DÜRER ON SUNDAY

Art Sunday today finds me rather tired as we stayed in all day shifting bookcases, moving books, making room for some recent purchases and generally rationalising space. When one buys books and does not bear to part with them once one has read them, the problem of space becomes ever more acute and pressing. We bought two new bookcases yesterday and then we had to find room for them. Once they were in place, we had to move books so that they were where we wanted them to be. Alphabetical by language and author for fiction, and by subject for non-fiction. A mammoth task when one considers that we have several thousands of books.

Therefore, my offering today is a single work by Albrecht Dürer. Dürer was born May 21, in 1471, in the Imperial Free City of Nürnberg, Germany and died April 6, 1528, Nürnberg. He was a painter, printmaker, draughtsman and art theorist, generally regarded as the greatest German Renaissance artist. His vast body of work includes altarpieces and religious works, numerous portraits and self-portraits, and copper engravings. His woodcuts, such as the Apocalypse series (1498), retain a more Gothic flavour than the rest of his work.

The work I give you toady is a favourite of mine, “The Large Turf” (1503, watercolour and gouache on paper. Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna, Austria, 41 cm x 32 cm). In this deceptively simple watercolour, Dürer creates a microcosm that is beautiful to behold and relaxing to meditate upon. One has to immerse oneself in this work and let the green serenity wash over one’s soul. To see this masterpiece with one's own eyes in Vienna is an amazing experience...

MARINA LIMA

For Song Saturday today, I am featuring a Brazilian singer. Marina Lima (born 17/9/1955) who is a prominent pioneer of Brazilian rock music. From the age of 5-12 years, she lived in the USA and learned to read first in English and then in Portuguese. She gained attention in 1977 when popular singer Gal Costa recorded her song "Meu Doce Amor". Other songs she wrote were inspired by her brother’s poetry.

Her album, Simples Como Fogo (1979), would be extremely influential in the Brazilian Rock scene of the 1980s. She gained major success with the 1984 album Fullgás, with hit singles "Fullgás", "Me Chama" and "Mesmo que Seja Eu". She sings equally comfortably in English as well as Portuguese and sultry looks coupled with her rich voice have gained her a world-wide following. Here is one of my favourite songs of hers, “Something that we Missed”.

ZUCCOTTO

We have had a rather civilised but slightly decadent night tonight with a lovely dinner, beautiful music, candlelight, quiet conversation, gentle laughter and to top it all off a rich, creamy dessert that hails from wonderful Sicily. I can’t share with you the intimate cosiness of the evening, the flicker of the candle flames or the ambience of the music resounding in the air, but I can share with you some of the sweetness left on the palate and the fragrance of the vanilla and the liqueurs that make of this dessert a wicked delight.

ZUCCOTTO

• 700 mL of cream
• 3 tablespoonfuls sugar
• Vanilla essence
• About a dozen Savoiardi biscuits (“sponge fingers”)
• 1/2 cup of chopped glace cherries, candied peel and sultanas
• 1 block of cooking chocolate
• 1/2 cup of ground, roasted almonds
• 1/2 cup of ground, roasted hazelnuts
• 1 measure each of Cointreau, Benedictine and Tia Maria

Soak the fruits in the Benedictine for a few hours. Moisten the biscuits in the Cointreau mixed with a generous amount of cream. Arrange the biscuits in a deep jelly mould (abour 20 cm diameter) to form a biscuit shell around the sides and bottom. Beat the cream, sugar and vanilla to form a stiff Chantilly and divide it into two portions. To one portion add the almonds and the Benedictine-fruits. Mix well and coat the biscuit shell leaving a depression in the middle. Melt the chocolate in a bain-Marie and add it to the reserved Chantilly together with the hazelnuts. Fill the depression in the mould with this mixture. Refrigerate overnight and when ready to serve, turn upside down onto a platter and dust with icing sugar.

Enjoy your weekend!

ALL HALLOWS

Today is the feast of the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches that commemorates all Saints, known and unknown, and is called All Saints Day or All Hallows. Catholics are obliged to attend mass on this day, All Saints being one of the major feasts of the Roman Catholic faith. It is a holiday that principally honours martyrs of the church who died in groups and whose names are not known. In 609, the Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome, as a church in the name of Our Lady and All Martyrs. In England the festival was known as All Hallows, hence the name of the preceding day, Halloween. The Christian feast has melded with the Celtic feast of Samhain, the pagan of New Year festival when crops were blessed, stored fruits and grains were hallowed and the dead were remembered.

All the gods of this world were worshipped on this day
From sunrise to sunset.

When All Saints’ comes on Wednesday,
The men of all the earth will be under affliction.

Children born on All Hallowstide were sure to have the second sight and all November’s children were lucky, beloved and fortunate in their life:
November’s child is born to bless
He’s like a song of thankfulness.

A couplet from An Early Calendar of English Flowers remarks upon the scarcity of flowers at this time:
Save mushrooms, and the fungus race,
That grow till All-Hallow-tide takes place.

The weather on this day should be observed as it gives an indication of what lies ahead:
If ducks do slide at Hallowentide
At Christmas they will swim;
If ducks do swim at Hallowentide
At Christmas they will slide.

As the next day is All Souls’ Day, “soul cakes” were made on this night for distribution to the poor. The recipients of these cakes prayed for the souls of the departed, interceding on their behalf. The returning, visiting souls of the dead on this day were thought to somehow be able to partake of these “soul cakes”.

The illustration today is by Aladar Korosfoi-Kriesch and is called “All Souls' Day” (1910 Oil on canvas, 51,5 x 72,5 cm - Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest). The word for the day is:

hallow |ˈhalō| verb [ trans. ]
Honour as holy : The Ganges is hallowed as a sacred, cleansing river | [as adj. ] ( hallowed) hallowed ground.
• formal make holy; consecrate.
• [as adj. ] ( hallowed) greatly revered or respected : In keeping with a hallowed family tradition.
noun archaic
a saint or holy person.
ORIGIN Old English hālgian (verb), hālga (noun), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch and German heiligen, also to holy.

IT'S HALLOWEEN!

The words in this poem kept whirling in my head last night and all through the day this morning. This afternoon they all fell into place, just in time for Halloween tonight!

Halloween

It’s a dark, scary night
Halloween is tonight –
All the ghoulies are out
All the ghosties about…

With a crick and a crack
And a tap on my back
I’m trembling and shaking,
Fearing, a-quaking.

It’s a night of the fey
Take care not to stray,
All the witches do sport
All the fiends cavort.

With a quick step I tread
With a bat at my head:
It’s shrieking and squeaking
Victims is seeking.

It’s a dark, stormy night
Of the hag and the sprite –
All the zombies parade,
All the children afraid.

With a shudder and shake
Until dawn wide awake,
I’m quietly abiding
In the dark, hiding.

It’s the night full of screams
And of horrible dreams –
All the spectres take flight
All the banshees delight.

With a sob and a sigh
With a throb and a cry,
I’m shuddering, shivering
Queasily quivering
It’s Halloween!

Happy Halloween, to everyone! Enjoy your evening!

GOTHIC TALES

With Halloween fast approaching, and this being our Book Tuesday, I thought today to give you a Gothic novel/story quiz, which is in keeping with both occasions. Halloween, October 31st, is the last night of the Celtic year and is the night associated with witchcraft, fairies, elves and wicked spirits. In countries where the Celtic influence is strong, customs surrounding Halloween are still current and relate to pagan rituals celebrating the beginning of the Winter cycle. Tales of witches and ghosts are told, bonfires are lit, fortune-telling and mumming are practiced. Masquerading is the order of the night, making of jack-o-lanterns and the playing of games pass the hours pleasantly. Bobbing for apples in a tub of water is an age-old custom. These pagan practices have been incorporated into the Christian tradition through association with All Saints’ Day on November the first.

Gothic literature has often been criticised for its sensationalism, melodramatic qualities, and its play on the supernatural. However, the genre dominated English literature from its conception in 1764 with the publication of “The Castle of Otranto” by Horace Walpole to its supposed demise in 1820. These novels drew many of its dark and romantic images from the graveyard poets, who intermingled a landscape of vast dark forests with vegetation that bordered on excessive, ruins with rooms concealing horrors, monasteries, windswept castles and a forlorn character who excels at the melancholy. Although the Gothic novel influenced many of the emerging genres, like romanticism, the outpouring of Gothic novels started to ease by the 1820s. The genre has had several revivals, including a very recent one sparked by the popularity of New Age themes. This most recent revival (sparked by a Supernaturalism reaction against the growing Science and Technology developments of the late 20th century) seems to mirror the circumstances that created the genre (a Romantic reaction against the rationality and logic of the Age of Reason).

Now, for our quiz:
I have selected 10 important “Gothic” novels or short stories and have represented their titles as an image that may be a direct illustration of that title or a distinct allusion to it.
Your task, should you wish to accept it is to identify all 10 and firstly send me a message with the title and author of the work and then comment here telling me you are participating.
The winner is the first person who gets all ten correct (or the most correct!) and he or she will receive a prize!

For details see my 360 blog.

28 DAYS LATER - MOVIE MONDAY

There is a virus called Ebola and it is endemic to Africa. It is one of the most deadly viruses known and causes an almost always fatal, haemorrhagic fever (up to 95% mortality). The virus first emerged in 1976 in simultaneous outbreaks in Sudan and Zaire and is similar to another similar virus that is as deadly, the Marburg virus. The Ebola virus is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected persons. The animal that harbours the virus is still unknown, but the virus can infect a wide variety of species, including gorillas, chimpanzees, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines. Infected bats seem to survive the infection, so perhaps these are the natural reservoir of infection.

Ebola virus infection is characterised by the sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat, 2-21 days after infection. This is often followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases both internal and external bleeding. The organs liquefy and the infected person is highly infectious. No specific treatment or vaccine is yet available for Ebola haemorrhagic fever.

I have prefaced Movie Monday thus, as I am dealing with a “What If…” movie, which although is billed as a science fiction/horror movie it is based on some science and raises some important philosophical questions. The film is Danny Boyle’s “28 Days Later…” (2002). This movie was marketed as a horror movie, but unfortunately, this was a wrong move. It has themes that are far more significant and the questions it poses are quite important and worthy of deep reflection.

The plot outline revolves around a new virus that causes infected animals and humans to become violent, bloodthirsty monsters overcome by rage. The first question the viewer is asked is: “How do you feel about animal experimentation?”. We are shown some graphic footage of monkeys in captivity in a scientific laboratory, which are being subjected to some horrific-looking experiments (this movie is not for the faint-hearted!). We the viewers are immediately tempted to take the side of the animal liberationists who have come to rescue these animals… However, the situation is not as simple as it looks. The monkeys are infected – the virus they are infected with is a terrible one and we do not know what the purpose of the experiments are. In their zeal, the liberationists unwisely release the virus-infected animals and become their first victims.

When the virus is unleashed, it very soon (28 days!) spreads and infects almost all of the population of England, converting the infected populace into a mass of wild, ravenous, beastly murderers intent of annihilating one another. The movie concerns a small group of uninfected people that try to survive. The second question posed by Boyle is: “At what price survival?” The uninfected can only protect themselves by becoming as efficient as possible at killing the infected people, no matter who they are – family, friends, lovers. Human relationships and basic human needs are explored by the film’s first half where the small group of uninfected people try to make their way from a deserted and desolate London (chillingly shown) to a location near Manchester where they have heard an army radio signal from another group of survivors.

The second half of the movie looks at the interaction between the two groups of survivors – Londoners and the Army unit near Manchester. This second half brought to mind “The Lord of the Flies” and the questions posed by Boyle are similar to those one is considering when reading Golding’s book. “How civilised are we really? Can we preserve our higher values and social organization when put under enormous stresses? Does our will to survive, our self-preservation instinct override all other considerations?”

There is extreme violence in the film and some horrific images. The language is often coarse and the plot quite confronting. The message of the film is timely, the situations portrayed disturbingly plausible and the tale spun is more than gory horror flick that satisfies the ghouls amongst us (there are other more gory and sickeningly horrific films that do this more efficiently). What was more disturbing for me were some images that were interspersed within the action and could be missed by the casual observer. A shot of goldfish swimming agonisingly in a tank with dwindling water; a scene where pills are handed out to a young girl “to make her not care” what will happen to her; a scene where the hero’s eyes glaze over as he is forced to commit a murder, which is so much against his nature…

The film has some flaws, but is powerful enough and sufficiently well constructed to overcome these and they are not what was left in my mind after I had watched the film. I recommend it, but be warned, this is a raw and confronting movie.

A FLEMISH GEM

The wind today blew all day and managed to keep us in. A good opportunity to catch up with some housework, cleaning out and also to spend some quiet time reading and relaxing. We put our clocks forward one hour today and Summer has officially begun with the adoption of Summer time.


One painting from me for this Art Sunday; it is by Jan Van Eyck (≈1390-1441) a Flemish painter who perfected the technique of oil painting. He painted in a realistic, naturalistic style on wood panels, mostly portraits and religious subjects. His paintings are full of allegory and made extensive use of disguised religious symbols. Exquisite detail and painstakingly applied in thin layers and glazes make of his paintings marvellous shiny translucent, jewel-like confections. His masterpiece is the altarpiece in the cathedral at Ghent, the Adoration of the Lamb (1432). Hubert van Eyck is thought by some to have been Jan's brother.

“The Virgin of Chancellor Rolin” (1435 - Oil on wood, 66 x 62 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris) is one of my favourite paintings of his. Not so much for the foregorund, but for the microcosm that is to be seen in the background. A city built on a river with magnificent buildings, including a marvellous Gothic cathedral, a splendid bridge, milling crowds and lush countryside surrounding it. There are many stories in evolution in the background, not the least of which concern the two enigmatic figures gazing out on the landscape beyond them. The peacocks represent immortality, this stemming from the ancient legend that the flesh of the peacock did not decay, thus its association with the Resurrection of Christ. In addition the "multitude of eyes" upon its stunningly beautiful fan tail, suggested the all seeing eye of God and that of the church. The lilies growing in the patch of garden symbolize in Christian art chastity, innocence and purity, especially an attribute of the Virgin Mary.

Van Eyck's representation of the Virgin in this painting is based on a tradition of images known as the “Throne of Wisdom” or Sedes Sapientiae, in which the Christ Child sits very formally in the lap of His Mother. Nicholas Rolin, chancellor to the Duke of Burgundy, is portrayed in a realistic manner, warts and all manifesting his piety in front of the Holy Mother and Infant. Rolin's prayer posture is intended to project an earnest image in order to shape the public's perception of him. He appears static and trancelike as he sits at his prayer stool; indeed, like the divine figures in the scene, he is thoroughly impassive. By demonstrating his righteousness for all to witness, he is beyond reproach.

Jan van Eyck has been credited with the “discovery of painting in oil". Oil painting, however, was already in existence for many decades before Van Eyck, and was used to paint sculptures and to glaze over tempera paintings. The real achievement of Van Eyck was the development of a stable varnish that would dry at a consistent rate. This was created with linseed and nut oils, and mixed with resins.

The breakthrough came when Jan or Hubert mixed the oil into the actual paints they were using, instead of the egg medium that constituted tempera paint. The result was brilliance, translucence, and intensity of color as the pigment was suspended in a layer of oil that also trapped light. The flat, dull surface of tempera was transformed into a jewel-like medium, at once perfectly suited to the representation of precious metals and gems and, more significantly, to the vivid, convincing depiction of natural light. The development of this technique transformed the appearance of painting.

Enjoy your Sunday!

A RELAXING SATURDAY

The weather in Melbourne today was very warm, with the temperature reaching a maximum of around 30˚C. This was quite a contrast form yesterday and the day before where we had overcast, showery days with the temperature struggling to reach 20˚C. Such is late Spring, here in the Antipodes, with quite an unpredictable course and never a dull moment. We made the most of the weather by driving up to the Plenty Gorge, in the North of Melbourne and visited a beautiful nursery and garden shop called Rivers.

The garden centre is built in the middle of paddocks and surrounds a pond on the shores of which there some gum trees. As well as the nursery and shop there is a restaurant and café where one may have a nice morning or afternoon tea, or something more substantial at lunchtime. Even though we are in the midst of a drought, undaunted gardeners were purchasing plants and the nursery has been keeping up with the times by encouraging people to buy drought-tolerant plants, natives and also water tanks for recycling of gray water.

We spent a very pleasant hour do so there, enjoyed a nice cup of coffee and then drove to the Mill Park Library. This is a newly built library that was established to service the new suburbs in the North. The building is circular, large and very well designed. One can easily spend several hours in there enjoying the books, magazines, newspapers, music and video collections. As well as the books on offer for borrowing, our libraries here have occasional book sales where used library books are sold to the public. We were very lucky today as they were selling some books from their Greek collection, some of which were in excellent condition and sold quite cheaply. Needless to say that we bought these books with great alacrity!


By the time we got home, it was hot outside and it was quite a pleasure to have a cool drink at home and eat some fruit salad for lunch. The afternoon was spent relaxing and, what else? Going through our newly-acquired treasures, reading, listening to music and enjoying the weekend.

For Music Saturday today, a beautiful extract from Pergolesi's Stabat Mater. Soprano Katia Ricciarelli and Contralto Lucia Valentini sing the first movement of this work, with the Chorus and Orchestra of La Scala, in Milan, conducted by Claudio Abbado. 1979.

IT'S PUMPKIN TIME!

Seeing it is fast approaching Halloween, Food Friday today is dedicated to the pumpkin. The pumpkin, or Cucurbita pepo, to give it its proper botanical name is a trailing vine, of the gourd family, having tendrils, large lobed leaves and which is native to warm regions of America. The plant produces the familiar large rounded orange-yellow fruit with a thick rind, edible flesh, and many seeds. Many other varieties of pumpkin are now also available including the very tasty elongated, buff-coloured butternut pumpkin and the Queensland blue pumpkin, with the slate-bluegray rind and bright orange flesh.

The word pumpkin comes from the Greek pepõn for a large melon. The English termed it pumpion or pompion. This term dates back to 1547, yet it did not make an appearance in print until 1647. The pumpkin was one of the many foods used by the Native American Indians in the new world and was a welcome discovery by the Pilgrims. The Indians pounded strips of pumpkin flat, dried them, and wove them into mats for trading. They also dried pumpkin for food. Pumpkin blossoms can also be used as those of the squash family, such as batter-dipped and fried squash blossoms.

The new Americans heartily embraced the sweet, multi-purpose fruit, which became a traditional Thanksgiving food. The colonists used pumpkin not only as a side dish and dessert, but also in soups and even made beer of it. One of the most familiar uses of the pumpkin is in its popular Halloween incarnation, when it is carved into a Jack-o'-lantern. The practice was brought to the USA by Irish immigrants who originally carved turnips into Jack-o'-lanterns. In America, pumpkins were more plentiful and cheaper than turnips, and so came about the switch from turnips to pumpkins.

Two recipes for you today, both extremely popular in Australia.

Pumpkin Soup
Ingredients

* 4 cups peeled chopped pumpkin
* 2 leeks, thinly sliced
* 1 onion, finely chopped
* 150 g butter
* 3 cups chicken stock
* 1 cup milk
* 1/2 cup cream
* 2 tablespoons flour
* freshly grated nutmeg (to taste)
* salt
* pepper
* croutons (to serve)


Method

1. Cook pumpkin, leek and onion in 90 g of butter for 10 minutes, stirring constantly.
2. Add stock and cook gently until pumpkin is very tender.
3. Push through a sieve or pureé in blender with a little of the milk.
4. Melt remaining butter in a clean pan and stir in flour until golden, then add the pumpkin pureé and the remaining milk and the cream, stirring until well blended.
5. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
6. Simmer for 20 minutes. Serve and garnish with chopped parsley and croutons.


Lady Flo Bjelke-Petersen’s Pumpkin Scones
Ingredients

* 1 tablespoon butter
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 egg
* 1 cup mashed pumpkin (cold)
* 2 cups Self raising flour


Method

1. Beat together the butter, sugar and salt with an electric mixer. Add the egg, then the pumpkin and stir in the flour.
2. Turn on to floured board and roll into a 2 cm thick sheet. Cut with 5 cm diameter round cookie cutters. Put on greased baking tray and glaze with some beaten egg or milk.
3. Place in tray on top shelf of very hot oven 225-250 ˚C for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.


Enjoy, and don't forget to notify Agnes, our Food Friday hostess if you are taking part in the tour!

A QUIZ FOR THURSDAY

This is a very busy time of the year for me as it is the end of semester and the fast approaching end of the academic year. Between now and Christmas, all sorts of things happen in a University that could not be done during the normal semester times. This also gives me the opportunity to apologise to all of you as I haven’t been able to visit your pages as much as I would have wanted to. Work and life get in the way of the really important things like… blogging!

As the examination period is right about now and much of time will be taken up by examining students, correcting papers, setting additional quizzes, giving viva voce examination and marking theses, the word of the day is appropriately:

quiz |kwiz| noun ( pl. quizzes |kwɪz1z|)
A test of knowledge, esp. a brief, informal test given to students.
verb ( quizzes, quizzed |kwɪzd|, quizzing |kwɪzɪŋ|) [ trans. ] (often be quizzed)
ask (someone) questions: Four men have been quizzed about the murder.
• give (a student or class) an informal test or examination.
ORIGIN mid 19th century (as a verb; originally U.S, influenced by inquisitive Possibly from an early 18th century English dialect verb quiset, meaning to question.

There is an apocryphal story regarding the origin of the word quiz, which is in all probability improbable. It concerns a Dublin theatre proprietor by the name of Richard Daly who apparently made a bet that he could, within forty-eight hours, make a nonsense word known throughout the city, and that the public would give a meaning to it. After the performance one evening, he gave his staff cards with the word “quiz” written on them, and told them to write the word on walls all around the city.

The next day the strange word was the talk of the town, and within a short time it had become part of the language, its meaning being taken from the questions that every asked about its meaning! This picturesque tale appeared as an anecdote in 1836, but the most detailed account (in F. T. Porter's Gleanings and Reminiscences, 1875) gives the date of the exploit as 1791.

The word, however, was already in use by then, meaning 'an odd or eccentric person', and had been used in this sense by Fanny Burney in her diary on 24 June 1782. 'Quiz' was also used as a name for a curious toy, something like a yo-yo and also called a bandalore, which was popular around 1790. The word is nevertheless hard to account for, and so is its later meaning of 'to question, to interrogate', which emerged in the mid-19th century and gave rise to the most common use of the term today, for an entertainment based on questions and answers.

Other etymologists prefer to relate the word to the Latin question: Qui es, meaning “Who are you?” In any case it is probably from the same root as question and inquisitive (Latin: quaerere “ask, seek”).

Enjoy your Word Thursday, which apparently Jacqui BB has taken under her wing. Thank you, Jacqui!

CALIFORNIAN FIRES

Yet again, I am moved to write about wild fires burning out of control and causing much pain and suffering, this time in Southern California. Here in Australia we sympathise greatly with bushfire victims anywhere around the world as we are so familiar with the distress and immense loss of life and property that these wild fires cause. Not so long ago, Southern Greece was burning, now California and this Summer we are bracing ourselves here in Southern Australia for the bushfire season.

The unrelenting winds created a deadly firestorm across Southern California, with firefighters conceding defeat on many fronts. More than 500,000 people have been forced to move away from their homes, not knowing whether they will come back to find them… It is a terrible thought – get up this moment and leave your house, taking nothing with you, and remembering that everything you own will be lost forever…

Our thoughts here, Downunder are with you, people of Southern California. One hopes that weather conditions will abate and that the fires will be controlled soon…

The Burning

The fire burnt my house
The smoke stifled my breath.
The flames licked my memories
The tablet wiped clean.

Wind-carried sparks surround me
Igniting my flammable mementos.
The embers glow, the hot ash flies
My place of refuge, now a hell.

All’s lost up in smoke,
My eyes are blinded by my fears
My tears making of the flames
A watery incineration.

The earth is roasted dry,
Even the air is fire-red.
My house no more a haven
My home no more.

My pockets empty,
All that I have the clothes I wear.
My mind is desiccated
All dreams have sublimated.

The fire burns, the flames destroy.
All my possessions charred and gone.
The fire cauterising wounds
It itself has opened.

The fire robbed me of my home,
The smoke asphyxiated me.
My souvenirs are smoke
All of my pages, now ash.

And yet I live, I still have you by my side,
Things that are lost no more important than fallen leaves.
Stand by my side, hold my hand, and hope,
For the fire in our hearts, can make of this barren, deathly place
A paradise, again.

This poem was inspired by a news report we watched yesterday, where a news reporter watched his own house burning down…

THE LAMPREYS OF MS MARSH

Book Tuesday is hosted by The Witch and today I’d like to feature a distinguished New Zealand writer of crime and detective fiction, Ngaio Marsh. If you like Agatha Christie’s novels, you’ll also like Ngaio Marsh (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/nmarsh.htm). She was born April 23rd , 1895? and died February 18th, 1982. There is some uncertainty over her birth date as her father neglected to register her birth until 1900. She was an author and theatre director who wrote thirty-two novels in total.

All of her novels featured her brilliant detective, Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn. Inspector Alleyn was assisted by Inspector Fox, Nigel Bathgate, and later his wife Agatha Troy, a famous artist. Ngaio Marsh used her knowledge and experience of the theatre in many of the novels, particularly in one of her best books “Opening Night” (1951). The majority of titles appeared first in the UK but there are thirteen titles, which appeared first in the US, so there are also a few alternate titles. As she also studied art, artists make frequent appearances in her novels.

As a kind of hobby and with no real hope of publication she wrote her first novel, “A Man Lay Dead” (1934), scribbling it down with a lead pencil in twopenny exercise books. She left this story with an agent, and was astonished to learn some six months later, that a publisher had been found. Most of her writing was done at her home in New Zealand (now a museum and well worth a visit if you ever go to Christchurch, a lovely city on the South Island of New Zealand!).

One of Ngaio Marsh's most popular novels is “Surfeit of Lampreys” (also known as “Death of A Peer” in the USA, published 1940/41). The novel begins when a young New Zealander’s first contact with the English gentry is the body of Lord Wutherford (dispatched into the next world with a meat skewer through his eye!). The Lamprey family had lots of charm but have unfortunately fallen short of cash. Their eccentricity and peculiar lifestyle in which they revelled required a lot of money. The rich but awful Uncle Gabriel, Lord Wutherford, often visited (but he was always such a bore) and the double and triple charades, with which they would entertain their guests left him rather bemused. The Lampreys thought if they were nice to rich Uncle Gabriel, he would provide them with some funds, yet again… Unfortunately, Uncle Gabriel met a very nasty end. Chief Inspector Alleyn of course comes into the scene and has to deduce which Lamprey killed him...

If you are into good detective fiction, full of gruesome murders, the necessary comedic relief, enjoyable characters, involving plot, amusing conversation, wonderful style and faultless detection, then Ngaio Marsh is the woman for you.

PS: A lamprey is a jawless fish armed with a vicious toothed, funnel-like sucking mouth. While lampreys are well known for those species which bore into the flesh of other fish to suck their blood, these species make up the minority. Nevertheless the name Ms Marsh chose for the murderous Lamprey clan is quite apt you must admit…

JUST A TRY-OUT

I have a blog on Yahoo's 360 and have tried out their unimpressive Mash. As Yahoo is phasing out 360 over the next few months, I thought I may try out this blog space, which seems to have a reasonable enough interface. I'll be interested to see how many of my Yahoo 360 friends migrate to this blogging arena.

LET THE BLOGS BEGIN...