Category Archives: History

September brings the fruit

Posted on September 2, 2022 by Lizzie Ross

For Peter Mayle, down in Provence, September brings hunters after the game hidden in the woods surrounding his house. He walks carefully along paths with his dog while the hunters are at it, always fearful that they’ll mistake him for … Continue reading →

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August brings the sheaves

Posted on August 3, 2022 by Lizzie Ross

If you go by the August image from Les Très Riches Heures de Duc de Berry, this month is more about the lords and ladies hunting with their hawks than about the harvest, yet look more closely beyond the pond … Continue reading →

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July brings cooling showers

Posted on July 2, 2022 by Lizzie Ross

My experience has always been that showers in July provide no cooling at all, for they only add to the humidity, but that could be the difference between east coast USA in the last 40 years, and Sara Coleridge’s England … Continue reading →

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June brings tulips

Posted on June 2, 2022 by Lizzie Ross

June’s image from the Limoges Brothers’ Très Riches Heures de Duc de Berry doesn’t match up with the couplet from Sara Coleridge’s poem, “The Months.” I ascribe this to the different worlds featured: the Duc de Berry’s wealthy lands — … Continue reading →

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May brings flocks

Posted on May 3, 2022 by Lizzie Ross

Well, nothing so pastoral as lambs cavorting around the ewes in the May image from the Limbourg brothers’ Très Riches Heures. It’s the Duke with his lords and ladies who are cavorting, their gorgeous gowns and cloaks competing with the … Continue reading →

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A quick recommendation

Posted on April 25, 2022 by Lizzie Ross

Edmund de Waal, The Hare with Amber Eyes (2010), The White Road (2015), and Letters to Camondo (2021). A gift from a good friend, The Hare with Amber Eyes arrived as I was working slowly through Marcel Proust’s In Search … Continue reading →

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April brings the primrose

Posted on April 2, 2022 by Lizzie Ross

Spring at last has arrived in the pages of the Trés Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, where the wealthy can celebrate a betrothal outside their enclosed garden. Pollarded trees shoot up new branches, blossoms burst open in the orchard, … Continue reading →

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March brings breezes

Posted on March 2, 2022 by Lizzie Ross

March brings breezes loud and shrill, stirs the dancing daffodil.  If you look closely at the image above, another from the Trés Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (Limbourg brothers, early 1400s), you’ll notice not just the plowman with his team … Continue reading →

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February brings the rain

Posted on February 6, 2022 by Lizzie Ross

February brings the rain, Thaws the frozen lake again.  Sara Coleridge’s couplet for this month describes what’s happening outside my window as I write. Yet this rain, which has washed away all traces of Winter Storm Kenan, could turn to ice … Continue reading →

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January brings the snow

Posted on January 26, 2022 by Lizzie Ross

“January brings the snow, / Makes our feet and fingers glow.” Sara Coleridge Perhaps I’m pushing the theme a bit, placing a gorgeous illumination from Les Trés Riches Heures de Duc de Berry next to a couplet from the daughter … Continue reading →

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