“Sod the wine, I want to suck on the writing. This man White is an instinctive writer, bloody rare to find one who actually pulls it off, as in still gets a meaning across with concision. Sharp arbitrage of speed and risk, closest thing I can think of to Cicero’s ‘motus continuum animi.’

Probably takes a drink or two to connect like that: he literally paints his senses on the page.”


DBC Pierre (Vernon God Little, Ludmila’s Broken English, Lights Out In Wonderland ... Winner: Booker prize; Whitbread prize; Bollinger Wodehouse Everyman prize; James Joyce Award from the Literary & Historical Society of University College Dublin)


.

.

.

.

13 August 2012

ECONOMIC BOTANY BRINGS STOCK BACK

Some important visitors came to Yangarra to pick the organic brains of viticulturer and vineyards manager Michael Lane: above, in the High Sands 1946 Grenache  Vineyard: left, Andrew Carrick (Manager, Collections and Horticulture, Botanic Gardens of Adelaide), Michael Lane, Stephen Forbes (Director, Botanic Gardens of Adelaide) and Alexander Rix (General Manager, Planning and Property Services, Urban Renewal Authority). I love the body ling in these snaps: the sceptical scientist, the director, and the government bloke.  I learned a lot in this interchange.  Below: Rix, Lane, Carrick and Forbes discussing the science of growing grapes without herbicides and other common farming petrochems.  During the winter, when forage growth is normally prolific, these vineyards are now sensibly weeded by cattle and sheep, whose only residue is fertiliser ... photos Philip White ... Speaking of the Botanic Gardens, you have til 4PM this Wednesday, August 15th, to catch Banks’ Florilegium: a very special exhibition of illustrations from Captain James Cook’s First Voyage 1768 – 1771,  from Sir Joseph Banks’ specimens and Sydney Parkinson’s illustrations of Australian flora.  The  à la poupée printing technique involved uses up to ten colours simultaneously on one copper plate. It's in the beautifully-restored Santos Museum Of Economic Botany in the centre of the Botanic Garden on North Terrace. One of this State's best treasures.
 

No comments: