The Hermann Rorschach Institute at the University of Milton North

[DumSpiroSpero]

Our New Patron!

Oh no, another proposal scene ending in rejection! But it's very lovely, nonetheless. I had a bit of a Thomas Hardy phase about deleted years ago, but stopped after Jude The Obscure, as the children's suicide was too much to bear, and so have never read FFTMC.

Have just been doing some pruning and general tidying up and realised I have the lovely Hugh (aka clematis jackmanii) climbing up my apple tree. Tee hee.

It is very sweet and quite a relief after several pages of wordy descriptions of hills and the night sky. Have downloaded the whole book now.

I had an abridged version of the Major of Casterbridge on tape when I was about 10 and my Dad was going through his Hardy phase. Saw the film of Jude - well done but horrendous story.

I see someone has sullied the name of our man by bringing his name up on the 'filthiest celebrities' thread.

I am not even going to contemplate that theory...

::Clasps Twiggy to her ample bosom::

Ha ha @ clematis jackmanii :o

Nephew was at same nursery as PGs daughter apparently. Don't know if BIL still bumps into him.

As for RA being mentioned on the other thread - it did have Lucas North in brackets so perhaps they meant in character.

You need a week at Disney - I didn't think of him once :)

I'll have to let you know if Butlins has the same effect

NOOOOOO!!!! How very dare they mention the Man on the Thread of Infamy???

he's the last person I would think of! Lucas or JP, on the other hand...

Does that mean you're cured now then Twigs? No more need for medical intervention?

Spitfire, Massive? We need more modern technology than that. Thunderbirds are go!

Yes, Twiggy, Julian was an anchorite in Norwich, and the first writer in English to be identified as a woman. Quite a girl, too. There's a very feisty quote on the back of her book (Revelations of Divine Love, if you're in any way interested):

Just because I am a woman, must I therefore believe that I must not tell you about the goodness of God, when I saw at the same time both his goodness, and his wish that it should be known?

Actually, I don't have an apple tree. I have four - three in the garden and one on the lotty. Espaliers are lovely. Another option if you're short of space is a vertical cordon or minaret tree - one of mine is a minaret. Another one is one of those three-varieties-grafted-together trees, so we have five varieties in all (six with the tree on the lotty). In a garden which is probably smaller than yours on the Twiggy estate (I am assuming that pretty big house is tactful understatement for the servants live in the East wing).

Polish cordial, anyone?

Thanks, Maud, just a quick one then before my next sortie.

Don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me

Bandits at five o'clock, eh?

::clinks glasses::

I've been trying to find another apple-related pic which I am sure would appeal to you, but have failed to locate it. Drat. But you know the one, I am sure.

Oh yes indeedy, I know the one, Maud. I can see it in my mind's eye.

Oh yes. Very Garden of Eden.

on your behalf.

::Admires the high spiritual and moral tone today::

Very Garden of Eden.
Oh gawd, now I've gone and imagined him in the appropriate costume.

Bang goes the high spiritual and moral tone, eh?

Oh really. Did you know, by the way, that fig leaves are actually an irritant and likely to bring one out in a rash if worn next to the skin?

::Throws bucket of water over Massive::

Cured? Moi? Never :)

Rats, I've just realised I'm not around on Friday after all - quiz night at the school. Sorry :( Never mind; good excuse to do one another time as well!

Re. our house, it's definitely not that big, Maud :) Gosh, that probably sounded very boasty of me but it's not a big house, just bigger than a lot of young families here have (we bought it cheap as it was completely run down and then we had an extension built). It's a chalet bungalow - 3 bedrooms, one of which is a box room. It's about this size. Our garden is about, um, well it's just deep enough to fit one of those double-swing things and a flower bed. Quite titchy.

Interesting about the vertical cordons - I will look into those, thank you.

Godsh, I am learning so much from this thread - I didn't know what an anchorite was until I looked it up. Re. you lot drifting off during sermons, that's one of the benefits of being an atheist - you can stay home and watch telly on Sunday mornings :)

Anybody watching Brian Cox tonight? Utterly heart him.

Oh gawd, now I've gone and imagined him in the appropriate costume.

LOL!!

I had only heard of Dame Julian through my erstwhile addiction to Susan Howatch novels, I must admit. I get most of my education from storybooks. Other than that I haven't got on here, that is.

We have a figtree in the garden but I have never tried any of the leaves on I must say. Maybe a good thing if what you say is true, Maud. But to be pedantic, didn't they only wear them after the Fall?

No, not watching Brian Cox. We are (even as I type) watching Monty Python and chortling at the constitutional peasant, with whom Girl is very much taken. I have a feeling that every time we ask her to do anything now she's going to complain "help! help! I'm being repressed".

You didn't sound boasty. Quite the opposite. It sounded like you were trying tactfully to say that you had 15 bedrooms and five acres of garden with a moat and canoe. ::wink::

Yes indeed, Massive, but my point was that, should one be driven to cover one's postlapsarian nakedness with a fig leaf, the result may be contact dermatitis. I also have a fig tree in the garden [realise this makes it sound like a market garden] but have never yet been inspired to fashion my own clothing from its leaves. Have never yet had an edible fig from it either, but I imagine the conditions on the island may be more propitious.

Here, Small. Let's line them up.

So how did it go?