Ramblings
This morning I posted https://derrickjknight.com/2022/02/11/a-knights-tale-101-we-are-quite-similar-really/
This afternoon I scanned
the next six pages of Charles Keeping’s illustrations to ‘The Highwayman’ by Alfred Noyes.
(Look away, Yvonne.)
This evening we dined on tender roast lamb; crisp roast potatoes and parsnips; crunchy carrots; firm Brussels sprouts, and meaty gravy, I finished the Douro while Jackie abstained.
I have come to the end of my Keeping/Dickens series, but I do have more of the artist’s works. For those who would like to see some I will begin with
This is the cover of a large format book.
My scanner cannot manage a double page spread so I will have to do my best to match up the pages, as in these front endpapers.
Here is the title page,
and the first two pages of text.
Alfred Noyes’s romantic ballad, first published in the August 1906 issue of Blackwood’s Magazine is, according to Iona and Peter Opie writing in 1983, reputed to be “the best ballad poem in existence for oral delivery”.
As is his wont, Charles Keeping, in his own inimitable style, releases the grisly reality of this ghostly tale.
Adding no further analysis as I present segments in forthcoming posts, I will allow the pages to speak for themselves.
There is a triangular section of land at the bottom of our drive which borders onto the care home next door. Vehicles are constantly driven over the beds we plant there. Because of the nature of the establishment neither we nor the residents can know whether the culprits are staff members or any of a range of visiting tradespeople, suppliers, friends, or relatives. Having decided that the time has come for a deterrent, we engaged Martin Bowers to build us a raised bed.
Having prepared the area for its placement Martin cut the heavy timbers with a handsaw.
Holes were then dug for the galvanised pins which will hold the frame steady against buffeting from visitors. Note the solid clay that our craftsman needed to penetrate and remove.
The end grain of the sawn timbers were smoothed
and sealed with a protective coat.
The last stage today was to cut and fit the second level beams.
This afternoon Joe and Angela visited and my brother and I corrected the Probate application forms for resubmission which I will carry out tomorrow. The ladies visited Mr Chan and brought back an excellent range of food from Hordle Chinese Take Away with which they both drank Bucks Fizz and I drank Hardy’s Crest 2020.
The wind still raged after a stormy night. I walked down to the Spar shop and back for strawberry jam to accompany scones for the visit of Michael, Heidi, Emily and Alice. They didn’t have any so I settled for blackcurrant.
Choppy breakers on the Solent, a good mile away, could be seen from Downton Lane, where plants
such as periwinkle, even in the shelter of the hedgerow, quivered precariously before the blasts.
Droplets from the otherwise uninspired fountains in Shorefield Country Park sparkled in the occasional bright sunlight as they were blown across the disturbance of the surface of the pool.
According to the poet Alfred Noyes, Kew, which ‘isn’t far from London’, is worth a visit at lilac time. We are quite a way from London,
but we have a few lilacs in the garden, as well as various clematis, most of which are entwined among trees and other shrubs. One such is the montana shown here.
Jackie put on a splendid lunch for us and our visitors. Broccoli and Stilton soup was followed by pizza and garlic bread, before an array of cold meats, cheeses and various salad ingredients.
Michael, Heidi, and the girls accompanied me on a walk to the beach.
A slow worm slithering across the tarmac on the path to the rookery caused some consternation. It looked so much like a snake.
After descending the steps from the cliff top we continued along the shingle to the Hordle Cliff car park where Jackie met us. Heidi joined Jackie on the return in the car and the rest of us walked back.
Like the rooks, battling against the buffeting wind, we struggled to maintain our line. Guess who took the pictures.
Alice stopped on the way back to photograph rabbits scuttling about among the static caravans in the country park.
When she got home she e-mailed me some of her pictures:
After a quick cup of tea and scones I accompanied Michael and his family to New Milton railway station where we deposited Emily on a train for her journey back to Nottingham to rejoin her university. The rest of us then returned for more tea at our leisure before my son, daughter-in-law and younger granddaughter set off back to Sanderstead.
I had forgotten to give Michael his belated birthday present, so telephoned him and he returned to collect it and continued on his way.
This evening the remainder of the super soup sufficed for our supper.