SLSL Intro "Two Amiable Fuzzy Creatures"

[Mark Wright AIA]

Howdy
"Porpentine" sounds ludicrous, doesn't it? A wonderful happy fat plorp
of a word. The English relative of the porcupine is the hedgehog, which
is smaller than a porcupine and, always and precisely, "amiable"; and
when drawn in children's books is "fuzzy". A hedgehog is only spiny if
you call it "Norman", which name they universally detest and bristle
at.

Actually, "bristle at" implies agressiveness, which isn't really what I
mean. Their defensive posture is to roll into a ball. Carroll has
Alice, the Queen and all her court playing an absurd game of croquet
with hedgehogs and flamingos. The hedgehogs rolled up into balls, of
course, and then wandering off across the sunny green. Come to think of
it, the classic English "croquet lawn" is bounded by crisp clipped
hedges, which the hedgehogs would probably toddle towards when one
isn't looking...

Here is a crummy picture of Lutyens' lawn at Castle Drogo in
Devonshire.
http://www.tjhsst.edu/~dhyatt/trip/drogo.html
I say it is a crummy image because the hedges are really tall and
perfect and green, and the lawn is a perfect circle 150 feet in
diameter ringed by a walk, some benches, and the tall hedge. The whole
thing is at the crown of a hill, and above you is a "perfect cookie of
blue" (quoth Craig Hodgetts once long ago.) The grass is perfect as
only English grass can be perfect; the sky is perfect as only the sky
can be perfect. Croquet equipment is available for hire by appointment.

Moles and Porpentines are both allowed to be fuzzy and amiable if P
says so. So there.

Mark



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