A Riot in St. James's Park

The flower beds in St. James's Park
are eye-wateringly bright at the moment,
a flamboyance of tulips, hyacinths and primula.

I love the drama of it,
the shock of primary colours
against the soft green foliage
and the grey of Horse Guards.

I had a strange experience yesterday.
I was walking along Piccadilly in my lunch hour
and I thought "What on earth am I doing here?"

It was like waking up from a dream landscape
and discovering that you were actually there,
a 'pinch me so I know it's real' moment.

But this is how my life has turned out.
I can have lunch on Pall Mall
or browse in Hatchards on Piccadilly.
I can sit in St. James's Park if I want
or pop in to the National Gallery.

I am not sure why I feel compelled to write this.
Perhaps gratitude for this new part of my life
or perhaps encouragement to anyone
who is contemplating change.

I am having lunch with the Lovely Jenny today
and I can't wait to hear all the news.
I shall tell her about my trip to Rome
and we shall share plans for the summer.

Because that is the other thing I have learned.
You don't leave your friends behind
when you move to a new world.

Retro Lit

I blame Karen at Cornflower Books for my current obsession with  70's novels. Karen is the arbiter of literary good taste and I thought that if she was reading them it was a respectable thing to do, practically academic research.

Before I knew what was happening I was immersed in the guilty pleasures of  'The Property of a Gentleman'  by Catherine Gaskin. There were ghostly dogs, goodies who were baddies, baddies who were goodies, rich men with no emotional intelligence, lost loves, unexpected deaths and I hadn't even got to the end of the first chapter. Bring it on, I thought, I am ready for Retro Lit.

I would like to make a few observations which I hope will help your own close reading:

1. Be prepared for sartorial shock

"the long skirt was of brilliant orange quilted cotton, and I wore it with a yellow high-necked sweater, and tied about the waist was a long black sash I had bought for a few pounds in [an] auction of Victorian costume."

2. Warning : secondary smoke may affect your reading

"I...smoked one after the other of Askew's cigarettes. A nurse came and gave us some tea... She stayed to arrange magazines on the table, and offered remarks about the weather, but no answers to the questions  I asked...Then Dr. Murray came back. I jumped to my feet...He gestured to me to sit again. "Got a cigarette, Robert? Thanks." I could have screamed with impatience as he lighted it..."

3. Alcohol consumption is not moderate.

"I thought of the brandy we had both drunk, and now the champagne. It hardly seemed to matter...We made a slight inclination to each other with our glasses..."

4. A world before Mary Berry

"There was onion soup with hot garlic bread wrapped in a towel, chicken in some kind of sauce that only a serious cook could make, the sort of pastry that one saw on the trolleys of the most expensive restaurants..."

5. The golden eagles are red herrings. Ignore them.

"When the word gets out that golden eagles are nesting there...there are enough stupid clots who'll actually want the eggs themselves."

Quite. 

Next stop "A Falcon for a Queen"

' What force had driven her to seek out a mysterious and embittered grandfather she had never known?

family history

"Until I was seven I went to a dame school run by a lady whose brother owned a famous race horse. It was very sweet but I didn't learn a thing, not a single thing, so then I went to a local school twelve miles away on the bus. I caught measles, mumps, scarlatina and everything going so when I was nine my father decided it would be safer if I went to boarding school. It was such a huge building that the vicarage looked very small when I went home but we didn't have half term holidays in those days so I got used to it. I slept in a dormitory with ten other girls and each of us had our own cubicle surrounded with curtains until a new headmistress arrived who had been in the Wrens. She took one look at the curtains, said that they were absolute nonsense and insisted that they were all removed so, my dear, after that we had to change in front of the other girls. We had a white shirt and tunic with three pleats, a navy afternoon dress with detachable white collar and of course a straw boater to wear with our navy suit on Sundays. When I went away I had twenty four handkerchiefs, each one with a Cash's name tape sewn on, my mother had to use her own clothing tokens. She wasn't very happy because I only had one left when I came home at the end of term. It was a plain and simple life, we ran around the hockey pitch before breakfast and then we had porridge. You were given deportment marks every week and they were particularly strict about table manners. You had to talk to the girl on your right and then the girl on your left at the next course and you couldn't ask for anything to be passed to you, you just had to hope someone would notice that you didn't have any water or what have you. I think after being at school I feel that I can cope with anything and all my friends say the same thing. Of course, people tell you that schooldays are the best days of your life but I can remember thinking, I hope not...surely anything is better than this!"

Granny's memories of a post war childhood in rural Lincolnshire.

Not an April Fool

Promicroceras pyritosum

MissM opens the parcel from Korea
sent by her sweet pen friend.

MissM is very excited. What can it be?

Look. It is a pot.
With a picture of a snail.
A happy snail!
Oh...
Apparently it is face cream.
Errrr...
Made with snail slime.
Ummm...
It is age defying!
Snail facials are all the rage in Japan.

MissM reads the instructions.

You pat it on.
Until it stops being sticky.
Shall we try it?

MrsM decides that she prefers wrinkles
to patting snail slime into her cheeks.
but bravely offers her hands
for full rejuvenation.

They do look very smooth.

what the commuter saw

MARCH

I bring you London in springtime.
Enjoy.

24 March
Waterloo Station

5 March
Charing Cross from Embankment

20 March
Waterloo Gardens

3 March
St. James's Park

10 March
Charing Cross from the South Bank

6 March
Coliseum, St. Martin's Lane

10 March
Carlton House Terrace

27 March
St. Paul's from Villiers Street

[ p.s it did rain occasionally...]

26 March
White Horse, British Council

coup de foudre

Booths, Victoria Pattern 1891-1906

The owner of the antique shop showed me round and we agreed that the plate was very fine. I took it down from the shelf admiring the delicate floral border, the charming central illustration. We put it aside and then he showed me a rare Georgian plate with a rhinoceros, I wanted it but it was too expensive so I put it back in the cabinet, regretfully. Next we looked at the sauce tureen, a delightful example but without a lid. A customer had broken the lid, he said, and nobody wanted the tureen without a lid. I agreed to take it for a small sum, so that it didn't clutter up his shop. Finally, I explained I wanted something pretty. He looked bemused. What did I mean? Floral? Gilt edged? Pink? I would know when I saw it, I said, but I did not find anything in the crowded rooms, the piles of china. As he wrapped up the plate and tureen I saw it on the shelf above the till. A tiny Victorian coffee can, in a particular shade of blue. And I fell in love.

The Away Fixture

MasterM plays for the Dar Leopards these days.
It is hard rugby but a good way to make friends.

I had a shock when he sent these photographs
because I did not recognise him to start with.
I remembered the schoolboy rugby player
and he was not there, however hard I looked.

He tells me that he has to run onto the pitch
holding the hand of a little child.
I smile because it wasn't that long ago
that he was a mascot himself.

They are playing the Arusha Rhinos this weekend.
That's Arusha near Mount Kilimanjaro.
It's the local derby so it should be a close match.
If you are in the area do stop by to cheer the Leopards.

*****

We are not sure who took these photos.
I will print a credit as soon as I can.

MrsM, hipster

Just me, MissM and a few fans
at a Bombay Bicycle Club gig.
Nothing much to see. Move on.

Clare College : early morning

Memorial Court

Queen's Road

The Avenue

Clare Bridge

Fellows' Garden

Old Court

Cherry tree outside the Chapel

Trinity Lane

*****

I was in Cambridge for an alumni reunion. It was a delightful evening, a chance to catch up with people I see infrequently but who lead interesting lives and are good company. Whatever we have done subsequently we share memories of three years in this beautiful college, a privilege indeed. As I walked through Old Court in the bright, cold sunshine a magpie flew from the arch to the upper storey of windows. It felt like a good omen.

Meanwhile...

in Tanzania...

MasterM is maintaining his vitamin intake.

"Today we got a selection of mangoes.
Tomorrow we are going to buy pineapple.
Or maybe paw paw!"

It is disconcerting to remember
that when he was a baby
he was Lord Picky Eater
and lived on cucumber for 3 months.