Trumpeters, Trombones and Tadpoles ...

Life here is eclectic and I live in a pull-me -push-me life-style ... not at all sure what will happen next ... but it makes for interesting memoir (in due course).

Collage of sights in Victoria

I've seen a few films ... they pop up in venues I'd expect as well as well as put on by various societies or organisations.  I do recommend Three Bill Boards in Ebbing, Missouri - it kept me engaged ... yet has still got me thinking about various aspects of life - well worth seeing.  I have another I want to write about.

Thank goodness I haven't been on the freezing east coast, or for that matter over in Siberian Europe - though I suspect the vagaries of weather will catch me next year!  Spring is springing ...

Victoria waterfront by
Edward Richardson (1864)

Things are sorting themselves out - I finally have a desk ... and so can sort my life out a little ... and hope to get a better computer sometime soon - I'm surviving, but it's not that easy.  A strong compartmentalising character resides here ... and even I am battling!

Life on 'our' farm - clearing the trees

I was briefly in Victoria last week and saw the cherry trees blossoming and must get back to spend time down there: the waterfront, which we only drove past, looks stunning ... and to see an Emily Carr exhibition at the Art Gallery.  Little Smart car and I will set out next week sometime!!

I hope also to get up the island a little way purely for research purposes ... so that's on my list for next week.

Trumpeters in full flight -
winter time

So to my 'T's ... Trumpeters - these large migratory swans, re-introduced to increase the near extinct populations of the 1930s, have been trumpeting away - they love the Comox Valley here on the Island and over on the lower mainland.

Seeing various skeins of Swans trumpeting over the farm is a delight ... perhaps not so for the farmers ... though I haven't heard ours complain - I must check.

As stated!

Trombones - bet you don't know what those are?  Took me by surprise ... as I sat looking at some paperclips I'd bought ... they were labelled 'trombones' - which is the French word.  I rather like that ... and if I find more ... I'll be increasing my French a telescopic (slide mechanism) bit ...

Frogs various

Now to Tadpoles ... the swimming pool cover is full of rain-water ... which is fine ... but now I'm told and have already heard the tadpoles come out to play ... and turn into froggies ... I can see I'll be hearing a croaking cacophony for a few weeks!

...  I hope those Tailless amphibians will enjoy lots of tasty little 'itos' - in other words mosquitoes! - and I won't get too bitten: some hope!

Some of the farming family ... 

Things are starting to come to life in the garden ... the trees are being pruned - with the hope for some better fruit, as they are fairly ancient ... some of the big trees, which died, are being dug out - so there's always activity up here ...

... the cows, I hear 'talking' occasionally - but  they enjoy their farmland in the valley below.  Suppers are delicious ... and the bar-b-qs are tantalising near!

FIL to the farmer!  My 'willing' helper!

Thankfully ... the FIL from the farm is fairly handy and helps me sort some fairly irritating challenges out ... and will fix up some mosquito screens for me ... 

... actually he's a handy-man par excellence ... has spent his life working with machinery et al.  His grand-daughter is following in her father's and grandfathers' (both) footsteps.

Chowder at the Bay

Grandson has just gone off to Swaziland with the school on an educational charity volunteer trip ... so it's been good to see their itinerary ... and though he's of an age of not saying much ... I hope to get some Africa feed-back on his return!

Down the road - Cowichan Bay

Well that's me for now ... life has its moments here ... but there's lots of opportunities - so I just need to absorb when I need to, and come back to life shortly after ... so now to get on with a few things and prepare fully for the A-Z ...

Couldn't resist these guys - now I
can see why paperclips so easily
'translate' to trombones - even
plastic ones ... good practice tools

Thanks for visiting and being so supportive ... I'm away from the Tadpoling, Trumpeting Trombones ... which I won't even attempt to translate into French in this bi-lingual country ...

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Herbs, Spices and Herbalists – Mint: Part 7 …

Tis coming up to Easter … the time of roast lamb, new potatoes glistening with butter and mint, mint sauce, home-made gravy, baby leeks, and new carrots … a delicious Easter lunch welcoming in the early Spring …

Garden Mint

… garden mint is not that convenient … desperately easy to grow, but incredibly keen to spread – keep it in a pot … however an essential for lamb and/or new potatoes – Jersey Royals perhaps …

Mint Jelly - so so good!

… yet the Lamiaceae (or Labiatae) is a ‘huge’ family of flowering plants commonly known as mint or deadnettle … they include Mentha, the strongly scented herbs, and include Peppermint and Spearmint … as well as many other varieties: apple mint, orange mint, pineapple mint …

Winter Savoury

To my surprise the Mint Family also includes a large number of herbs, lots of small shrubs and a few medium to very large trees … including basil, rosemary, thyme, savoury, lavender, sage, marjoram and others … also the tropical hardwood tree ‘teak’, which I would never have put into the ‘Mint family’ …

Jersey Royals simmered in Mint, tossed in butter,
sprinkled with parsley

We will concentrate on our Garden Mint … which George Orwell proclaimed that new potatoes simmered with mint and tossed in butter were superior to the fried potato dishes traditional in other countries … he has a point …

Jersey - highlighted in the Channel
Islands

… Keith from Keith’s Ramblings reminded me in my Boxty post that it can’t be long before the Jersey Royals are in the shops – heralding the start of Spring in a foodie way … the first outdoor produce from the warmer Channel Islands – that has led to this ‘Mint’ post …

Freshly made mint sauce

Pliny the Elder (AD 23 – August 25, AD 79) was keen on mint … ‘the smell of Mint doth stir up the minde, and the taste to a greedy desire of meat’, so it looks like mint sauce has been around for 2,000 years + and more I expect …

Mint is known to have originated in Asia and the Mediterranean region … the Greeks used it to clean their food tables, bathed with it … whilst the Romans used it in sauces, as an aid to digestion and as a mouth freshener.

Growing potatoes on Jersey
with Mont Orgueil castle in the back ground

Medieval monks developed further culinary and medicinal uses … as mint symbolised hospitality and was a welcome of friendship to guests.  The Jews strewed the floors of their synagogues with mint so that its clean and aromatic perfume scented the place as they entered to worship.

Shakespeare loved his plants and wove them into his tales … as here “The Winter’s Tale (Act 4, Scene 4):

"Hot lavender, mints savoury, marjoram,

The marigold, that goes to bed wi’ th’ sun

And with him rises weeping.  These are flowers

Of middle summer, and I think they are given

To men of middle age.”

Mint Chocolate Ice Cream

Mint goes with so many things … chopped mint and sugar on pineapple, or grapefruit slices – can I say chocolate – let’s move on … how about finely chopped mint with some sour cream, or cream cheese, served with a baked potato …

Mint leaves added to refreshing lemon water

… while at home as a deterrent for the ever present clothes-moth, or ants and the cabbage white caterpillar in the garden … then our bathrooms, our mouths … we would not be same without the tingle of our toothpaste cleansers …

Twinings Mint Tea

So here’s to Mint – enjoy a cup of mint tea, a cool glass of minted lemonade, or mint water … peppermint is a native to these shores … and is good for indigestion … I will not make an obvious link to Brexit …

Rack of Lamb with Mint Sauce

… but I am looking forward to British Spring Lamb, with new potatoes, mint sauce and freshly dug vegetables … simple foods that nature provides from the earth …

Melon Salad - so refreshing in summer
with the sprinkling of chopped mint

One final idea – a recipe I came upon as I was starting out in life which inspired my love of herby bread – that’s a standard when I cook – how about a melon salad … melon, cucumber, tomato pieces … with a vinaigrette of choice, fresh chopped parsley, chives and mint to sprinkle over … served with the herby bread – oh so good!!

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Ellen Terry and her Iridescent Beetlewing Dress ...

I had already come across the ‘beetlewing costume’ via posts I had written about closing up Kipling’s home – Batemans – particularly the conservation of its contents.

Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth -
painting by John Singer Sargent
(1888)

I knew Ellen Terry’s name (1847 – 1928) … but really nothing about her life or the magnificent glistening dress she wore when performing Lady Macbeth.

So when hearing a talk on Ellen at our Social History group … I was enchanted to learn more. 

Terry came from an acting family … and began performing in her childhood … she was one of 11 children … at least five became actors – Kate, her elder sister, was the grandmother of Sir John Gielgud, who along with Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir Ralph Richardson were the trinity of actors dominating the British stage for much of the 20^th century …

'Choosing' - portrait of Ellen
Terry, by George Watts c. 1864

The Terry family gave performances around the country … with Ellen taking parts from the early age of 9 … it seems she never stopped.

An eminent artist, George Watts, painted the two sister’s portraits … and then despite the age difference (46 – 17) – Watts and Terry married: it didn’t last, but the time allowed Terry to meet various luminaries of the time: Browning, Tennyson, Gladstone and Disraeli … which opened new doors and gained her more admirers.

Julia Margaret Cameron's photo of
Ellen Terry, aged 16

While the portraits painted by Watts and the early photographs by the renowned photographer, Julia Margaret Cameron, ensured she became a cult figure for the poets and painters of the later Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic movements, including Oscar Wilde.

Terry lived life to the full … beginning a relationship with a progressive architect-designer, by whom she had two children, Edward William Godwin (1833 – 1886).  Godwin had a particular interest in medieval costume … which led him to design theatrical costumes and scenery for Terry and her performances, even after their affair cooled.

Northampton Guildhall - designed in the
Ruskinian-Gothic style by Godwin

Terry had two further marriages, and other liaisons over her long life … one where she married an American, James Carew, who was 30 years her junior … that lasted only two years.

Two other partnerships developed – not of the romantic kind – for a short while with George Bernard Shaw – they had struck up a friendship and conducted a famous correspondence …. they weren’t so keen when they met!

Henry Irving (1838 - 1905)

The other was with Henry Irving who had worked hard to become a successful actor-manager-theatre director … particularly after his association and subsequent partnership with Ellen.

She remained popular regardless of how much and how often her behaviour defied the strict morality expected by her Victorian audiences … it is unknown whether Terry had a romantic relationship with Irving – who was considered the doyen of English classical theatre, even, in 1895, being the first actor to be knighted.

Much of Ellen Terry’s life has been recorded in art and photography … often wearing gowns designed by Godwin.  The most spectacular, and one which was worn and worn over the years – here and in America – is the Iridescent Beetle Wing costume she wore as Lady Macbeth.

The costume in dire need of repair ... 

The gown was made in crochet using a soft green wool and blue tinsel yarn from Bohemia to create an effect similar to chain mail.

Part of the portrait by John Singer Sargent

John Singer Sargent on seeing Terry in her performance in 1888 was compelled to paint her portrait, hence we have a detailed image to refer to.  It is in the Tate Gallery – where it had been donated in 1906; there is a contemporaneous photograph of Ellen Terry wearing the dress in the National Portrait Gallery.

Beetle wings

The costume was embroidered with gold and decorated with over a thousand of those sparkly wings from the green jewel beetle.  By the way the beetles shed their wings naturally – thank goodness for that clarification!

The Bejewlled Beetle

I found that the Victoria and Albert Museum have an article on Ellen Terry, the actress, her designer and her costumes … well worth a read.

Henry Irving watching a rehearsal -
illustration c. 1893

Irving died in 1905 leaving Terry distraught however she returned to the theatre in 1906.  She continued to perform, appeared in her first film in 1916, travelled back and forth to America, toured Australasia … while also lecturing on the Shakespearean heroines. 

She continued to participate in the theatrical world, though after WW1 withdrew more and more … she was recognised by society and appointed a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire – only the second actress to be so honoured.

Smallhythe Place

Terry, in 1899, had bought Smallhythe Place, near Tenterden on the Kent/Sussex border – which she first saw with Henry Irving.  Terry’s daughter, Edith Craig, opened the house in 1929 as a memorial to her mother. 

A walk through the gardens at Smallhythe

It is now owned by the National Trust who maintain the many personal and theatrical mementos, the house, garden and the Barn Theatre in the grounds … where the tradition of putting on a Shakespearean play every year on the anniversary of Ellen Terry’s death (21 July) has been maintained.

The Barn Theatre

That costume, transforming the beautiful red-haired actress into a cross between a jewelled serpent and a medieval knight, was the talk of the town in 1888 after the first night … and was, after one hundred years (with all the wear and tear of tours, behind the scenes change of costumes, and packing crates), desperately in need of a touch of conservation.

Ellen Terry c 1880 - aged 33

This Guardian article explains that the repairs proved as muchcostume archaeology as needlework … it was restored to its present glory by a specialist textile conservator, Zenzie Tinker – whom I had across as the expert used by Batemans, in Rudyard Kipling’s, home.

I so enjoyed learning about Ellen Terry, which led me to look at theatre in the 1800s, actors and actresses, society, art and literary works, epistolary collections, textile conservation … and then the history of it all, ending with Smallhythe Place – which I have never visited … definitely something I need to correct.

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

It’s a bug’s life … or not …

... saving itself from extinction, appearing as a magnificent rainbow jewel 175 million years later, or humans’ thinking ah! this would make a good meal …

Matrix Opal c/o National Opals, Australia

Bugs are incredible, and together with the natural earth, keep this world in balance, which is more than can be said for the Anthropocene epoch.

Nothophantes Horridus – yes, more commonly called the Horrid Ground-Weaver – an extremely rare species of spider in the family Linyphidae (sheet weavers or money spiders).

 

Goldcrest love Sheet Weavers

Etymology gives this little bug its name: from the Greek words ‘notho’, meaning spurious, and ‘hyphantes’, which means weaver, and the Latin ‘horridus’, which means … not horrid! … but bristly.

Anyways … it is very rare and has only recently (1989) been found in a microscopic area of Plymouth, Devon,  less than one kilometre square - whereupon its environmental friends called this endangered species ‘to action’:   as evidence that a housing development in a quarry should not go ahead:  the Planning Inspector upheld the bug’s right to exist.

 

A fossilised Belemoidea

The next is a Belemoidea, which has raised its pretty little head after life in the Jurassic era – about 175 million years ago.

They are an extinct group of marine cephalopod  (being millions of years old I guess that’d they'd be extinct?!) – but very similar to squid and closely related to the modern cuttlefish.

This particular bug has had a chequered life … seen by marine dinosaurs in Australia’s vast inland sea, before the sea regressed.  At that time the weather was erratic and very acidic – the effects caused silica-rich gel to become trapped in the earth.  Over time the silica solidified to form opals.

The Virgin Rainbow Opal

This Virgin Rainbow Opal was found in the Coober Pedy district of Western Australia – “The Opal Capital of the World”.  It has been secured for the South Australian Museum in Adelaide.

Coober Pedy

Not knowing the area at all … I was interested to see that Coober Pedy lies on the Adelaide to Alice Springs road and on to Darwin – I’ve taught myself a bit of geography here.

We are running out food … well so they say … and we’ve always constantly looked at other alternatives of food sources … how about bugs?  Australia has them … Balmain Bugs – I always liked the look of these slippery lobsters – a food to be enjoyed.

Balmain Bug

Some of these aren't bugs ... buttttt .......... I enjoyed writing about them!

Balmain Bug, Prawn, Squid, etc

A lot of us won’t eat bugs … just the thought of scrunching down a creepy crawly sends shivers down our spines.  They’re not unhealthy; they’re often quite tasty and loaded with the sort of nutritious good stuff dietary professionals love.

Sooner or later we’re probably going to have to get over our apprehensions and embrace these remarkably efficient sources of protein. 

Served at a pub near you ... 

Let us eat worms, we already eat snails … the American Army Survival Handbook, I see, tells you (not me!) how to catch worms, clean (purge) them and then you can eat them raw.

Late 1800s ad

But remember we used to despise oysters – the poor man’s food … and those bugs the lobsters despised by American coastal dwellers, but beloved by the train passengers (good to eat) and railroad bosses (cheap to provide).

Now there’s the Wild Food School in Lostwithiel, Cornwall – which provides Entompohagy Courses – new word?!  Yes for me too … but here they show us that eating insects is de riguer in many parts of the world ...

So let’s embrace bugs … for their use, their balance of life, and for the beauty they might provide in a quarter of a billion years ahead!

Here are some links … that might amuse and tell more of their story:

Finest Opal Ever c/o The Jewellery Judge 

Big Think on Eating Bugs

How Lobster Got Fancy c/o PSMag 

Wild Food School: Edible Insects and Bugs

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories