A Blog of Bosh

Records to tumble at Tatton [flower] show
A show newcomer among 18 garden designers is Sarah Lynch, who has created the Owl and the Pussycat garden.
Sarah, 36, who lives in Cheshire, is taking part in a flower show for the first time and her entry promises to be one of the most theatrical designs this year.
Her garden for the Anthony Nolan Trust, supported by Cheshire Building Society, will provide visitors with a magical journey through Edward Lear’s verse of 1871, and incorporates the famous pea green boat.
ManchesterOnline – News

“Edward Lear’s Tribute to the Moon”
A humourous exchange providing a deep interpretation of Lear’s limerick on the Old Man of the Hague.
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Excelsior
[H.W. Longfellow’s famous poem, Jams Thurber’s illustrated version, and a “Parody” attributed to Edward Lear. One of these days I am going to publish a scan of the manuscript, in the State Library of Victoria.]

Don’t be so beastly!
There was a time when you could sing, ‘I love little pussy, her coat is so warm’ without fear of innuendo. There was no pun intended when Edward Lear wrote, ‘O lovely Pussy, O Pussy, my love, what a beautiful Pussy you are.’ Puss or pussy has been the nursery term for a cat since the early 16th century. For almost as long, of course, it has also been used to denote sexual intercourse, a woman and female genitalia. (It is safe to assume, for example, that the toast, ‘Here’s a health to thee, to Pusse and to good company’, recorded in 1664, was not a tribute to Tibbles.) But not everyone was familiar with tavern slang, and pussy remained a term of endearment for women, as well as cats, well into the 19th century.
[This interesting articles will explain why searching for The Owl and the Pussy-cat with a child on your lap is not a good idea.]
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian

Four larks and a wren
EDWARD Lear was no doubt thinking of the famous skylark of England, two pairs having nests in his beard. The UK has three lark species and Africa has 80% of all the world’s 75 lark species. Larks are mostly concentrated in the Old World in their distribution. The Horned Lark alone has colonised South America (Colombia).
[This is actually about larks, but I could not resist…]
The Natal Witness Group