Friday, September 30, 2011

Five Books ( Whatever Happened to the Gardening? )


After a dry winter and an early spring advent, we've now got a lashing of winter, with a deluge of late rain and a blast of chilling weather. I have, against the odds, repaired the water-tank - the summer standby - so all the water that was gushing off its top due to a blocked filter is now falling loudly into the tank, and not onto the sodden ground around it.
With oodles to do, I'm found to be inside, my attention absorbed by books, feeding this savage gardener's ambition. If I could get outside for long enough to work up a deep breath, I would. Chairs do get comfortable, don't they? Today, I bought these second-hand books:
First, 'The Observers Book of Trees', compiled by W J Stokoe, first published 1937; this edition, 1963:
Secondly and thirdly, Lord Berners', 'First Childhood' and 'A Distant Prospect', published by Turtle Point Press and Helen Marx Books, 1998:
Fourthly, Russell Page's 'The Education of a Gardener', first published 1962 by William Collins Sons and Co; this edition 1994, The Harvill Press, which I can't wait to read:
Fifthly,  Albert Lamorisse's 'The Wild White Stallion', first edition, 1954, Putnam, which, despite its dodgy ending, takes me back to dreams of childhood ( remember 'The Red Balloon'? ) and the hope of getting a horse one day:
That's me. Gardening's no longer a labour of extreme love, but simply something I do. My horse takes me off across the neverending shores of infinity...( with grateful thanks to publishers, authors and illustrators concerned )...into a garden undying...

13 comments:

  1. Hello Faisal:
    What a beguiling selection of books you have here.No wonder that the comfortable armchair is winning ahead of the backbreaking borders!!

    Russell Page's 'Education of a Gardener' is considered to be a classic and we think so too. We have read and reread it a number of times over the years and it has never failed to entertain as well as inform.

    And, Lord Berners.....what fun!!

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  2. Are you spreading a virus? I just found a used copy of A Prospect of Wales!

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  3. Hello Jane and Lance...Russell Page I've been meaning to read for years. Though he created gardens for others, and Christopher Lloyd is known for his own and only, I think of the two garden makers/writers as similar. We'll see, perhaps I'm quite wrong. RP must be good if you re-read him.
    Since I can't decide whether I prefer the world of books or the world of gardens, I'll continue to see them as balancing one another.

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  4. How's that, James?! Spooky, huh? I hope you enjoy it...I've not yet been able to find any others in the series...I don't want to pay the high prices U've seen quoted, and would prefer to find them by chance - cheaply.

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  5. Faisal : i liked your last comments on my blog. everybody deserves a second chance...
    now about the wonderful books you keep finding. i would love to read the observer`s book of trees... and yes i remember the red balloon... how can anybody forget it...
    have a lovely weekend my friend : )

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  6. Can I send The Observers Book of Trees to you Demie? It's very British, and many of the trees don't do so well in Australia. I don't really need it.
    I worked for many years as a children's bookseller...'The Red Balloon' has kept on selling.
    You too, Demie, have a lovely weekend.

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  7. i am blessed with a good, generous friend sending me books of trees : )

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  8. I am not familiar with the other books but the Russell Page book is wonderful, as was he. You are really going to enjoy it.(-:

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  9. Adrienne, thankyou for your comment. You're right - I've begun reading it, and it's really quite exceptional, and RP comes across not only as highly knowledgeable, but as humble, and a good guy.

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  10. Adrienne, thankyou for your comment. You're right - I've begun reading it, and it's really quite exceptional, and RP comes across not only as highly knowledgeable, but as humble, and a good guy.

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  11. Dear Faisal, I understand what you mean that gardening's no longer a labour of extreme love, but what I think is that everything's connected to gardening or nature regardless of the actual activity. As for the Albert Lamorisse book - this is the first time I have bought a DVD but I recently bought a copy of the 2 classic films - The Red Balloon and White Mane. I want to read all the books you bought too. At the moment I'm reading Dickens' Barnaby Rudge - and putting stickers on the pages that describe nature and gardens. cheers, catmint

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  12. Hi Catmint, I agree that we're all connected to nature, whether we acknowledge it or not. How could we not be? I wouldn't want to be disassociated from it, while in this world.
    Calling gardening 'a labour of extreme love' is one I made on one of my 'off' days, when I'd got a bit sick of all the work not showing alot of result!

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  13. Hi Catmint, I agree that we're all connected to nature, whether we acknowledge it or not. How could we not be? I wouldn't want to be disassociated from it, while in this world.
    Calling gardening 'a labour of extreme love' is one I made on one of my 'off' days, when I'd got a bit sick of all the work not showing alot of result!

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