Tag: The Solitary Summer
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A Barrowful of Bacon, and Coffee by the Tubload
It’s September, and Elizabeth von Arnim’s Solitary Summer has run its course with the arrival of 500 soldiers (and their horses), who are being quartered at the farm, and 30 officers (plus their servants) who are staying in the house. In addition there are other officers billeted in surrounding villages who must be invited to…
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Lupins, Radishes, and Triangular Dances
August has come, and has clothed the hills with golden lupins, and filled the grassy banks with harebells. The yellow fields of lupins are so gorgeous on cloudless days that I have neglected the forests lately and drive in the open, so that I may revel in their scent while feasting my eyes on their…
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The Solitary Summer in July
Well, it’s mid-way through July already, so I thought I’d take take a quick look at the month’s happenings in Elizabeth von Arnim’s wonderful The Solitary Summer, which has an unexpectedly serious note. In her first entry (for the first of the month), she waxes lyrical about sweet-peas, which are her favourite flowers, after roses.…
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A Garden by Moonlight
Right, here is this month’s instalment from Elizabeth von Arnim’s The Solitary Summer, which I was going to post tomorrow, since one of the ‘entries’ is for June 16. However, tomorrow is my Saturday Snapshots day, so today we will enjoy Elizabeth’s garden, and her reflections on life, the universe and everything – all of…
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What a Blessing it is to Love Books – and Gardens
The cover on my 1992 Virago editionbears a detail from Vase aux Anemones, 1942, by Marevn (Maria Morobieff) This week I have been busy in the garden, trying to restore some kind of order by pulling up weeds, which always reminds me of Persephone, because in the version of the myth I read as a…
The Book Trunk 