Ghostly Vegetables (Part 2)

Posted on 09/11/2015 by carolinemmurray

JonesReturning to the remarkable plant portraits of late Victorian gardener Charles Jones, I thought I would look at the varieties he photographed, and see whether any of those that he named still exist. (There are some generic labels, such as ‘Bean Runner’ and ‘Red Currants’, but many have specific varietal names.) Continue reading →

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The Deluge of Time

Posted on 06/11/2015 by carolinemmurray

Aubrey‘Antiquities, or remnants of history, are, as was said, tanquam tabula naufragii: when industrious persons, by an exact and scrupulous diligence and observation, out of monuments, names, words, proverbs, traditions, private records and evidences, fragments of stories, passages of books that concern not story, and the like, do save and recover somewhat from the deluge of time.’ Continue reading →

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Ghostly Vegetables (Part 1)

Posted on 03/11/2015 by carolinemmurray

JonesThe botanical theme continues, because I have just acquired a lovely book, The Plant Kingdoms of Charles Jones, by Sean Sexton and Robert Flynn Johnson, on the recommendation of the estimable Gentle Author, on whose blog you can see some of the wonderful photographs it contains, and read the all-too-brief story of what is known about the gardener Charles Jones who took them. Continue reading →

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Object of the Month: October

Posted on 30/10/2015 by carolinemmurray

applesMoving on from the edible apples of autumn, it’s appropriate to consider the golden apples of the Hesperides, which can be viewed at the Fitzwilliam Museum, down the road from the Botanic Gardens in Cambridge, in a small exhibition on Heracles/Hercules in the history of western art (open until 6 December). Continue reading →

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Apples

Posted on 26/10/2015 by carolinemmurray

POSTERUpon St Crispin’s Day, what better way to celebrate England than to go to the Apple Day at Cambridge University Botanic Garden? For the second time, I had the fun of being a helper, slicing fruit for tasting, and bagging up the interesting varieties on sale (not a Golden Delicious in sight). BTW, A major change in my lifestyle resulted from discovering at Apple Day two years ago the wonderful corer/slicer tool. Continue reading →

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Plant of the Month: October

Posted on 23/10/2015 by carolinemmurray

Outdoor hederiNo difficulty in choice this month: the cyclamen, in all its varieties, is the outstanding plant of October. If asked to choose my own favourite flowering plant, I’d be torn between the cyclamen or the clematis (in all its varieties – except those ghastly over-bred double things), but at this time of year, there’s no question. Continue reading →

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Veiling

Posted on 20/10/2015 by carolinemmurray

ThesmoWhat do we mean by it? I was catching up recently with Amanda Foreman’s ‘The Ascent of Woman’, and was very disconcerted by two things in particular: firstly, the sudden leap (à propos ancient oppression of women) from the Assyrian empire via steppe nomads to classical Athens, without so much as mentioning the Aegean Bronze Age, where the iconography alone suggests that women (very definitely unveiled!) were something of a force in society and religious activity – though this is unlikely to be proved until more Linear B tablets, and/or (the Holy Grail) vellum or parchment documents that are not just ‘laundry lists’ come to light. Continue reading →

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Behind the Scenes at the Museum

Posted on 16/10/2015 by carolinemmurray

Beware_of_the_Humans1Disambiguation, as they say on Wikipedia. This is not about the novel by the great Kate Atkinson (another Jackson Brodie! Soon! PLEASE!), but about the usually scruffy, draughty, unkempt warrens which tend to lurk behind many of our great national institutions, and in which all the serious work gets done. Continue reading →

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Printing With Muscles

Posted on 12/10/2015 by carolinemmurray

CaxtonSome months ago, I saw advertised – on Twitter, I think – a one-day course on printing on a wooden press (of the type Gutenberg would have used, it is thought), run by the Dürer Press Group, at the St Bride’s Foundation, off Fleet Street, London. This seemed a terrific way of getting some practical experience of the origins of the industry in which I toiled for all of my working life, so off I went last week. Continue reading →

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Copy-Editing

Posted on 10/10/2015 by carolinemmurray

ButcherThis title immediately raises issues. If the first part of a two-word hyphenated phrase requires a capital, should the second part also be capitalised? I think it should, because ‘Copy-editing’ looks unbalanced to me, but on the other hand, if you are using a min-caps style in your bibliography and citations, the capital ‘E’ will stick out like a sore thumb. Let’s look it up in Butcher … Continue reading →

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