MURDER, SHE SOLVES
Several new videos are on the market now aimed to keep springtime busy for everybody from gardeners to fans of Miss Marple.
Arts & Entertainment Home Video has released a set of five additional feature-length mysteries in the “Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple” series ($100, or $20 each). The five titles are “Murder at the Vicarage,” “The Moving Finger,” “They Do It With Mirrors,” “Nemesis” and “At Bertram’s Hotel.” A&E; videos are available at some retailers and by calling 1-800-423-1212.
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To learn many wonderful ways to bring herbs into the garden and how to use them to enhance life, check in with “Holly Shimizu’s Video Guide to Growing and Using Herbs.”
The one-hour cassette is packed with nifty, step-by-step ideas of what to plant, where to plant and how to make good use of what you plant.
Shimizu is chief horticulturist at the U.S. Botanic Garden and former first curator of the National Herb Garden at the National Arboretum.
She often hosts “Victory Garden” (Saturdays on PBS) and has a weekly feature on Washington TV station WUSA as well as a monthly radio show.
The video was filmed at her home in Glen Echo, Md., where she and her husband, Osamu, a garden designer, have several breathtaking gardens lavishly sprinkled with scores of herbs.
Shimizu demonstrates how she incorporated herbs into the landscape. Soil preparation, planting combinations, herb gardening in containers, propagation, pruning, harvesting, drying and preserving are also covered in easy-to-follow instructions, as are using herbs for bouquets (tussie-mussies), teas, vinegars, blends, baths and potpourri.
The video was produced by Ruth Slade, directed by Richard T. Slade and written and edited by both. It’s $25 (plus $3.50 handling) from Audio Visual Artists’ Productions, VA, 1412 Northcrest Dr., Silver Spring, Md. 20904-1453. Or call 301-384-9595.
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And, in commemoration of the recent 50th anniversary of World War II, A&E; Home Video has recently released “World War II: The War Chronicles,” a seven-volume boxed set ($100) covering the battles from North Africa to Italy, across Europe to Berlin, and from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo.
