No.12

CHARMING CAT
Palette Knife Oil on Canvas
75 cm x 60 cm
Leonid Afremov b1955
Nationality - Russian-Israeli

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Three Poems by Thomas Hardy

BETWEEN US NOW

Between us now and  here
Two thrown together
Who are not wont to wear
Life's flushest feather -
Who see the scenes slide past,
The daytimes dimming fast,
Let there be truth at last,
Even if despair.

So thoroughly and long
Have you now known me,
So real in faith and strong
Have I now shown me,
That nothing needs disguise
Further in any wise,
Or asks or justifies
A guarded tongue.

Face unto face, then, say,
Eyes mine own meeting,
Is your heart far away,
Or with mine beating?
When false things are brought low,
And swift things have grown slow,
Feigning like froth shall go,
Faith be for aye.

-o0o-

THE FARM-WOMAN'S WINTER

If seasons all were summers,
And leaves would never fall,
And hopping casement-comers
Were foodless not at all,
And fragile folk might be here
That white winds bid depart;
Then one I used to see here
Would warm my wasted heart!

One frail, who, bravely tilling
Long hours in gripping gusts,
Was mastered by their chilling,
And now his ploughshare rusts,
So savage winter catches
The breath of limber things,
And what I love he snatches,
And what I love not, brings.

-o0o-

THE COLOUR

(The following lines were partly made up and partly remembered from a Wessex folk-rhyme)

"What shall I bring you?
Please will white do
Best for your wearing
The long day through?"
" White is for weddings,
Weddings, weddings,
White is for weddings,
And that won't do."

"What shall I bring you?
Please will red do
Best for your wearing
The long day through?"
" Red is for soldiers,
Soldiers, soldiers,
Red is for soldiers,
And that won't do."

"What shall I bring you?
Please will blue do
Best for your wearing
The long day through?"
" Blue is for sailors,
Sailors, sailors,
Blue is for sailors,
And that won't do.

"What shall I bring you?
Please will green do
Best for your wearing
The long day through?"
" Green is for mayings,
Mayings, mayings,
Green is for mayings,
And that won't do."

"What shall I bring you
Then? Will black do
Best for your wearing
The long day through?"
" Black is for mourning,
Mourning, mourning,
Black is for mourning,
And black will do."

-o0o-

SELF-PORTRAIT
KAUFFMAN HESITATING BETWEEN MUSIC AND PAINTING
1791
Oil on Canvas
147 cm x 216 cm
Angelica Kauffman
1741-1807
Nationality - Swiss

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"That tea-drinking has become a gigantic social evil no one will deny. In America alone one million pounds, and in England even more, are expended every year in the purchase of the drug; and the evil is growing at an alarming rate.”

That was the opening paragraph of an article published early in the 1900s.

The writer links the horrible habit with coffee, smoking, cocaine and whisky, and goes at some length describing what happens in our bodies when we indulge in any of those. Having explained how leather is made, he (or she) continues “. . . when a man eats a piece of beefsteak and drinks a strong cup of tea, the tannic acid of the tea combines with the connective tissue of the steak, and the latter is converted into leather.”

Apparently tea contains a poisonous substance called thein, and we’re told that one eighth of a grain of thein will kill a frog, five grains will kill a rabbit, and seven and a half will kill a cat. “There is more than an ounce of poison in a pound of tea, enough to kill seventy rabbits or fifty cats.” Scary stuff!

“The cup that cheers but does not inebriate” is a well-known phrase from Thomas Cowper’s “The Task,” and of course refers to a cup of tea. So I was astonished to read the claim in the closing paragraphs of the article that tea can make you drunk!!!

It had been reported that some girls in a tea factory had been arrested for being drunk and disorderly, despite having taken no alcoholic liquor. Instead they had chewed tea leaves constantly as they carried out their work in the factory.

“In many an English cottage home you invariably find a pot of villainous tea brewing on the hob all day long . . . . the impaired digestions and decayed teeth which cause so many of our recruits to be rejected . . . . has become a question of national importance.”

However, I leave the last word on the subject to the writer Norwood Pratt who gave this advice :-

“If you are cold, tea will warm you; if you are heated, it will cool you; if you're depressed, it will cheer you; if you're excited, it will calm you.”

-o0o-

MARY’S GHOST  

Thomas Hood 1799-1845

‘Twas in the middle of the night,

To sleep young William tried;

When Mary’s ghost came stealing in,

And stood at his bedside.

O William dear! O William dear!

My rest eternal ceases;

Alas! My everlasting peace

Is broken into pieces.

I thought the last of all my cares 

Would end with my last minute;

But tho’ I went to my long home,

I didn’t stay long in it.

The body-snatchers they have come,

And made a snatch at me;

It’s very hard them kind of men

Won’t let a body be!

You thought that I was buried deep,

Quite decent like and chary,

But from her grave in Mary-bone,

They’ve come and boned your Mary.

The arm that used to take your arm

Is took to Dr. Vyse;

And both my legs are gone to walk

The hospital at Guy’s.

I vowed that you should have my hand,

But fate gives us denial;

You’ll find it there, at Dr. Bell’s,

In spirits and a phial.

As for me feet, the little feet

You used to call so pretty,

There’s one, I know, in Bedford Row,

The t’other’s in the City.

I can’t tell where my head is gone,

But Dr. Carpue can;

As for my trunk, it’s all packed up

To go by Pickford’s van.

I wish you’d go to Mr. P.

And save me such a ride;

I don’t half like the outside place,

They’ve took for my inside.

The cock it crows - I must be gone!

My William we must part!

But I’ll be yours in death, altho’

Sir Astley has my heart.

Don’t go to weep upon my grave,

And think that there I be;

They haven’t left an atom there 

Of my anatomie.

-o0o-

LUNCHEON OF THE BOATING PARTY
1881
Oil on Canvas
130 cm x 175.5 cm
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
1841-1919

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QUOTES FROM THE WISE AND THE WITTY

Juliette Recamier - No woman is all sweetness; even the rose has thorns.

Harriet Braiker - Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection demoralizes you.

William James - A great many people believe they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

Chinese Proverb - Enjoy yourself; it's later than you think.

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UPDATED EVERY FRIDAY