Sherlock Holmes in London

Today, I am blogging again about this edition of The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The first edition I read of the novel and the very first Sherlock Holmes novel I read. As it was aimed at younger readers, it was accompanied by many pictures, really nice ones. We sometimes forget that a substantial amount of time of the plot is spent in London, where Holmes and Watson first see the villain of the story, although only from afar. The antagonist is also disguised under a heavy fake beard, so his identity remains a mystery at this point. It makes for a suspenseful chase in the city, which concludes with the Holmes being bested (by his own admission) by his unknown adversary. This image renders very well the tension and gives to the scene and the setting a neat aura of menace.

Sherlock Holmes on the Moors

 I blogged back in February about the first edition I read of The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I took this image from the book. You can see Sherlock Holmes in his iconographic if apocryphal clothes, with a deerstalker hat, but an ordinary coat and not an Inverness cape, for some reason. Still, the hat gives him away immediately. In this image, it makes some sense that he is wearing this, as he is on the Devon's moors. Some illustrators and movies have Holmes dressed like this in the middle London, which is patently absurd. Anyway, I think it would be nice to revisit Devon, but more inland this time. Follow the footsteps of Sherlock Homes, when he investigated an old legend who turned into a murder conspiracy.

Sherlock and Baskerville Hall

During my last time at home, I stumbled upon this book, the first edition I read of The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I revisited it a little bit more than a decade ago. It was if I am not mistaken the very first Sherlock Holmes story I ever read, or at least the very first Holmes novel. I might actually have read The Red-Headed League before, I'm not sure. I had of course watched the TV series before. But in many ways, The Hound of the Baskervilles was my first venture into Sherlock Holmes' world and to this day it remains my favourite story. I don't think I will reread it this year, having a lot on my TBR, but it was nice to see the copy I owned when I was a kid.

Honey for the bears

 I took the title of this post from one of Anthony Burgess' lesser known novels (but incidentally one of my favourite). That said, it is not a blog post about the book. But the title is so perfectly fitting for some news I read about recently: two bears escaped a wildlife park in Devon, near Exeter (which I have passed through, but never properly visited). And they ate week's worth of honey. That is both funny and cute. I know bears can be dangerous, even vicious animals, but that's still cute. Anyway, Mish and Lucy are both back in custody after their expedition in the outside world. I hope they had a nice escapade and they enjoyed the sweet treat.

The Horn of Plenty in Tavistock

 I was googling on cornucopia recently, when I stumbled upon the website of a luxury hotel in Tavistock, Devon, called... The Horn of Plenty. I got curious about it, because I think it's a nice and original name for a hotel. And because Devon is a lovely place which I hope to see more of one day. And well, I was in awe by the idyllic look of The Horn of Plenty. It is a bit above my price range, at least for a long stay, but I would love to visit the hotel one day, maybe even have lunch there, or only a drink. Or just walk around the venue. Ten years ago, my wife and I took our holidays in Devon. But we saw only a small portion of it, as it is a large county with a lot to offer. So maybe next year, we could visit it again, but in a different part of it, and with Wolfie this time. Anyway, be that as it may, I love these kinds of fancy hotels with a bit of age, I think it gives them a charm the most modern ones never have. Maybe I will visit The Horn of Plenty one day, who knows.

The bear in the train

 Here is a bit of railway amd zoological news that caught my attention recently: a rescued bear travelled from Sweden to Devon via the Eurotunnel. I love bears and trains, I enjoyed my time in Devon a few years back, I love Sweden too on top of all that, so of course it caught my attention. No but, you read this and there are two things that come to my mind: 1)this is such a cute, heartwarming story, like most stories involving rescued animals, especially bears. 2)A bear travelling by train? That is epic, no matter the details. So welcome to your new home, Diego. I hope you like it here.

Des voitures "vintage"

Il y a de cela très, très longtemps, avant la COVID et avant notre petit, nous sommes allés en vacances à Totnes dans le Devon. Le jour de notre arrivée, il y avait une sorte de carnaval qui commençait par une parade où j'ai pris cette photo. Je crois que c'est le maire de l'époqueque l'on voit, sur une voiture "classique". Les Anglais aiment bien montrer des vieux chars classiques lors de parades. Wolfie aurait bien aimé les voir, je crois, même si ce qu'il préfère, ce sont les tracteurs et les trains. Il a quelques voitures jouets qui ressemblent un peu à ça et en regardant ces photos je me suis dit que ça pourrait aiguiser son intérêt pour celles-ci. Il pourrait les mettre dans la ville qui n'arrête pas de construire et reconstruire dans le salon.

Seasonal pasta bake

One of the many things I love about autumn, is the hearty food you eat. I am always on the lookout for more autumnal dishes. My wife is vegetarian and she likes to try new veggie recipes, either from her many, many recipe books, or from the internet. So around this time of year, she generally cooks something we could both enjoy. We are not always lucky, but sometimes she strikes gold. She did this week, when we found a pasta bake recipe from a book (booklet really, it's only a few pages) I bought during our holiday in Devon a few years ago: Vegetarian Recipes from the West Country. At £2.99, it was a bargain. What got our attention was the "Devon farmhouse cheddar, bramley apple and pasta bake". I am not sure how authentically Devonian, but it is definitely an autumnal dish: because it is hearty for one, with plenty of milk, cream and cheese to fill you up, and also because it has apples in the recipe. Apples being of course the fruits of autumn.

It might seem strange to mix apples and pasta, but it turned out really good. Of course by hindsight it made perfect sense: apples go well with cheese and thus it enhances the cheese sauce flavour. There is so much tasty stuff in there: the cheddar, the apples, the leeks and the tarragon (my wife is not a fan of the latter). A lot of the dish we had tried in last autumn had not gone so well, so we are really happy to have found something we both enjoy (Wolfie is a bit more fussy, if you were wondering). Anyway, as the book is out of print, I thought it would be okay to share the recipe here. If you bake it, tell us what you thought of it. We will definitely do this recipe again.

Happy Birthday Mary Shelley!

I took this picture in Totnes in Devon. It was during their carnival and I know it might be a rather cheap way to illustrate today'stopic, but here it is anyway: today is the birthday of Mary Shelley.The genius author of Frankenstein and thus the accidental mother (or grandmother?) of one of Halloween's and horror's most iconic monsters. Which in his original incarnatios has nothing to do with the popular image of its Hollywood adaptations. In other words: read the novel. On a side note, it will be my wife and my wedding anniversary very soon, so this picture is kind of fitting for that too.

Quatre ans depuis le Déménagement

Photo prise à dans le Devon, je crois que c'était à Dartington, mais je ne suis pas certain. Je la partage ici car je blogue sur une maison, enfin sur notre maison. C'est je Jour du Déménagement au Québec et par coïncidence ce fut aussi le jour où nous sommes devenus propriétaires. Nous avons emménagé le lendemain et ça nous a pris une semaine pour tout ramener de notre ancien appart. Mais enfin bref, nous vivons ici depuis quatre ans aujourd'hui.

La durée de vie des bananes

Photo prise à Totnes dans le Devon, lors de la parade de leur festival local, je la partage ici car elle illustre assez bien mon propos. Enfin bref, nous mangeons tous des bananes dans cette maison, mais il y a une chose qui m'agace énormément avec elles: elles passent rapidement de pas assez mûres pour être bonnes à trop mûres pour être mangeables, alors on en perd. Suis-je le seul à trouver ça irritant? je sais que mon beau-frère m'a fait remarquer la même chose la dernière fois qu'on l'a vu. Il faudrait faire des recettes au lieu de les manger une par jour, j'imagine.

Construire un château en famille

Cette photo a été prise à Berry Pomeroy Castle, dans le Devon. Je la partage ici parce qu'elle sert mon propos. Aujourd'hui, mon fils a décidé qu'il voulait construire le château que son oncle maternel. Mon beau-frèrenous a laissé depuis la naissance de notre fils pas mal tout les vieux jouets finis ou pas de sa fille, qui est dans la vingtaine maintenant. Et de temps en temps, notre petit loup se décide à jouer avec. Donc aujourd'hui, notre fils a tenu à ranger sa chambre, pour faire de la place au gigantesque château que l'on a dû tenter de monter, tant bien que mal, avec un succèes inégal. Ça ressemble assez à cette photo, mais c'est quand même une belle manière de passer le temps.

Des cormorans?

J'ai pris cette photo dans le Devon, en bateau sur la rivière entre Totnes et Dartmouth. Si je ne trompe pas et si mes souvenir sont exacts, ce sont des cormorans, comme je l'ai mentionné ici. En tout cas je crois que le guide nous a dit que c'étaient des cormorans. Grands et noirs, ils sont assez imrpessionnants et assez sinistres, surtout sur un vieil arbre spectral comme celui-ci. J'avais un peu l'impression d'être dans un autre monde et un autre temps, mythique il va de soi.

La fresque de Berry Pomeroy Castle

Cette photo a été prise à Berry Pomeroy Castle, dans le Devon. Je ne me rappelle pas des détails, mais c'est une fresque qui date de la fin du moyen âge/début de la Renaissance. J'aurais dû la partager à l'Épiphanie, parce que c'est une scène représentant l'Adoration des Mages. Mais comme je ne veux pas attendre un an avant de la mettre ici, je la partage ce soir.

Dr Frank N. Stein?

I took this picture in Totnes in Devon, during the procession of their carnival, a few years ago. I had wanted to share it one day and I thought that it would fit perfectly for today's countdown to Halloween post. I may be one of the few people who experienced Frankenstein first and foremost in the original work of Mary Shelley. Of course, I knew of the images that have been famous by the old Universal movies, but I discovered them years later. This allegorical car is of course heavily influenced by The Bride of Frankenstein, which is an amazing film in its own right. Just because it is a horror related allegorical car, and classic horror at that, because it looks nicely vintage in so many ways, because it also displays a bit of affectionate humour, I wanted to share the photo today.

Pas le pouce vert

Photo prise au Totnes Museum dans le Devon. Comme d'habitude elle illustre mon propos. Je regardais notre jardin ce soir, et je trouvaisqu'il manquait de... ben de tout. Je suis capable d'enlever les mauvaises herbes, mais ça ne va pas plus loin. Je manque de temps, d'énergie, de volonté, mais aussi il faut se rendre à l'évidence: à la quarantaine, si tu sais pas jardiner, ben c'est un peu tard pour apprendre. En d'autres mots, je n'ai pas le pouce vert.

News from Ancient Egypt

Picture taken in Totnes in Devon. We are far from Egypt, but the image kind of goes with this post's topic. It is now old news, without making a bad pun, but I wanted to mention it here: they have reopened the sarcophagus of "cursed" Pharao Tutankhamun so they can save the coffin which is falling apart. I have always been into ancient history, but not nearly as fascinated into Ancient Egypt as I was with Ancient Greece, or even Ancient Rome. Yet I had some interest in Egyptian history: when there was a Ramesses II exhibit in Montreal back in 1980 something (I visited it) and it did trigger some interest from me. I learned a thing or two about the Egyptians following this visit. So I hope the millennial sleep of the forever young King Tut is not too troubled by the recent events and that they manage to restore his coffin.

Boire bio

J'ai pris cette photo au restaurant végétarien The Willow à Totnes dans le Devon. On a assez aimé pour y retourner deux fois. Comme de raison, ils offraient des bières biologiques. Je me rappelle que celle-ci était fort correcte, pour une blonde. Je vais essayer de la retrouver ici, même si on est loin du Devon. Pour la petite histoire, je bois assez peu bio.

The Haunted House Game

I took this picture in Devon, if I am not mistaken it was in Dartington. I think I took a picture of it because it looks like a haunted house (of the abandoned kind), looking very sinister in spite of its sunny and flowery surroundings, the kind of place that would fit perfectly daylight horror spooky stories. When I was a child imagining a haunted house in a quaint English setting, I imagined a place like that. I used to think a lot of haunted places then. In fact, during the summer holidays (but not exclusively) one of the many make belief games my brothers and I was playing haunted house (or haunted manor, or haunted castle). We were ghost hunters looking to exorcise such place as on this picture, or simply ordinary guys who ended up staying at the wrong B&B and had to deal with spectral apparitions, animated skeletons and the likes. We had many spooky games, this was one of our recurring ones. I guess a part of my mind was always on Halloween.

Traversier, pas ferry

Photo prise à Dartmouth dans le Devon. On y voit entre autres un ferry. Ferry est le terme utilisé par les Français pour désigner la même chose que les anglais: un bateau qui traverse un cours d'eau, rivière, Manche ou autre. Au Québec, on dit plutôt un traversier. C'est beaucoup plus joli comme terme, plus francophone aussi, et c'est notre mot du jour.