Off again....

DOesn't seem any time since I went before....

Brompton Cemetery

Took a short cut through Brompton Cemetery on the way to the scandalously closed William de Morgan gallery

It is a long narrow strip of land I don't usually go in. It's very romantic and picturesque because much of it is not very well maintained. I hope they're actively striking a balance between neglect and nature conservation. There certainly were some lovely flowers and excellent blackberries, and butterflies too.



Not to mention this raven, which was not however croaking "Nevermore" but seemed rather pleased to have stolen the lunch of a lady sitting on a bench nearby.

Plagiarising Ferrets - What Do Romance Publishers Really Want?

Take a look at this article by Paul Tolme in Newsweek, in which this author, who wrote a learned piece all about black footed ferrets, was plagiarized by a romance writer for her corny Native American novel, "Shadow Bear."

Seems unlikely? And so it was. I really laughed - it's a very well written article, describing how "Shadow Bear"'s author googled Tolme's work and lifted it wholesale to add a bit of "authenticity" (or in this case, inauthenticity) to her bodice-ripper. Or - well, actually it's hard to know what she DID intend, since ferrets don't add anything to the erotic tension, believe me.

What I want to know is how any editor, however fast asleep, passed the book for publication? The good people at Signet Books, publishers of "Shadow Bear," will have the answer to that I suppose. At the very least, there seems to be an opportunity here for writers who can't write.

Some of the comments on the Newsweek article are funny too - unintentionally, I think. Hm.

Vineyard Cultivation and An Interesting Blacksmith

During the recent trip to France I called by to see a blacksmith called M. Solon who makes agricultural implements. He's one of the few people in France who can still make by hand the specialist tools that people have been using to cultivate their vines for 1,500 years. He was particularly proud of this one. My French wasn't good enough to catch either the name or exactly how it was used, but he said it was for vineyards.

He won 50,000 Euros for making it in a competition and has decided to set up his workshop to train craftsmen in the old skills. I don't suppose they'll have to do a seven year apprenticeship or whatever he did, but I would imagine that he'd be interested in people who already have some metal-working skills. And, I suppose, who speak French, since he doesn't seem to speak any English.

He was a very slight and slender man, not a bit like the sort of blacksmith you imagine.

And just by the way he had one of the nicest shop doors I've seen - the handle is a beautifully crafted spade.

More Liberty of London

Someone's directed me to Liberty Online, where you can still buy Liberty fabrics. I'm very glad they're still doing them and hope even more that they sack their current store designer and reintroduce some Liberty style and atmosphere into their real-life shop.

A Grouch about Liberty of London

Went to Liberty's sale in Regent Street - it's one of our twice a year fun outings, even though I also sometimes shop at Liberty's at full price (when I'm feeling rich).

I haven't been doing much shopping lately and I don't think I've actually been there for a year. I was frankly shocked when I went in. For those who don't know the store, it's an extraordinary gigantic half timbered building reputedly made out of an old sailing ship, a great rambling place all of oak and with leaded and stained glass windows. Amazing. The firm was founded with the idea of offering really good design. In the 100-odd years since then, they've had sporadic bouts of producing gorgeous original designs as well as keeping their old designs going - liberty prints, peacock prints, etc.

Now, they've revamped the sales areas, and in doing so lost a lot of the enticing atmosphere, and cruelly exposed the derivative quality of the goods they're currently selling and the fact that they're not commissioning any interesting or original things themselves. I saw a lot of one design, on everything from towels to purses, in a sort of wiggly art nouveau pattern. How cheap can you get, to just use the same design on all kinds of different goods. Clearly nobody has given any thought to making beautiful things, it's just a crass branding exercise.

The fab interior, all turn of the century oak and arts and crafts fireplaces, is still intact, although the bitty and unsympathetic displays look a bit strange in it.

Something pretty incompetent going on, but I'll be really sorry if Liberty of London bites the dust. It's an institution, and it used to be an institution in a good way, where you could always be sure of getting something amazing and creative.

I have decided I will take my sale shopping elsewhere. So there.

Les Gendarmes Chics

I was just walking down a back street in Orleans, France, when I saw these three chic middle aged men. Why were they posing like this, I wondered, in their sunglasses and Arthur C. Clarke blue outfits?

Turned out they were the local cops. English policemen would never look like that in a million years.

Stitching with Chestnuts and Plastic Sea Anemones

Saw this in the Alentejo, Portugal. Women used to stitch chestnut shells into their embroideries. I am always fascinated by people making art out of their surroundings, whatever those surroundings may be.

The same reason I loved the knitting show at London's South Bank which had sea themes and was created from rubbish abandoned at sea, thereby making the point that if we keep trashing the oceans we may end up just with a load of plastic. This is a sea anemone of plastic sacks and orange plastic rope, among other things.

I love the way there is a transformation of ugliness into beauty here.

Monsters

I'm a bit of a fan of the Grant Museum of Zoology a genuine Victorian teaching museum about anatomy which is now part of UCL. Well worth a visit and they have a series of free talks, of which the next will be on 9 July, on the evolution of monsters in the human psyche.

I often wonder about that when looking at old churches. Almost always they are full of grotesque imps, devils and monsters - and I am sure there must have been a meaning to them.

Strangely, I have found it very hard to uncover any explanations about why these peculiar things do so often appear. I'm assuming they are like momenti mori - skulls and crossbones that remind the viewer to watch for their sins, because death is inevitable. Perhaps they indicate that evil is everywhere. Anyway here are two which really caught my eye in Chartres Cathedral. I am particularly puzzled by the one at the top, which looks a bit like a horse.