Sunday 5 October 2008

Up the road, afternoon

A somewhat sooty smell from Marcel's chimney indicates their first fire of the winter. He and Anne sit side by side by the window, reading.

Marcelle gives me three walnuts.

6 comments:

Bee said...

This is a lovely autumnal image! Did you eat your walnuts, or save them?

Lucy said...

I've still got them, but I may eat them soon, or else save them for when Tom can eat nuts again, as he really likes walnuts better than I do!

Bee said...

Or, you could toast the walnuts and serve them with some pear and blue cheese in a salad!

I would find it very handy to have a walnut tree. Do you think that they "like" England?

Lucy said...

At my primary school in Hertfordshire, an old walnut tree overhung a corner of the playground; it was always a problem as we loved finding the nuts and of course some naughty children then threw sticks and stones at them to get them down, and the elderly people whose tree it was didn't like it.

So they do grow in England, but better further south, or in better summers. The problem with them is they take ages to mature, and won't fruit for many years, I think, probably ten at least, even with modern varieties. But they're a very pretty tree, with long rounded leaves, an open habit and good autumn colour too...

Bee said...

We rented a house in Italy last year and there was a walnut tree on the grounds. I got a big thrill out of scavenging for nuts. I'm going to ask around about walnut trees in Berkshire. Speaking of trees, I put in a sweet little crabapple tree today.

Where did you live in Hertfordshire? Two of my best friends live there -- one in Welwyn, and the other in Weston (near Hitchen) -- and coincidentally they are coming to me this weekend for a concert of the Monteverdi vespers. I was reading some of your first blogs the other night, and I was very moved by one that you wrote about music. You mentioned an interesting scene with Kenneth Branaugh -- and noted how we can be moved to tears by music, and yet unmoved by real-life suffering. You should really do a repeat of this blog: kind of a "greatest hits" thing, for all of your readers who didn't read it the first time. It is such an interesting topic, and you write so eloquently about it.

But enough of these meanderings! I'm off to bed now.

Lucy said...

Crabapples are productive much more quickly, and so pretty,whether red or gold!

I lived in West Herts, Berkhamsted. Funnily enough, we rarely ventured to the eastern side of the county, though occasionally to Welwyn Garden Stores! The road system has alwsy been an oddity there, in that you have to practically go into London and out again to cross the county.

I envy you your Monteverdi Vespers.

I'm not really very strong on music; Tom's educated me quite a bit but on the whole it's like a foreign language to me, and I am rarely able to tell a good performance from a bad. Early music feels a little more accessible.

I'd have to read those early posts again myself to remember what I said! I had wondered about starting a meme asking people to nominate their favourites of their own posts. But if most people are anything like me, keeping up with the current blogging of those I follow is difficult enough! So I'm very touched at you reading back...

I feel in some ways those days were different, I had fewer readers, so fewer reciprocal visits to make, and wrote more and perhaps more from the heart. And it was just all new and exciting. But there we are, things evolve, and the contacts I have with special readers like you are very much appreciated.