A tip-toe through the tulip mania, and a sly pry into the surprising life of Constance Spry…

As Bexley blooms beautifully, dear readers, my thoughts always turn to tulips at this time of year…don’t yours? 

What is it about tulips that so uplifts our spirits, fuels our passions, and yet – ultimately - drives us slightly tulip-loopy?... They promise so much: they unfurl seductively: they glow with gaudy colours: and then, before you can say `Jack Robinson`, the blooming things shrivel up and wilt. Tsk! Such a shame…Such a waste! It’s enough to drive a Dutchman daft!

I suspect that dear old Constance Spry would’ve known what to do with a tulip…she seemed to have the answer to everything, in fact… (she masterminded the young Queen’s floristry, educated a nation, led a full and flowery life, and – allegedly – invented `Coronation Chicken’). What a lady! What a life! What a book!

(And, by the by, what a splendid book jacket, don’t you think, dear reader? Why can’t Alan Titchmarsh dress more like that?)

Oh well, must dash…Off to tend me tulips! TTFN

RAIN WANTED…Apply within, with wet words please…

Shakespeare: WRONG!

Bob Dylan: WRONG!

Blogbrarian: RIGHT!





“The rain it raineth every day” wrote the Bard….well, Billy Boy, that may’ve been true in your day, but – let me assure you, Sir - not round here in sunny Bexley these days it doesn’t!




“And it’s a hard rain is gonna fall” sang Bob Dylan; not round here, Bobby Boy, it’s as dry as a dusty dingo’s den…


…


As the medieval poet once put it (more or less);


“Summer is acumin in, Loud now sing cuckoo…


Groweth seed and bloweth mead,


But give us a downpour, too!”…


…


Something’s wrong somewhere, don’t you think, dear readers?…


But what can we do about it?


Some people dig ponds…


Some adapt their growing habits…


Others take a global view.


On Nelligan's farm, they take a unique view of agricultural irrigation...


(The Blogbrarian has his own special way of watering his little garden patch...would you like to share his secret? Contact him for further details…)






But above all, I think we should try the power of poetry to summon up a mighty flood…Let’s put Billy and Bobby to shame, and compose our own lines to encourage a deluge….


So, if you’re wilting in Welling, or shrivelled in Sidcup, baking in Barnehurst or arid in Erith, cracked in Crayford or bleached in Blackfen then let’s have a few lines from you – either your favourite bit of appropriate poetry, or a few lines of your own making.


Let it flow!


Release your torrents of creativity!






Here’s one that a member of my Research Team came up with earlier:


'We’re parched in March, need a monsoon by June…


Our lawns are all yellow & shrivelled…


Our flowers are dying…


‘let it pour’ we’re all crying


‘Please send us a downpour – and soon!’







Hmmm…Could do better, dear readers? Let me know....




TTFN

“Frith, bang, wallop!
What a picture, what a photograph”…

What-ho, happy snappers!







Have any of you been watching that admirable BBC programme, “Britain's First Photo Album” presented by the handsomely jowled John Sergeant? What a man! (Not sure about the hat, though, John…)


The series recreates some of the pictures taken by Francis Frith, the splendid Victorian entrepreneur photographer…Marvellous fare!






I love an old photograph, don’t you? Especially the brown and crinkly ones.






You’ll not be surprised to learn that your libraries have a fine collection of Frithery…and books on photography in general…and one of my particular favourites is the imaginatively titled “Looking at old photographs”. If you’ve an old family snapshot, and want to know the date of a particular wing collar, a fox fur stole, a tightly buttoned bodice and a finely waxed moustache (although not on the same individual, one trusts) then this is the book for you.






And, if you seek more local photographs with a historical theme, then our wondrous Local Studies and Archives Centre is the place to go. You’ll be amazed!






And as for Mr Frith himself?...My Research Team have, as you have no doubt come to expect, been diligent in their unstinting efforts to unearth you a few nuggets of information:


• Francis Frith (1822 – 1898), the son of a Derbyshire Quaker, whose childhood “combined firm morality with the love of fresh air” and who went on to amass a fortune in the printing trade…


• Fascinated by the new science of photography, Frith travelled to the Middle East (where he slept in caves and fended off wild dogs) and found fame as an intrepid explorer...


• Returning home to England, Frith turned his curious eye (and eye for business) to travel and photography, and he recorded the state of the nation on film...


• For the last twenty years of his life, he “fell back upon books and art, nature, love, and poetry”, which sound eminently sensible to me!...






John Sergeant, on the other hand, appeared on Strictly Come Dancing…


(And, is it me, or does he bear an uncanny resemblance to Jo Brand?)…






On which tantalising note, I leave you, dear readers….
Smile...Say cheese!




TTFN