An August Writer and Other Subjects

'Mangan' by John D. Sheridan, published in 1957 by the Talbot Press Ltd. Dublin and Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd. London, is a little paperback on the life of James Clarence Mangan, the Irish poet, born in May 1803, died June 1849. This book is apparently in a series called 'Noted Irish Lives' for so it says on the cover. I have no idea of the titles of the other books in the series, and not a hint is given anywhere in this little volume. It was rescued from the recycling centre and truly is in terrible condition. Still, I had to read it first, it seemed such a waste of all the endeavour that goes into the making of a book to simply leave it on the shelf to go its way to ignominy. I have never seen so much foxing on a book, so many of those brown spots that tell the sad story of a book's life in some damp and dreary spot, under the eaves or in the basement or in an old, hardly-ever opened cupboard of some probably musty, stale-smelling house. Someone had thought enough of it to sellotape the spine where the front cover was hanging off.
The author gives credit for many of the facts in his little work to a D.J. O'Donoghue, “and to that writer's very full Life I am, of necessity, much indebted.”

John D. Sheridan was himself a well-known Irish writer, mostly of essays which are full of wit and interest about his life and encounters. As a child I remember them in the newspapers, and collections were published which I often brought home from the public library.

Mangan had a peculiar and somewhat morbid personality, it seems.  I would also call him a typical oldest son, though, having experience of the breed both in my own siblings and among my offspring. Add to that that he was a poet, who wrote several well-known poems, among them two of the most famous Irish poems ever, “My Dark Rosaleen” and “Oh Woman of Three Cows”, the latter a translation from the Irish, which Mangan had diligently taught himself. He was mad about languages and is reputed to have bluffed his way through a lot of them, giving many translations from, John D. writes “the Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Welsh, Coptic, Danish, French, Serbian and Spanish, and on one occasion he informed the editor (of The Dublin University Magazine) that he could supply him with Hindoo poetry if he wanted it.” The translations, by what I read in this book, were often more invented than true to the originals. However, in his day very few of his readers knew the difference, and to his credit, some of his fancied translations were apparently pretty good.

In his unwrinkled prose, John D. Sheridan's describes him as wearing strange baggy trousers, green spectacles and often a fez, summoning up a unique character marching around the Dublin of his time. In his neat, unwrinkled prose, John D. quotes a description of Mangan by a contemporary, John Savage:

“He is of middle height, and glides rather than walks. A dark, threadbare coat, buttoned up to the throat, sheathes his attenuated body. His eye is lustrously mild and beautifully blue, and his silver-white locks surround, like a tender halo, the once beautiful and now pale and intellectual face.”

His friend, Father Meehan, mentioned frequently in the book, described him also:

“And the dress of this spectral-looking man was singularly remarkable, taken down at haphazard from some peg in an old clothes shop – a baggy pantaloon that was never intended for him, a short coat closely buttoned, a blue cloth cloak still shorter, and tucked tightly to his person. The hat was in keeping with this habiliment, broad-leafed and steeple-shaped,”......”Occasionally he substituted for this headgear a soldier's fatigue cap, and he never appeared abroad without a large malformed umbrella which, when partly covered by the cloak, might have been mistaken for a Scotch bag-pipe.” It would appear he wore several types of individualistic headgear.

I got so much from this little book. It really brought home to me what Dublin was like in those days, when my own ancestors walked the same streets as James Clarence Mangan. Who knows, maybe my great-grandfather, a printer and stationer at the time in Dublin, may have actually known him!

There are so many interesting little pieces in the work – the story of how Mangan was evicted from a lodging consisting of a hay-loft, because he refused to agree not to light a candle in it in order to read. Two or three times he is hospitalised, and it is surprising to read of the clean sheets and orderly wards at a time before the middle of the 19^th century – when we are hard-pressed to provide similar refuge for our sick in this day and age. Indeed, we are told that when he was brought to the Meath Hospital, where he died of cholera a week later, a surgeon who knew his fame provided him with writing materials which he duly used despite the seriousness of his condition; sadly, a nurse who had been scolded for her untidy beds disposed of them immediately on his death. No contract cleaners in those days.

Here is the link to a site I found where the poems mentioned above, and another, 'Siberia' are printed:

http://www.irishcultureandcustoms.com/Poetry/Mangan.html Have a look and see what you think of them.


I found two little Russian grammars a few years ago in a bookshop. They are Vol. 1 and 2 of 'Russian Grammar Simplified' which is in the 'Hugo's Simplified System' published by Hugo's Language Institute, London, and describes itself as “An Easy & Rapid Self-Instructor.” I can't for the life of me find a date anywhere on the books, but I would make a guess at sometime in the 1950s. I have plodded slowly through the first volume, which consists of 18 lessons, and am now revising at Lesson 11. It says something for this book that I have stuck it out. I understand everything I have done so far and am determined to endure to the end. I'm very old-fashioned, probably on account of being quite old, and when languages were taught in school years ago, grammar was very important. It's like going into a forest and finding your way by getting to know the trees along the route. The trees get more familiar the more often you take the route. At first you are totally lost, of course, but it gets easier. More modern language books plunge straight into conversation, but for me anyway, there is nothing in that to hold on to, nothing to tell you where you are. The person who owned these little books before me obviously used the first volume a lot too, and doesn't seem to have got to the second one, which is clean and new-looking while the first was a bit worn. Now the first is even tattered, being a paperback and travelling everywhere with me in my little satchel.

Why am I learning Russian? Well, I made a few attempts before, starting at age eighteen when I found a book called 'Russian Through Reading' in our local library. Full of teenage angst, I lolled around reading Dostoevsky, Turgenev and Tolstoy and it seemed a natural step to have a go at learning Russian. There were many abandoned attempts since then, but now I think I am making some progress. Also, recently to my delight I acquired a beautiful new daughter-in-law who is a native Russian speaker, so there is even more incentive to learn. Of course, she speaks perfect English too and is an English teacher, but I think it would be nice to know her native tongue even a little before we meet

I heartily recommend these Hugo language books. I also have the Italian set, found with the Russian one at a local secondhand bookshop which departed with the 'boom'. They are still obtainable online from book companies, I see. They are the forerunners to the Hugo Learn a Language in Three Months series, and I prefer them at least for beginning. Everyone has his or her own method, I expect.

Kenneth Lemmon wrote 'Winter Gardens', an old Mini-Book by Corgi, published in 1970 by Transworld Publishers Ltd. London. It is a little paperback, with a picture of crocuses appearing through melting snow on the cover. I have this book a long time and have always loved it I think I bought it new, and it pops up every now and then on the shelves when I am looking for something else, you know the way. It consists of six chapters and two appendices, giving details of all the plants that will grow happily in our gardens despite the cold. If even a small part of a garden were separated from the rest a lovely little winter garden could be made that would cheer the darker months. Our own garden is large and we do have winter-flowering plants in it, but I can imagine how well they would look if all were growing close together where they could be seen in a block. I think if I only had a little room-sized patch, as many have these days, I would fill it with winter plants, and in the summer grow annual climbers and other temporary plants all over them so I would enjoy the two seasons to their fullest. A couple of spring-flowering shrubs and autumn-flowering plants, and the show would be complete, no matter what the weather. Placed near windows, the view could be admired cosily from inside if it were not desirable to venture out.

Joyous June Reads

The sun is beaming down and it's like another country here. Today's books go with the happy mood, being light-hearted and interesting, besides not being in the usual run of reads.

Even if you have never had much interest in making music, you could well enjoy 'Making and Playing Bamboo Pipes' by Margaret Galloway. The author's name even has the ring of the piper about it somehow. It was published by Dryad Press of Leicester, UK, in 1958. Dryad used to produce leaflets on every type of handicraft, and I well remember carrying bound copies of them home from the library with glee; any handicraft you can think of was described in these volumes; if you never made anything yourself out of them, they were a sheer pleasure to read. This book is a reject from the same local library. I don't think modern handicraft books come even close to the variety so simply and yet comprehensively described in Dryad's books, This particular work begins with the” Directions for Making a Simple Treble Pipe” and ends with an account of the Pipers' Guild and how to join it. The instructions embrace every aspect of the pipes, including how to polish them and most importantly how to play them.There are tunes to test the pitch of the pipes too, and how to amend errors; everything is considered. Definitely this is a joy of a book.

The next book asks “What are the Seven Wonders of the World?” A church sale find, it is written by Peter D'Epiro and Mary Desmond Pinkowish, and springs from an unusual idea: starting with a section entitled 'Three', it asks “Who were the three sons of Adam and Eve?”, then “ Who were the three gods of the Hindu Trinity (the Trimurti)?” It carries on through various numbers up to and including twenty-four. One, Two, Eleven, Fourteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, are conspicuous by their absence, as well as from nineteen to twenty-three inclusive; it is intriguing to wonder why these numbers have been of little significance in the life of humanity. It deals with, for example, the six “major European invasions of Russia since the time of Peter the Great”, the 7 Deadly Sins, the 9 Lyric Poets of Ancient Greece, the 12 Tribes of Israel, “the unoffical Homeric titles of the 18 chapters of James Joyce's 'Ulysses' “ I think you get the picture now. This is a paperbook published by Metro Books, London, in 1999, and is certainly an interesting approach to a lot of historic and pseudo-historic questions.

'Too Good to Be True – The Colossal Book of Urban Legends' is another fascinating read. You know all those weird stories you read about on computer forums and in mass-circulated emails - this book gathers them all together and debunks them.It is published by W.W.Norton & Company, New York – London, 2001. It is a paperback in fine condition and came from a school sale. The author explains that the urban legend is the sort of story which you are told is totally true because the teller knows the person it happened to for sure, but then it turns out when you ask them again that it was actually a cousin of a friend's neighbours uncle to whom it happened but they swear it is true! One of these urban legends is about “The Baby on the Roof”:

“Did you hear about this couple driving through Southern Utah? They were on their way to California, and they went to change drivers and the wife took the baby out of the car and put him on the roof of the car. Then they both switched sides and got back into the car. She just assumed that the husband had put the baby back in, but he hadn't even seen it. They drove off, and the baby slid off, but he was OK because he was in a plastic infant seat. About two hours later they realised that they forgot the baby. So they drove back, and someone had stopped for the baby, and the baby was OK"
.The author, Jan Harold Brunvand, says that he has on file news stories or first-hand accounts dating from 1975 to 1993 of fourteen such incidents occurring either in the US or Germany with varying outcomes for the infant. What interests me is that this urban legend was travelling around therefore before the internet got going. What does puzzle me, though, is why it was necessary to take the baby out of the car at all, just to change drivers. Anyway, this book is full of stories, good to read for themselves even before you consider them as urban legends, with titles such as: “The Killer in the Back Seat”, “A Bug in the Ear”, and “The Devil in the Disco”. My own mother had a version of that one, which told of a girl meeting the devil in a local dancehall, allowing him to leave her home and then just in time spotting his cloven hoof; that was not today or yesterday. Obviously these stories have been doing the rounds for some time. Jan Harold Brunvand looks on them as a type of folklore, which of course they are, and they have that most vital characteristic of folklore, staying power.

'Where Joy Shines Through' is a lovely little hardback, and I brought it home from the recycling centre because I love drawings of any kind; this is full of illustrations of all sorts, from the cartoon type to the representational – plants, animals, human beings and landscapes as seen by artists with just one thing in common, that is, they are disabled to some degree, and these illustrations have been created with the help of mouths or feet.They are really done, however, with the hearts and minds of wonderfully talented artists. Accompanying the pictures are aphorisms such as “Thrift is most admired by an heir!!!” which do not necessarily have any connection to them, which is perhaps a little quirk of the book, not anything to spoil it, but slightly puzzling. This book was published by the Disabled Artists Association of Cork (Ireland) in 1986, so someone treasured it for a good few years before parting with it.

I could well be accused of having cornered the market in second-hand house plant books, by the amount I have collected over the years. I make no apology for this – growing and reading about house plants have cheered many a day in my life. One of the Reader's Digest Successful Gardening series, 'The Indoor Garden' , published in 1994, is a winner of a book I came across at a car boot sale. What I really like about this book is the way it categorises the plants according to the growing conditions they prefer, such as “Plants for humid air”, “Plants for shady areas” and so forth. A lot of people dislike house plants because they see the same type over and over again in their local supermarket. But there are many many more types of plant for growing at home, than will be encountered in the supermarket or even in the gardening store. Since the arrival of the computer in all our lives, it has become easy to meet other enthusiasts and to trade with them; in this way I have discovered the most intriguing plants, some of which you will never see for sale, except perhaps at a school or church 'bring & buy' sale, or of course at those run by gardening clubs. For instance, Ceropegia woodii is a lovely little succulent plant, also known as Rosary Vine or even more aptly, String of Hearts, because the leaves are shaped like little silver and green hearts and strung out along their trails; this plant is almost never seen in ordinary shops although it is much easier to grow than most you will see while you're doing your weekly shop. One reason for the amount of quite difficult house plants commonly to be found on sale, in my opinion, is that if all our indoor plants thrived, we would not need to come back for more as often as big business would like. This morning, I received in a trade a variegated form of the Ceropegia woodii, with leaves of silver bordered with white, a most appealing and pretty plant. I wager I will have a better chance of keeping this happy than the myriad of languishing indoor plants from the supermarket displays, which have already experienced too much heat or too much cold, draughts, over and underwatering, and perhaps even rough handling before they got to the shelves in the local Tesco or Woodies. When you think that these are living creatures, a vital part of our environment, you would think that they deserve a little more dignity than they commonly receive.

"Frankly Speaking' came from the recycling shelf, and is a book of humourous stories told by ministers from most of the Irish churches, and they are told with a certain winning innocence. The editor, Frank Sellar, is a minister of Adelaide Road Donore Presbyterian Church since 1990, we are told, although I'm not sure if that holds true today. It was published in aid of 'The Road Ahead Project' – a “major million pound redevelopment project which will involve constructing a purpose-built complex behind the current listed facade. This will enable the church to continue to provide a range of programmes for people who are unemployed, parents and children from all backgrounds in Dublin City Centre.” I don't know if the project ever got off the ground, but hopefully it did and succeeded in all its aims. Here is one of the stories, contributed by Rev. BHS. Liddell, Former Senior Minister, 1^st Coleraine Presbyterian Church:

“80. An Invitation to Prayer

During a visit to an old farmer I asked Robert if I could “Keep Worship”. “Aye” he replied “but wait till I call in James”. James was the farmhand and was working in the yard. Robert went over to the kitchen window, knocked on it and gestured to James to come in. Then, turning to me, he said, “James will get a 'quare gunk'. He thinks he's being called in for his supper!”

“9. Don't Noah” was submitted by Rev. Joe Mooney, Retired, Grange Presbyterian Church.

“The minister had been talking to the children about Noah and the Ark. After Church, one little boy asked his grandad, 'Granda, were you in the Ark?' 'No, son, I wasn't' replied Granda. “Then”, asked the boy, “how come you weren't drowned?"

 So, it is June, the days are long and bright, we even had sunshine today. Keep your hearts up. Mother Ireland is managing to smile a little.

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.

The Light Side Of Life

The pull to be in the garden is so strong now that spring is really here that it's hard to find time to write my book blog. However,the rain of the last few days gave me time to hunt out the next lot of books. Although sitting down to read them was not in the plan, I had forgotten how readable and inspiring was “My Rock Garden”, a book which a friend found at a sale years ago and dropped in to me on her way home, one of those kindnesses that are never forgotten for their spontaneous generosity. Reginald Farrer wrote this book, and my copy is from The Garden Book Club, London 1942, when a lot of gardeners had other things on their mind. No doubt it cheered many a person who was wondering if he would ever enjoy growing flowers again.

I had a little Brownie 127 camera when I was very young, and when the children were growing up we had a little Halina. But I was never really a photographer, for lack of both time and money. Things changed in the years since 2000. Digital cameras arrived, and at the same time, people began throwing out their old film cameras as well as film, often out-of-date; many found their way to charity shops and I brought them home. When we got our first computer, the bundle that came with it included a Kodak digital camera. It had a viewfinder but no lcd screen and I hadn't a clue how to use it. Around the same time I found a Halina 3000 in the Oxfam charity shop attached to the recycling centre, and at a library sale the next day I found 'The Amateur Photographer Handbook', published by Hamlyn in 1987. It's a very thick, smallish-sized hardback, with lots of text and drawn illustrations, as well as, naturally enough, photographs, although they are not many for the size of the book. Since then I have never looked back. I found that the way to learn how to take pictures is a combination of reading and doing, and for the active part of the adventure, the Halina 3000 is a wonderful camera. It has an uncoupled light meter on top with a little pointer to a number, and you set the speed and aperture so that the same number appears in a little box on the camera, then you take your photo. If you change the shutter speed, for instance to take a faster-moving object, you will have to change the aperture setting in order to get the same number again in the box, and this is how you suddenly realise what it's all about. Of course, you may have known all that already, but I didn't. Then, once I started to read about light meters, shutter speeds and apertures, everything became clear. If you start your picture-taking life with a modern digital point-and-shoot it is a different learning experience, but ultimately, both film and digital cameras work on the same principles. More sophisticated cameras, both digital and film, have coupled light meters, and the camera chooses the shutter speed and aperture, but with one of those I wouldn't have learnt the function of the camera settings.

I bought the next photography book, 'The Instant Picture Camera Handbook' by Michael Langford, published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1980, to go with an instant camera I found in the same Oxfam shop. Although one might think that digital photography is 'instant photography', this is just not true. When I take pictures with a digital camera they lie a long time on the computer, and I hardly ever feel moved enough to print them. My Fujifilm Instax camera gives me the print immediately, without the need for printer or ink. Granted there is the cost of the film but you can get good deals online. Polaroid film disappeared around 2008 except in hugely expensive buy-it-nows on E-Bay, but there is a new company called the Impossible Project making it now for the old Polaroid cameras, and Fujifilm for many years have been making peel-apart type film FP100C and the like for the old Polaroid Land cameras. I however find Fujifilm Instax is all I need. The Impossible Project film is very expensive, also it is not all that stable yet, so results are often unpredictable. If you are interested in just taking out a camera for fun, I recommend the Instax range of cameras. Also remember that Instax film won't fit Polaroid cameras nor will the new Polaroid type film fit the Instax cameras. Go to www.flickr.com and put Instax in the search box and you will get an idea of how good these photos can be.

There are many many books on photography of all types, film, instant film and digital. I have found that the fancier the book and the more packed with photos it is, the less you can learn from it, at least at the very beginning. Just learn what shutter speeds are about, why you might need to change the aperture, how to take pictures in different lighting conditions, things like that, and you will soon have it all. On photography forums you will find all kinds of lofty conversations about lenses and refraction and parallax and so forth and it may mean nothing to you; believe me, you don't need it, just a simple camera even with very few manual controls, and with practice the ability to compose a shot will become second nature, and you're away.

Two companionable books that are worth keeping on your shelf are both Oxford publications, one from Oxford University Press, 'The Oxford Book of Humorous Prose', edited by Frank Muir, my copy published in 2002, the other from the Clarendon Press, Oxford, 'The Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes', edited by James Sutherland, and dated 1975. The former is a very thick paperback, in lovely condition, and I honestly cannot remember where I got it, while the latter is a hardcover book about half the size of the other, and I see it came from a library sale and is besmirched with the dregs of torn-off labels, 'withdrawn from stock' stamps and lumps of now redundant brown paste.

The first book I have wandered through, picking here and there, but I always finish my session with it by reading one of my favourite pieces of writing of all time, James Thurber's 'The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty'. It is amazing that this short story was made into a long film, but to me one of its major virtues is its compactness; another is that it actually makes me laugh, something that few things in life do, and in particular those which are manifestly intended to do so. Frank O'Connor's 'My First Confession' also figures in this book, another gem which if for some reason you have not encountered before, I bid you to seek out as soon as possible, You will be reading this book forever, and will probably find it a little amusing at least, even if, like me, you do not seem to share the commoner type sense of humour.

The Oxford Book Of Literary Anecdotes' is a collection of writings too, and is satisfying in a different way. It is full of the doings of famous writers, as commented on by their contemporaries. They are the sort of stories that can freely be written now that their subjects are dead, which they most certainly are, since the book starts with the Venerable Bede (673 - 735) and ends with Dylan Thomas (1914 - 1953). Well, in truth it starts with someone called Caedmon (670), of whom I have never heard, and in the end I have to be honest about it.

Now I hope you will excuse me if I go back to Reginald Farrer, and all those little plants which he considered to be personalities in their own right, at the same time recalling my old friend who so generously gave the book to me. But first, I think, a cup of tea is in order. Goodnight all.

Green Hope

The sun is shining and the sky is blue; the first swallows have arrived and the world is, as Verga said, green with hope. These are the things of life that are real. There are books which go well with this new world, this mother universe outside the artificiality of economic systems; any attempt to grab and stash the fruits of these works results in empty fists. These are the writings which convert words miraculously into joys, joys far more concrete than the flimsy solids of the materialistic world.

One of the great free joys is to learn even a little of a new language. In that way you can visit the hearts, minds and spirits of another nation without any of the hassle which is part of physically going there. That is how I found Giovanni Verga's short story 'Pane Nero', with the words which enhance my thoughts now that spring is here: “La primavera cominciava a spuntare dappertutto, nelle siepi di fichidindia, nelle macchie della viottola, fra i sassi sul tetto dei casolari, verde come la speranza;.... “ The story is in 'Tutte le novelle' Volume Primo (Part One), and my copy was published in 1996 by Anoldo Mondadori Editore in Milan. I am not fluent in Italian, but I have managed to read and embrace those words.

                                                        





Herbs For Health And Cookery' by Claire Loewenfeld and Philippa Back, published by Pan Books Ltd. London, in 1965, is a book I have owned for a long time. It is a book about the goodness of herbs, and how to use them both in cooking and in healing. The herbs are described and then recipes for using them in salads, herbal teas, washes and compresses are given in plenty. Above is the recipe for Cheese Soufflé and a Bread and Cheese Pie.

 While I have the cookery books open, I found a great recipe in the Amish Country Cookbook, Volume 1, which was published by Bethel Publishing, Elkhart, Indiana, U.S.A., and edited by Bob and Sue Miller. The book consists of pages and pages of recipes submitted by Amish cooks and gathered by Das Dutchman Essenhaus. This book is a truly wonderful resource, rescued from the recycling centre.                                                                

“ Cocoa Drop Cookies (Unbaked)

Boil together 5 minutes:

2 c. (cups) white sugar
1/2 c. cocoa
1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. butter
1 t. (teaspoon) vanilla

Mix well with 3 c. Quick oats. Drop by spoonfuls on waxed paper and cool.

(Edna Mae Schmucker (Dishwasher)

Now that isn't going to take up too much time to make for your brood. The names of the contributors and their vocations are almost as fascinating as the recipes themselves.

I mentioned before that gardening is one of the joys of my life. It doesn't really matter which gardening book you take up at this time of the year, almost any one will feed your habit while it's dark outside. Royton E. Heath wrote “Miniature Rock Gardening in troughs and pans”, published by W.H. & L. Collingridge Ltd. London in 1957. If you grow any of the plants he recommends in this you can be sure they will be very small. Even more wonderfully, he shows you how to construct the troughs in which to grow them. Having said this, I myself use a miscellany of old fish boxes, very large tubs and old sinks to grow mine. These miniature plants are magic. The other day I found myself gazing in wonder at Anemone lippiensis, which lives underground for a large part of the year. It had emerged in a matter of days, little golden-yellow bowls smaller than the tip of your little finger, lying on green lacy beds of leaves; they are for all the world like miniature peonies. One whole garden of treasures like these can be sited just outside a back door, to be enjoyed no matter what the weather, and every day something new appears.

Growing fruit is something you can do for almost nothing too. The best way may be to find a good variety of apple or pear in a nursery, but you can also grow all kinds of fruit plants from pips and stones, and eventually they will flower and bear fruit. Of course a certain sort of gardener will enjoy telling you that either they will not flower at all, or the fruit they bear, if you should be so lucky, will not be up to much. A week ago I looked at a tub where I am growing a red-leaved apple tree, grown from a pip on a whim about seven years ago, and I saw to my excitement that it has little clusters of buds. It wasn't a question of patience, for there is always too much going on in a garden to sit around waiting for things to happen; those seven or so years have flown, and now my little tree is about to flower. What joy! If you want to read a very good and easy to read book on growing fruit trees, “Growing Fruit” by Roy Genders is one of the very best. Roy Genders is a name to look out for no matter what the garden subject, by the way. This book is in The World Of The Garden series, edited by Alan Gemmell, and I see now that it is actually a Teach Yourself Book by Hodder and Stoughton, published in 1979, which I hadn't noticed before, since I bought it at a school sale many years ago.

Collins Tree Guide, published by HarperColllins in 2004, written by Owen Johnson and illustrated by David More, will lead you to another source of happiness. We are surrounded by trees, but many of us do not know their names, except perhaps the commonest, such as Oak, Sycamore, Holly...it adds to the pleasure of walking in the countryside to know the names of its trees, those creatures great and small without which all life on earth would be unsustainable, and who give to us every living breath we take. It seems a courtesy after that to learn what they are called.

How about a little book just to look through, to calm the spirits, to enjoy just for itself? 'Japanese Style', by Suzanne Slesin, Stafford Cliff, and Daniel Rozensztroch, with photographs by Gilles De Chabaneix, published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, New York 1994, is a small, colourful book of pictures from Japan, showing Japanese style indoors and out. I don't know why this little work, showing empty rooms and snatches of courtyards should be calming, but it is. Sometimes the pictures are taken through a partly-open door, sometimes they are merely of a hallway or a length of carpet, an open doorway to the outside or a window frame; it reminds me of what you see as a very young child, not knowing for sure what it is, but because you are confined to your cot or seat or wherever until someone deigns to move you, you gaze at the same view, pondering. This too is a magic book. Found with joy at the recycling centre.

From Amazon I bought 'The Haiku Anthology', edited by Cor Van Den Heuvel, and published by W.W. Norton & Co., New York and London, in 1999. On the cover it says ' Over 800 Of The Best English Language Haiku And Related Works' . It is just simply a beautiful book, one to carry with you when you know you are going to have to wait somewhere; it is full of verbal snapshots; the meaning I get from one of these little poems may not be the same as the one you get; it doesn't matter; what I think of the flying swallow I see and what you think of it need not be the same; that is just another joy of life for which there is no payment to be made. The name Haiku has come from the Japanese, and I know these poems are far from their origins. It doesn't matter.

Here are two:

“A plastic rose
rides the old car's antenna -
spring morning”                                             
                                 by Elizabeth Searle Lamb
                                                               

“She's running for office -

for the first time
my neighbour waves.”
                                               by Alexis Rotella

I love them all. Of course, some more than others.

That dear friend I lost last year introduced me to Haiku. Such a gift lasts forever.