Still wearing my winter coat... But a little bit warmer today, no wind, and glimpses of the sun. So I grabbed the opportunity for a rather pleasant walk into town (and back), to get some things from the pharmacy - and to just enjoy the progress of spring on the way. (If anyone is wondering about the building in the top photo, in the past it was a spinning mill, but is nowadays home to various offices and businesses - including a fitness gym.)
(Saving a few more pictures for another day.)
Some more photos from my walk on Saturday. After I had been to check on the cherry blossom trees, I took a little detour to check on another park nearby.
The big tree is not an oak but a maple.
Some daffodils in bloom - but looking a bit "downcast" from the capricious weather.
No real change in the cold weather since the weekend. Less windy today, but raining...
Something New by P.G. Wodehouse
(Blandings Castle, Book 1 - first published in 1915)
Audio book narrated by B.J. Harrison - 8 hrs 2mins
P.G. Wodehouse - or Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (1881-1975) - was an English author, and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. (The link will take you to an extensive Wikipedia article about him.)
I read several books by Wodehouse already in my teens. He's perhaps best known for his stories about Jeeves and Wooster - with the young English gentleman Bertram Wooster as the narrator, but his manservant Jeeves really the main character. (There's also a memorable British TV-series from the early 1990s based on those books, starring Hugh Laurie as Bertie Wooster, and Stephen Fry as Jeeves.)
But there is also quite a long series of books about Blandings Castle, involving among others the elderly Lord Emsworth, and his son Freddy Threepwood. (My parents had two or three of those in Swedish translation, but I can't recall this first one being among those.)
In his books, Wodehouse makes fun of both
English aristrocrats and wealthy Americans; and also the hierarchy among
servants on big old estates in England, like Blandings Castle.
This first book in the Blandings series was published in 1915 - in the UK entitled Something Fresh, but in the US Something New.
One recurring theme in this and following books set at Blandings is
that people often seem to be visiting there under false name - for
various reasons pretending to be someone else than they really are. Leading of course to lots of complications until finally sorted out... There
is also often some object (or animal) involved that more than one
person wants to get their hands on. In this book, it's a lost or stolen
ancient Egyptian scarab (a beetle-shaped amulet).
I enjoyed listening to this audio book; but have to admit that I would not be able to satisfactorily sort out neither characters nor the plot from memory afterwards...
So I'll leave that to the publisher's summary:
Here, we have a glorious ensemble of Woodhousian characters knocking elbows to foreheads in the elegant and grand Blandings Castle. Meet Freddy Threepwood, the vagrant son of doddering old Lord Emsworth of Blandings Castle. Freddy has recently become engaged to Aline Peters, the American heiress of an irascible father. The snag is that Freddy seems to have at one point become enamored of a struggling actress, Joan Valentine, and written some impetuous and imprudent letters to her. Joan has now moved on and is currently employed as a writer for a magazine's society column. Freddy has employed a certain R. Jones, a man of portly and dubious character, to attempt to buy back Freddy's letters, and keep his engagement safe. We also meet Ache Marson, an athlete who writes the Gridley Quayle series of pulp mystery stories, and also lives in the flat just below the actress/writer Joan Valentine. Got that straight? Sounding confusing? Wait till we get going.
(Publisher's summary copied from the Audible website)
I went back to revisit the little park with the old cherry blossom trees today, and I do think there were more flowers visible in the top branches today than when I was last there (four days ago). So probably no need to worry too much about the health of the trees as such.
One thing may still be a concern, though: Standing under these trees in spring is usually also connected with hearing the buzzing of a lot of bees and bumble bees. This year,
I've so far not heard a single buzz...
Daytime temperatures are still just around +7'C (44'F); and frost warnings issued for the nights. And the sky keeps changing very quickly. Yesterday the weather changed while I was dressing to go out, and when I got outside I was met by a snow-and-hail shower. (My walk was cut very short...) Today I managed to get out while the sun was shining, and as you can see from the photos, when I got to the park with the cherry trees (15 min walk or so), the sky was a lovely blue colour. But before I got back home (another 20-25 min), it was overcast and raining again!
I asked Copilot for a poem about the fickleness of spring:
In the dance of dawn, where dewdrops reign,
Spring whispers life, a transient train.
Blossoms bloom with a fleeting smile,
Gracing the earth, yet just for a while.
She waltzes in on a zephyr's wing,
A fickle queen, the heart of spring.
Sunshine and storm her crown adorn,
Today she's warmth, tomorrow she's torn.
Petals pirouette in the fickle air,
Spring's tender touch, both foul and fair.
A symphony of growth, then a silent fling,
Such is the caprice of the vernal king.
Yet in her fickleness, there lies a truth,
The cycle of life, in age and youth.
For in each ending, a beginning springs,
A constant change, the fickleness brings.
Did you start looking for a bird in that first picture? Sorry! There isn't one (I think). But according to Wikipedia, bird-in-a-bush is one of the names for this flower.
When I came across the flower on my walk today, I had no idea what it was called in any language, Swedish included. So I used Google Image Search to find out.
It seems to be one of those plants that go by many different names. In Swedish it's called stor nunneört. A direct translation of that to English would be something like "big nun's herb" (but implying it's the herb that's big rather than the nun). In Latin it's called Corydalis solida. In English, it's goes by the names fumewort and bird-in-a-bush. Another article on only Corydalis adds that the name comes from Greek korydalís = crested lark. (Latin Galerida cristata, Swedish tofslärka).
So does "bird in a bush" refer to crested lark? I still had difficulties quite seeing it...
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| Image from Wikipedia |
But then I read on a bit further still about the bird, and found this passage:
Francis of Assisi considered the crested lark a bird of special significance, based on similarities he perceived between it and the life of the Friars Minor: its plain earth-coloured plumage and hood, its humility ("for it goes willingly along the wayside and finds a grain of corn for itself"), and its time spent in song.
Now perhaps we're getting there? The flower also grows along the wayside, and "sings quietly" (but with colour rather than sound).
(PS. In the article about the crested lark, there are also a couple of video clips where you can listen to it sing, sitting on the ground.)
