Manic Monday - Season

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The instant someone mentions season, my brain starts playing the old English song, Scarborough Fair sometimes known as: Parsley (Forgiveness), Sage (Strength), Rosemary (Remembrance) and Thyme (Courage).



Just Staying with the English model, there is Brother Cadfael with his many plants in his garden that are grown, picked and used as potions for medicine or herbs to season food, all while solving the many mysteries written by Ellis Peters and dramatized in the "Mystery" series on PBS.



Coming full circle, no one does mystery or gardens better than the British, so naturally they had to have one that was named after herbs and seasoning with another couple of gardeners, Rosemary Boxer and Laura Thyme figuring out Who Dunnit IT while installing gardens in Rosemary and Thyme.

Monks and Mysteries

I must confess that there was a time when I was totally addicted to Brother Cadfael, first the books and then the PBS series with the wonderful Derek Jacobi in the title role. The Brother Cadfael series came to an end with the death of Ellis Peters. It has been years since there was anything new in the rather specialized niche of mystery combined with British historical fiction.

The lovable Monk gave us Medieval England, a familiarity with herbs, a gentle philosophy, and enough blood, gore and evil acts to keep the most ardent mystery afficianado content. Now C. J. Sansom brings us Matthew Shardlake, a lawyer in the time of Henry VIII.

If you like your history dripping red and drenched in suspicious circumstances. head for the book store or library for a really good read.