h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have a list of great 19th century novels, and her "Heir of Redclyffe" is on the list.

This compares with 4 books by Wilkie Collins, 2 by Joseph Conrad, 3 by Benjamin Disraeli (!), 2 by Maria Edgeworth, 4 by Elizabeth Gaskell, and 2 by Margaret Oliphant.

Hardy, Dickens, Thackeray, and Trollope are well-represented on the list, as you'd expect.....

Good to know she still has her place in the world of 19th Century literature, yet she's been denied the level of fame that her near-neighbours Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy (who between them bookend the 19th Century) still enjoy today.

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I do plan to read H.O.R. before long.

Have you read the excerpt in this week's over at A87866833?

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"You make the most of that one flower."

You say it as if it was a bad thing.

This is February. There's a foot of snow on the ground [Merrie Olde England we're not], and there's not a flower in bloom anywhere outside. I make the most of all my flowers from early April to late November, and then start gathering supplies for the *next* season's plants. I plant seeds inside starting in March. This year's experiment is seeds form the Concord grapes that were growing on the fence across the street from me. I put half the seeds into wet towels in December, wrapped the towels in airtight plastic bags, and stored them in my refrigerator for three months. The other half were likewise stored in mid-January.

This year, I plan to plant 100 asparagus seeds along the edge of my house. Starting in 2018, I hope to be able to harvest a few asparagus spears.

Another project is holly. My sister has holly bushes in front of her house. I plan to take 4 male branches and 4 female ones, cut a notch at the bottoms of the stems, and stick them in the ground near my house. If even a quarter of them put down roots, I will have both male and female holly bushes....

' You say it as if it was a bad thing.'
- I didn't say anything, Dmitri wrote that.

If you added up all the snow I've seen in my life and piled it up, I doubt it would get to be a foot thick. There are a few daffodils about, though, but then they've been out since December. They're normally around late March/early April.
Good luck with the - not a favourite plant of mine as growing up, the neighbour had a holly tree and it was uncomfortable finding their leaves when walking on the lawn with bare

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I can relate to that. There were a lot of locust trees on my father's land when I was growing up. Step on a locust thorn in your bare feet, and you're guaranteed to have a bad day.

>>' You say it as if it was a bad thing.'
- I didn't say anything, Dmitri wrote that.<<

I did NOT. Charlotte wrote that. And she put it in the mouth of a character named Charles.

It's -11 C outside right now, and we're grateful to the neighbour for his kindness in snowblowing our front walk. I'd love to see a fresh flower about now.

Charlotte will be featured in all month, Paul, so you can add to your reading list of exciting 19th-century works.

Thanks, Dmitri.

One forecast says that it'll be 12 below zero Fahrenheit this Sunday. There are numerous other forecasts, and they all vary, but Sunday will be pretty cold in all of them.

A month form now I will start planting seeds in little peat pots in my living room and on my window sills. The first will be seeds form the Concord grapes I picked form the fence across the street from me. If I've followed instructions correctly, maybe a quarter of the seeds will germinate. They're wintering in wet paper towels wrapped in airtight plastic bags in my refrigerator. Three months is the ideal length of time, and they've been there since December 11.

I also have seeds for different flowers and garden vegetables.....

Okay, Dmitri didn't write it, you only quoted it

Do Concord grapes fly across the Atlantic at the speed of sound?

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I've never seen them do it, but there are s many alternative universes where that could happen. I'm looking for a universe where we could celebrate six weeks of Mardi Gras, followed by one day of Lent.

Concord grapes would be the favourite fruit of Charlotte M. Yonge. I assume she approved of Temperance.

Concord grapes were developed as a juice so people didn't have to drink wine.

Of course, Charlotte would never have approved of the way Concord grape juice was used to replace wine in evangelical church communions. Because Change Is Bad in church.

To this day, Concord grape juice has a sacral flavour to me...

The experts tell me that I might not get quite as good grapes form planting the seeds as I would from doing cuttings. That doesn't bother me as long as the vines are decorative. I want them to climb the chain link fence at the entrance to our park.

Grape vines are very decorative. Even the feral ones - my sister's got a lovely arbour going, left over from the inhabitants from 200 years ago, we think.

My grandmother called all these feral grapes 'musky dimes'. It was years before I found the word 'muscadine' in print and made the connection.

I would love to have put Charlotte Yonge and my mountain grandmother in the same room. Charlotte would have fainted about the time the snuff came out.

I picked up "Heir of Redclyffe" at the library this afternoon, and have started reading it. It's confusing, at first, figuring out how the characters are related.

How did you find 'Heir of Redclyffe', paulh?

I'm reading 'Hopes and Fears or Scenes from the Life of a Spinster' and it contains scenes from my life too . I'm enjoying it so far - just started the second section, where a new generation of characters is introduced.

I liked it, though I was sad about the protagonist's death at the end...

Spoilers!

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Yeah, how DARE you?

Dudes, it's been 163 years. Anyone who hasn't read it by now isn't going to care about the plot details.