In the churchyard, today...

 

      You could see where the frost had ‘got it’ but when I walked around 

      to the protected side, it was beautiful. Another stunning site in a very 

      peaceful place. Lovely! 😁

Dahlias

 

It’s always a treat when something that you ordered a few months ago,

finally arrived this week! Dahlias! 

Of course, had I photographed them in their present state, it wouldn’t 

make for such a colourful blog post! 

When I ordered many of them, from Sarah Raven I realised that I’d chosen

a number of similar, ‘peachy’ shades and so I added a few dark red, pink and yellow 

varieties from Farmer Gracy. These are two of my favourite, garden websites..

(But I do have more!) And I have found that during the past year, many have,

 what I call, ‘Upped their game’ . I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how the 

quality of both the plants and the packing has improved greatly.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to planting these and enjoying what they have to 

offer, later in the summer!

* From the top, left to right:

Bishop of York; Wine Eyed Jill; Sam Hopkins; Bishop of Llandaff; Preference;

Labyrinth; Waltzing Matilda; White Onesta; Happy Single Kiss; Mr Frans; 

Nicholas; Karma Sangria; Belle of Barnet’s; Kelsey Sunshine; Fashion Monger;

Teasbrooke Audrey; Tam Tam; Yellow Happiness; Sincerity; Night Butterfly.

Garden pleasures....

   

     Anemone Blanda ...little gems that truly charm...

Cheery clumps of Celandine that always delight...

            Petite and pretty Primroses that forever please...

                         Crocus that constantly cheer and enchant...

       Purple Primula that bring perfect pleasure and joy...

          Narcissi that rejoice and shout aloud, ‘Spring time is here.’....

     Daffodils that dote on the Devon sunshine...

   

      Pulmonaria that politely rest and relax...

         And a beautiful barrow of entertainment...

      

        All of these things, and more, make for a glorious garden;

        a fabulous meeting place....in which to revel, relish and rejoice!

     Magic! 👍

 

The Great Gatsby

 

      F.Scott Fitzgerald

Yesterday’s rant brought to mind the subject of wealth, luxury and the riches that some 

people amass.So what better way than to feature this fabulous book!

It’s one of my favourite books and it’s The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. What a glamorous and glitzy novel! Not only does it highlight The American Dream and cover so many themes, including human aspiration, it also oozes the best language devices in such a ‘delicious’ way...so much so that I use various extracts with my students. I have a favourite part that I read again and again, just to savour the flavour! It’s mouth watering, to say the least.I thank F. Scott Fitzgerald every time I bring this out to read! Superb! 

Here it is: 

‘There was music from my neighbour’s house through the summer nights. In his blue 

gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whispering and the champagne and the stars. At high tide in the afternoon, I watched his guests diving from the tower of his raft, or taking the sun on the hot sand of his beach while his two motor boats slit the waters of the Sound, drawing aqua planes over the cataracts of foam.On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains. And on Mondays eight servants, including an extra gardener, toiled all day with mops and scrubbing-brushes and hammers and garden-shears, repairing the ravages of the night before.

Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived from a fruiterer in New York-every Monday these same oranges and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of pulpless halves. There was a machine in the kitchen which could extract the juice of two hundred oranges in half an hour if a little button was pressed two hundred times by a butler's thumb.

At least once a fortnight, a corps of caterers came down with several hundred feet of canvas and enough colored lights to make a Christmas tree of Gatsby's enormous garden. On buffet tables, garnished with glistening hors-d'oeuvres, spiced baked hams crowded against salads of harlequin designs and pastry pigs and turkeys bewitched to a dark gold. In the main hall a bar with a real brass rail was set up, and stocked with gins and liquors and with cordials so long forgotten that most of his female guests were too young to know one from another.’

Great writing...a fantastic book which, yes, transports the reader to the jazz age but also promotes so much more than that! A must read and I think it’s a book that needs reading again and again in order to really ‘get’ what F. Scott Fitzgerald was really trying to say. 

 Meanwhile, anyone for some ‘glistening hors-d'oeuvres’? 😁