INTERMEDIATE LEVEL Mini-lesson Monday! (part 1) I would like to share with you the opening lines of one of my favourite poems: ‘The Fawn’ by American poet Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950). ‘There it was I saw what I shall never forgetAnd never retrieve.Monstrous and beautiful to human eyes, hard tobelieve,He lay, yet there he […]
Lesson #106: Mini-lesson Monday (Part 1): Reading ‘The Fawn’ Read More »
ADVANCED LEVEL While walking in our garden this morning, these russet leaves reminded me of another Jane Austen classic, Persuasion (1818). Have you read it or seen a movie version of it? Anne Elliot, the main character, is both attentive to others and sensitive to the beauty of nature. In this symbolic passage, she walks
Lesson #105: Reflections on nature (and literature) in Jane Austen’s ‘Persuasion’ Read More »
INTERMEDIATE LEVEL Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813) is regarded as one of the most beloved classics in English literature. It is also a favourite of mine – I have re-read it yearly since 2010! But it is not limited to the English version only … I have read French translations several times, because I
Lesson #104: Favourite English Classics (in English and other languages) Read More »
INTERMEDIATE LEVEL I was going through some of my handwritten notes on the origin of the English proverb, ‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away.’ ✍️ This is a common saying that stresses the importance of eating fruit regularly, especially apples. It seems that the saying originated from Pembrokeshire, a region known for its
Lesson #103: ‘An apple a day …’ An English Idiom and its Origin Read More »
ADVANCED LEVEL More autumnal fruits from the garden! I hope to make applesauce by peeling these apples, chopping them into small chunks, then placing them in a saucepan with a little water and allowing them to simmer for about 10 minutes while stirring them gently. It reminds me of how the British novelist George Eliot
Lesson #102: Enjoying Autumn Fruits with George Eliot’s ‘Middlemarch’ Read More »
October is here! A beautiful, transformative season, as described by 19th-century poet John Keats: ‘Seasons of mist and mellow fruitfulness,Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;Conspiring with him how to load and blessWith fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core…’ –
Lesson #101: Seasonal words from British poet John Keats Read More »