amusements, personal

Unblogged March

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Some things from this month that I didn’t write about before.

Sunday 1
Very pleasant Sunday lunch with friends, including plenty of wine. Must repeat more often.

Tuesday 3
It was one of those days.

Thursday 5
Today my father would have been 106. It was warm and sunny, and I felt relaxed for once. It was nice to be able to go out in sandals and t-shirt and not get frozen.

Friday 6
After a lovely day yesterday, it was dull and rainy today. But then it is only early March. Although things are beginning to move. In the last few days I’ve seen the squirrel(s) going determinedly in and out of the drey in the top of our oldest silver birch – it was started last year by the magpies and the squirrels have taken it over and made a des res.
Also this morning there were two crows in the top of the far silver birch, tearing twigs off it – so they’re obviously nesting somewhere nearby.

Monday 9
So they’re going to completely close the A40 Westway between White City and Marylebone for 6 weeks: late March to end April. That’s our only sensible car route into central London. It will be chaos and the traffic will be a nightmare across the whole of west London. Fortunately I’m not committed to any hospital appointments or the like in central London in that period; just a Saturday pub meet.

Wednesday 11
I hosted another good literary society Zoom talk this evening. We do always seem to get a good number attending and some interesting talks. Now I just need to wind down and recover my stamina for next week, which is full (and I mean full) of meetings and medical appointments.

Thursday 12
You go to the osteopath and you come home with your arm taped together with zombies.forearm with zombie tapeThe tape is intended to take some of the strain off the tendons in my damaged wrist.

Friday 13
Blimey, that was a marathon! Packing orders for the literary society took both of us all afternoon, and the job still isn’t finished – I still have some of the postage and all the finance logs to complete. It doesn’t help that Royal Mail’s website is a complete nightmare to use; totally unfriendly and unresponsive so you end up doing things by the backdoor just to get the job done. And by tomorrow there will no doubt be more to do.

Sunday 15
Why are hearing aid batteries such a pain – apart from being such small fiddly things? This morning I had to put new batteries in my hearing aids as they’d died late yesterday. It took 8 batteries before I got two that worked for more than 10 minutes. It doesn’t seem to matter whether I buy better quality branded batteries, or use the cheap ones provided by the NHS. Yes, the batteries are always in date; I always clean new batteries to degrease them, don’t handle then with sticky fingers, and try to ensure the contacts are clean. Even so it is almost a certainty that at least one of a new pair will be effectively dead on arrival – but eight is I think a record. OK they cost only 20p-25p each, but it is such a waste, and a pain.

Monday 16
What a super view of the Kew Gardens Pagoda across Old Deer Park.

Wednesday 18
A glorious day. Wall-to-wall sunshine; blue sky; and warm. A trip up to central London for a routine hospital check-up, with all the cherries and magnolias in full bloom, and all the trees starting to break into leaf. Absolutely delightful.

Thursday 19
Hot water? We have none. Error code on the boiler. Boiler man supposed to come this afternoon; now coming tomorrow afternoon, allegedly. Well it was a good excuse to cancel my hospital appointment that I didn’t want to go to anyway and get a load of odd jobs (like filing) done.

Friday 20
Yes, the boiler man did come. He fixed the boiler (it sounded like a dead sensor) and did a service. It took about an hour. Then he emptied my wallet.

Saturday 21
Another glorious Spring day. And a really good doctor’s patient group meeting to go with it. Marred only by news that one of our members had died, although he was well over 80 and hadn’t been well for a couple of years.

Sunday 22
This orchid has been amazing. I bought it on 28 November from our local flower shop; it was in full flower with two or three unopened buds. It is still in full flower having opened those buds and dropped maybe four flowers. I know these phalaenopsis orchids normally flower for about six weeks but this is over 16 weeks with even more to come! Just incredible!large white multi-flowered orchid

Monday 23
This morning there was one very secure and relaxed Boy Cat!large white and tabby cat lying on his back

Wednesday 25
Sitting over lunch I realised just how well off we are for breeding wildlife. Just over lunch we had a pair of coal tits, a pair of great tits, and a solitary blue tit – three species of tit which are likely nesting within 100m or so. Add to that we have a pair of robins, a pair of woodpigeons and a pair of collared doves which must also be nesting close by; likewise the magpies. Some, at least will e nesting in the rampant ivy cover growing up our hawthorn and one of our silver birches. In addition we have at least a pair of squirrels with a drey in the top of the silver birch (see earlier). Plus our local foxes; and who knows where they have their den. And that’s what we know about; there’s likely more.
I’ve also seen a report today that the peregrines nesting on Ealing Hospital (so maybe 5.5km away) now have four eggs; which likely means they’ll fledge one, two if they’re lucky.

Friday 27
Yes! Much to my surprise and delight we got some early English asparagus in today’s supermarket delivery. OK, so it will doubtless have been grown in polytunnels as it’s almost a month before the real season kicks off. But I’ll accept that for English asparagus, as it is the only type we’ll buy (it’s fresher and hasn’t been shipped across the world). So hopefully lots of good asparagus for the next three months or so.

Tuesday 31
After a hiatus earlier in the year (see earlier posts) in the last few days I’ve finally completed the next board of 50 Postcrossing cards (numbers 501 to 550). It’s as eccentric as usual!pinboard with 50 varied photographs

arts, books, environment, history, links, medical, natural history, science, sexuality

Monthly Links for March

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Herewith my collection of links to items you may have missed, but didn’t want to. Again this month we have quite a few science and medicine articles, and not so much on the arts – well it all depends on what’s published and looks interesting.

Science, Technology, Natural World

Now tell me … would aliens do physics, and do it the way we do? [££££] [LONG READ]

Beyond which, could aliens in another galaxy see dinosaurs on Earth? [££££]

So what is time? Is it just a figment of our imaginations?

A researcher has found Galileo’s handwritten notes in old astronomy text.

The Eye of the Sahara. They think it’s a circle and it shouldn’t be there. [LONG READ]

On the dying art of taxonomy and a love of midges.

In Papua New Guinea scientists have found a tiny possum and a glider which were thought extinct for 6,000 years.

Staying with discoveries, scientists have found three unknown geckos, and a lot else too, in Cambodia’s limestone caves.

And still with new discoveries, some other scientists have found lots of strange new species (example below) deep off the coast of Britain’s Caribbean islands.

Back on dry land apparently hedgehogs can hear very high frequency ultrasound.

Apparently cacti could help explain one of the oddities of evolution.

And finally in this section, an immunologist takes a hard look at the science behind the paraben panic.

Health, Medicine

Which brings us to the messier bits of the scientific arena …

We all have skin mites, but should we worry? Are they a health issue or harmless passengers?

Why do some people (like me) suffer from motion sickness, while others don’t.

What does body odour actually say about you?

Have you ever noticed that you breathe out of one nostril at a time. And have you ever stopped to wonder why?

Researchers have a suspicion that a previously unknown virus, hiding in a bacterium, may be a trigger for colorectal cancer.

And still wth gut bacteria, apparently couples share 30% of their gut bacteria. [I’m surprised it is so little – K]

Sexuality & Relationships

NSFW. So what does science tell us about why breasts send males wild? [LONG READ]

Remaining with female anatomy for a minute, apparently the clitoris has migrated from the inside (in most species) to the outside (in humans).

And so to male anatomy … with a look at the history of male member. [LONG READ]

The myths, misconceptions and realities of how porn shapes sexual health.

NSFW. Against which the evolution of erotic literature looks fairly tame.

Environment & Ecology

For once some good news: the Large Tortoiseshell butterfly (above) is no longer extinct in UK

It’s definitely counterintuitive, but when the human population fell during the Black Death, plant diversity dropped as well.

Social Sciences, Business, Law, Politics

The UK is considering putting native fauna on its banknotes, so some experts have a say.

Art, Literature, Language, Music

Here’s an interesting interview with Ruth Scurr who wrote a biography of 17th century antiquarian John Aubrey (below).

Apparently our least favourite word is all about womb wisdom.

NSFW. A look at art and the vulva. [LOMG READ]

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

The theory of the population of the Americas has again been turned on its head by an archaeological site in Chile.

King Harold’s movement of troops from the NE to fight the Battle of Hastings … was it (as has been assumed) the most heroic march ever, or did everyone travel by boat?

London

Matt Brown takes a look at some of the interesting and varied historical models of London. [LONG READ]

And I’ll leave you this month with Matt Brown looking at bovine influences on London. [LONG READ]

quotes

Quotes for March

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Here’s my motley collection of quotes for this month …

Understand this, you can sound confident & have anxiety. You can look healthy but feel bad. You can look happy & be miserable. You can be good looking & feel ugly, so be kind because every person is fighting a battle you know nothing about.
[Winnie the Pooh?}

The prescription for grown women to be hairless, smooth, curve-less and ageless is a response to a paedophile-dominant media/entertainment industry.
[Jameela Jamil]

Don’t let the fear of being seen stop you from enjoying the sheer joy and freedom of being naked.
[unknown]

It doesn’t have to be this way. Western culture has chosen to exclude and demonise neurodiverse and disabled people, like it does with so many other marginalised groups, in service of the capitalist system.
[Allegra Chapman]

I’m not trying to predict where we are on a trajectory of historical collapse. I’m only pointing out that launching an unprovoked war to overthrow a longstanding enemy under cover of negotiation to resolve a pretextual crisis is the sort of aggression typical of empires in, at a minimum, steep decline.
[Spencer Ackerman; https://www.forever-wars.com/regime-change-in-iran-terms-and-conditions-apply/]

Working class people around the world have no innate desire to go to war with each other. They have to be conned into it by the sociopaths who will profit from it.
[John Lennon]

The context currently is a government cash strapped in a world heading for serious recession who has disproportionately monied the NHS and offers primary care a historically lead role.
[Prof. David Colin-Thomé; https://networks.nhs.uk/blog/gms-contract-2026-2027-reflections/]

Twenty percent of global supply. Gone. Just like that. Because one spray tanned game show host with the strategic instincts of a toddler playing with matches decided he wanted to look tough on television.
[unnamed author; https://ifloz.substack.com/p/trump-fucked-around-here-comes-the]

On the sofa now, a soft nose sticks out from beside a cushion. A head the shape of a bicycle seat follows, eyes flickering in a dreamstate. Nothing says “all is safe” in your tiny world quite like a dog with all four feet to the sky.
[Jen; https://ofhalfimaginedthings.substack.com/p/enough-magic-to-hold-another-day]

I hope to arrive at my death, late, in love, and a little drunk.
[Atticus]

books, science

March Quiz Answers

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Here are the answers to this month’s six quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.

Literature

  1. Which Italian city is Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet set? Verona
  2. Which of the following did not live entirely in the 19th century? Tolstoy (1828-1910)
  3. What is the name of the snake in The Jungle Book? Kaa
  4. Winston Smith is the protagonist of which George Orwell novel? 1984
  5. Agatha Christie’s By the Pricking of My Thumbs and Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes are two novels who take their titles from lines in what Shakespeare play? Macbeth
  6. Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against author Salman Rushdie after the publication of what 1989 novel that mocked the prophet Muhammad? The Satanic Verses

Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2025.

books, quotes

This Month’s Poem

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Cargoes
John Masefield

Quinquereme of Nineveh from distant Ophir
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,
With a cargo of ivory,
And apes and peacocks,
Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.

Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus,
Dipping through the Tropics by the palm-green shores,
With a cargo of diamonds,
Emeralds, amethysts,
Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores.

Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack
Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,
With a cargo of Tyne coal,
Road-rail, pig-lead,
Firewood, iron-ware, and cheap tin trays.

Find this poem online at Poetry by Heart

books, memes

March Quiz Questions

Each month we’re posing six pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month.
As always, they’re designed to be tricky but not impossible, so it’s unlikely everyone will know all the answers – just have a bit of fun.

Literature

  1. Which Italian city is Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet set?
  2. Which of the following did not live entirely in the 19th century: Lermontov; Tolstoy; Dostoevsky?
  3. What is the name of the snake in The Jungle Book?
  4. Winston Smith is the protagonist of which George Orwell novel?
  5. Agatha Christie’s By the Pricking of My Thumbs and Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes are two novels who take their titles from lines in what Shakespeare play?
  6. Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against author Salman Rushdie after the publication of what 1989 novel that mocked the prophet Muhammad?

Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.