Proper Mourning by Brianne Turczynski

October 24, 2019October 24, 2019 ~ Brianne Turczynski ~ 2 Comments

I can’t do a book review today, but I wanted to share my little work of fiction is up on amazon and Barnes and Noble. http://bit.ly/ProperMourning

I continue to pursue an agent and publishers for my other fiction and poetry, but a few years ago I felt my first novel should get off my flash drive and come alive on the market, because I come alive every time someone reads it—and I need to be alive!! Self publishing is no joke. It is hard work—you have to learn many new skills—and to be successful you must go all the way with it.

LOST STORY: 🤫 There were so many grammatical errors that it was impossible to find them all. In my last round, the computer read it aloud to me, but I kept falling asleep—not because I was bored but because I have read it 1,000,000 times!! So if you find a little error it is because I dozed off right there, which makes for a more intimate reading experience for you because you know this fact, don’t you think? Now don’t tell anyone I told you that! Mum’s the word! 🤭😉

Many authors are ashamed of their first novel, including Stephen King. W. Somerset Maugham actually tried to sue his publisher because he wouldn’t take his first novel off the market. 😂 So, am I ashamed? No. Although my art and skill has advanced, of course, and will continue to do so, this work is very precious to me, because it is where I found myself and my life renewed. I could curl up with this book and sleep with it every night I love it so much!

.Plus—my husband drew the owl and he’s so cute!

#selfpublish #bookstagram #book #reading #readersofinstagram #booknerdigans #booknerds #bookgeek #writers #writersofinstagram #writingcommunity #amazon #barnesandnoble #literature #literaryfiction #fiction #historicalfiction #writer #amreading #amwriting #literaryagent @ Michigan

The Return by Walter de la Mare

October 23, 2019 ~ Brianne Turczynski ~ Leave a comment

⭐️⭐️⭐️ I love Walter de la Mare! Although I gave this a three, it is only because his other work is so fabulous that this one failed to thrill by comparison. Much of his work carries the theme of isolation. In The Return, although not his best work, the protagonist gets possessed by a dead man after falling asleep on his grave. But De la Mare doesn’t seem to know what to do next with this, so the character is caught in a tangle of estrangement with friends, family, and even himself throughout the story. But perhaps that was the point all along—a point which begs one to ask: who are we anyway? .

This copy is from @aaknopf a 1922 edition. .

#bibliophile #library #bookshelf #bookstagram #books #bookstagrammer #reading #readersofinstagram #writersofinstagram #writer #read #bookphotography #death #halloween #fall #leaves #flowers #graveyard #dead #alive #booknerd #booknerdigans #bookgeek #isolation #nerd #geek #alfredaknopf

My Summer in a Garden by Charles Dudley Warner

September 16, 2019 ~ Brianne Turczynski ~ Leave a comment

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ As the summer draws to a close I’m compelled to remember the stages of my garden with Mr. Charles Dudley Warner. In 1870 he documented one summer in his garden recording every week. He talks about women voting, his neighbor Harriet Beecher Stowe, the visit to his garden by Ulysses S. Grant, and the curious life of his pet cat, Calvin. I read this on a road trip to Cleveland where I visited the most beautiful cemetery I had ever seen. (Pics of family crypts posted below)

Reaching the end of this book, with my kids and husband in the car, all restless, hyper, and obnoxious, I began to cry because Warner’s beloved cat was dying. He described his passing in such beautiful detail while granting the animal humility and grace. My family saw I was crying and made fun, of course, but I couldn’t stop and continued shedding my tears—laughing at myself also—as we checked into our hotel. .

Pictured is the 1888 edition. Some weathering with inscription: Lizzie W. Nothe (?) from Parents—Xmas 1889 .

Memoirs of a Buccaneer by Louis Adhemar Timothee Le Golif

September 10, 2019September 11, 2019 ~ Brianne Turczynski ~ Leave a comment

Funny story: I’m a bit naive—truth be told. I thought this was a real memoir for like 150 pages, because a lot of my books I read blind, so I had no background on this beforehand. It wasn’t until I retold some of the stories from the book to my husband, and he looked at me and said, “Yeah, that’s not real. It sounds spectacularly made up.” After that this book lost its luster for me and became—what it was probably meant for—an adventure story for little boys. In my defense the account looks real. Even the subtitle is long winded which was the style in 1700’s book publishing. And the writing style is exactly what would be expected in an 18th century memoir. It reminded me of Defoe’s Moll Flanders (and just as sexy and juvenile). 💃
Though at one time publishers thought this was a real account, it has since been proven otherwise. The publishers, Simon and Schuster express their skepticism, “We sincerely hope this is a genuine document…
…On the other hand, it does seem too good to be true.”
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This copy was published in 1954 and is in excellent condition.

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Oil on Canvas by Aleksandar V. Mojovic, 2005 Florence, Italy

Bug Killer

June 9, 2017June 9, 2017 ~ Brianne Turczynski ~ 7 Comments

There is a form of hypocrisy common to nearly all gardeners. It does not affect only the gentle amateurs, but has been known to affect even the most hardened professional, who is not, generally speaking, a sentimental or squeamish man. It is the human weakness which, accompanying our determination to rid ourselves of our slugs and snails, makes us reluctant next morning to contemplate the result of our over-night efforts.

-Vita Sackville-West
A Joy of Gardening; 1958

I was sitting out with my husband the other night, which we tend to do a lot in the summer months. I was telling him about some mysterious creature attacking my roses. I never saw anything during the day but the next morning the leaves would be almost gone and my buds would disappear. He gave me a flashlight and told me to go look for slugs. I had just sprayed everything that day so smugly I took the flashlight not thinking I’d find anything. I didn’t find slugs, but instead, multiple June bugs were having a slow menacing feast. They kept on in their euphoric culinary heaven even while I flashed my light on them. I flicked them off and they all landed on the ground with tiny crackling thuds like they were dead. I grabbed a jar and gathered them up. Then I went around knocking all the June bugs I could find into my jar.

Succumbed to the poison they had consumed from my leaves, all but two were dead. Or so I thought. For twelve hours they sat still inside the jar. Two still squirmed, clambering all over their dead in an effort to free themselves. I thought it only fair to put an end to their suffering. I soaked a tissue with alcohol and placed it inside. It is the same thing I used to do in elementary school when we were assigned bug projects. But somehow the alcohol brought them all to life again and they ALL began to squirm from the alcohol’s suffocating effects. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know June bugs played dead. That’s what they were doing, hoping I’d leave them alone so they could continue their feast. I promptly placed the jar in the freezer. Now they are definitely dead. Do you think I’m cruel? Perhaps I am. But I will only say, it is cruel for a creature to take away the health of my rose bushes. There are plenty of other roses in this neighborhood. The house next door, for instance, has two neglected climbers. Since I gathered them, others have yet to find my garden.

If you do have this problem you can use a spray or dust with Seven. You can also try to catch them in oil with a light, but I think drowning them in oil is just as cruel or perhaps more so. It is cruel no matter what. But we are human. Unlike insects, we registrar thoughts and contemplate life and have to endure every bump and bruise conscientiously and to its full extent and if a beautiful roses bush brings us a little pleasure from all we must take on then God help the creature who treads through our gardens.

Winter Rebels

November 25, 2016May 2, 2017 ~ Brianne Turczynski ~ 2 Comments

It is amusing, and also useful as a record of what to plant now, looking forward to twelve months hence, to make a compact little bunch of what may be found flowering out of doors in this drear empty month. Prowling round through the drizzle with knife and secateurs, I collected quite a presentable tuzzy-muzzy.

-Vita Sackville-West
More For Your Garden
Nov. 15th, 1953

If you’ve read my post What Is A Tussie-Mussie? you’ll know Vita is referring to a small bouquet of mixed flowers – a sampling of one’s garden. Now, since the frost has come and gone and come again, it is almost impossible to find any flowers now. However, there are plenty of spent flowers remaining. Flowers which stand, brown and suspended on their stiff spikes will make striking displays for drying. I implore you to take up this challenge and see what you can find out of doors. It is a wonderful reminder as one hunkers down for the winter to gaze upon the little dried beauties with hope – it is but only three months away.

My mother is quite funny, sometimes she’ll come up with ideas that have us rolling with laughter. As we sat in the last blaze of summer sun at her cottage we contemplated the coming winter and she vowed, in jest, she would, “defy the seasons”. She came up with many hysterical instances on how she would do this and we had a good laugh. However, now it’s getting serious. It will snow soon! My mother’s ironic humor resonates and I think she was right; there is no better way to “defy the seasons” than by going out to pick a bouquet of flowers as the blistering icy wind blows.

As you take up this idea and venture out keep your eyes open and use your imagination. For instance, my uncle once made a sculpture out of our dried sunflowers and their incredibly sturdy stalks. As for me, for weeks I have passed by a grouping of dried garlic chives on my run. I soon got it in my head that I must have them. They were beautiful spikes with balls of delicate seeds that seemed to glisten in the sun. One morning I asked the owner of the property if I could have some. He said I could take what I needed.
With the holidays coming or rather in America, we have already begun, sometimes it’s fun to find spent blooms on the more woody stems or perhaps pine cones and spray paint them gold or silver. They look very good stuffed in a Christmas tree or placed in a table setting.
Don’t be shy. If you happen to walk by and see, for several weeks, spent blooms which are failing to be clipped, ask the owner if you can take some. It’s the holiday season after all; a season of giving. I’m sure they would love to share the wealth.

In Themes Of War…

October 27, 2016October 29, 2016 ~ Brianne Turczynski ~ 10 Comments

Honour the gardener! that patient man
Who from his schooldays follows up his calling,
Starting so modestly, a little boy
Red-nosed, red-fingered, doing what he’s told,
Not knowing what he does or why he does it,
Having no concept of the larger plan.
But gradually, (if the love be there,
Irrational as any passion, strong,)
Enlarging vision slowly turns the key
And swings the door wide open on the long
Vistas of true significance.

-Vita Sackville-West
The Garden; 1946

I love Vita’s poetry. It took me awhile to like poetry and even still sometimes it’s hard for me to understand. I think in order to love poetry one must know the author and the times in which they wrote. Vita loved her garden. Her compilation of poems The Garden cover all four seasons. However, there is one recurring theme which trickles in every now and then. It is that of the second World War. I’m sure she had written these poems in the last year of the war at least. When the poems were published in 1946 there was still a residue of it in England at this time. If one reads carefully it is there, quiet but ever-present…

“Yet shall the garden with the state of war
Aptly contrast, a miniature endeavour
To hold the graces and the courtesies
Against a horrid wilderness. The civil
Ever opposed the rude, as centuries
Slow progress labored forward, then the check,
Then the slow uphill climb out of the pit,
Advance, relapse, advance, relapse, advance,
Regular as the measure of a dance;
So does the gardener in little way
Maintain the bastion of his opposition
And by symbol keep civility;
So does the brave man strive
To keep enjoyment in his breast alive
When all is dark and even in the heart
Of beauty feeds the pallid worm of death.”

Did you hear it? The themes of war?

She speaks of it often in her writings. She describes gardens abandoned or neglected in the years of war. She talks about rose bushes, relinquished for that time being, growing wild because they had not been pruned and were more beautiful than ever before.

But for the purpose of this post I’ll speak of a different type of war. Sometimes I feel like preparing for winter is akin to preparing for war. Protect those you love as the blistering winds are upon us. In other words, it is time to shut one’s garden down. The frost will come soon. So save those that may still bloom behind the comfort of glass on your windowsill, and clip those you can dry. A reminder of the summer sun will remain in the dehydrated petals for you to gaze upon all winter long.

I have clipped my sweet woodruff to dry for Christmas sachets. It hangs for now in my kitchen as you can see below. In my post Short and Sweet Woodruff I explained that if you clip sweet woodruff in autumn and dry it, it will make lovely sachets that smell like freshly cut grass all winter. Vita mentioned keeping one under her pillow to capture the scent while she slept.

Similarly, I dried the lavender and my astilbe spikes. I talked about astilbe in my post
Astilbe & The Romanovs. I’ll use the astilbe in vases around my house to add interest to a space. The lavender however will be crushed with the sweet woodruff and stuffed in the Christmas sachets. I love homemade Christmas gifts.

The one cut flower that will dry amazingly is the zinnia. Since we’re getting very close to a heavy frost I will cut them all. It pains me to do so since some have yet to bloom. But the bud stage actually produces a very interesting dried specimen. Also hydrangea are very interesting too.

So go out and save a bit of your garden before it’s too late. You’ll applaud your own resourcefulness. When times get a little too dreary this winter always think about next year’s garden, entertain yourself with fantasies and possibilities. Think of the most outrageous thing you can do and make it happen!

“…But gradually, (if the love be there,
Irrational as any passion, strong,)
Enlarging vision slowly turns the key
And swings the door wide open on the long
Vistas of true significance.”

A good gardener is not afraid to experiment.

Above: My Experiment: Morning Glory in a vase. Do you think these buds will open?

Inspire us, in what ways have you experimented lately?

This Morning…

Waging a Cold War…On Bunnies

May 10, 2016May 21, 2016 ~ Brianne Turczynski ~ Leave a comment

The French Idea of gardening…
I have recently returned from a wondering holiday in southwestern France. The villagers produce an altogether charming effect, comparable with our own cottage gardens at home. The village street is lined with pots, standing grouped around the doorways or rising step by step up the outside staircase when there is one pots filled with pink geraniums, zinnias, begonias, nasturtiums, carnations marigolds, all mixed and gaudy.

-Vita Sackville-West
The Joy of Gardening, 1958

I’ve been in a 1950’s mood lately (I wonder why), so I decided I was going to plant marigolds this year in some of our pots around the yard. For some reason these little annuals of orange and yellow remind me of the by-gone era of cold war and rockin’ music. Don’t ask. Upon telling people this they would relay to me fantastical stories about the benefits of marigolds. “They deter bunnies, and deer and bad insects. Oh my!”

I’ve since looked this information up and there seems to be mixed opinion on this. Some even complained that marigolds brought spider mites into their gardens to reek havoc on everything in sight. Other sites however, say that marigolds attract good insects like lady bugs (a gardener’s best friend), and that they’ll deter moles, and sometimes deer and bunnies.

Well, I have a bunny problem. They sneak in at night and eat all of my coneflower, and black-eyed susans, and they ate all of my pussy toes those -“beep-beep-beep!”

So, I’m waging WAR! A sun-shiny yellow, friendly war, but a war none the less! I’m going to take my chances on the spider mites and plant these 1950 lovelies as a border like sentries flying their colors of yellow and orange. They’ll create a picket line around my garden and hopefully keep the enemy out. Those bunnies will be sooooo sorry when they get a load of what I’ve got in store for them.

Readers out there; have you ever planted marigolds to deter pests? If so please let me know how it worked out for you! Thank you!

“Magenta is a Nasty Color”

May 10, 2016May 10, 2016 ~ Brianne Turczynski ~ 1 Comment

The only nasty color produced by the zinnia is a magenta, and this, alas, is produced only too often. When magenta threatens, I pull it up and throw in on the compost heap, and allow the better colours to have their way.

-Vita Sackville-West
February 12th, 1950

Yes, magenta does show up all too often when planting zinnias from seed, so much so that my Grandma complains every year about the abundance of ‘pink’. She then enquires of my horde and I report that I’m in the same lot.
Then of course there’s the fatal mistake of buying the small “dwarf” zinnias instead of the giant “cut again” variety. In my opinion the giant ones are better for cutting, and they dry really nicely at the end of the season.

Last year, before the first frost, I harvested the remainder of my yield for drying. It was a pleasant thing to have the blooms there all winter. Although shriveled and dull, the reminder of summer was grand.

If you also do not like the magenta, try clipping and drying it at its bud stage. They make a striking appearance with their little folds of variegated green. Grouped together in a vase their buds would be a beautiful sight to see.