Archives for August 9, 2006

“He had previously had no idea of the difficulties and frustrations of a correspondent’s life. All one did, he had believed, was to collect the facts from people anxious and willing to give them accurately and then, after due reflection, to write the piece. Now he had to learn about the different kinds of lying, that of the official, that of the press relations officer, the lies of men with grievances or axes to grind or something to conceal, or who simply preferred lying to the truth.”

Honor Tracy, A Number of Things

Frank Wilson reminds us all that today is Philip Larkin’s birthday. He commemmorates it by linking to “Church Going.” I’ll link to the uncharacteristically happy “Coming” (here with a comment from the poet), where failure of understanding is a condition of the happiness on offer–but in Larkin we take whatever happiness we can get.

When the world is too much with me, I reach for Gilbert White. The eighteenth-century naturalist made 10,000 daily records of the flora and fauna, weather and harvests of his Hampshire village, Selborne. These are his notes from August 1771.

Aug. 5. Young partridgers, strong flyers. Soft showers. Swifts. Pease are hacking.

Aug. 6. Nuthatch chirps; is very loquacious at this time of the year. Large bat appears, vespertilio altivolans.

Aug. 7. Rye-harvest begins. Procured the above-mentioned specimen of the bat, a male.

Aug. 8. Rain in the night, with wind. Swifts. Sultry & moist: Cucumbers bear abundantly. Showers about. Procured a second large bat, a male.

Aug. 10. Flying ants, male & female.

Aug. 11. Heavy clouds round the horizon. Lambs play & frolick.

Aug. 16. Rain, driving rain, dry. Four swifts still.

Aug. 18. No dew, rain, rain, rain. Swans flounce & dive. Chilly & dark.

Aug. 19. Swifts abound. Swallows & martins bring out their second broods which are perchers. Thunder: wind.

Aug. 22. Bank-martins [sand-martins] bring out their second brood. Swifts. No swifts seen after this day.

Aug. 23. Young swallows & martins come out every day. Still weather. Wheat-harvest becomes pretty general.

Aug. 25. Wheat not ripe at Faringdon. Winter weather. Oats & barley ripe before wheat.

Aug. 26. Nuthatch chirps much. No swifts since 22nd.

Aug. 28. Dark, grey, & soft. People bind their wheat.

Aug. 29. Fog, sun, brisk wind. Sweet day. Wheat begins to be housed.

Aug. 30. Young Stoparolas abound. Swallows congregate in vast flocks. Wheat housed.

I really do bliss out reading these journals. The above, for me, is a story, a poem, and a picture all at once, minimally wordy but maximally expressive, piquing every sense.