Igenlode Wordsmith

"The Witches of Wenshar", Barbara Hambly

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 09:20:06 GMT

I finally came across another copy of "The Witches of Wenshar", and could see why, as I remembered, I didn't really get on with it on my first reading; maybe I'm biased by the fact that I have now read all three books in this series, but I still feel that this novel is far more closely dependent on its predecessor than "Dark Hand of Magic" was on this, despite the mentions of "the King of Wenshar" in the opening lines of the latter. And it still feels darker in tone.( Read more... )

comments

Too much poetry

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 15:54:52 GMT

Lesson 20 is a rare misfire from the "Let's get to know one another" course; these shows usually have an excellent balance between the simplified vocabulary required by the learner and the level of creativity put into making the story-telling/info-dump sound natural and entertaining. Unfortunately this one involves illustrating the life-story of Pushkin with chunks of Pushkin's actual verse, which is on a comprehension/vocabulary level well above the surrounding dialogue -- the result being that a significant portion of the broadcast is effectively inaccessible :-(( Read more... )

comments

Plant update

Sun, 19 Apr 2026 12:14:28 GMT

I finally potted up the coriander (the two seedlings left over at the end got a whole tall pot to themselves, so it will be interesting to see how much better, if at all, they do!)

Having got my hands muddy I then proceeded to 'top up', or rather fill in the bottom of, one of the dwarf peas that didn't seem to have a lot of soil depth in its pot, and took the chance to give it a stick at the same time. None of the peas have really grasped onto their various sticks, which is a bit disappointing...

( Chives )

Also resowed the orange poppy, which has likewise shown no sign of life after a couple of weeks.

comments

Song of the Jester

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 22:22:23 GMT

I know I said I wasn't going to do any more of these (I always say that) -- but having said that I couldn't do this one because the chorus was just not amenable to translation, I naturally had to find a way of doing it :-p

Original lyrics (including a middle verse that Boyarsky doesn't sing here): https://sovetskaya-estrada.ru/load/bojarskij_mikhail/quot_pesenka_shuta_quot/36-1-0-1474 [Edit: sheet music!]

( Literal translation )
( Verse translation )

comments

Damping off

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 19:09:04 GMT

I have lost four otherwise vigorous towel-tomato seedlings, from both batches, to damping-off already, which is annoying, though I currently have plenty of spares (just as well).

I have potted up half the marigold seedlings, leaving the remainder still tumbled in their original tub; we shall see how they go. I'm pretty sure I have a couple of self-sown marigolds in other pots :-p

comments

The Eldest Son (1976)

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 22:49:40 GMT

Having just counted up the number of 'pending' Russian videos that I had acquired, I ended up jumping straight into a forty-third when YouTube suddenly presented me with "Старший Сын", the film that gets cited in the documentaries as Boyarsky's 'breakout' picture. It was only an hour long (it turns out that this was in fact an opening episode!), and I thought I'd take a look at the start at least without bothering with subtitles or anything, as I was no more than mildly curious about it. The start (a) has nice music and (b) is practically wordless and was thus undemanding to follow, so I was ten minutes in or so before things started getting complicated, and by that time it had grabbed me emotionally...
( Read more... )

Of course, as it happens, this sort of thing -- a conflict of loyalties, assumed identity, and emotional betrayal -- is very much more up my street than the standard romantic drama of will-they-won't-they with lashings of sexual action... But it's *not* Boyarsky, because he's really barely in it -- frankly, I'm not sure how this was a break-out role of any sort -- it's simply the film itself. ( Read more... )

comments

Another new buckle

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 18:07:23 GMT

I noticed last night when taking in the washing that the new buckle on my secondary clothes line had cracked through in the same way that the original Bakelite buckle did, and after about the same amount of time; however this time I knew where to go to purchase a replacement! The current new buckle is green, but I don't think it's as thick in cross-section as the last one, so I don't know how long it will last. What I really need is a metal buckle, of course (though doubtless the weld holding the bar on would eventually fail; they are simply not designed for heavy loads). Possibly I should *get* a metal buckle and then make a strap to fit it, as opposed to trying to find buckles to fit the existing stout woven strap -- which has lasted remarkably well.

Current cycle mileage: 878 -- 271 miles since January (plus a few more that didn't get recorded due to bike issues). Spot on the usual average of 18-19 miles a week :-)

*reads rest of past blog post*
I currently seem to have two videos on Venjamin Smekhov queued plus two on Igor Starygin, having watched four on Valentin Smirnitsky... well, I currently have 42 videos queued ;-p
( Read more... )

comments

Pitching Arctic Raoul

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:18:55 GMT

I sat down to try to write a 'pitch' for Arctic Raoul, only to discover after wasting an evening on some rather anaemic attempts that I had in fact already written a rather livelier version back in 2022!

My attempt at supplying the "putative extra paragraph at the end" to justify the length and acknowledge the fanfic aspect: "From the Phantom's Shadow" is a wide-ranging historical adventure of 125,000 words that takes its protagonists from the seas of the nineteenth-century Arctic and the lonely wilds of Scandinavia down to the south of France, and back up for a final confrontation, as they learn who they really are and what matters most. It's a story that seeks to bring a fresh twist to the classic themes of the original Phantom of the Opera while ultimately remaining true to its period and its overall message of redemption.

I spent some time in Waterstone's looking for appropriate 'comps' and couldn't find anything even vaguely similar before running out of time; ( Read more... )

In further slightly alarming news, I have been asked to supply copyrighted copies of my collection of poetry translations (which also involved trying to research the original authors of the lyrics in order to credit them) after an ex-associate of the Russian department at Cambridge saw one of them and was very impressed :-O

comments

Plant maintenance

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 10:21:50 GMT

( Gypsophila elegans, pink Linaria and Swan Rover daisies )

( Kale )

Tumbled the entirety of the tub of flax into a deeper pot without splitting up the root-ball at all. The marigolds are the other thing that really needs potting up, but that means finding a lot of individual pots and of compost to fill them, and I couldn't face it.

No sign of germination from my second attempt at chives, despite the success of the spring onions; I'm afraid the seed library appears to have been a dead loss on my first attempt. I hope the seed I donated there is doing better for other people :-(

comments

Hockey as a martial art

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 21:52:51 GMT

Sometimes it seems that everyone else is watching/reading Heated Rivalry.
Meanwhile YouTube presents me with Soviet Russia doing this:

comments

People who go quiet when hurt

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 01:52:01 GMT

"People who go quiet when hurt" -- apparently this is a new piece of pop psychology. https://www.bolde.com/psychology-says-people-who-go-quiet-when-theyre-hurt-arent-shutting-you-out-they-learned-early-that-pain-leads-to-these-10-consequences-so-silence-feels-safer/

But the conclusions they draw just don't ring true to me at all. No, I don't 'reach out' when I'm hurt; I don't respond well to group sessions or psychotherapy, because my instinct is to shut up like a clam and I'm not just dying to tell the world about all the times someone humilated or cheated me (why would I want to expose my own failures?) In fact I know people who are never happier than when they are talking about how wronged they are, and I find it frankly uncomfortable to be around.
( Read more... )

comments

Plant progress

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 14:06:28 GMT

Pricked out the Gypsophila vaccaria from its brown-paper pot, where the compost was worryingly dry despite the fact that I'd watered it only about ten minutes before; the other paper pots should probably be disposed of too.

I think we have dill germination, though I still can't be sure if any of the other seedlings in there are winter purslane or not. The double-fronded seedling was definitely a California poppy (and a fairly unhealthy-looking one) so I have disposed of it.

Winnowed the last of the 2024 basil in its brown paper bag, and sowed it. My previous attempt using commercial seed has clearly failed; the timing was over-optimistic. (I should, of course, be winnowing the 2025 basil seed and using that for preference, rather than trying to 'use up' the old bag first...)

I have been thinning/harvesting the lettuce, and probably ought to be sowing some more in order to have a progression; I harvested my first real crop of rocket today, and the kale has been yielding well (although it is now being afflicted by some kind of sap-suckers on the young growth).

comments

The Importance of Being Igor

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 12:24:17 GMT

Igor Starygin appears as Algernon in the cigarette-case scene from the Soviet adaptation of "The Importance of Being Earnest":

The part clearly offered scope for his latent intelligence and mischief, as well as illustrating Soviet directors' tendency to cast him in 'white-bone' (aristocratic) roles...

comments

Severely abbreviated

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 23:54:42 GMT

Chapter 28 of the "Three Musketeers" Russian audiobook is definitely *very* much abridged; the story here cuts from Athos' drunken confession (and d'Artagnan's attempt to evade any further revelations by pretending to have fallen asleep) at the end of the previous chapter directly to all four characters back in Paris and being abruptly summoned off to war, with all the would-be comic episodes of the loss of the valuable English horses being omitted altogether. Which means that the entirety of the surviving content of the chapter only lasts about three minutes; one wonders why they didn't just roll it into the start of the following chapter and adjust the numbering of the edited version...!

comments

Plant progress

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 14:22:48 GMT

I planted up the furry hedgehog wildlife garden that I was given before Christmas ( Read more... )

( Mesembryanthemum and strawberries )

( Towel-tomatoes )

( Roma tomatoes )

The dwarf peas have put out their first tendrils; the sweet peas have not yet produced tendrils, but required sticks simply to hold them upright, especially after the winds we have been having...

There are now four definite spring onion seedlings ;-)

comments

"Under the Red Robe", Stanley J. Weyman

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 01:44:19 GMT

As with "Scaramouche", this was a book that I was a bit disappointed by when I first read it, having originally been excited to find a copy of after having seen and enjoyed the film version ("Under the Red Robe", 1937: It was a period of plot and counter-plot, of reckless gallantry and ruthless oppression ... the time of D'Artagnan, of Cyrano De Bergerac, of Gil De Berault, the "Black Death"). Doubtless I was hoping for a novelisation of what I've just seen, which this of course isn't -- although I seem to remember that it's rather closer in spirit than "Scaramouche".

But again, sufficient years have now elapsed that I have long since forgotten almost everything about the film save a vague favourable impression, and I am able to approach the novel on its own terms. And right from the start you realise that the author is doing something unexpected (and doing it very well): the protagonist, Gil de Berault, is quite recognisably *the villain* in this scenario, although of course he doesn't see himself that way.
( Read more... )

comments

Meme: get to know you questions

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 18:12:54 GMT

Procrastinating (I'm not even sure what from any more, other than the overwhelming knowledge that I ought to be doing So Many Other Things) by filling out a set of meme question prompts from fred_mouse. ( Read more... )

comments

Seed log

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:57:32 GMT

Re-sowed the orange poppy, dill, nasturtium and chives, all of which appear to have failed without trace. (There may possibly be a dill seedling appearing around the edge of the pot, which tends to reinforce the suggestion that the seeds need light in order to trigger germination -- I scattered a fresh batch on the surface this time.)

( Rocket )

( Strawberries )

comments

The Dissertation of Aramis

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 01:26:00 GMT

I realised while listening to Chapter 26 of the Russian audiobook of "The Three Musketeers" that the chapter had almost certainly been abridged, because we don't get the entire scene where the two churchmen and Aramis have a long and Latin-laced argument as to the suitability of the proposed subject-matter of his dissertation, and where d'Artagnan fails to understand a word of the Latin :-P In fact, on glancing at my French copy to check that the missing scene *was* located in this chapter and not on d'Artagnan's subsequent return, I noticed that the scene in the previous chapter where Mousqueton tells the story of how his father brought his two sons up as a Huguenot and Catholic respectively during the Wars of Religion is also missing, as is the entire narrative of how the excellent breakfast (which *is* described) has been obtained despite Porthos' lack of funds.

So I would guess that the translation and/or audiobook version has been extensively shortened. Given that the reading lasts for over 20 hours as it is, this really isn't unreasonable... ;-)

comments

Router recycling

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 20:34:10 GMT

My Internet service provider sent me an (unsolicited) new router, probably so that they could ensure that I had their up-to-date security firmware. ( Read more... )

This seems like a very good way of getting out of your recycling obligations, since I can't imagine many people are public-spirited enough to pay return postage on an object they never asked for in the first place; they will all simply go straight in the bin. ("Alternatively, you can find a local recycling centre at www.recyclenow.com" -- none of those appear to accept routers, or at least don't include them in the very long drop-down list of equipment types you have to pick from...)

The marigolds have suddenly popped up overnight...

comments

Russian progress

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 23:33:17 GMT

I am currently on Lesson 18 of the second 'tele-course', which provides the comforting experience of understanding practically every word on the screen; this lesson was about winter sports( Read more... )

In my parallel progress through the two different course-books, I am currently in Lesson 9 (of 28) of "Colloquial Russian" from 1990 and Lesson 13 (of 30) of "The Penguin Russian АБВ" of 1965 ( Read more... )

I have finished listening to all the nine episodes of the Ali-Baba podcast( Read more... )

I am 50 minutes into the filmed stage version of "Elsa's Land" -- which of course doesn't come with convenient English film-festival subtitles! -- and 7 hours 53 minutes (Chapter 26 -- "The Dissertation of Aramis") into Smekhov's reading of "The Three Musketeers", which if nothing else is helping to teach me my ordinal numerals thanks to repeatedly paging through the chapter numbers ;-)

I stumbled across a second upload of "Smok & Malish" and re-watched it straight through up to the point that I had previously 'been over' with the dictionary( Read more... )

comments

Plant progress

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 22:10:37 GMT

Potted up the ten Roma tomato seedlings, with some difficulty since the towelling on which the seeds were originally held had not yet disintegrated in many places -- I wonder if this was what was holding them back? They didn't have a lot of root; however, at least they now have some drainage.

( Towel-tomatoes and chillies )

The dwarf peas have been moved out of the mini-greenhouse, where they appear to have thrived; it's hard to be certain, though, since I did after all put the best seedlings in there to start off with while leaving the more dubious peas outside! I tried to find a replacement for the photo-degrading mini-greenhouse( Read more... )

We finally have germination among the coriander, coming up reassuringly in pairs, and we *may* have actual germination among the spring onions to confirm that all the other things that had come up hitherto in that pot were not, in fact, spring onions! (These seedlings look more leek-like, which tends to confirm that there are no chive seedlings in the chive pot.)

( Dill and winter purslane )

There is one California poppy seedling in the pot where I sowed the white California poppy seed, but of course there is no way of knowing whether it germinated from the seed I put in there or was present in the compost anyway :-p

The miniature rose is now looking very dead, and the sweetbriar very alive. ( Marigolds and nasturtiums )

( Tulips )

comments

"A Gathering of Shadows", V. E. Schwab

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 22:15:02 GMT

I had vaguely come across the premise of this series, but hadn't realised that this book was in fact a sequel to a preceding volume( Read more... )
I'm afraid this is another case of a book that I enjoyed enough at the start to pick up and keep reading, but which I found myself progressively less enthused by as I continued.( Read more... )

comments

Stereo

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 20:59:05 GMT

Wasted about half an hour plugging and unplugging things and looking for the manual, trying to find out why the stereo had dropped out of the record-player. I was able to disable the *other* speaker by loosening one of the twin plugs, but not to re-enable the 'dead' one (which was still giving out a ghost of sound) by means of firmly reseating both of its plugs at both ends of the cable.

( Power supply )

comments

"The Beacon at Alexandria", Gillian Bradshaw

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 18:28:58 GMT

"The Beacon at Alexandria", Gillian Bradshaw: really good. One of the few books where the content actually reflects the praise on the cover (yes, this genuinely does feature fascinating descriptions of the theory and practice of Hippocratic medicine!) The classic 'girl disguises herself as a boy and runs away to escape an unwanted marriage' plot, but without the cliches and anachronisms of the genre; since Charis lives in the late classical period, she has the advantage of being able to disguise herself as a eunuch, which makes matters much easier. ( Read more... )

comments