The Christmas Dinner

It being 24 February 2012 it must be time for The Christmas Dinner.  These chocolates have been fascinating me for quite some while.  Today I have tasted of their chocolate goodness and can confirm that the wait was worth it.  Now all I have to do is find another box of Turkey shaped treats for a significant date in December.

In order to set off the embossed design on the box I have saturated the colours which darkens the overall images.  For some of the close-up pictures this would have left them too dark and made the chocolate look unappetising.  These images have been given the same vignette setting but they have not had the colour saturation increased.

If you are searching for Turkey themed chocolate treat then you need look no further than Hotel Chocolat.  There again it may be just a little early to stock up for midwinter festivals?  Time now to go and try another chocolate and to see what my resident tester in chief has to say.  There was a small outcry when the photographed chocolates were put away to see if they got a call back to the cake stand for more exposure.

Slow Growing Vegetable Love

When Andrew Marvell in To his Coy Mistress penned,

My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow.

It maybe that he was referring to perennial potent plant power that does not fade like the fickle nature of man.  It could be that vegetable love is more dependable even than fruit love as it grows more slowly and surely and can often be preserved for longer.  My vegetable love extends to hot summer moments spent inside large canvass enclosure viewing prized vegetables shown by experts and judged by committee.  I particularly enjoy seeing rosettes and certificates.

The marrows shown here are not show quality so they were shown the pot.  In his poem Marvell sound ready for dinner whether roasted, boiled or baked his vegetable love will remain for his Coy Mistress long after dinner is served.  He assures her that he will respect her in the morning when he sows new seeds in his allotment that will flower forth into fresh blooms furthering his fecund fidelity.  Sometimes vegetable love can seem so beautiful.

If plant passions are turgid within you now then please pause and prune your over amorous reaches before you partake of a little of the flavour of Mr Marvell’s The Garden;

The luscious clusters of the vine
Upon my mouth do crush their wine ;
The nectarine and curious peach
Into my hands themselves do reach ;
Stumbling on melons as I pass,
Insnared with flowers, I fall on grass.

This vegetable love has led me into a fruitful frame of mind.  I intend to dally a while further in fertile furrows foraging for fresh fodder.  From the earth do wonders rise that hold aloft the canopy of the skies.  With scarce a whispered hum nature calls all to march to her drum.

Pooka Dust

This is my hat which is often worn with goggles in place as pictured here.  Sometimes I take advantage of the goggles strap to hold my business cards in place.  At the rear of the hat you may see a white fluffy tail.  I enjoy referring to this as my Pooka Tale.  Not that it is a tail from a Pooka rather it is a conversation piece that supplies me with the opportunity to tell a tale of Pookas.  Of late the hat has been attracting strange dust like deposits.  I believe that some, if not all of these fluffings are occasioned when my head garb is borrowed by unseen wearers who sometimes leave a footprint, or two but never take a photograph!

The Pooka mythology has been around for many centuries.  Some relate that the name comes from Púca which is Irish for goblin.  With regional variations there are easily over a dozen different names that the shape shifting Pooka, or Puck has acquired.  To date his most famous recording might be found in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream.  Titania ask Puck, also known as Robin Goodfellow

Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
Call'd Robin Goodfellow: are not you he
That frights the maidens of the villagery;
Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern
And bootless make the breathless housewife churn;
And sometime make the drink to bear no barm;
Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?
Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,
You do their work, and they shall have good luck:
Are not you he?

(Act ii., Scene i.)

It may only be my night tripping dream like fantasy that the dust upon my hat is a clear indication of it being borrowed by friendly sprites, but it is nice to have a flight of fancy as long as you have safe landings.

For further reference see the film Harvey, 1950, with James Stewart and Harvey.

 

 

 

 

In Memoriam Tennyson Oxford Miniature Edition

In Memoriam Tennyson published by Henry Frowde London, printed by Horace Hart at Oxford (printer to the University)

In Memoriam by Alfred Lord Tennyson.  Oxford Miniature Edition. 7 x 9.7cm or 2.75 x 3.7 inches.  Published by Henry Frowde London, printed Horace Hart at Oxford (printer to the University).  Unpaginated (145 pp).  Missing a small portrait of Tennyson opposite title page.  Red leather like covers with gilt lettering on front and gilt edged pages.  Illustrated end pages different images front and rear water colour landscape scenes with quotes from the text.

The illustrations on the end pages are a brilliant surprise.  The landscape scenes are quite a shock when you open up the plain red cover.  For the size and age the inner illustrations are quite superb.

It feels like a real shame to put this item on shelf where the art work cannot be appreciated.

Pillar of cloud by day and fire by night

These picture shows a column of light in the sky which looked very biblical.  Unfortunately there was no great progression of the awe inspiring spectacle.  The pillar was fantastic enough in and of itself, but it almost seemed to promise a further revelation.  The sun on the right of the picture was obscured to some extent behind clouds.  The light from the sun was refracted by a separate cloud formation and the result looked like an illuminated column of cloud that could become a pillar of fire by night.  The title for this picture is inspired by the following description from Exodus.

“And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:  He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.”

Exodus 13:21-22  King James Bible

I have no doubt the phenomenon pictured here was perfectly natural.  At first I was stunned by this lighting effect.  Luckily it lasted long enough for me to capture it by camera.  The column did appear to waver slightly and to offer the possibility of transforming its shape.  The luminance in the sky gave an impression that a brilliant development might be about to begin.  On one level it was like looking at a vertical rainbow and yet it was more unusual and so seemed more fantastic.

 

Imbolc Oimelc Star

My Google Calendar linked to Thelemic Holidays has been preparing me for the Feast of the Stars which it tells me is today.  My knowledge of this feast is goes little beyond the reminder that my calendar gives me and this only states the title and date.  I had plans to take a star picture today to mark Imbolc.  The light is now returning and the end of winter is beginning even if it will get colder yet at least it will also be brighter as the days lengthen.  Unfortunately for my plans the clouds have the covered the stars that I had intended to record for Imbolc, but the sheep pictured here are my Oimelc reference and the Sun is my starry inspiration for the Festival of Stars.  Oimelc is said to be the old festival name that celebrates the Ewe’s Milk or Oimelc returning as sign of the new vitality that comes back to us at this time each year.  Now I must go and research the Festival of Stars whilst I still have time.