Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Prunus 'Shimidsu' / 'Shôgetsu'



Prunus 'Shimidsu', aka 'Shimidsu Sakura', aka 'Shôgetsu'. The latter name looks like it may be taking over from the others.




Widely considered the loveliest ornamental cherry, as well as the latest-flowering. This one was in the public park (Collett Park) in Shepton Mallet.

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Monday, April 27, 2009

Solen

Their home was close to the south mountain. It was not a high mountain though it had a ski-jump. But it blocked out every ray of sun from September to April.

Even so, they had a lovely, open garden. Redcurrant bushes stood near the house, then there was grass and at the back was a scruffy tangle of birch saplings and prickly resinous spruce where the magpies clattered until mamma went outside to shout at them.

Many years ago mamma had found an empty bottle in a paper bag in this tangle. After that, when anyone saw neighbour Oskar's black beard in the distance, they stayed indoors so they wouldn't have to pass him in the street or say hello to him. No-one now remembered whether his wife had run away or died.

With Inga-Britt she found in the skräp the thrown-out sprays of birch that mamma had cut from these very saplings. (She brought them indoors at Easter-time and put them in a vase, then hung them with the fox, the witch, and other ornaments of spring, and soon they put forth tiny green leaves.) At that time the tapestries of groom and season still lay face-down in the snow. In a few weeks it became bright. Now it was summer. Now mamma took Anna's shoes and tied them in a bag in the cupboard near the stove, to keep until the autumn. Anna made sure that the knot was really tight, so no animal could decide to make its home in them.

A waft of cellulose blew in from the bay. It was dinner time. Anna, aren't you going to eat your potato? asked mamma. Pappa puffed over the evening paper. Don't mind it, wife. She'll eat when she's hungry. Anna felt a longing to go and see Inga-Britt's cat. It had just had kittens, but they might be drowned. If Anna could have had a kitten she could have fed it potatoes under the table.

Friday, April 24, 2009

30 in 30 mins (ish)

1. Grieving win a caribbean wedd

2. e.g. scooters, holidays, autumn

3.
I am trembling, I want thoroughly drifting life may last
- can't remember -

4.
portugalis heitor
thought your prussic

5. weld flowers in glossgreen

6. strim extra fingers; water; no-one up.

7.
Sure I don't want to speak my language in your country,
or fill buckets with dandelions.

8. Don't you know, my swan? RAS-635

9.
They too slid on buttery pine, it is aspirational,
it is escalated. You know that.

10. each veiled in a frothy web

11. buckwheat over malt city: freckled, toothy

12. a b it's not actually a huge amount c you pretty much are already d whether you guys will

13.
my electric survey extend to corners of the universe!
clothespegs hang on me
power over wireless, sex over wireless

14. bright newton

15.
pounding mealsacks in the gym
fought to a standstill
we will fight

16.
chip diddy chip
7/8 World Music
you may gounod

17. not the same sameness

18.
sunglasses, barstools
over the shoulder
you'd soon give up

19.
I have no voice, none may speak for me
Is it nothing to you
all you that party

20. some living noise, one day you will answer

21.
and continue to punish me
by dying of your envy

22.
Put your hand
no I won't even commit
that I hate the sound
hush

23.
Emma, wild wind,
petals that touch

24. but make a lighten

25.
Mellis, Collibo, and the rivers like sausages
blazing guns, Dunson
Wulshire, meaty hills of bath

26.
when I went to bed chanting brooke's poulters
if twice from six you do conceal
the very price
though sang the mottled shore it came in restless andrew's breast
the

27. or minding my Klondyke

28.
they turn red as quickly
almost
as you do
finding yourself in the poem

29.
yellow - funny, but it looks red
the black wingtips
that is the sea, bombers

30.
oh it is an old song
if you keep your seed in view
harvest spring evening


concept borrowed from Rob A. Mackenzie (10th April 2009).

Friday, April 10, 2009

Prunus - early April


(Above) Yoshino Cherry, Prunus x yedoensis. Probably. (This was in someone's garden and I didn't intrude to check any fine details.) This hybrid arose in Japan in the early 18th Century, the parents - most likely - being P. speciosa and P. pendula. It is said to be the most popular cherry tree in Japan. Alan Mitchell, in his tree books, was distinctly cool about it. "Spectacular when in flower, at other times a dull mess, and even the flowering depends on bullfinches leaving the buds alone," he grumbled (not an exact quotation).





(Above and below) Winter cherry, Prunus subhirtella 'Autumnalis' - its final flush of flowers, with the emerging leaves. This is where it began, last October.




(Above) Prunus subhirtella 'Pendula rubra'



(Above) Prunus 'Hokusai'



(Above) Prunus 'Ukon'. You can't really see it in this photo, but when the flowers first open they appear creamy-yellowish, at least from a distance.

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