen
one who liked afternoon tea,
with scones, strawberry jam,
sweet biscuits, and hot Darjeeling.

But the mother of the woman
did not like afternoon tea.
She liked cocktails, excitement
after dark and its secrets,
stirring things up, mischief,
and life's excesses.

As the woman knew
that the choice of mother
was not negotiable,
she chose her friends
with four o'clock in mind.

 

Best wishes. Patricia

                                                                       *

My novel : Victoria Scott's Dilemma is available here. It is rather a charming romantic tale with lots of laughter.  Look on Amazon under books:       

Patricia Huth Victoria       

and it will come up.

 

                                                          VICTORIA  SCOTT'S  DILEMMA

 

 

Patricia Huth

Small Pleasures in Old Age

                                                                               Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

 

Dear Reader, 

You all probably know more about Mozart than I do but I looked him up and here, in short, is a small account of him. 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on January 27th, 1756, in Salzburg, Austria.  He is widely recognized as one of the greatest composers in the history of western music.  Unlike any other composer in musical history he wrote in all the musical genres of his day and excelled in every one.  His taste, his command of form, and his range of expression have made him seem the most universal of all composers, yet it may also be said that his music was written to accommodate the specific taste of particular audiences.

"The miracle which God let be born in Salzburg" was Mozart's father's description of his son, and he was keenly conscious of his duty to God, as he saw it, to draw the miracle to the notice of the world.  And he did, taking Mozart as a child all over Europe. Yet even in this indulgent rendering of the Mozart legacy, his full-bloodied humanity at times emerges with haunting vividness.

One of the myths about Mozart is that even as adult he remained an inappropriately childish vessel for divinely inspired music and that his premature death was brought about by his composer rival, Salieri.

Mozart's Andante 21 is my favourite piece, and I would like to hear it when I lie dying.

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From Dorothy Wordsworth, June 4th, 1800 in Westmorland 

'I brought home lemon thyme, and several other plants, and planted them by moonlight.'

From Francis Kilvert, June 7th, 1874 in Wiltshire

'Another glowing glorious day of sunshine and unclouded blue.  But every day the drought grows drier and the predicted water famine is stealing upon us.  Every day the pasture grows whiter and more bare  and slippery....Later the warm soft night was laden with perfume and the sweet scent of the syringa.'                                                                                  

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Small Pleasures in Old Age

 

Listening to Mozart’s Andante 21

in front of a log fire

hearing the robin’s call

in early spring

spotting the first violets, first primroses,

 

walking in the woods

sitting under the trees

whilst the bagpipes utter

 

their unique spiritual sounds

watching the deer hurrying

through the undergrowth

 

following the antics

of the Archer family

eating peanut butter sandwiches

 

watching the goldfinch spitting

out seeds, and laughing

at the absurdity of life itself

 

exchanging family news

proudly loving the grandchildren

and their stories

 

small away holidays

with Francis, by the sea

in Dorset

 

And, perhaps,  best of all, having the courage

not to say yes to things

when I mean no.

                                                                                   *

 

My novel : Victoria Scott's Dilemma is available here. It is rather a charming romantic tale with lots of laughter.  Look on Amazon under books: Patricia Huth Victoria and it will come up.

 

 

                                                    VICTORIA  SCOTT'S  DILEMMA

 

With very best wishes, Patricia