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Post by andydecker on May 7, 2021 10:55:38 GMT
I don't think we have a thread with this topic. Gardens in all forms which are not really a rest for weary souls, but a place where Alan Titchmarch would rather bury you instead some flowerpots.
Reggie Oliver - The Maze at Huntsmere (Holiday's from Hell, 2017)
Reggie Oliver - In Arcadia (The Dreams of Cardinal Vittorini & Other Strange Stories, 2003)
M. R. James - The Ash Tree
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Post by johnnymains on May 7, 2021 11:09:16 GMT
Can we add allotments as well?
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Post by Dr Strange on May 7, 2021 11:18:43 GMT
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Post by andydecker on May 7, 2021 11:28:35 GMT
Can we add allotments as well? Of course.
I think the one thing which distinguishes this from the evil wood or nature story is a fence. My first thought was to add Smith' Genius Loci, but as the evil place is not on the grounds it doesn't work, I think.
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Post by johnnymains on May 7, 2021 11:30:03 GMT
Excellent - then I shall humbly (or pompously) add: Johnny Mains - Losing the Plot (With Deepest Sympathy, 2010)
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Post by cauldronbrewer on May 7, 2021 11:44:07 GMT
My first thought was to add Smith' Genius Loci, but as the evil place is not on the grounds it doesn't work, I think. I'm thinking the same author's "The Garden of Adompha" would count, though. |
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Post by Dr Strange on May 7, 2021 12:31:33 GMT
Can we add allotments as well? Of course. I think the one thing which distinguishes this from the evil wood or nature story is a fence. So, no window boxes or greenhouses then? I'm just checking - we need to have all the rules made clear at the beginning, or you know what will happen. There's one (at least) about a patch in a garden where nothing will grow - is it an EF Benson? |
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Post by andydecker on May 7, 2021 14:03:39 GMT
Of course. I think the one thing which distinguishes this from the evil wood or nature story is a fence. So, no window boxes or greenhouses then? I'm just checking - we need to have all the rules made clear at the beginning, or you know what will happen. There's one (at least) about a patch in a garden where nothing will grow - is it an EF Benson? Wouldn't have thougt that this is so complicated :-) But you are right, this is a field with many paths. I have to confess that I am absolutly indifferent to gardening and/or flowers. I do not own one flower, not even a cactus. Sometimes I take a walk in the cemetary in the vicinity, as there is no park in walking distance, but this is another topic, I guess.
I had just read the Franklin story while the rest of one of those improve your garden - if you have a couple of thousands quids lying around - shows was on the telly before Come dine with me was on. (I can't cook either, but I watch it when the candidats are interesting). This prompted the idea.
A greenhouse should count, but window boxes not. They should belong to different categories, like haunted vases or flowers. It is not the same as the ghoul living in your garden or a troll in your tree. Hm...
James Herbert: Magic Cottage (?) Kim Newman: An English Ghost Story (? because I never finished it but the kids were running in the garden a lot)
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Post by humgoo on May 7, 2021 14:35:27 GMT
RCH loves his gardening: A Time to Plant—a Time to Reap ( The Elemental and Other Stories, 1974)
Probably there's more!
Reggie Oliver - The Maze at Huntsmere (Holiday's from Hell, 2017) I suspect there's more in the Mazes thread.
Would "The Rose Garden" be a more obvious choice? Sometimes I take a walk in the cemetary in the vicinity, as there is no park in walking distance, but this is another topic, I guess. I envy you! |
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Post by Dr Strange on May 7, 2021 14:57:50 GMT
There's one (at least) about a patch in a garden where nothing will grow - is it an EF Benson? I am thinking now that this one is Algernon Blackwood - The Transfer (Pan's Garden, 1912). Kim Newman: An English Ghost Story (? because I never finished it) I did manage to finish it, just - but I hated it, and now refuse to even try to remember what happened in it. Here's another though, Heather Vineham - The Rock Garden ( 16th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories, 1980). |
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Post by andydecker on May 7, 2021 15:57:01 GMT
RCH loves his gardening: Would "The Rose Garden" be a more obvious choice? Of course RCH! The Rose Garden is one I have never read. I have to look it up. Sometimes I take a walk in the cemetary in the vicinity, as there is no park in walking distance, but this is another topic, I guess. I envy you! Sadly this is not really merited any longer. A part of the large grounds had fallen in disrepair which gave it a wonderful atmosphere. The grounds are on a large and rather steep slope, and the deeper parts had become rather unkept and wild, with long winding paths surrounded by trees and thick hedges. It reminded me of pictures or films I had seen from cemetaries in London and Paris. Sitting there in summer on a bench and reading reminded me on good days of Mina and Lucy sitting on that bench over Whitby  .
Unfortunatly all of this was cleaned up in the last few years, trees felled and the green cut or removed. Either the gardening budget was bigger or it was a safety measure because of the storms which happen more often than in the past. Now it looks mostly like a defoiled wasteland and has lost its atmosphere.
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Post by dem bones on May 7, 2021 19:41:48 GMT
The Rose Garden is one I have never read. I have to look it up. Sadly this is not really merited any longer. A part of the large grounds had fallen in disrepair which gave it a wonderful atmosphere. The grounds are on a large and rather steep slope, and the deeper parts had become rather unkept and wild, with long winding paths surrounded by trees and thick hedges. It reminded me of pictures or films I had seen from cemetaries in London and Paris. Sitting there in summer on a bench and reading reminded me on good days of Mina and Lucy sitting on that bench over Whitby . Unfortunatly all of this was cleaned up in the last few years, trees felled and the green cut or removed. Either the gardening budget was bigger or it was a safety measure because of the storms which happen more often than in the past. Now it looks mostly like a defoiled wasteland and has lost its atmosphere.
Apros to v. little, I tested my *ahem* ghost walk across Harrow, Wealdstone, Stanmore and Canons Park last Tuesday, starting in St. Mary's churchyard, Harrow on the Hill, quite one of my favourite places on earth. Unfortunately, it was sunny, but even then, the place has the eeriest aura, and some remarkable memorials. How about this to Thomas Port, early railway fatality? "Bright rose the morn, and vig'rous rose poor Port,
Gay on the Train he used his wanted sport
Ere noon arrived, his mangled form they bore
With pain distorted, and o'erwhelmed with gore:
When evening came to close the fatal day,
A mutilated corpse the sufferer lay." Will try sort out the least embarrassing selections from truly abysmal blind-man-with-unfamiliar-camera photo's taken during this opening part of tour. Didn't see any ghosts - don't think so, anyhow - but did get to pay homage outside house where Alvin Stardust used to live, so can't complain. Rematch scheduled for next month. ... And I think there may be some garden horrors on the fruit and veg thread. The abominable Bert's Resurrection for one. |
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Post by andydecker on May 7, 2021 20:54:31 GMT
Apros to v. little, I tested my *ahem* ghost walk across Harrow, Wealdstone, Stanmore and Canons Park last Tuesday, starting in St. Mary's churchyard, Harrow on the Hill, quite one of my favourite places on earth. Unfortunately, it was sunny, but even then, the place has the eeriest aura, and some remarkable memorials. How about this to Thomas Port, early railway fatality? "Bright rose the morn, and vig'rous rose poor Port,
Gay on the Train he used his wanted sport
Ere noon arrived, his mangled form they bore
With pain distorted, and o'erwhelmed with gore:
When evening came to close the fatal day,
A mutilated corpse the sufferer lay." Will try sort out the least embarrassing selections from truly abysmal blind-man-with-unfamiliar-camera photo's taken during this opening part of tour. Didn't see any ghosts - don't think so, anyhow - but did get to pay homage outside house where Alvin Stardust used to live, so can't complain. Rematch scheduled for next month. This sounds lovely. Both the walk and the memorial. |
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Post by Shrink Proof on May 8, 2021 6:30:09 GMT
Mark Morris - The Fertilizer Man. Ace short story in an ace collection ("Darklands" by Nicholas Royle). Has a sort of creepy Dr Who episode feel to it...
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Post by dem bones on May 8, 2021 11:14:00 GMT
This sounds lovely. Both the walk and the memorial.  Marion Bondage St. Mary's Churchyard. 'The Peachey Stone' overlooking the Ghost Nun's walk Sad thing is, when I was 18, I worked on the Hill, used to cut through the cemetery at 7.30 every morning without fully appreciating how beautiful it was. One time I got lucky with deep snow, even better was a thick fog, twigs (or possibly bones) cracking underfoot. Best of all were dark, rainy nights, though, sad to report, the resident ghost - a spectral nun (or, possibly, a sheet hanging from a tree) - has never yet shown me her phantom face. Am certain said workplace, Bowden House, was the model for the psychiatric clinic in Harry Adam Knight's Bedlam, which is the only supernatural/ horror novel I know of set on and around the Hill. |
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