Igenlode Wordsmith

I've just spent most of the evening applying my twenty years' rusty Russian to an online article about the Hamburg staging of "Love Never Dies", having been tempted into it from Tumblr on glimpsing the tantalising statement "мне показалось, что она не любит Призрака" (I get the impression that Christine doesn't love the Phantom)
It's wonderful what a bit of motivation can do...

http://operaghost.ru/lnd_hamburg.htm

Yet again, independent confirmation that Raoul (whom the reviewer concludes this Christine no longer loves in the romantic sense either) comes across in LND despite the author's intentions as a far more interesting and sympathetic character in his relationship with Christine than the one-note Phantom does, and indeed that Lloyd Webber has in effect written the piece as Raoul's tragedy and not, as he supposes, as that of the Phantom. How did the composer manage to do this without noticing?

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The late-coming anemone is now dying as well without ever having reached full growth, the one with the damaged stem has withered, and the others have not only failed to bloom but aren't looking all that vigorous either. I'm afraid that as house-plants (and as a gift) they were a complete and utter failure.

Somewhat to my surprise, the fifth and final anemone has now shown its head, looking very smuch smaller and weedier than the others; we now have a 100% survival rate over the winter. However, not only were they a long way behind the ones growing outside, they have yet to show any signs of flowering or doing anything beyond producing one leaf each. They may have been given to me as suitable windowsill plants last autumn, but as forced flowers they are obviously a complete non-starter: if they had been put into the cold earth outside they would probably have done better!

On the other hand, my £3 mystery seed has germinated with great enthusiasm. in consecutive order according to its variety. I still have no idea what any of them are, though the first seedlings are just begining to show their true leaves (something pinnate). There are some tiny ones that were the latest to germinate and must have come from seed like dust, some with a round cupped seed like a miniature poppy head (but different), some from long thin black and white sticks, some that came up with seed leaves so pale as to be almost white and are now showing intriguing signs of blushing pink, some with bright orange seed husks, and probably more....

I have also planted some apple pips in the hopes of creating 'pippins' for a 'native woodland hedge' in a year or two, which are currently in fashion. If and when they fruit in five years' time, the fruits will be small sour throwbacks, as the vast majority of randomly sprouted hedgerow pippins are, but the wildlife doesn't mind :-)

The anemones that I planted on the second of October (and that were given to me as a present to bloom indoors within two months) have finally bent their heads and thrust up two little purplish shoots. Oddly enough this is at exactly the same time as the bulbs growing outside in the garden: it is clearly Springtime for Anemones!

I've planted five anemones in a pot on my windowsill. We'll see how long it takes for anything to happen -- the instructions recommend a bright area with a temperature of 20 degrees Centigrade, and my windowsill is currently 16C and decreasing, so I suspect that nothing will happen before the plants would naturally come up anyway in the spring...