Among the Romans III

quando omni flunkus, mortati

(When all else fails, play dead)

Journeying

Journeys, like artists, are born and not made. A thousand differing circumstances contribute to them, few of them willed or determined by the will—whatever we may think.

—Lawrence Durrell

Consolation

Those not travelling in northern England need not be sad—see here for consolation—

Barnard Castle

Barnard Castle, where Richard III once lived, built in 1125 over the site of a Roman fort. Travelling to York, after, and planning to get to the Richard III museum, rereading Josephine Tey’s wonderful debunking of the Richard myth, the king deformed of body and of mind, A Daughter of Time.

image: Tees Bridge, Barnard Castle. Above the bridge is Barnard Castle itself, and its round Tower. The Norman castle dates from ca 1150, first built by the Balliols, Colin Smith

Among the Romans II

Procrastinato ergo sum.

(I procrastinate therefore I am.)

Among the Romans I

Non scholae sed vitae discimus.

(We learn not for school, but for life.)

England

Off to England! I’ll be exploring Hadrian’s Wall and doing Roman archaeology in Durham as of Monday. Funny how the archaeology I’ve been involved with is always (well, both times) Roman, though the Greeks and Minoans are my passion.

image: Hadrian's wall viewed from near Greenhead, Mark Burnett

A la Bastille!

In honor of Bastille Day . . .

Find a nice sidewalk café with green table and chairs, where you can sit over a demitasse of strong black coffee for hours on end and savor Hemingway's impressions of his time in Paris, still alluring after all these years.

A couple of bites from A Moveable Feast (which I must reread soon):

The pommes a l'huile were firm and marinated and the olive oil delicious. I ground black pepper over the potatoes and moistened the bread in the olive oil. After the first heavy draft of beer I drank and ate very slowly. When the pommes de l'huile were gone I ordered another serving and a cervelas. This was a sausage like a heavy, wide frankfurter split in two and covered with a special mustard sauce.

We both touched wood on the cafe table and the waiter came to see what it was we wanted. But what we wanted not he, nor anyone else, nor knocking on wood nor marble, as this cafe table-top was, could ever bring us. But we did not know that night and we were very happy.

image: Croissants chauds sortis du four, Christophe Marcheux

Homing In

Feeling the tug of home under the lure of distant parts. The alternate desire to dig in, stay still, read Henry James novels in the shade of the California oaks, revise my own novel, make salads with sliced nectarines and soft-hued pluots, throw a small dinner party on the patio with candles, faded Provence linens, and Spanish sangria, enjoy my pert red Turkish watering can and the grace of the berries ripening behind it.


image: Christie B. Cochrell, Red Watering Can

English Idyll

Looking eagerly ahead to this time next week when I'll be in England—here on these green banks of the River Wear (no Wear Wolves, I trust, to compete with the Hybrid Arctic Wolves that threatened to beset us on the long-ago St. Bernard Pass), with august Durham Cathedral standing watch above.

image: Gary Devore

Thought for the Day

Water is always the same, but every moment of it is new.

(A quote that found me rather than I it.)



image: Caniveau, KoS

Garden Notes

My scarlet runner beans are in bloom, though I’ve neglected them dreadfully.

The blackberries will ripen while we’re gone—adding insult to injury, for putting up with their bloodletting brambles all year long.


image: Phaseolus coccineus, Fabaceae, Runner Bean, inflorescence. Botanical Garden KIT, Karlsruhe, Germany, H. Zell

Aqua Globes

While I was away I deployed twelve blue blown-glass spheres filled with water to keep my Japanese Maple and lime and olive trees and other plants from drying out. I love the sparkle of the light and water through the glass, each ball different, its own unique pattern and shades of blue. The plants would have been happier with personal attention, but have survived being looked after by djinni of intensely azure hue.

image: Aqua Globes