Mouse & Muse Blog
by Trevor Millum
An occasional series which I hope is of interest to friends and family. Feedback always welcome.
Words…Pictures….Music, even!
One new venture, one updated project. 'Old Hal' aka 'Behold' was always waiting for the right artist to illustrate it and it turned out he was living just down the road. Steve Johnson's illustrations are classic and fit the dark story perfectly. In addition, I had...
Tropical Lincolnshire
Who'd expect the lushness of this garden in Lincolnshire? It just shows how a microclimate can be created in which these beauties not only survive and grow, but flourish. Some will be brought in during the winter but many are surprisingly hardy. The sun shone...
Barrow’s barrows
The 12th Annual Wheelbarrow Weekend just went by. My entry doesn't much like a barrow but it is one - or, at least, the remains of one. After the bottom rusted away all I was left with was a skeleton - and here he is with a few lotions and potions to tempt you. Oil of...
Foundlings
I was about to use the term 'picaresque' to describe these books but when I looked up the meaning just to be sure, it was defined as roguish or, at the very least, impish. I thought it meant a narrative which describes incidents in someone's life rather than a story...
Forgotten Heroes
One of the pleasures of sorting out / turning out is that you discover items you forgot you possessed. 'The Heroes of Asgard' published in 1952 has the look of a book of an earlier era. A hard cover with restricted colour and a font that signifies seriousness. On...
Coe and Coe
I've usually enjoyed Jonathan Coe's novels, my favourite being one from long ago, What a Carve Up. Middle England is third in a series about characters first met in The Rotters Club and though you don't need to have read the first two, it would help, I think. Coe is...
Priestley and Edgeworth
Unusual bedfellows, Maria and JB, perhaps. Except they have been side-by-side beside my bed recently. Castle Rackrent I had not read before nor had I heard of its companion, The Absentee. Though Castle Rackrent is the better known, I enjoyed The Absentee more, in the...
Meditation in Pieces
Beryl Cook was a quiet, almost reclusive, painter, and, I suspect, quite slim. The fact that she enjoyed portraying big confident women (and the odd man) is perhaps no surprise. And there was often a humorous side to them too. No wonder she didn't appeal to the...
Celtic Fringes
From Donegal to Brittany via Wales, you can see similarities - not least in the place names. Brittany is famous for its stone monuments, of course, and the closest we've come across in the UK are in the Orkneys and Outer Hebrides, though Avebury comes close and...
Wheelbarrow Weekend
Barrow's Wheelbarrow Weekend was back properly this year. 78 barrows throughout the village and a dozen Open Gardens. It just happened to coincide with some other celebrations that were going on. Many did have a Jubilee theme and lots didn't, such as this winning...
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