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吴苑行
溫庭筠

錦雉雙飛梅結子，平春遠綠窗中起。
吳江澹畫水連空，三尺屏風隔千里。
小苑有門紅扇開，天絲舞蝶共徘徊。
綺戶雕楹長若此，韶光歲歲如歸來。

Verse of the Wu Garden by Wen T’ing-yun
Brocade pheasants fly in pairs, the plums bear fruit.
Green spreading out to the distant in vast spring rises within the window frame.
Water of Wu river, a light ink painting, stretches to the end of the sky,
While a three-foot-wide screen divides a thousand miles.
There are red doors opening to the tiny garden,
Catkins and dancing butterflies hover around above.
Should the ornamented window and decorated railings long be here as they may.
Year after year, the spring light returns so.

This week’s theme was “Jane’s Walks“, which celebrates the legacy and ideas of urban activist and writer Jane Jacobs by promoting walkable neighbourhoods, urban literacy and cities planned for and by people. This is a festival that takes place annually around the globe. Due to the pandemic, the Edmonton walks, as with many around the world, were self-guided and virtual this year. Urban Sketchers Edmonton could choose a walk and go there in person whenever we liked to choose one point or more along the walk to sketch.

Here are our sketches from the website walks, and some that we created ourselves. All wonderful walkable city sketches!

“Heritage Tree Avenue in the Highlands. The canopy is created by American Elms planted in 1957. This street is particularly beautiful in the fall and in December when all the neighbours string lights across!”

“Shadows…

This year many of the the poets visited in our U3A (University of Third Age) sessions have had some connection with religious ministry. When you come to think about it it is not surprising. Ministers are thought-full people – don’t you think!

Louis MacNeice was no exception. His father was a Protestant minister who later became a bishop of the Anglican Church of Ireland. Below is Louis MacNeice’s poem ‘London Rain’, written at a time of conflict in Europe. He wrestles with thoughts on God as he looks out late at night on the rain. Sharing my comments which are shown in italics after each stanza.

 London Rain

The rain of London pimples
The ebony street with white
And the neon lamps of London
Stain the canals of night
And the park becomes a jungle
In the alchemy of night.

London night-time rain … I love that word pimples…

There’s a simplicity and fluidity to Linda Grant’s fourth novel that imbues a slightly odd voyeurism – that as the reader, we are sitting watching events unfold rather reading about them, such is the power of her imagery and storytelling. But there’s nothing simple about her themes, that of identity and sense of belonging as Vivien Kovacs, daughter of post-war Hungarian Jewish refugees, tries to find her way in 1970s London.

Viven’s parents fled Budapest immediately before the war: so grateful to be taken in they barely disturb the air they breathe. They avoid contact with the outside world wherever possible and refuse to look back on their history – even with their only daughter, who is not made aware of the family religion until her teenage years.

It’s a lonely life for Vivien and much of the young girl’s discovery of the real world outside the Marylebone apartment is…

Garden of Zola: Emile Zola and His Novels for English Readers :: Graham King soon to be presented for sale on the tremendousBookLovers of Bath web site!

London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1978, Hardback in dust wrapper.

Includes: Further reading list; Black & white plates; List of sources; Appendix;

From the cover: Emile Zola was one of the giants of 19th century literature. Of his vast output, sometimes described as a river of ink, a cycle of twenty novels, written with stark realism, remains as his outstanding literary monument the Rougon-Macquart.

Although he was a realist and the leading theorist of the Naturalist movement in literature, Zola was a lyrical and poetic writer. The subjects of his novels demanded an immense breadth of first-hand experience and observation of life that he did not always possess, forcing him to draw from his astonishingly fertile imagination. Thus the novelist, who had never…