With this odd late, hot, dry summer, though on the whole the garden suffered, the vine in the greenhouse produced inordinate quantities of grapes. The entire roof of the greenhouse was heavy with the things, and so in a moment of weird optimism, we decided to make wine. Dr Biswell, who is back this weekend, […]
You pay for the protection, you get the protection. It is the 29th of September - graying, chill, geese passing over - which is the Feast of S. Michael and all Angels. Thus it was prudent, once night had fallen, to set lights to burn in front of all the Cuzco paintings of the […]
For a number of years, Miss Dog and her Best Friend have eaten some species of brown nodules resembling Anthracite trading under the name of Chudley’s Classic. We got to the end of a sack last week, and made do for a while with stuff from the supermarket. This morning the Professor had the first […]
Things are a little calmer — the bit before term quite gets started is rather awful but we’re into the first week now, beginning to get a sense of what we’re doing and what’s supposed to be going on. We even managed to buy a cooker, over the phone — John Lewis were surprised, […]
I am not a very nice person. Sometimes I get wind of a book which fills me with a sort of black, terrible joy, and I can’t wait to read it, but not, I am afraid, for any noble reasons. Pursuing something round Google à propos of my new Byzantium course, I found this:
‘Theodore is […]
The run-up to the beginning of term, never a very lovely time of year, was suddenly made nicer yesterday morning by a parcel from the Martyrologist containing chocolate and small treats of a fortifying nature. It was such a lovely thing to get, and very much appreciated. The Professor has already eaten most of the […]
To my utter and total astonishment, my grand tartan bag just tipped up in charge of a courier. Thanks, my dears, to Tropical Godfather and Godmama who offered to make some more shirts, but we now have something like an elegant sufficiency. At least one thing has come right out of the various weirdnesses […]
Today did not get off to a good start. The phone rang at ten, and a voice at the other end said, ‘Why aren’t you here advising students?’ To which the only answer was, ‘because it’s the first I’ve heard of it’. I discovered only yesterday that in the throes of getting the Baroque Book […]
Well, dearies. Delft and Antwerp were really very entertaining in a variety of ways. Getting there was not: we turned up ever so early, and were searched practically unto the rummaging of orifices, swore to the non presence of handcream etc. in our exiguous personal luggage, and were sitting on the checked in side when […]
We are greatly relieved to hear from the Tropical Godfather (see comments to previous blog). We are off on holiday tomorrow — the most soothing holiday we could conceive, which is to say, pottering about the Low Countries. Delft, Antwerp, Douai. Much though we love the house in the woods, it is nice to […]
Several Domestic Tragedies, in fact; at least three. The first being that Dr Biswell must go tomorrow, come what may — he should have been gone days ago were it not for badness with the MOT and repeated, unsuccessful attempts to get the right bit on the part of George at the Garage. Anyway we […]
There is always a special kind of charm about connection; most splendidly exemplified in a provincial museum, I forget which, which displayed ‘A Teacup Belonging to the Poet’s Sister’. I spent last night with one of the few survivors of Burra’s world; some 23 years younger, she lived with one of Burra’s friends from […]