Thursday, December 09, 2010

spider, sprouts, notes


Posted by PicasaIn mid air this spider is of the one which I photograph regularly because it is very common in these parts. I photograph it because, as an arachnophobe it helps me to let the animals know who is master.

Down to the vegetable garden to see if the pigeons have left us some sprouts for Christmas dinner. To my surprise, the "fairy cabbages" as my mother used to call them, are still intact on the stems, although the leaves and sprout tops have been shredded as have the few kale plants that were to supply us with vitamin C through the winter. The parsnips which I have also been hoping to use are meanwhile gripped by frost bound soil.

A day for transferring post-it notes, collected in a folder, in to appropriate note books. The system works through its irritation factor, The wretched little notes, many illegible, are a constant reproach to forgetfulness. Often I can't remember why I scribbled them in the first place, though I have learnt through bitter experience, to indicate their source. Putting them into notebooks makes me feel better, though I doubt if I shall read them again. It's the dictionary principle I suppose. All those words and you only ever want to look up a few of them. Writing  notesI suppose helps to imprint them on your memory, but my memory being what it is, I suspect that they will soon fade into the oblivion  even  after the repetition.

3 comments:

The Crow said...

But which of you is the animal and which is the master? For me, an animal, although I can swiftly dispatch the spider, it is the arachnid who is master of my fears. I usually try to let them live, for they are beneficial, but sometimes the atavistic animal in me reacts before my rational brain can calm me down.

I enjoy your spider stories and photos, perverse as that may seem.

Unknown said...

Sometimes I think that I am in the middle of a fable - the fable of the spider and the crow. Publish a picture of a spider and down will swoop a crow. "Hullo Crow" said the spider. "Got you". As ever dear Crow, you are most welcome in my parlour.

Roderick Robinson said...

Strange how our thoughts so often gravitate towards Mr Casaubon when we seek to comment on our lives. Lucy mentioned him only a week or so ago and I am only too conscious of the way I follow his path. Having embarked on a huge project of transferring 200-plus LPs on to CDs some years ago I am now tremulously aware that it was the project that attracted me, and these tracks (some dating back forty years or more) are rarely played. In fact things have come full circle. Mrs BB recently pointed out that our Rostropovich/Melos version of the Schubert quintet, however loved at the time, has to fight its way through so much snap, crackle and pop that ca ne vaut pas le voyage and a replacement is needed. I see Mr Casaubon nodding at this.