Rotating, waiting - forever

[ashlyme]

I got my first vaccination (Astra-Zeneca) Wednesday morning.  The jab was done almost without me noticing; I've had worse off bramble or dog-rose thorns. Coming back in the taxi I saw my first muntjac of the year, on the Parkway verge: the tiniest antlers, anxious-looking (you would be, next to that traffic). Hopefully I'll see him grazing from my window before too long. Later in the day I found half a robin's egg and brought back home. I just found  out its colour is sometimes called lost egg blue. Forty-eight hours on I've had no side-effects. Touch wood there'll be none coming. I pulled something in my back the other day and that's made for a couple of long tedious nights. It's migrating towards my waist.

Currently reading Nancy Arrowsmith's A Field Guide to the Little People which thankfully isn't twee as the title suggests. Its wights and goblins aren't averse to dropping the odd four-letter word. Some of Arrowsmith's choices don't quite fit. my idea of "fey": - basilisks, satyrs and selkies? Hmm.  There seem to be an unusual amount of fey women  whose breasts are long enough to throw over their shoulders. I guess that's warm in winter? Assuming it wasn't women who came up with those tales. It's illustrated by Hans Edelmann who did the art direction for Yellow Submarine.  I wish Mervyn Peake had been alive and working in the seventies; just imagine what he would have created for this! This passage on English fairies made me shout But what about Arden?*

They are known throughout England, although they are less numerous in the Midlands.

Pfft. Anyway, it's a good book. A paperback of Peake's Shapes and Sounds came through the letterbox yesterday and that's next. The cover illustration's extraordinary, drawn in the Blitz - a mother made of rubble holding a baby to her: "half-masonry, half-pain."

*Yes, I know Midsummer Night's Dream is set in an Athenian wood. But I'm with Angela Carter that it's just a stand-in for Arden.

Comments

[asakiyume]

Wait what? You have muntjacs in place-where-you're-at, England? I thought those were southeast Asian!

Congratulations on Jab No. 1

[ashlyme]

We do - and they are! Apparently they were introduced into a Bedfordshire park in the last century, got into the local ecosystem - then north. I'm not sure how common they are in this part of the country but I often see four at a time grazing in the field next door. They're delightful little animals. I saw one teasing a fox last year; that was hilarious.

And thank you!

[asakiyume]

TOO WILD. It's like hippos in Colombia!

[sovay]

Apparently they were introduced into a Bedfordshire park in the last century, got into the local ecosystem - then north.

That's probably terrible from a perspective of invasive species, but personally I think it's wonderful.

[ashlyme]

Yes, I wonder if they might have driven off native species, but they have a lovely hump-backed lollop to them. And I guess modern farming methods haven't been great for many species here.

[cmcmck]

Huzzah on the jab! :o)

We get our second on the 22nd.

Some spring pics up on mine!

[ashlyme]

*clinks mugs* Good luck with the second round. I'll wander over to your journal in a bit. :-)

[sovay]

I got my first vaccination (Astra-Zeneca) Wednesday morning.

Mazel tov! I like the idea of you being vaccinated by dog-roses: against what?

I've never heard of the Arrowsmith. It sounds like a forerunner of Alan Lee and Brian Froud's Faeries (1978).

[ashlyme]

*Mazel tov! I like the idea of you being vaccinated by dog-roses: against what?*

This was such a good question I looked up the dog-rose in folklore. The roots were meant to be efficacious if you were bitten by a rabid dog. If you threw the petals at a vampire it was compelled to count them (does this explain The Count???). Plant it on a vampire's grave and it prevents resurrection. Nice! Dog-rose is also known as "witch's briar" in Ireland where it's associated with love, luck and healing. I should get grazed by it more often.

The Arrowsmith is great. What I'd love to find is Katharine Briggs' A Dictionary of Fairies (1979) but even the paperback goes for a cool hundred quid. Nope.

[sovay]

If you threw the petals at a vampire it was compelled to count them (does this explain The Count???).

Vampires compelled to count small objects is very old folklore! I'd never heard dog-rose petals; I know it from Eastern Europe with poppy seeds. (And yes, it does make the Count a very traditional vampire. He's even from Transylvania.)

Dog-rose is also known as "witch's briar" in Ireland where it's associated with love, luck and healing. I should get grazed by it more often.

Seriously, it sounds great for you.

What I'd love to find is Katharine Briggs' A Dictionary of Fairies (1979) but even the paperback goes for a cool hundred quid. Nope.

Ouch. Yeah, I think I've seen that one only in libraries.

[ashlyme]

I thought I'd heard something about vampires being made to count, but wasn't sure what you were meant to chuck at them... poppy-seeds sound more logical. We've also got wild garlic growing aplenty round here, so if there's a bloodsucker apocalypse come on over! Mattie the Vampire Slayer. They do it with botany.

There's also "robin's pincushion", the gall that only grows on dog-roses. It looks like crimson and green moss. I don't think there's any lore on it but there should be: it looks pretty damned fey to me.

[sovay]

I thought I'd heard something about vampires being made to count, but wasn't sure what you were meant to chuck at them... poppy-seeds sound more logical.

Tiny, plentiful, and hard to find where they fall! A vampire-distractor's best friend. Also they taste nice.

We've also got wild garlic growing aplenty round here, so if there's a bloodsucker apocalypse come on over! Mattie the Vampire Slayer. They do it with botany.

Brilliant.

There's also "robin's pincushion", the gall that only grows on dog-roses. It looks like crimson and green moss. I don't think there's any lore on it but there should be: it looks pretty damned fey to me.

Wow. Yes. I just looked up some pictures. It looks sentient.

[ashlyme]

*It looks sentient.*

God, yes! That doesn't look like the product of wasps.