Flowers of all hue, and without thorn (but no roses….)
August 10, 2008
I haven’t posted any plant pics for a while – here’s the last tranche from the folder….all from 2004 or thereabouts….by coincidence, all are shots of individual gaudy flowers….and taken on sunnier days than those offered by this year’s summer….
Leonotis leonuris from southern Africa….I think it’s technically a perennial, although not in the UK….a strange looking plant which sprouts three or four tufts of bright orange flowers at intervals from its stem like a series of garish inverted grass skirts….
Magnolia wilsonii….beautiful downward facing saucers, lemon scented….
One of the newer Papaver orientale hybrids whose name I forget….
A blood red P. orientale in bud….we had several different P. orientale hybrids – they’re more or less indestructible, so I have high hopes that at least a few remain under the nettles….
A cute spring flowering pulsatilla – could be P. cernua or P. zimmermannii – from Eastern Europe….
Kniphofia hybrid….one plant I read about and desperately wanted to grow was a 3m high tender kniphofia species….this isn’t it….
Gentiana asclepiadea….one of the easiest and tallest gentians….
An unusual Rudbeckia species….[very unusual, as it's actually Ratibida pinnata, he says with hindsight]….it bugs me greatly that I can neither remember its name nor find my big blue garden notebook in which is recorded, very nerdily, the name and location of practically every plant in my garden….
Clematis x durandii….a non-climbing hybrid….
Ipomoea….a climbing annual variety….
Given all the daffodil parodies scattered throughout the blog, this just had to be the last picture….Narcissus poeticus recurvus, the so-called “Poet’s Daffodil”….but it’s not very Wordsworthian….
August 10, 2008 at 9:26 am
Lovely flora porn,cs. I especially love that gentian…what a blue. One of the delights of mountain hiking in Spain is coming over a rise to find a slope below you entirely covered in flowering gentians. The French make a drink out of them, called, if I remember correctly, ‘Suze’, a sort of alcoholic cordial that I’ve never actually tried. I don’t do blue drinks.
August 10, 2008 at 9:33 am
Yes, the blues of gentians are among the most intense colours in the plant kingdom….btw the one pictured above neatly satisfies both halves of the Oxbridge divide as there is also a Cambridge blue variant which comes true from seed….I have to admit it’s not as pretty as the darker one though….
August 10, 2008 at 11:18 am
Exquisite, steve. Seen in this context, they all look like hopeful ladies in waiting, curling their petals coyly before being hymenopterously ravished and satisfied. Then (esp the Rudbeckia) just hanging wanly and perhaps wondering if it was all worth while. And of course it was, because here they all are and the oriental poppy looks like it is dead cocky about winning a gold medal and seducing 4000 hoverflies.
August 10, 2008 at 11:24 am
Nice pictures, cs. I was hoping my hibiscus would display well so I could take a pic and dispel your scepticism. Unfortunately its taken a battering from the wind and rain.
August 10, 2008 at 11:32 am
freepoland – I should have asked you to write all the captions….your decriptions are infinitely more poetic than mine….
….and, Michele having found the big blue notebook, I have to confess that the golden flower “hanging wanly” in the eighth pic isn’t a rudbeckia at all, but Ratibida pinnata….(well, they are closely related….) I’ll amend the post….
August 10, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Fuckers deleted my ‘epigram’ on McGowan. I had an email from Luke the Moderator this am (in response to a question from me) saying they have a ‘fuck’ filter. A few months ago they told me they didn’t. More evidence the G is going to the dogs.
August 10, 2008 at 6:17 pm
If they do have an f-filter, it must be hit & miss since a fair few f’s get through….along with a smattering of similar words….I wonder what happens if you replace the “u” with the umlauted German version….? (Don’t ask me how to generate it – but I’ve seen it used, so it must be possible using some keyboard code or other….)
August 10, 2008 at 11:46 pm
Dear MeltonMowbray
Re: your comments on the above blog.
There is, as surmised, an automatic filter that holds comments containing
the word “fuck”, hence the delayed publication of your post number 1262261
at 10:42 yesterday. Apologies for the long wait before it appeared.
The filter operates on a number of other criteria (use of certain terms or
phrases, excessive number of links, etc), so this is not the only reason
posters sometimes get the “held” message.
I hope that answers your question. I have removed the posts referring to
moderation, as is standard practice.
Regards
Luke
Moderator
Guardian.co.uk
So there you go. What always surprises me is the number DSwords gets through, and how long they stay up for.
August 10, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Quite a lot of cunts get through too.
Though you’d have to use user profiling to stop that.
August 10, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Interesting that there isn’t a blanket ban on “fuck” – clearly some “fuck”s are considered more offensive than others….a hierarchy operates….I still treasure being deleted on Cif for not saying “cunt”, merely having it as a rhyming word replaced with the usual four dots….
August 11, 2008 at 12:11 am
Fucks are allowable for artistic reasons, it seems, but not in abusive contexts. Cunt is a grey area, in McAfee terms. I can’t recollect having seen the word in a post. There was no swearing in my McGowan rhyme-I suppose Luke, whoever he is, thought it was a slur on the bloggist. He might have taken into account McGowan’s willingness to dish it out (and to take it).
August 11, 2008 at 9:44 am
The thing I find most irritaing about it is that although ‘fuck’s and ‘cunt’s are not filtered on CiF, on blogs devoted to language and its permutations, they are. I find this frankly bizzare.
Re: McClown..a couple of my posts were ‘disappeared’.
I pointed out that McClown, (in his mod edited post), had accused me of being a Belgian paedophile and an illiterate. This was in addition to a previous post accusing me of being a lavatory attendant. His evidence for these accusations? That I think he’s a fool. Hmmm..
In a note to the Editor, I asked if this chippy, witless oaf was really the best they could do and suggested that McClown made Chas look like Wittgenstein.
The guy takes charmlessness to new depths. I’ll not make the mistake of responding to the oaf again.
August 11, 2008 at 10:21 am
You are quite right, mish. I have avoided posting on this fellow’s thread for reasons you and MM have spelt out with forceful prudence. I know it may seem harsh, but he is a personage to whom I would not lend my second-best potato peeler. Much less my bicycle lamp. His willingness to respond to comments lends him neither grace nor depth. He is best overlooked, as you would a drain cover.
August 11, 2008 at 10:44 am
You have a second-best potato-peeler, freep? I always suspected you of sybaritic tendencies, an almost Oriental love of luxury..I see I wasn’t wrong.
August 11, 2008 at 2:56 pm
What else would one use for peeling one’s second-best potato….?
August 11, 2008 at 4:41 pm
having been away for a bit, have I come back to National Porn week on BooksBlog? I look forward to the handwringing blog asking us what can be done to get teenagers reading more porn.
August 11, 2008 at 4:44 pm
I’m beginning to wonder whether ED’s true calling might not have been litporn….she’d have made a good….um….fist of it….
August 11, 2008 at 6:01 pm
My name is Em, Em Dickinson
And I like sucking pricks for fun
When I’m not busy being fucked
I write of flowers that I’ve plucked.
August 11, 2008 at 6:01 pm
…sorry.
August 11, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Read this in penance, and laugh uncomfortably:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2008/aug/11/simongray.theatre
August 11, 2008 at 6:38 pm
…oh, dear. If there is an after-life, let’s hope for Gray’s sake there are no insects.
August 11, 2008 at 6:48 pm
I often find myself in a similar quandary to Gray with the moths that fly in here at night….I have no compunction spraying the flies or drowning the wood-boring beetles, but the moths are too fascinating to kill….like Gray, I wonder if I’m doing more harm than good in catching them between gently cupped palms and putting them back outside….but they’ll surely fall prey to the huge spiders in here if I don’t….
August 11, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Yes, I too observe a certain insect hierarchy. I save bees, spiders, moths, beetles..most insects, in fact. However, flies, wasps, hornets, cockroaches get the cold, often fatal, shoulder. Pongi is deadly, however and makes no such nice distinctions. So I save the worthy and let him deal with the detritus.
August 11, 2008 at 9:09 pm
My name is Emily Dickinson
I am a bit of a minger
For my sexual fun
I prefer the finger.
August 11, 2008 at 10:44 pm
Now this is strange. Sutherland refers brazenly to his organ in his article, I comment on this outlandish mode of speech and get deleted. This cannot stand, man.
August 11, 2008 at 11:18 pm
…nice marmot.
August 11, 2008 at 11:18 pm
I’ve written to Luke. Seems like a nice boy. Probably on work experience from, let’s see, St Paul’s? Winchester?
August 11, 2008 at 11:23 pm
Marmot?
August 11, 2008 at 11:30 pm
I see you had formatting problems with your art poem, MM….do you know the [& n b s p ;] command which is one way to get extra spaces in those comment boxes?
August 11, 2008 at 11:32 pm
I thought you were quoting from The Big Lebowski,
“this will not stand, man…”
I’ve chipped in with my 2 cents worth on the Sutherland/penis debate. Let’s see how long it takes before that’s deleted too.
August 11, 2008 at 11:44 pm
My affection for the Tel blogs has been growing recently – but this I thought was rather tasteless:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/peter_robins/blog/2008/08/11/about_the_size_of_it
August 11, 2008 at 11:54 pm
It was Sutherland too who was the protagonist (though really it was the sub-editor) in the “anal rape” farrago, from about a year back. I’m sure I took a copy of the webpage at the time – I might dig it out someday.
August 11, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Can someone finish my poem for me:
Friedrich Nietzsche
was a preacher
of a bad philosophy.
August 12, 2008 at 12:01 am
I’ve been googling for marmots and finally got it. Yes, I was quoting Lebowski but the marmot went by me. I know nothing of this formatting thing, cs. It wasn’t much of an idea anyway.
I did try to sign up for the Tel blogs, but they seem to want a lot of info from you. In the end I couldn’t be fagged.
August 12, 2008 at 12:10 am
re formatting – any spaces above one don’t work. But you can use [& n b s p ;] – without the square brackets & spaces – to add spaces – and single spaces before & after that formula also take. You can also repeat the formula as many times as you want. So, by counting letters and using that incantation you can more or less right justify….the formula also works here – possibly in the comments too – so if you want to practice here, feel free….I can always delete them later….
August 12, 2008 at 12:12 am
re Tel blogs – I don’t recall having to give much info when I registered a couple of months ago….often these sites ask, but you don’t need to tell….in any case, I nearly always fib….
August 12, 2008 at 12:15 am
testing
testing
testing
August 12, 2008 at 12:15 am
I tried your link, cs, but I’m taken straight to the place in ‘Create Your Profile’ where I abandoned it. So I suppose the blog is barred to me until I create.
Friedrich Nietschze
Was a preacher
Of a bad philosophy.
However, he made a very good cup of tea.
August 12, 2008 at 12:17 am
looks like [& n b s p ;] works in the comments too – the second line is one [] with a space fore & aft; the third, two []s + three spaces….
August 12, 2008 at 12:22 am
….actually I don’t think the spaces fore & aft have taken here….seems different to how it behaves on GU….bloody html….
August 12, 2008 at 12:30 am
I had a good argument the other day on Tel with Peter Robins over some technical issues of translating Virgil. Not something you’d find on GU.
August 12, 2008 at 12:39 am
Yes, I saw that….I do usually like his blogs – just had a beef about the current one….
I’d have liked to contribute more to the Tel’s series of blogs on Powell’s Dance series – but they’re going so slowly (one a month – they’re now on 3/12) that I’ve forgotten the details….oh well….
August 12, 2008 at 12:50 am
This was linked to on the Cif index page….good enough to bear repeating, I think….(long time since I’ve read The Onion)….
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/local_idiot_to_post_comment_on
August 12, 2008 at 12:55 am
For a limited period only:
http://www.theparanoiac.com/secretguardian/romantic.htm
http://www.theparanoiac.com/secretguardian/GuardianItem.htm
August 12, 2008 at 1:08 am
hmm, on second thoughts I decided to remove the 2nd one.
August 12, 2008 at 1:40 am
Vewy pwetty fwowers doggwalist.
Wee Wabbit inviting all welatives to feast, your place, soonest. Hope you’ll join us and Mowbway too natch.
Yeah I know you said old pics from 2004, but we wabbits can easily fowage in the overgwown undergwoth so can get to what you fellas cain’t.
Hee hee.
. . .
Wuv & kisses
…
August 12, 2008 at 2:17 am
So pleased that Emily left and didn’t have to witness.
August 12, 2008 at 2:37 am
’tis easy to judge
most do it, oh, so well
exempt themselves
say – ‘we are innocent’
Well, I suspect, they were
But are they now
from this point on …
…take responsibility
August 12, 2008 at 9:59 am
…
While Hegel’s
Leg’ll
Be pulled into eternity.
August 12, 2008 at 10:47 am
Dear Chris
Your comment was as follows:
–
It’s quite unusual to find a critic testing a forthcoming event by his quality of erection. I wonder what was on Sutherland’s mind when he had his photograph taken.
–
It wasn’t deleted for being offensive (in the sense of references to genitals), but for being off topic and personal.
The distinction between Sutherland’s comment and yours is (I contend):
- Sutherland was arguing that the BBC’s promise of “quite a bit of sex” was a desperate attempt to sell literary history by means of titillation. His heart/penis remark was his way of saying that such a strategy – the BBC’s, not his – was unsuccessful, on his part (apologies for the dreadful double entendre).
- Your first sentence transposes the motivation: suggesting with “testing a forthcoming event by his quality of erection” that the intent is
Sutherland’s rather than the BBC’s. As such it becomes a remark about the author, rather than the subject of the thread. This is reinforced by your second sentence, which has nothing to do with the article and is purely personal.
Anyway, I hope you continue to enjoy and participate in our threads.
Best regards
Luke
http://www.guardian.co.uk/talkpolicy
August 12, 2008 at 10:51 am
Dear Chris,
Your comment was removed as it was primarily concerned with the author’s penis, rather than literary virgins, the subject of the article.
Best wishes,
Adam
Community Moderator
August 12, 2008 at 10:54 am
What a load of cock.
August 12, 2008 at 11:32 am
Adam is the same pompous half-wit who informed me I was banned for ‘bullying’ and then did some fast back-tracking, admitting that no bullying had occured and that I’d been banned for stuff I did after I was banned. Huh?
Trying to reason with these dozy pricks is like trying to explain Kant’s Catagorical Imperative to the cat.
August 12, 2008 at 11:40 am
BTW, MM, did you finish watching The Wire? Good shit, d’ya feel me?
You should check out Generation Kill, also created and written by David Simon and Ed Burns. It’s about the Iraq war and is currently showing in the US.It’s up to ep. 5.
I download each ep. as it becomes available on the Pirate Bay, ie. a couple of hours after transmission, but if you object to downloading pirated programs, get the DVD when it’s released. It’s very, very good and the scripts, unsurprisingly, given their provenance, are superb.
November 25, 2008 at 3:07 am
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