Month: May 2023

Droll Tales 30

By returning to the “Beautiful Imperia” whose tale introduces these stories, Honoré de Balzac has travelled full circle in the last, “The Married Life of Fair Imperia”, which tracks our heroine’s transformation from haughty beauty making the most from her charms, certainly not freely given, yet widely distributed among the rich, into a faithful wife in love for the very first time.

From continuous festivities she turns to staunch constancy with her equally devoted, much younger, husband who she does not wish to see her grow old, despite his conviction that, as Shakespeare puts into the mouth of Mark Antony’s friend Enobarbus, “age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety”.

I will say no more for fear of spoiling the author’s swansong.

Mervyn Peake has produced one drawing for the Folio Society edition;

and Gustave Doré provides his own veritable swansong for The Bibliophilist Society.

Further details of the publications are given in https://derrickjknight.com/2023/01/06/droll-tales-1/except that there are no pictures here by Jean de Bosschère as I do not have any of the third Decade by him.

Equine Siesta

This afternoon we took a drive out to Pilley, first to book a table at Fleur de Lys, then to have another look at the new foal. The pub was no longer serving meals and would close again in two weeks until new management took over; there was no pony in sight in the village. So we were doubly disappointed yet counted our blessings for having seen the new foal yesterday.

We turned to the Red Lion to make our evening booking.

We drove on to Holmsley, where we felt sure we would see some wild life. This was not to be, and confirmed our growing feeling that ponies at least enjoy a siesta on either side of our lunchtime.

Although some could be seen on distant moorland through the trees alongside Bisterne Close, trilling birdsong was the only sign of life in the woodland.

I wandered among shade-patterned and nibbled trunks with mossy roots;

fallen tree remnants with peeling bark;

decaying branches contributing to the ecology;

and a teepee erected as a shelter for small creatures of all kinds.

The seasonal pond now sports flowing kingcups and iris shoots.

By the time we returned home via Holmsley Passage the previously empty gorse landscapes were populated by grazing ponies, others of

which foraged among grasses on the lower slopes.

The postbox outside the cottage on Wootton Road is ready for the weekend’s Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla.

This evening we all dined on excellent fare with friendly service at the aforementioned Red Lion at Pilley where Flo and I enjoyed battered haddock, chips, and peas; Jackie, Cajun chicken burger, chips, and salad; and Dillon steak and ale pie; we all shared onion rings. Jackie and Dillon drank Peroni; Flo, Apple juice; and I, Ringwoods forty-niner. We then returned home for Flo’s delicious banana cake and clotted cream.

The Latest Addition

After a Tesco shopping trip this morning Jackie and I took a drive into the forest.

Someone on Sandy Down has recently installed a new fence snaking up round the bend.

Others enjoy rhododendrons – mature pink blooms high in their garden, and for others newer white ones along the verges which also

harbour plentiful golden dandelions and buttercups and white daisies.

In her comments on yesterday’s post Jooles told me about the new addition to the Pilley village herd, so

we just had to go in search of him. While his mother did her best to ignore his nuzzling attempts at suckling she chomped away trying to put flesh back on over her ribs.

This evening we all dined on burgers, chips, sweetcorn on the cob, pickled onions and gherkins, and baked beans, with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the excellent Shiraz.

Dead Heading, Weeding, Garden Views

In order to provide detail of the ending of this short story, following requests from several readers, this morning I posted https://derrickjknight.com/2023/05/01/droll-tales-29-complete-text/

Today’s sunrise was bright – for a while.

The day progressed in a changeable manner – overcast until rain put a stop to my sporadic weeding and dead-heading; heavy rain;

sunny spells, enabling me to inspect the views with my camera – then more of the same varieties.

All these pictures bear titles in the gallery. The first is Flo’s Fairy Garden in progress; others include wallflowers, bluebells, Welsh poppies, magnolia Vulcan, Jackie’s recent planting of the iron urn, budding rhododendrons, Japanese Maple, tellima grandiflora, cammasia, and various beds.

This evening we all dined on baked gammon; roasted potatoes, including kumara, carrots, and runner beans, with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank Cumulus Climbing Shiraz 2018.