| Mon 1 | Managed to get my monthly update for GP’s patient group members done early this month. Should make things easier later in the week. Far too much to do and to think about at the moment. |
| Tue 2 | This weather is getting too draining. The warmth is fine, but the humidity! According to the forecast it has been around 50-60% humidity all day today (and that’s quite high) but we’re promised more like 90% humidity overnight – but no rain. |
| Wed 3 | Oh the joy! Afternoon spent rewriting a poorly formatted webpage – and working out how to make it format the way I want. I won in the end. |
| Thu 4 | Well that was a job that was long, long overdue: spent the afternoon sitting outside repotting all the houseplants. Almost every one was well pot-bound. |
| Fri 5 | Another joyful trip to the dentist to have the crown I detached last weekend glued back on. Luckily partner #2 (who I’ve not seen before) was able to achieve this – let’s hope it stays that way. Mind you £100 for 15 minutes work! |
| Sat 6 | Oh! Nasty niff in the kitchen. Ah! Dead mouse behind the fridge, trying to hide in the works. I wonder which cat brought that in, and when? |
| Sun 7 | The day to recover the wasp traps and spend the afternoon examining the catch. Answer: a lot of flies, but also … A couple of apparently common wasps (Vespula vulgaris) in one trap – but they have slightly strange markings. In the other trap one definite V. vulgaris and what looks like a solitary (predatory) wasp which I can’t identify. I was going to blog this, but then realised my photos weren’t up to standard. [The stranger turned out to be a male of the solitary bee Lasioglossus calceatum.] |
| Mon 8 | Unexpected bonus visitors at lunchtime: two goldfinches drinking from the birdbath. Haven’t seen any in ages; good to know they’re still around. |
| Tue 9 | Another bonus visitor at lunchtime: a humming-bird hawkmoth stopping by the buddleia. It was around for only a couple of minutes so no chance of getting a photo. Only the second time I’ve seen one here (previously in 2018) and only the third or fourth ever. They’re not rare, but not common; many are immigrants although they do overwinter and breed in the warmer south-west. |
| Wed 10 | Humming-bird hawkmoth was back again at lunchtime having a quick snack from the buddleia. By the time I had a camera and got there of course it had gone. Still an excuse to sit in the sun for 15 minutes hoping it would return. |
| Thu 11 | We’re obviously not playing enough cricket; or morris dancing. We need rain; lots of rain; and there’s none to speak of on the horizon. Our silver birch tree is so dry it looks like autumn, though I suspect it’s nearing the end of life as they live only 35-40 years. |
| Fri 12 | Yet again the council are behind with the recycling (and rubbish) collections, as they have been for some weeks. Having got behind, they’re not catching up but continually slipping part of the next day – rinse and repeat. They say they’re a victim of the shortage of HGV drivers; ie. they don’t pay enough. |
| Sat 13 | Phew! Just too hot again to do anything other than jellivate™. Luckily it’s supposed to be getting cooler after tomorrow, and we may even get some rain next week – but I’ll believe it when I see it. |
| Sun 14 | Two nice rescues from the house last night, tho’ neither especially unusual. Female Southern Oak Bush Cricket and Straw Underwing moth. I know those Southern Oak Bush Crickets walk and jump well, but how do they get any distance with effectively vestigial wings?  |
| Mon 15 | Went to collect my new glasses. Nothing special; same rimless frames as before, but a marginally different colour. Fitting done with no fuss in about 15 minutes. I don’t know I’m wearing them. Why can’t everything be this easy? |
| Tue 16 | So much for the rain we were being promised; it amounted to 10 minutes desultory drizzle. But thank heaven it is quite a bit cooler, although still nice and warm. Much rain forecast for tomorrow – well we can hope! |
| Wed 17 | Rain! I thought it would never arrive, but mid-afternoon the heavens opened for an hour or so. In fact it was so heavy at one point I couldn’t see Horsenden Hill about half a mile away (by fastest crow). |
| Thu 18 | Busy day. Good call with doctors’ Practice Manager and then after lunch to see our newest GP: very thorough; good communicator; very pleasant; all round good experience. Why is it that I’m more comfortable with female clinicians – certainly doctors, nurses, physio etc.? Oh, and the gardener was here all day too! |
| Fri 19 | Big branch on our oak tree has cracked; it’s still attached but hanging down on the ground. Crack is too high for us to get to the limb, although we can hopefully trim the lower parts to make it safe temporarily. Yet more cost! |
| Sat 20 | Demoralising is an understatement. I seem to be getting more depressed by the day; less able to make myself do anything meaningful; more wanting to curl up and ignore everything; more weepy. Over the years I’ve tried petty much everything short of psychedelics and electrodes in the brain, and I just don’t seem to be able to crack it. GOK what the winter is going to be like. And yet people see me as functioning. |
| Sun 21 | Over the last week we’ve put quite a few goodies (like a chicken carcass) out for the foxes. So the trail camera has some wonderful pictures of fox demolishing said chicken and similar. |
| Mon 22 | The tree surgeon cometh. He looketh. He speaketh money. Verily we concur. He goeth away with a promise to return on the morrow morn with lad(s) to do the work. |
| Tue 23 | The tree surgeon’s lads arrive (late). The chainsaw revs. Broken oak branch removed. Small defunct cherry tree goes. Remains of very old dying apple tree also gone – thankfully the rambler roses are saved. Job done in about half an hour! I’m sure the guy next door was rejoicing as he thought we were removing all our trees, which he hates. What a shame we disappointed him! Meanwhile the pond guys also started today and worked like Trojans. |
| Wed 24 | Pond nearly finished already. Filled with water; pump #1 running. A few bits to finish off tomorrow. Looks really good. Pix when complete. |
| Thu 25 | Rain! We have rain! By 6 this morning it had clearly been raining well for some time … and it continued to wee it down until lunchtime. So we all got soaked finishing off the pond, and the guys had done and gone by about noon. I can’t believe how quickly, efficiently and professionally they’ve done the whole job – even down to supplying some small fish and waterlilies! Brilliant! |
| Fri 26 | Indulgent pudding: strawberries and cut-up almond croissant with lots of double cream. An Anglo-Frog variant of Eton Mess – except deconstructed. |
| Sat 27 | Tootling round the garden, as one does, we stopped to look at the pond. Lots of little goldfish dashing hither and yon in the sun. And the waterlilies are already growing – one has a leaf on the surface having grown around 15cm in two days! Incredible! |
| Sun 28 | Male blackcap skulking through the shrubs outside our dining room window at lunchtime. Accompanied by our usual selection of blue tits and great tits demolishing the peanuts. And, as promised, here’s the newly refurbished pond; with all 4 waterlilies now having surfaced!  |
| Mon 29 | August Bank Holiday Monday. And it didn’t rain! It looked as if it might rain a couple of times, but nothing happened. Which sort of sums up the day all round. |
| Tue 30 | The enormous pile of crap we accumulated in the front garden is gone. A glorious skip-full of old pond bits, shed detritus, garden crap, miscellaneous metal & electrical recycling, etc. etc. Removed same day by a registered waste company on their truck. Yes, it cost, but job done quickly & efficiently. Result! |
| Wed 31 | A truly “meh” day to end the month. Not feeling great and at every turn there’s yet more that has to be done – including attending to the gardener, who like all gardeners can be a loose cannon if not supervised. |
All posts by Keith
Monthly Links
This month’s collection of links to items you didn’t know you’d missed, and probably didn’t want to.
Science, Technology, Natural World
The universe is stealing our time! The days are getting shorter as Earth spins faster.
In an incredible feat of computing, the AI system Deep Mind has worked out the structure 200 million proteins in all the species whose genome has been sequenced.
Who first thought up the concept of zero? It seems the origins are somewhat elusive, but it looks like it may be in Sumatra. [£££]
Apparently the US regulators are imminently to certify the first small nuclear reactors. Now if they’ll just use the molten salt reactors then it will solve the problem of further high risk waste.
In more watery news a rare coloured sea slug has been found in UK waters for the first time.
The other side of the world, an incredible new jellyfish has been found off the coast of Papua New Guinea
Back on dry land, a group of scientists is planning to resurrect the extinct Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacine). Hmmm … good luck with that one!
So how are large migratory moths able to fly in incredibly straight lines for miles? Scientists are trying to find out.
Health, Medicine
There are times when I struggle to believe what scientists and medics can achieve, and this is one of them … they’ve managed to change blood type of donor kidney – if this stands up then it will be a major breakthrough in transplant surgery.
There’s an outbreak of the previously unknown “tomato flu” in India. Except that it isn’t; it’s actually viral hand, foot & mouth disease which not uncommon amongst children across the globe. (Hand, foot & moth disease is NOT related to foot & mouth in cattle etc.)
Sexuality
Something else what always amazes me is the breadth of Benjamin Franklin’s interests. For instance, who know he extolled the benefits of banging MILFs?
One far-sighted mother (in Australia) got help to give her autistic sone some confidence – she booked him a session with a sex worker! Now tell me again why sex work shouldn’t be legal.
Environment
Hedges. Britain excels at them, with a greater length of hedge than roads. And farmers are coming to realise they provide vital habitat and corridors for wildlife. [LONG READ]
Art, Literature, Language, Music
A short item from History Today on the way our expletives change over the centuries. [£££]
History, Archaeology, Anthropology
Researchers have been retrieving DNA from ancient teeth and estimated that the “cold sore” herpes virus (HSV-1) is a recent evolution.
It is being suggested that the reason many medieval monks has a high parasite load was because they were using their own excrement as fertiliser.
The first of our two articles this month from Going Medieval‘s, looks at sexual assault in the medieval world. [LONG READ]
And our second of Going Medieval‘s articles is all about rocking chicks what brew beer. [LONG READ]
Only 350 years after it sank in the Bahamas, the wreck of the cargo of treasure aboaud the Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas is being discovered and recovered.
Bills of Mortality, basically early equivalents of death certificates, often in church registers, are an invaluable resource. A London Inheritance blog takes a look at what they can tell is abut early modern life in London. [LONG READ]
They said it is impossible to rebuild Notre Dame, using medieval carpentry and building skills … but France’s medieval carpenters are doing it!
London
A potted history of the London Taxicab.
A review of a book on origins of the more curious and interesting of London’s pub names.
Food, Drink
It seems there are some (natural) products which are able to interfere with your body’s ability to use the nutrients you consume – known as antinutrients.
Book Review: What’s in a London Pub Name
James Potts & Sam Cullen
What’s in a London Pub Name
Capital History; 2022
Greater London has thousands of pubs – so many that probably no-one had counted them; and in any event the list would change daily. In 136 pages the authors of this slim volume describe the origins of over 650 of the more unusual or interesting pub names in Greater London – all the way from “Aces & Eights” (Tufnell Park) to the “Zetland Arms” (South Kensington). As one can imagine, at an average of about 5 pubs and a photograph per page, the descriptions are not very detailed. This is a shame, as there is undoubtedly more to be told about most of these names, and many others.
The sheer variety of names is astonishing, from the ubiquitous “Red Lion” to the eccentric “Queen’s Head and Artichoke”. Even so, as the authors admit, the list is far from comprehensive. They’ve set out to document those names with an interesting story and consequently have omitted many of the more obvious, like the “Queen Victoria”.
Sadly though I came away with one (or maybe it is actually two) criticisms. There are too many new names: for example the ubiquitous Wetherspoons “Moon” names (historic, not!) creep in, although thankfully the “Frog and …” names don’t get a mention. Against, or maybe because of, this the authors’ stated omission of many more common or obvious names does mean there is too little on the historic origins of pub names, which are often rooted in heraldry or other medieval/early modern symbolism or celebrity: are all the “Queen Victoria” pubs really named for our 19th-century monarch? Something more comprehensive would, for me at least, have been more satisfying.
Nevertheless, this is an interesting and well produced little paperback, but I have my doubts as to how long the spine will last with even moderate use. It is eminently suited to being dipped into – although you’ll find (as I did) you can read it from cover to cover! At £9.99 from Amazon (other suppliers available), it would make a great stocking filler for the London, or pub, aficionado.
Overall Rating: ★★★★☆
August Quiz Answers
OK, so here are the answers to this month’s quiz questions. All should be able to be easily verified online.
August Quiz Questions: British History
- When was the London underground first opened? January 1863
- Which 20th century British Prime Minister nearly died in a pandemic? And when? David Lloyd George; September 1918
- In 1896 Britain fought a war with Zanzibar. How long did it last? Between 38 and 45 minutes, depending on who you believe
- How many times did Julius Caesar invade Britain? Twice, in 55 and 54 BC
- Which monarch was convicted of treason and beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle on 8 February 1587? Mary Queen of Scots
Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2021.
Monthly Quotes
Where is this year going to? Yet again we’ve got to my monthly collection of quotes at record speed.
When fish swim in water, though they keep swimming, there is no end to the Water. When birds fly in the sky, though they keep flying, there is no end to the sky. At the same time, fish and birds have never left the water or the sky … If a bird leaves the sky it will die at once, and if a fish leaves the water it will die at once. So we can understand that the water is life and that the sky is life. Birds are life and fish are life. It may be that life is birds and life is fish. And beyond this there may still be further progress. The existence of practice and experience, the existence of a lifetime and a life, are like this.
[Eihei Dogen (c.1200-1253), Genjo Koan]
Never fear that: if he be so resolved,
I can o’ersway him; for he loves to hear
That unicorns may be betray’d with trees,
And bears with glasses, elephants with holes,
Lions with toils and men with flatterers;
But when I tell him he hates flatterers,
He says he does, being then most flattered.
Let me work;
For I can give his humour the true bent,
And I will bring him to the Capitol.
[Shakespeare; Julius Caesar; Act 2, Scene 1]
Thirty years ago, this would have been totally nuts to propose. It’s still kind of nuts, but it’s like borderline insanity.
[Daniel Carney, quoted at https://www.sciencenews.org/article/windchime-experiment-dark-matter-wind-gravity-physics]
It is simply this: do not tire, never lose interest, never grow indifferent – lose your invaluable curiosity and you let yourself die. It’s as simple as that.
[Tove Jansson]
The fact is all the finest white wine in the world is made in the Côte de Beaune and all of it is made from Chardonnay. Accordingly, anyone who likes white wine and says they do not like Chardonnay is, I’m afraid, an idiot.
[Charlie Boston; Understanding European Wines]
Retsina is considered to be the traditional wine of Greece. It has its origins in ancient times when the pots in which the wine was matured (“amphoras”) were sealed with pine resin. Nowadays, resin from the Aleppo pine is added to the must during fermentation to produce the distinctive resinated style. It is very much an acquired taste which, in my opinion, is not worth acquiring.
[Charlie Boston; Understanding European Wines]
Wine makes daily life easy, less hurried, with fewer tensions and more tolerance.
[Benjamin Franklin]
In victory, you deserve Champagne. In defeat you need it.
[Napoleon Bonaparte]
He who loves not wine, women and song remains a fool his whole life long.
[Martin Luther]
There will be no more talk of antiseptics, unless and until tinned Herrings begin to frolic in their brine.
[Jean-Henri Fabre, More Hunting Wasps, 1915]
In the first UK coronavirus lockdown … one of the first commodities to be panic-bought from the supermarket shelves was toilet roll. Nobody really knows why toilet roll was so coveted. I for one could live without toilet roll, but not without pasta and wine.
[Seirian Sumner; Endless Forms, The Secret World of Wasps; she’s spent many years doing research in the jungles]
I want you to believe that the universe is a vast, random, uncaring place, in which our species … has absolutely no significance … I want you to believe that the only response is to make our own beauty & meaning and to share it while we can.
[Katie Mack, @AstroKatie; Disorientation at https://sciences.ncsu.edu/news/disorientation-a-science-poem-by-katie-mack/]
I am alone here in my own mind. There is no map and there is no road.
[Anne Sexton]
Quote of the Month
Lies are noisy and the truth is very quiet. Listen carefully.
[Brad Warner]
Ten Things: August
This year our Ten Things each month are words with particular endings. Clearly this won’t be all the words with the nominated ending, but a selection of the more interesting and/or unusual.
Ten Words ending with -ea
- panacea
- apnoea
- bougainvillea
- amenorrhea
- counterplea
- miscellanea
- diarrhoea
- chickpea
- archaea
- thiourea
Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to write a story in at most three sentences using all these words correctly. Post your attempt in the comments before the end of the month and there’s an e-drink for anyone who I consider succeeds.
Culinary Adventure #90: Drunken Nectarines
So for a change here’s a pudding – and another eminently adaptable one. It’s based on a Diana Henry recipe from last week’s Waitrose Weekend paper: Peaches baked with Marsala & Rosemary.
Here’s the original recipe (click the image for a readable view):
Of course, as you’d expect, I immediately had to adapt it:
I used:
5 nectarines
2 good handfuls of homegrown blackberries
about 250ml liquor: roughly 50/50 Muscatel and Amaretto
½tsp almond essence
3tbsp sugar
4 sprigs rosemary
And I did:
Preheat oven to 200°C.
Nectarines halved and put in small oven-proof glass dish.
Add the liquor and almond essence.
Then blackberries, making sure to fiddle as many as possible in the gaps.
Sprinkle with sugar and tuck in the rosemary.
Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes; baste once about half-time and remove the foil.
Nectarines decanted and allowed to cool.
Juices reduced by about 30% and added to the nectarines.
Here’s the result, straight from the oven:
We ate about half (still slightly warm) with cantuccini – dipped in the liquor. This was extremely excellent. The blackberries worked exceptionally well (I wasn’t sure they would) especially with the liquor. I’d been tempted to use 100% Amaretto, but I think this would have been over-kill. And it doesn’t need cream (or any such) as an accompaniment.
What would I do differently?
– Well I want to try it without the blackberries.
– think I’d not bother with the rosemary.
– I’d not bother covering with foil.
– I’d bake for 30 minutes rather than 40 (it was slightly over-done).
– I’d use half the amount of liquor and reduce it a bit more.
But definitely another success!
Culinary Adventures #89
Well here’s another variant on my infinitely adaptable Stuffed Peppers recipe. Ok that linked recipe uses haggis, but I often use whatever meat is available, especially the end of the chicken or the like.
However this weekend I did an (almost) veggie version using nuts instead of meat. Essentially the method is the same: a packet of stuffing mix, some onion, garlic, mushrooms and soft tomatoes; a beaten egg, a good dash of Worcs. Sauce (leave this out if you want totally veggie), some tomato paste and a good grind(!) of black pepper.
Then instead of meat I used about 200g mixed nuts (anything except peanuts and cashews). You’ll want to whizz the nuts in the food processor – but not too much: you want some ground down but still with some chunky (grain-sized) bits for texture and crunch.
Mix it all together and stuff four large-ish peppers – I halve them down the middle as I find “boats” cook quicker. Cover with foil and give it about an hour in a hot oven. Remove the foil, sprinkle with grated cheese and return to the over for another 15 minutes.
Delicious hot (with a sauce of your choosing, if desired) or cold with HP Sauce or similar.
Four halved peppers make a hearty main course for four.
And you can easily make this vegan by leaving out (or substituting) the egg and the cheese.
August Quiz Questions
This year we’re beginning each month with five pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. They’re not difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers, so hopefully you’ll learn something new, as well as have a bit of fun.
August Quiz Questions: British History
- When was the London underground first opened?
- Which 20th century British Prime Minister nearly died in a pandemic? And when?
- In 1896 Britain fought a war with Zanzibar. How long did it last?
- How many times did Julius Caesar invade Britain?
- Which monarch was convicted of treason and beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle on 8 February 1587?
Answers will be posted in 3 weeks time.