Pied Beauty

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)

Glory be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

Praise him.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Garden & Gun?

This magazine surprised me so much I had to steal it from the dentist's office so I could get a better look at it and think about what this might mean.  It's a slick magazine, printed on high-quality paper with some high-quality insides too.  But Garden & Gun?  The "soul of the south?"

From the August/September issue: Teddy Roosevelt's Shotgun.  Photo: James D. Julia Auctioneers
I'm trying to figure out just who the target audience is here.  The cover of the October/November issue features a 12-gauge Watson Brothers shotgun that is truly beautiful simply as an object.  Inside is an interesting article about rescuing turtles after the BP oil disaster.  There's a feature on artist Jack Spencer, who's not exactly someone your old southern granny would hang in her parlor.  There's a humorous bit from Roy Blount, Jr. and a pretty swanky look at what all the best hunters are wearing this fall.

The March/April 2008 Cover
As for gardening, there's a short feature on a little "weekend place," situated on an old 100-acre horse farm.  There was a picture of a flower bed, at least.  And there was an ad for handmade ceramics, decorated with botanical motifs.  I quite liked the ceramics.

Ceramic vases by Laura Zindel Design
It's an intriguing magazine, in an odd way.  It's like one of those pizzas with the unusual gourmet ingredients that you never thought you'd eat together.  I'm not sure I like pizza that way, and I'm not sure I like the magazine, but it was different enough to make me take notice, which is something.  And they said publishing was dying!

7 comments:

  1. I was impressed with this magazine 2 years ago.

    http://thedirt.plantsforallseasons.com/2008/06/21/garden-and-guns.aspx

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  2. Kinda reminds me of the ad I heard on KPFT for the Montrose Beer and Gun Club End of the Year Party. I am thinking... beer AND guns AND in the city?? They had to give a disclaimer- "no guns allowed at this party, cuz we're drinking beer"

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  3. An interesting combination, for sure! Maybe intended for gardeners who take aim at squirrels in the bird feeder?

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  4. I like Deb's comment. There must be a connection.

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  5. Victor, you are always ahead of me! If we had a gun around the house, I think we'd aim at RATS on our bird feeder. We see them sometimes on sleepless nights. Yuck. Maybe I need a $75K shotgun to finally take care of them!

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  6. I have friends who really enjoy this magazine. The one issue I saw, there wasn't enough garden to make me pick up another issue.

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  7. It's almost a button pusher for me~and that's putting it mildly. Like Cindy, there isn't enough gardening content to make me over look the deficits! gail

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