Worlds Apart

It's hard to believe, listening to radio and TV reports right now, that there are other worlds where financial stabililty treaties, bondholders, austerity policies and bank bailouts have no place. There are worlds where creatures live unworried by mortgage foreclosures, changing political policies or pointless class divisions.

I am reminded of this when I open W.H. Hudson's 'Adventures Among Birds', published in 1951 by J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd. of London. It was actually first published in 1913, according to what I read on the back cover. Once again, this is an old library book, with the usual stamps and marks where labels were wrenched off none too gently. Like most other people, I love birds, and this book reminds how much there is about them to love. Much of the author's prose is delicious, the words spilling out like long phrases of birdsong, the descriptions of these little feathery personalities bringing them immediately to view even to those who have never laid eyes on them. Well before linguists started to study bird-song as language, this writer understood it as that;  even when he is overcome by emotions regarding them, when his writing may seem a trifle flowery or sentimental, his love for them cannot fail to stir similar emotions in the reader. In a chapter entitled 'The Marsh Warbler's Music' he says:

“One of the greatest pleasures in life – my life I mean – is to be present, in a sense invisible, in the midst of the domestic circle of beings of a different order, another world, than ours. Yet it is one which may be had by any person who desires it. “

Naturally the writing is in many ways old-fashioned, and now that we are spoiled with recorded bird-song and countless DVDs about the life of birds, it is hard to imagine exactly how much this book about them must have meant to Hudson's contemporaries who shared his love of bird life, For that reason alone, this book should be spared becoming wastepaper. But, I ask myself, for how long? The boxes and boxes of most wonderful books at various sales or on the shelves of the recycling centres tell me that for such volumes, not first editions, not collector's items, defaced methodically in order to be scrapped, their day is done. The world of financial value is the only world in which they could survive, and if they have no monetary merit, they, and all they speak for, are as good as dead.


I don't know what to say about the Penguin Book of Lies. It is edited by Philip Kerr and published by Penguin Books, England, in 1990. It is a paperback, in very good condition, and I cannot recall where I got it. Most of the pieces included are about fairly well-known historical events, distorted at the time for public relations purposes; others deal with letters or works of literature later discovered to be forgeries. In those days, as indeed in these in some parts of the world, people went to the gallows or were otherwise executed for other people's lies. This is the problem, the real lies have probably never been discovered. At this very moment, we are in the midst of lies, told to advance political, religious or commercial ends It is chilling to consider how little of the truth may be in everyday life. Then, on the other hand, that so-called 'real life' is only one of many parallel universes. We can live in one of those and never allow ourselves to be contaminated by the evil 'society' lays us open to. Of course we will then seem peculiar or odd, but we will be freer. Thinking about this, I hope that neither animals nor birds ever learn to understand our speech. At the moment, they remain incorruptible, innocent. Some of the discourses in the book discuss what exactly a lie is, often giving various categories of lies, and even opining that a lie told for the good of another is not a bad thing. So how do we decide what is another's good? And how real is that aim, how genuine the sentiment? I am particularly thinking here of political or religious propaganda. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Plato, Samuel Johnson, Jean Jacques Rousseau, John Wesley, Immanuel Kant are just some of the countless famous persons who have an opinion on the matter in this not very cheering book. The truth is, you don't have to be famous or infamous to know what a lie is. When you are telling one, you know, unless you are dreaming or hallucinating. Others may not know, of course, that is the problem, for them.

This book is probably of use to those who like history. They, or their like in future generations, will be able to read of this year's, this decade's lies. We are not so fortunate.

I am a vegetarian, the dairy-consuming type, and 'Vegetarian Cheese Cookery' by Jo Marcangelo fell into my arms when I was retrieving books today. It describes “Making and Using Rennet-free Cheeses”, I read inside, and is published by Thorsons Publishing Group in the U.S.A. In 1987. There are lovely little illustrative drawings in it of the type I always love, by Kim Blundell. The first part of the book is about cooking with soft cheese, and the second describes how to make cheese for oneself, the equipment needed, the ingredients, and finally, recipes for the different cheeses. . I thought it was much older because it is a bit worn in appearance, the pages yellow and somewhat foxed; of course this can mean it has been very much loved and used before it turned up on the shelf of the recycling centre. One unusual thing about its recipes, including various cheesecakes, is that the ingredients are given in two lists, one for imperial and metric measurements, with the metric in brackets beside the imperial, and the other for 'American' iingredients. The puzzle is that I can see almost no difference between the lists, except sometimes 'cups' are used on the American list instead of imperial or metric measurements, and 'top of the milk' on the first list is 'half and half' on the American one. This seems rather pointless, but the recipes are nice. Here is a recipe for cottage cheese you might like to try your hand at:


Cottage Cheese

(Makes 8 oz/225g/1 cup)

Imperial (Metric)                                                                            American


2 pints (1.12 litres) skimmed or whole milk                                 5 cups skimmed or whole milk

1 tablespoon cultured buttermilk or natural                                  1 tablespoon cultured buttermilk or

yoghurt (optional)                                                                             plain yogurt (optional)

2 teaspoons vegetarian junket                                                        2 teaspoons vegetarian junket
rennet                                                                                              rennet

1. Heat the milk gradually to 100oF (38oC) and stir in the starter, if using, and the rennet. Cover and leave undisturbed in a warm place, to coagulate – up to 2 hours.

2. When the curd has set, cut into 1/2 inch (1 cm) cubes with a knife; cut it vertically and then

turn the curd over carefully with a spoon and cut it the other way.

3. Slowly re-heat the curd to 100oF (38oC), stirring all the time to keep it from sticking

together. Remove from the heat and allow to stand for 15 minutes.

4. Line a colander with a square of scalded muslin (cheesecloth) and stand it over a bowl.

Ladle in the curds and leave to drain for about 10 minutes. Hold the colander under a
running, cold water tap, and literally 'wash' the curds, to rinse off the whey. This process
produces the traditional lumpy texture associated with cottage cheese. Stand the
colander over a bowl and leave to drain for a few minutes.

5. Put the drained curds into a bowl. For a richer flavour, the cottage cheese may be 'creamed'

by mixing in a little single (light) cream or yogurt depending on taste. It may also be salted
and any flavouring added at this stage. Home-made cottage cheese does not contain
preservatives, so does not keep as long as the commercial variety. Keep in the refrigerator
and eat within 2-3 days.




I read in the foregoing chapter that “in order to make cheese from pasteurized milk, you must first reintroduce the appropriate bacteria into the milk. This is known as adding a starter – a special culture of lactic acid-producing bacteria – to sour and curdle the milk” The author says that “The best alternative”(to commercial starters) “is to use commercially cultured buttermilk.......”You can flavour your cheese with fresh herbs such as parsley, marjoram or thyme, garlic, chopped nuts, whatever you like. So there's something to do for the next rainy day.


Flora Thompson wrote “Lark Rise to Candleford”, described as a trilogy in this Penguin Books edition, England, 1973. It was published first in three parts – 'Lark Rise', 'Over to Candleford' and 'Candleford Green' in 1931, 1941 and 1943. It's a chatty book about life in England from the late1800s to the first years of the 20th century, and is in fact an autobiographical work, although it is as much the story of neighbours, villages and villagers, schools and other institutions known to the author as she grew up. Reading it is like listening to old people talking about their lives; descriptions, smalll anecdotes, philosophical asides all combine to make a work that can be opened at any page and still be full of interest, even delight. This book was made into a TV drama in the last few years, but the glimpse I took of one episode showed me that it was worlds apart from the book; there are some things that TV and movies cannot do, and conveying the joy, the feeling, the atmosphere of books like this is among them.

What I really like about 'The Woman's Day Book of Annuals and Perennials' (besides the fact that it is about plants, which straight away makes it a favourite for me) are the lovely coloured drawings of flowers of all kinds, pansies, morning-glories, poppies, forget-me-nots, many many more; these are by Fritz Kredel, and the book is written by Jean Hersey and published by Simon and Schuster of New York. There is a lovely dedication inside to a namesake of the author -
For Joan, Who grows flowers wherever she is -The work is divided into two main parts, One Hundred Annuals, and One Hundred Perennials, and describes the appearance, origins, and cultivation requirements of these lovely and well-loved cottage garden plants. At the end of the book are given diagrams with planting suggestions. It is the perfect book for a new gardener, not grandiose, lecturing nor pompous, and it is as pretty as the gardens it hopes to produce. It is in such good condition that it is amazing it came from a box of miscellaneous books at a car-boot sale.

I kept my favourite of all until last. This is such an amazing book that it is surprising to have found it at a library sale. Entitled 'Weather Lore', it is a compilation from all over the world of quotations, old sayings, proverbs, all to do with weather. Richard Inwards made the compilation and arrangements, we are told, and it was “Edited, revised and amplified by E.L. Hawke” and “republished by S.R. Publishers Limited 1969 from the Fourth Edition published for the Royal Meteorological Society, London, by Rider and Company of London, New York, Melbourne, Sydney, Cape Town 1950”. What a mouthful. But believe me, it lives up to all expectations stirred by the title page. All the weather phenomena are dealt with under chapters with names such as Sun, Moon and Stars, Wind, Clouds, Mists, Haze, Dew, Fog, Sea, Tide, etc., Rainbow, Frost, and so on. Every page is full of interest. Some might seem simple, such as, under the heading 'Insects', “Early : bees early at work will not go on all day” or “A bee was never caught in a shower.” No doubt many will be able to challenge these sayings, but that does not make them any less interesting. All the other usual insects, such as ants, spiders, wasps and so forth are mentioned. Somewhere in these sayings may well be a lot of truth, the kind of truth that we are able to test for ourselves, without worrying about the outcome.

This Gambling Life

The trouble with writing a book blog is that I discover so many books I want to read, and I'm like a child in a sweet-shop with ten cents in the hand, what to choose first!

A library cast-off called 'A Herb for Every Ill', by Audrey Wynne Hatfield, with 24 drawings by the author, is definitely not your run-of-the-mill book on herbs. It's published by J.M. Dent & Sons Limited of London in 1973, and is as usual defiled by 'withdrawn from stock' stamps and glue residue, but once I opened it I was lost to the world. There are a lot of the usual herbs such as borage and rosemary in it, but also many we are used to calling weeds – for instance, you know that plant called cleavers, the foliage of which clings to your clothes whenever you meet it, or couchgrass, the bane of many orderly gardeners' lives, known as scutch in Ireland, or how about chickweed, lesser and greater bindweed, burdock (the one with the prickly seedcases that come in on dogs and trouser legs), well, according to this book these are all useful medicinal herbs. I must admit that I would be slow to try them myself, but at the same time reading about them is entrancing and educational. Dioscorides, the medical officer of Nero's armies, swore by plantain for curing ulcers, sores and wounds. However, I must say I was a bit put-out to see convallaria recommended for various uses in the book. Known by its common name of Lily of the Valley, I understand it can be fatal if taken internally. I was a bit surprised to read that it has often been used as a substitute for Digitalis (foxglove) “and some doctors prefer it because it does not accumulate in the blood and is not poisonous.” I wouldn't be too sure about that. So I'll just be reading this book, definitely not trying the plants out for myself.

'Toasts for Every Occasion' by Jennifer Rahel Conover, published by New American Library, New York, in 2001, is a nice little paperback which I seem to remember being given as a gift years ago. It's full of snippets like - 'Hangovers - Here's to the good time I can't remember! ' - Irish -

Well, naturally, it would be! We know all about good times we can't remember, not all alcohol-induced, I assure you, not since the boom bombed. Here's something Ingrid Bergman apparently said “Happiness is good health and a bad memory.” How about this - “The love you give away is the only love you keep” - Elbert Hubbard. I've no idea who he was, but there is a lot of truth in that. I can't resist these two about psychiatrists:

“To my psychiatrist,

  He finds you cracked
  And leaves you broke."

And:

"To the psychiatrist,
A person who doesn't have to worry
As long as other people do.”

Ok, I promise I'll stop there.

The Irish in Love', another library throw-out complete with the remains of torn-off labels, paste and goodness knows what else, was written by Sean McCann and published in 1972 by The Talbot Press of Dublin. On the inside we read that it was printed on Caxton Antique Weave paper – oh, how have the mighty fallen. I haven't read much of it, but I plan to. The chapters have titles such as: “The Eye of the Beholder”, “Woman's Place”, “Hatches and Matches”, “The Way to Get a Man”, “How to Get a Woman”, “The Dowry”, and “Proposal and Wedding”, I saw a couple of funny stories in there. One was of a man who went with the matchmaker to a house and found the lady he fancied absent visiting an aunt. While the matchmaker got on with his business, the would-be groom got talking to the lady's sister who was knitting in the corner, and before the night was out, he decided he might as well have her instead. And they say women are fickle! Another story was of a match made, everything arranged, and the bride at the altar. The groom didn't appear, and eventually a report came to the wedding party that he had been seen driving cattle towards the local fair, obviously having forgotten his appointment. The groomsman, having had time to study the bride at his leisure, volunteered himself in place of the groom, the bride accepted, and the job was done. Apparently those made matches were often very happy, who is to say they were less fortunate than a lot of legalised partnerships today!

I was very much struck by “The Penguin Book of Historic Speeches”, edited by Brian MacArthur for The Penguin Group, London, in 1996. It is a thickish paperback in very good condition, and I think I recall finding it at the recycling centre. The speeches date from ancient times – Moses, Pericles, Socrates etc., right through to a speech in 1994 by Nelson Mandela. I glanced through and found a very topical contribution by Mirabeau in September 1789 which shows that times haven't changed all that much where a nation's bankruptcy is concerned, and that the wealthy are as little eager to come to the aid of their nations:

Here is the start of a speech by King James 1 of England which is stunning by today's standards for its sheer arrogance:

“The state of monarchy is the supremest thing upon earth; for kings are not only God's lieutenants upon earth, and sit upon God's throne, but even by God himself they are called Gods...".

You know what they'd say to that fellow nowadays: “Get over yourself, love!”

Nowadays the shoe is on the other foot. It takes a sturdy and sterling character to be a royal personage in this age. Who would enjoy the countless comments on one's ears and other features considered outside the norm, the note taken of skirt length and grey streaks and dark roots; the nation takes it on itself to criticise diet and the amount of liquor consumed on the part of its royals – they are a kind of toy for the citizens; their lives in many respects must be unbearable; and then, to crown it all, forgive the pun, every penny they spend must be accounted for, everything they say scrutinised and analysed. I'm not sure that is any life at all, and the only escape is by dying.

When we read that in 1641 Thomas Wentworth, the Earl of Strafford, was beheaded before a crowd of 200,000, (having made a couple of fine speeches for this Penguin volume in preceding days), the first thought is that that is not so long ago – hopefully nations that now allow the same type of bloodsports will soon cop on to themselves and realise that all men should be treated with dignity no matter how much you disagree with them; the second thought is: how did they know it was 200,000? Who was counting?

Anyway, for anyone interested in history, this is a great book, and even for those who are not, there's lots of food for thought here.

Lastly I come to a gift from the government, the Irish government, I must clarify, to each and every household in the nation. It is I suppose a booklet more than a book, not bound, just stapled together, and it is entitled 'The Stability Treaty – Your Guide' - with 'Stabililty' in large yellow letters on a sombre navy blue background. This is indeed a sombre and sobering matter. Here we are, swimming in a morass of debt – not all of us, believe it or not – but the powers that be would have it so – and once again we are to vote in our own good old democratic way for a change in the Constitution (or against it, of course – let's have balance here) and if we vote 'No' there is little doubt that we will be voting again, and again, until we get sense and give the right answer. I feel sad for my countrymen because some seem to think if they vote 'Yes' the boom will come back; others will vote 'Yes' because they are scared silly. So, is that any state of mind to be in when you are voting for or against a change in your nation's Constitution? The fact is that we are children. It is only a matter of years since we got the right to govern ourselves. We didn't make too bad a job of it at first, I'll give you that much.that is, when we got over killing one another. We had our own sugar factories, we survived on our small farms; if we had had religious freedom too it would have been really something. Now our world is turned upside down. I was shocked to hear a government minister say on TV that Greece had little to do with us, we didn't put many Greek goods in our supermarket baskets. And he laughed. Is that what Europe is about? I thought it was about co-operation and standing together and facing the world as a unit. I didn't vote for it, but I thought that was what it was about. So take up your little book that the government sent you, and don't look a gift-horse in the mouth, read it, right through. Then go out, find a good horse who doesn't have such a big mouth, and put your shirt on him. You could do a lot worse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZfzAOooEOU

I would like to thank my wonderful son Sam for all the great book photos he has taken for me over the course of the last few months.

Set Your Genius Free

I've been thinking about how best to organise our books, which ones to keep and which to pass on to people who will love them. This is because the interior landscape here is totally dominated by books and the human inhabitants have become somewhat resentful of having to move mountains to access seats and the TV; also the new dog has found that she can easily reach the very chewable volumes on the bottom shelf, and she can hide behind the chairs while making her selection.

Firstly, I need to decide which books I want to keep myself, and the ones the family would like to hold on to. There can be no negotiation over all the books to cater for the family's interests, history, wildlife, archaeology, languages, gardening, tractors and farm machinery, music, the list goes on...

Then we must keep the useful books, in the how-to category, on subjects as diverse as embroidery, playing hockey and how to read Egyptian hieroglyphics. Again, the tastes of a whole family have to be taken into account. Then there are the beautiful books, kept for the pleasure of admiring them as well as looking into them, such as my daughter's art books. Everyone will have a few favourite fiction books to retain too. For the rest, it will take courage to decide what to let go..

The first book I plucked from the shelves today is 'Space and Colour in Japanese Flower Arrangement' by Kasumi Teshigawara, with photographs by Miki Takagi, published by George Newnes Limited of London, 1965. The leaves and plants pose with rocks and other accessories, like elegant people in fashion magazines. On P.21 there is an arrangement staged gracefully with an apple. I can imagine how long that would last in my house before someone moved the apple, or heavens preserve us, even ate it.. The simplicity of the arrangements in this book is the attraction, unlike the massive flower arrangements displayed at garden shows. What worries me about flower arrangements in general is the plundering which must take place to display even one orchid with miscellaneous foliage. I notice in this book that the foliage is of the houseplant variety. I do not think my houseplants could spare any of their leaves to facilitate a flower arranger. I for the same reason applaud arrangements which make use of leaves and branches from the hedgerows, which have plenty of foliage to spare.

'Pebble People, Pets & Things, Quick and Easy Rock Craft Projects for All Ages', by Peter K. Vane, published by Butterick Publishing of New York in 1977, is a book I bought because some time previously I had found one of my favourite possessions at a car boot sale, a rock painted as a house, with a little garden, including what seems to be an apple tree, flowers, and even a dustbin at the wall. The English artist's name and address are on the bottom, together with a phone number which is quite obsolete. The idea that one can go to the beach or even into the garden, find a suitable rock and paint it as the imagination moves one, is an absolutely delightful prospect. You do it just as you like, there are no rules to follow, and the only limitations are those of one's creative instinct. Gouache paints are recommended by the author, but my own experiments have shown that acrylic can work well too. You have to varnish the rock after you've finished painting it in order to render it waterproof, or to preserve the design from scraping perhaps. There were two lovely little rock cats at the same sale, which I gave away as presents. You see how reasonably you can make a piece of art at almost no cost and with just a smidgeon of artistic genius, which you may well find you have in abundance if you just have a go.

Origami is something else to try, and once again, your material needs will be simple, that is, paper. For practice you could use any kind of paper, discarded notebooks, newspapers, anything. 'Creative Origami' is written by Toyoaki Kawai, translated by John Clark and published by Hoikusha Publishing Company in Osaka, Japan, in 1983. This is a little book worth owning for its beauty alone. There are lovely colour photographs of objects made, but the book mainly consists of very clear diagrams and minimal text. There are a lot of other origami books out there if you can't find this exact one.

It is amazing, when you think about it, how artistic one can be with the minimum of materials, as in the three crafts I've just mentioned: flower arranging, rock painting and Origami.

'The Book of Heroic Failures' by Stephen Pile, a Futura publication dated 1985, is a paperback from a library sale, which led to further humiliation for it, as whatever is written on the front paper is totally illegible because some library glue has attached the page firmly to the inside cover of the book, perhaps a final comment on at least my copy. It is, however, a very interesting book, telling of disasters on the part of failed inventors, muggers, blackmailers, even unsuccessful poets, all the losers of world society at least up to the date of the book's publication. I'm sure many more losers have sadly joined the procession at this stage.  However, this is a genuinely funny book, and there are not many of those.

Here is just one extract: “The Most Unsuccessful Version of the Bible”
“The most exciting version of the Bible was printed in 1631 by Robert Barker and Martin Lucas, the King's printers at London. It contained several mistakes, but one was inspired – the word 'not' was omitted from the Seventh Commandment and enjoined its readers, on the highest authority, to commit adultery.
Fearing the popularity with which this might be received in remote country districts, King Charles 1 called all 1,000 copies back in and fined the printers £3,000.”

Dave Dutton & Graham Nown wrote a book called  'Odd Balls -   Astonishing tales of the great eccentrics.' It was illustrated by Bill Tidy and published by Arrow Books of London. It is a paperback from the recycling centre, somewhat the worse for wear. It always astonishes me, however, how many paperbacks actually come through their lives looking quite well, with spines and pages usually intact. Since I have a few eccentrics in my own family, I thought I would enjoy reading about more, perhaps to feel that we have company in the world. However, a great many of the stories in this book are about people I would personally consider more mad than eccentric, for instance, the gentleman who set fire to himself to cure his hiccups and who just before he breathed his last proclaimed with delight that he had cured them at last. Perhaps nowadays, with so many people going around high as kites, we need a new definition for eccentricity, although I suppose basically it is just a question of 'doing your own thing” and not worrying about what your neighbours think. When people including the so-called eccentric start to get hurt, perhaps then it becomes insanity. I also think you have to be somewhat well-off to indulge your eccentric instincts. Otherwise it will all just be put down to poverty and ignorance. A well-off person going around in rags is quite a different thing to one who dresses that way out of necessity. Likewise with the consumption of chips from a rubbish bin, something my offspring saw fairly recently in a nearby town. It was somewhat a relief to learn that the gentleman in question dined this way by preference rather than out of need. It would be unbearable to think the latter was the case, particularly given the economic climate at the moment.

Even if you have no garden, nor any inclination to use pots or tubs instead, you can still enjoy flowers if you walk in the country or along canal and river banks. Even a patch of rough ground in your area, perhaps with some of those Celtic Tiger half-built houses thereon, will have its own little population of flora which it would be fun to study, and if you bring along a book such as W. Keble Martin's 'The Concise British Flora In Colour'. which I found in a school sale, your pleasure will be greatly enhanced. This is published by Ebury Press and Michael Joseph in 1976. In this you will find most of the Irish wildflowers too. I know there are plants on the Burren in the West of Ireland which may not be in Britain or Scotland, but from experience, most of the Irish wild plants also can be found in the British books, although I would be happy to be contradicted if someone knows better.

There are very large and weighty books on wild flowers, but obviously you should go for one of the smaller type, often called pocket guides, although the pockets in many cases would have to be on a giant's jacket. Carrying this particular book probably will not be too great a burden, perhaps in a shoulder bag, though it is not what you could call 'light'. Here is where an e-reader might come in useful, if a book on wild flowers for identification purposes can be found in electronic format, but then you would need colour photographs or drawings too, and I'm not sure if e-readers have got that far yet. Identifying wild plants is fun because it is like a treasure hunt, and you have to be a bit of a detective. A plant that at first sight looks exactly like one you have found in your book, on closer inspection may prove to be different in some ways. There is a great sense of satisfaction though when you realise you really have identified your little wild plant. You could use your mobile phone camera to take its picture, and when you get home, print out the picture, perhaps on a little Zink Pogo printer. Zink comes from 'zero ink' and it means what it says, you only need to buy the paper, and the heat from the printer brings out the image; this little printer can be bought online really cheap together with the printing papers for it; the prints have sticky backs under peel-off paper and are ideal for notebooks or nature diaries. Or of course, you could get into the swing of drawing the wild plants by hand if all else fails. One way or the other, it would be a wonderful new pastime if you got interested in it.

For most of the activities talked about today, almost no money is needed, and these days that can only be a plus. This May bank holiday weekend may well be the perfect time to try your hand at one or more of them. There is so much out there to do and enjoy. And if Rosario's rain gods take a holiday too, so much the better.