Footnotes to a Conversation, April 15, 2024
Robert Burns noted that “the best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men Gang aft agley” [Poetry Foundation], and that was certainly true of my first week back in Victoria. There were no visits to neighbourhood stores and bakeries, no long walks by the harbour. I came down with a wicked cold on the way home and have been really under the weather. Never mind – I will not let this nasty virus defeat me!
National Poetry Month
April is National Poetry Month and I’m reading At Home: a collection of poems selected by Janie Hextall and Barbara McNaught. [Lautus Press]
Charles Tomlinson’s poem The Door made me take a second look at this humble piece of architecture:
“For doors
are both frame and monument
to our spent time,
and too little
has been said of our coming through and leaving by them.” [Poetry Foundation]
Intrigue on the English Riviera
For a dose of sunshine and a solid female heroine, don’t miss Miss Judy Dimont in a mystery series by T. P. Fielden. The characters, from the crusty captain of a fishing vessel, to an astrologist swathed in multi-coloured gossamer gowns and a curmudgeonly, don’t-rock-the boat editor, are well developed and entertaining. [Curtis Brown]
Fuchsia
Realizing how little information was available, Leonhard Fuchs began creating a garden filled with every plant he could lay his hands on. He published Notable Commentaries of the History of Plants in 1542.
“Strangely, though, Leonhard Fuchs never saw the plant that now bears his name. Though now common across much of the world, the first specimen known to Europeans wasn’t found until 1703 . . . The man who found it, Père Charles Plumier, was a botanist and, wanting to honour his hero, named it in Fuchs’s honour.” [The Secret Lives of Colour, Kassia St Clair]
Photo: Torquay, English Riviera
Footnotes to a Conversation is a weekly Monday feature covering an assortment of topics that I’ve come across in the preceding week – books, art, travel, food, and whatever else strikes my fancy. I also post occasional articles on other dates, including frequent book reviews and travel tales.
If you share my love of nature, check out EcoFriendly West, an online publication encouraging environmental initiatives in Western Canada, and Nature Companion, a free nature app for Canada’s four western provinces.