I have shamefully – or shamelessly? – neglected this blog, but I do have plans for it now, and intend to get back to blogging and to doing a bit more with it. It will still remain firmly focused on books and works of art, though – two things, along with trees, that help to keep me sane!
See the Word from Wormingford for 25 February on the right for RB’s latest offering. Still only read one Peter Wimsey novel – Gaudy Night, which was excellent – must read more, but they are hard to find, especially in libraries.
Was a bit late posting up the link to the latest Word from Wormingford, as I was away on Friday and for part of the weekend, and have only just remembered. But it was worth the wait – lovely thoughts about ivy!
Alexander McCall Smith, The Lost Art of Gratitude
I am never quite sure if I like the Isabel Dalhousie series, but I keep reading them! They are easy reads, and the everyday moral conundra they explore are interesting. I just find Isabel herself irritating and unconvincing. Perhaps it’s because I have read all the Scotland Street books that I have turned to these – I haven’t been able to get into AMS’s African books, but I love the Scotland Street ones. I do love the charm, gentleness, old-fashioned manners and graciousness of AMS’s writing, and that tinge of melancholia despite the warmth and love of life – there is something very real and engaging even about these books that I am less sure of. Maybe I should try the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series again.
I have just discovered, to my profound joy, that I can read Ronald Blythe’s column in the Church Times online, without subscribing. I came across it a few years ago, as my sister, who is a vicar, takes the Church Times. Ronald’s column is on the back, a regular feature of this weekly paper (I rarely read anything else in the CT, though it does often have some great paintings and sculpture featured, and the occasional interesting book). He lives in the cottage (pictured in the drawing, left, that accompanies the column) once owned by the painter John Nash, who was a friend of his, and he writes exquisitely beautiful short articles about life in his village and in the countryside around.
He is known for his writing about the English countryside, and the deep love and understanding he has of it comes through with fresh beauty in every Word from Wormingford. He still has a childlike wonder at the world around him, imbued with deep wisdom. He also mentions the lives of the villagers who worship with him at the local church, and often we are told of the reactions of his white cat to the comings and goings in his cottage.
It is the Church Times, and there is a profound but understated Christian element to these wonderful diary entries – in the way of Bible quotations, lessons learned about life and people and the world around him, a quiet but impressive spirituality and faith in God that doesn’t preach and is never either sentimental or dogmatic but is intrinsic to his all-encompassing love of the world.
His column is also very literary – English literature is clearly something else very dear to his heart. So he combines nature, literature, spirituality, a deep and quietly enthusiastic love of life, and provides, with his beautiful, simple, elegant, erudite prose, a moment of pure joy and soul-stirring wisdom in each contribution – for this reader, at least, and to the same reader, a huge source of comfort, a place to shelter and rest and think and leave with enthusiasm for life renewed.
So I have set up a section, on the right of this page, where I will post links to his glorious column each week. Please don’t be put off if you are unsympathetic to Christianity – I feel sure that his warm and inclusive approach will overcome or even banish such reservations! He is one of my heroes – a voice of sanity and stability in a seemingly shallow, violent, increasingly difficult world. A reminder of the need for humankind to be rooted in the natural world of which we are a small part. Thank you, Ronald!
I even hate the word ‘blog’. But I am beginning to enjoy other people’s blogs, and am beginning to see the point. I like thinking about the way that art and literature connect with everyday life, and I am hoping that writing about the things I read and look at and think about will help me to order my thoughts better… Anyway, if you want to know why this blog is called Fioritur, read the About page. I hope this site will flourish in due course…
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