Those mouse plants

I pushed my way through the bamboo behind the shed to see if any woodland plants, so carefully planted years ago, had survived. Not many were tough enough but the Mouse Plant, Arisarum proboscideum is one. I've borrowed the picture from Google images as I'd have to lie flat on the ground in the dark to even attempt a photograph. They are absolutely fascinating plants. The leaves could belong to any old arum but then these strange puffy flowers appear, almost on the ground and each with its little tail. To really appreciate them I suppose one should grow them in a pot but as they'll obviously survive total gloom and neglect, why bother?

What I'm trying to read

It’s about time I wrote some more about books. I am romping away with Selina Hastings’ biography of Evelyn Waugh. At the beginning of this book she says that there is room for three biographies: the memoir by a personal friend, the academic one and the general narrative. I’ve already read the Christopher Sykes and Martin Stannard biographies but unaccountably not this ‘general’ one. Although almost everything about Waugh’s life offends my lower middle class sensibilities I still find it endlessly fascinating. I think it’s because out of snobbishness, bad behaviour and what he himself called ‘disgusting drunkenness’ came dedication, craftsmanship and supreme wit. This book reads as easily as a novel: it’s terrific. ( Read more... )