A year ago, I read two books by which have been sitting by my desk with markers in the pages. I ran out of time then to recommend them here…and now have miraculously found the time,
I discovered these books when Mirabel Osler, in her memoirs, mentioned Katharine Swift as a good friend.
Some takeways from both books:
Morville is the name of Swift’s home and garden. Based on the structure of a Medieval Book of Hours, The Morville Hours goes deep into the history of the place, making for a slow and thoughtful read. I don’t have many saved takeaways from The Morville Hours because the whole books is complete perfection, making it difficult to separate out any parts to inspire you to read it.
My cats and I liked this poem by an Irish monk:
I and Pangur Ban my cat,
‘Tis a like task we are at:
Hunting mice is his delight,
Hunting words I sit all night.
Better far than praise of men
‘Tis to sit with book and pen;
Pangur bears me no ill-will,
He too plies his simple skill.
‘Tis a merry task to see
At our tasks how glad are we,
When at home we sit and find
Entertainment to our mind.
Oftentimes a mouse will stray
In the hero Pangur’s way;
Oftentimes my keen thought set
Takes a meaning in its net.
‘Gainst the wall he sets his eye
Full and fierce and sharp and sly;
‘Gainst the wall of knowledge I
All my little wisdom try.
When a mouse darts from its den,
O how glad is Pangur then!
O what gladness do I prove
When I solve the doubts I love!
So in peace our task we ply,
Pangur Ban, my cat, and I;
In our arts we find our bliss,
I have mine and he has his.
Practice every day has made
Pangur perfect in his trade;
I get wisdom day and night
Turning darkness into light.
On tramps and homelessness:
On my favourite flower:
…..
I agree with her that mole soil is “the best potting compost in the world.” It is a gift from the world below.
Next, The Morville Year, which is more of a straightforward memoir.
I have, since reading this, made the start of a willow cave or gazebo or some such thing:
My other inspiration was Ann Amato’s willow arbor.
It is time to find the time to be in my own garden:
On sweet peas:
…..
On memories:
One of my favourite passages brought back memories of my two trips to the UK and looking into back gardens from trains and buses:
…and seguing into allotments, another favourite topic of mine…
In The Morville Year, I found the most moving poem I have ever read, Adlestrop, by Edward Thomas, “a vision of lost England recalled from the trenches” of World War I, where he was killed in 1917..
Yes. I remember Adlestrop—
The name, because one afternoon
Of heat the express-train drew up there
Unwontedly. It was late June.
The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.
No one left and no one came
On the bare platform. What I saw
Was Adlestrop—only the name
And willows, willow-herb, and grass,
And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,
No whit less still and lonely fair
Than the high cloudlets in the sky.
And for that minute a blackbird sang
Close by, and round him, mistier,
Farther and farther, all the birds
Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.
I learned from
The Morville Year about how “the humble petunia” might hold a cure for cancer. You can read about it
here, from 2002—I hope something came of it.
On the power of a public garden:
On bulb planting:
So, gardening friends who are readers, you see why I think you must read these books. A third, A Rose for Morville, is due to be released in December 2020, and it is promised that it will go deeper into the story of her beloved husband who left her—a man who surely made the wrong choice, in my opinion. The release of the third memoir is something to live for. I hope I make it that far because I long to read it.
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After:
for the compost bins
In the background, the +0.1′ tide meant there were plenty of mudflats in the bay. 
Tangly Cottage Gardening 