Plant of the Month: January 2020

Posted on 04/01/2020 by carolinemmurray

One of the most mournful utterances you will hear from a gardener is: ‘I had one, but it died.’ Next up is, ‘I had one, but it doesn’t flower any more.’ This is the case, alas, with me and Iris unguicularis. I still have them, in a well-drained, south-facing spot, but they don’t flower any more. I have never divided them, so that may be the problem, but I will have to wait until midsummer before trying it. On the plus side, in spite of their allegedly being susceptible to slugs and snails, they are one of the very few plants in my garden that don’t get chomped. Continue reading →

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Tree of the Year

Posted on 02/01/2020 by carolinemmurray

In 2017 I took monthly photos of a particular tree @CUBotanicGarden, and in 2018 I did the same for a hedge. Neither sequence when laid end to end was in fact particularly inspiring, so in 2019 I went for one of the most spectacular specimen trees in the garden, and it did not disappoint. Continue reading →

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Trollflötjen

Posted on 31/12/2019 by carolinemmurray

There are various reasons (excuses), some flimsier than others, for the long delay since I last put quill to vellum. First, there was the Mill Road Winter Fair, which took up all my spare time for several weeks; then there was 12 December, which left me stupefied for several days; then there was a technical problem (not of my making, and still not fixed!) with one of my main sources of information; then there was a physical problem with my right arm; and then of course there was Christmas, which produced the usual paradoxical First-World-Problem response – how is it possible to have a wonderful two weeks with all my family around me, and lots of practical help, and yet be completely exhausted by the end while swearing that I certainly won’t have the energy to do it all again next year? Continue reading →

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Titian to Rubens

Posted on 20/11/2019 by carolinemmurray

Unexpected (by me!) technical problems have necessitated putting a couple of blogs-in-preparation on the back burner, and output of verbiage in November has in any case taken second place to output of hedgehogs (105 and rising …) – do please come and buy one on 7 December! But I’m going back now to the superb exhibition ‘From Titian to Rubens: Masterpieces from Antwerp and other Flemish Collections’, which is still running at the Doge’s Palace in Venice (until 1 March 2020), and which we saw in September. Continue reading →

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Christmas Is Coming …

Posted on 31/10/2019 by carolinemmurray

Not the words you necessarily want to hear on Hallowe’en, but I must just put in a plug for my stall at the (Cambridge) Mill Road Winter Fair, on Saturday 7 December. This year I have a pitch on Petersfield, at the town-end extremity of Mill Road. (Last time I was down there, on my first venture in 2015, the wind was so strong that many gazebos were blown over – not an omen, I hope!) Continue reading →

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Francesco Cupani

Posted on 23/10/2019 by carolinemmurray

The Alpine House @CUBotanicgarden is pretty stunning at the moment, what with the cyclamen, autumn crocus and colchicums – do go and have a look! Among all the incredibly photogenic flowers, I came across Colchicum cupani, which compelled me finally to get around to looking up the Franciscan friar whose name is immortalised in the variety of sweet pea I attempt (with varying degrees of success) to grow every summer. Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Botany, Gardens, History, Italy, London, Natural history | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Pills

Posted on 17/10/2019 by carolinemmurray

An appurtenance of any self-respecting apothecary’s shop was, it seems, a pill-tile. Made of pottery, and sometime lavishly decorated like that other essential, the pharmacy jar, it provided a flat, smooth surface on which to roll pills. The Fitzwilliam Museum has several specimens, two of which are currently on display in the Glaisher Gallery – which is how, of course, I became aware that a pill-tile is a Thing.

Continue reading →

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Painting Women

Posted on 11/10/2019 by carolinemmurray

I’m guessing that if you were to ask 100 random people to name an historical (as opposed to contemporary) female painter, some at least would answer ‘Artemisia Gentileschi’ (1593–?1654), who has been in the public eye (in the UK at any rate) recently because of the purchase by the National Gallery of her self-portrait as St Catherine of Alexandria, its subsequent road-trip, and the upcoming exhibition of her works. Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Biography, History, Italy, Museums and Galleries, Venice | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

1687 and All That

Posted on 05/10/2019 by carolinemmurray

If Francesco Morosini is remembered worldwide today, it is probably for the collateral damage caused when a stray Venetian cannon ball hit the gunpowder store which the Turks had so thoughtfully placed in the Parthenon during the siege of Athens. In Venice, however, he is up there with Sebastiano Venier, the victor of Lepanto, and the tragic Marcantonio Bragadin as one of the great military heroes. Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Biography, History, Italy, Museums and Galleries, Printing and Publishing, Venice | Tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments

The Immortal Peacock

Posted on 26/09/2019 by carolinemmurray

I first saw a real live peacock when I was quite young, in Victoria Park in the city where I was brought up. An area of grass and trees very close to the railway station, and therefore – in the early 1950s –very sooty, it contained, as well as swings and a slide, some small cages containing various ducks and other fowl. In one of them was a solitary and miserable-looking peacock, who, on one never-to-be forgotten day, had his tail open (there was barely enough room in the cage). After that, I would rush to the cage as soon as I arrived to see if he was doing it again, but no luck – and alas, quite soon, the cage was mysteriously empty. Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, Art, Classics, History, Italy, Museums and Galleries, Natural history | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments