This prompted me to log how well I did against the 30-a-week target over four weeks starting on 5 July. Herere’s what I achieved.
W/C 5 July
Strawberry
Oats
Avocado
Tomato
Cherries
Wheat (bread)
Apricots
Onion
Runner Beans
Carrots
Apple
Potato
Grape (wine)
Gooseberry
Horseradish
Raspberry
Almonds
Chocolate
Garlic
Cannellini Beans
Rice
Spinach
Butter Beans
Banana
Cashew Nuts
Pecan Nuts
Hazel Nuts
Nectarine
Kidney Beans
Chicory
Mint
Mushroom
Cabbage
Coriander
Tarragon
Olives
Yellow Pepper
Chilli
W/C 12 July
Apricot
Loganberry
Avocado
Wheat (bread)
Nectarine
Oats
Gooseberry
Chicory
Tomato
Garlic
Onion
Olives
Coriander
Lemon
Walnuts
Raspberry
Grape (wine)
Rapeseed (oil)
Horseradish
Cashew Nuts
Chard (leaves)
Radish (leaves)
Lime
Cucumber
Potato
Macadamia Nuts
Butter Beans
Cannellini Beans
Mushroom
Rice
Parsley
Strawberries
Cherry
Chocolate
W/C 19 July
Wheat (bread)
Olives
Tomato
Avocado
Nectarine
Cucumber
Barley (beer)
Hops (beer)
Lemon
Cashew Nut
Pistachio
Potato
Haricot Beans
Cherry
Apricot
Chocolate
Onion
Mint
Rice
Aubergine
Mushroom
Spinach
Peanuts
Rapeseed (oil)
Strawberry
Pumpkin Seeds
Pine Nuts
Almonds
Pecans
Brazil Nuts
Parsley
Lime
Raspberries
Hazelnuts
Black Currant
Chilli
Grape (wine)
W/C 26 July
Wheat (bread)
Raspberry
Cherry
Avocado
Tomato
Rapeseed (oil)
Lime
Onion
Garlic
Lettuce
Red Pepper
Mint
Olives
Brazil Nuts
Pecan Nuts
Almonds
Gooseberry
Oats
Nectarine
Horseradish
Lemon
Chicory
Fennel
Potato
Cucumber
Walnuts
Apricots
Spinach
Butter Beans
Rice
Peanuts
Mushroom
Strawberry
Parsley
Grape (wine)
Barley (beer)
Hops (beer)
Chocolate
Pineapple
Mango
[This excludes most condiments & pickles; tea; squash etc.]
That’s over 30 every week for four weeks, and is fairly typical of my normal diet – perhaps slightly better than average because of the availability of summer fruit. I really didn’t try especially to pick foods which would add to my total!
What’s more I make it 64 different foods over a four week period. Which is just plain crazy!
Could I do even better? Yes, probably; but apart from adding in winter vegetables I’d have to try fairly hard.
Taking a leaf out of Diamond Geezer‘s book, I’ve decided to write a post each month of strange, interesting, unusual, or just tedious things that happened each day, but which I didn’t write about at the time.
So here are 31 things I didn’t blog about in July.
Thu 1
I bid for 2 paintings live, online at our local auction house. Didn’t get them; wasn’t prepared to pay more than £50 and they sold for £75.
Fri 2
Waitrose new Fulfilment Centre near home made rather a mess of this week’s grocery order. Lots of items unavailable and an unusual number of errors. Unavailability of items possibly down to the shortfall of lorry drivers?
Sat 3
Picked a good handful of chard & radish leaves for salad. Having removed everything slug eaten, I was left with enough for half a sandwich. But supplemented with some coriander, and a big bunch of mint and basil, it made a nice quantity of baby leaves.
Sun 4
Having lost the last of our koi a couple of years ago, we still have at least 4 goldfish in the pond: one large pale one, and at least 3 orange/red ones of various sizes (one of which must be home grown).
Mon 5
We’ve a couple of bags of date expired cashew nuts and have been feeding them to the birds in a wire peanut feeder. And are they appreciated! This evening for an hour, while eating dinner, there was a procession of great tits and blue tits (at least 5 birds altogether) feasting on the nuts; one, often two, on the feeder at all times in a perpetual relay.
Tue 6
Trip to the optician to collect new glasses; will have to finish adjusting them myself. Then I filled in & filed both our tax returns. And all before lunch.
Wed 7
Why is it that without an alarm set I seem unable to surface before 10am?
Thu 8
Glad to be side-tracked this afternoon into doing maintenence on N’s PC, thus avoiding tedious work for the PPG.
Fri 9
Had to do the work I avoided yesterday. One piece I can’t complete yet as I need input from others. The second, some data analysis, proved too much for today’s addled brain.
Sat 10
Awoke to find a wondrously clean white plate in the garden. N had put out some lamb chop bones, fat topping from some paté, and a cracked egg. Mr Reynard clearly had a tasty buffet. Must see if they like banana.
Sun 11
40 years ago today we moved into this house. Saturday 11 July 1981 was hot & sunny. With the help of a colleague and a van we moved from our dingy rented flat into this house. I lost half a stone in the process. This latter needs to be repeated, many times over.
Mon 12
Today’s thunderstorm was the nearest we’ve had to a decent one for some years. We used to have lots, but they seem to have dwindled in the last 10 years or so.
Tue 13
Selection workshop for a local council community review panel. Don’t expect to get through as they’ve probably got too many white middle-class men of a certain age.
Wed 14
One of those tedious days where nothing much happens and you don’t have much to show for it either. Although I did finish a couple of short articles for AP SocNewsletter.
Thu 15
Had to email friends and decline a dinner date. After much discussion we both still feel much too vulnerable in current Covid situation – much though we want to go back to socialising and these friends are the very top of the list. Hope they’re not too pissed off with us.
Fri 16
Up early (for me) to a lovely sunny morning, and the squawks of next door’s African Grey parrot out on their veranda.
Sat 17
Hottest day of the year so far. And far too hot and uncomfortable to do anything; so I didn’t.
Sun 18
Waitrose new Fulfilment Centre near us is still not at the top of its game, and I’m fed up with talking to Customer Services about it; now in conversation with the John Lewis’s executive office.
Mon 19
Freedom Day for some. But not for us. We’re still feeling just as vulnerable as ever thanks to our short-sighted government.
Tue 20
I’m retired. So why did I spend almost the whole day working?
Wed 21
Chaired the early morning meeting of GP’s patient group on Zoom. Poorly attended. At times you wonder why you bother!
Thu 22
Contrary to expectations the local council have appointed me to their community review panel. They’ve clearly not twigged that I belong to The Awkward Squad.
Fri 23
Extra meat rations today! As we were about to receive the supermarket delivery, Tilly the Cat presented us with a small freshly dead rat.
Sat 24
Thunderstorms? What thunderstorms? It was touted to be heavy thundery rain all day today, but not a rumble of thunder, nor a single drop of rain – although it was dark like November.
Sun 25
Well, after complaining yesterday, the fairies were moving the furniture around upstairs this afternoon, and finally after days of waiting, at teatime we got some good thundery rain.
Mon 26
Mid-afternoon there’s a sudden, hard smack on the study window. Obviously a bird strike. Very dead wood pigeon later found on the patio below the window.
Tue 27
N had moved yesterday’s dead pigeon onto the lawn. This morning it had disappeared, one suspects with an assist from Mr Reynard – later confirmed by the trail camera.
Wed 28
Awake just before 0500hrs, I was alerted by a nearby security light. After a minute or so, a fox trotting briskly and purposefully up the road carrying something which in the half-light looked like it could be dead rat.
Thu 29
I’m taking part in the Big Wasp Survey again this year (the 5th year), and today I set the first two wasp traps. BWS are doing two survey sessions this year, now and in late August. I’m not hopeful of this session as the weather looks rather iffy for flying.
Fri 30
Not having got everything we wanted on today’s supermarket order, we tried a small delivery from Amazon Fresh.
Although maybe not up to Waitrose quality, and one doesn’t like giving Amazon even more money, it certainly worked well as a stop-gap.
Sat 31
It’s one thing being depressed, but it’s a bit much when you spend the night dreaming about being depressed.
Especially as it leaves you even less inclined to do anything than before.
What did you do in the lockdown? I spent time with my ancestors!
There are always some unexpected places one gets taken by the ancestors and family history. This is one of those, and a connexion which I had never expected.
I have just acquired at auction a copy of A Display of Heraldrie by John Guillim; 4th edition from 1660; probably in its original binding (if not, it has been very carefully rebound).
John Guillim (c.1565–1621) was an antiquarian and officer of arms at the College of Arms. He was made Portsmouth Pursuivant Extraordinary in 1608, and Rouge Croix Pursuivant in 1618. Guillim’s A Display of Heraldry was first published in London in 1610, although there is some dispute about the original authorship. It was revised and reprinted a number of times up to 1724, with the fourth edition of 1660 generally considered to be the best of them. Samuel Pepys appears to have had a copy of the fifth edition in his library.
I’ve known this work for many years, having first seen a copy in Harrow School in the early 1980s (on a work visit!) – it was lying on a huge Cromwellian refectory table for anyone to browse. I’ve always coveted owning a copy. Somewhere around 20 years ago I acquired a fairly poor, rebound and damaged copy of the fourth edition, and have since been keeping my eyes open for a copy in good condition. At last I found one, and was very surprised to get it rather more cheaply than I expected.
And now we get to the family history bit, which I only discovered in the last couple of years!
As you’ll see on the title page the fourth edition is “Faithfully collected by FRANCIS NOWER Arms Painter (and Student in Heraldry) in Bartholomew Lane, London“.
There are two branches of the Nower (or Nowers) family. The senior branch is in Oxfordshire; the tomb of Sir George Nowers (died 1425), a companion of the Black Prince, is in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.
The junior branch was centred around Pluckley, Kent, and it from them I am descended by way of a string of younger sons of younger sons. Francis Nower (1624-1670) was indeed a herald painter who died tragically with his two infant daughters in a house fire in Bartholomew Lane, London in 1670. He’s not a direct ancestor, but he is my first cousin 10 times removed – ie. the grandson of my 10x great-grandfather, Joshua Nower, Yeoman of Pluckley (c.1555-1618).
That was totally unexpected! I didn’t know I had Nower(s) ancestors until a handful of years ago, and only found out about Francis Nower during the first lockdown last year. Catherine Nowers (born 1820) married into my paternal grandmother’s line. Luckily the Pluckley Nower(s) are well documented at least back to the early 16th century. And to think that my Marshall line appears to be nothing more exciting than AgLabs all the way down.
And the moral is? It’s worth doing your family history, and following all the lines, not just your father’s father’s father’s line. And follow the lines as far back as you can. You never know what delights – or skeletons; we’ve all got some of them too! – you’ll find.
In this instalment … Today, Saturday 19 June 2021, is day 450 of lockdown for us.
And still not a lot has really changed since I last reported on Day 400
So why don’t we get the “bad” news over first?
In the last 50 days I’ve managed to get off the premises just twice. Once for part 2 of my annual diabetes check-up & shingles vaccination, and secondly for an optician’s appointment. That makes a grand total of just 9 “outings” in 450 days. Which is quite pathetic really, although rather understandable.
I managed to miss the partial eclipse of the sun on 10 June. I don’t remember when we last had clear skies, at a sensible time, for any astronomical phenomenon.
We’ve had two friends in hospital. One with heart problems, which have needed a pacemaker fitted; the other with a broken leg (luckily not a hip).
In other medical news I got a talking to by my diabetic nurse for letting my blood glucose control slip somewhat over the last year, and not losing any weight. Moral 1: must try harder. Moral 2: the medical profession need to understand quality of life.
And of course our pathetic government has delayed removing all Covid restrictions. I have to say I think this is the right decision, given the apparent extra transmissibility of the Covid delta variant. However it is entirely of the government’s own making: they could have nipped this in the bud by introducing travel restrictions to/from India in early April rather than waiting 3-4 weeks. But then this is entirely consistent with their whole approach.
In more positive news …
We’ve had a mini heatwave, which is rather a nice change from the cold wet weather which preceded it.
And the good weather has enabled us to get our runner beans planted, as well as a selection of salad leaf veggies. Nothing to harvest yet a while although I have harvested the first dozen chillies from last year’s plants (on the study windowsill) which I overwintered.
The good weather has also brought the roses into bloom. The garden is a riot of roses at the moment, including a dog rose flowering right at the top of our mature silver birch tree. Walking down the garden there is a heavy scent of roses.
Having found a very dead Rose Chafer on the patio table, I was finally impelled to buy a macro lens for my camera so I can take more/better close-ups. So far this has mostly meant flowers.
As well as splashing out money on a new lens I also bought two paintings by Adrian Daintrey at auction. For security reasons I’m obviously not going to post them here, but members of the Anthony Powell Society will find out more in due course (as Daintrey was a friend of Powell’s).
And finally, I’ve been doing quite a bit of work on my family history. I’ve especially been trying to unravel the Marshalls back in the late 17th and early 18th centuries around the Weald of Kent. I have a brick wall there in my father’s line; I’m sure there are connexions between all those I’ve found, but currently I’m unable to prove it – or satisfactorily work out exactly who is related to who. It doesn’t help that the men are all called Stephen, Thomas or William. The one guy with an easily identifiable name, Reynolds Marshall, seems to parachute in from nowhere in the late 17th century. It’s a tangled web which should be solvable, but for the fact that back then parish records were patchy and often haven’t survived. And along the way you get diverted down some (usually irrelevant) rabbit holes – so just who was the rather improbably named Samuel Drawbridge? Such are the joys of family history!
So what happens next? Well who knows. By the time of my next report at day 500 we’ll either have had all restrictions lifted and told we can go back to (some approximation to) normality, or we’ll be deep in another wave of Covid cases. Or, the pessimistic side of me suggests it might be both of those.
We’re not even in the lap of the gods, but the whim of our government. Gawdelpus!
Today, Friday 30 April 2021, is our 400th day of Covid-19 Lockdown. And not a lot has changed since my last report on day 365.
In 400 days I’ve been off the premises just seven times: three to the dentist (one just to have some paperwork signed), for a flu jab, twice for vaccination, and one for blood tests. It really has been all the fun of the fair!
Noreen and I have now had both our injections of the Pfizer vaccine. Noreen went again to the Town Hall, whereas I went to the centre in deepest Southall. My experience was that this was not as well run as the Town Hall, and I seemed to spend most of the time moving from one queue to the next. Even so I was in and out in about 30 minutes. And Southall itself was grid-locked (well it was some Sikh holy day) and still the same dump that it always was. We now just await out booster in the autumn.
In less good news, I’ve had a really annoying bladder infection (I know, TMI already!). Yet again I’ve been impressed with our GPs’ being able to work with patients over the phone rather than face-to-face. This infection has resulted in two rounds of antibiotics (turns out the nasty little organism was resistant to the first antibiotic I was given), three rounds of urine tests and a visit to Ealing Hospital for an armful of blood tests (most of which were overdue for my annual diabetic check-up anyway). Amazingly most of the blood tests turned out to be OK.
Ealing Hospital is the same appalling place it always was: a dismal ’70s concrete bunker which was never fit for purpose; badly signposted; and apparently staffed by the downtrodden. I hate the place and avoid it if at all possible; I just hope I never have to be treated there for anything serious.
Along the way I’ve also has two (different) Covid tests; both for research studies I’m signed up to. Luckily both were negative. Noreen has done one as well.
In good news the days are lighter, brighter and with longer daylight and the fruit trees and lilac are in flower. We’ve even had some warm sunshine, although it is still rather chilly unless the sun is out. The downside of this is that we’ve again suffered the daftness of changing the clocks. The garden was looking very ragged, but is coming under control now our friend Tom is allowed entry again and has done after several days work – although nothing much has been pruned over the winter.
Meanwhile the country continues to go to Hell in a handcart as our increasingly despicable government lies its way from one pathetic charade to the next. They keep getting caught out lying but seem not to care when any self-respecting government would have resigned long since and been banished.
Who knows what happens next?
I suspect the government will continue to ease the restrictions (regardless of the data) and I fear we’ll see a further spike in Covid cases over the summer and/or autumn when the great unwashed return from Costa Plenti. I can’t see us being clear of social distancing and mask-wearing this year. And we might even have another Christmas in lockdown – although I sincerely hope we don’t.
One tries to remain optimistic and cheerful through all the gloom, but as my father would have said “it’s hard to be optimistic with a misty optic”!
Some days ago, someone on one of the family history groups I follow posited the question of what our ancestors would have thought of our family history researches. Which in some ways amount to delving into their lives.
I don’t know what they would have thought. No! Wait! Actually I do: they would have wondered why we find them so interesting. It’s a bit like how Noreen reckons the medieval masons would wonder about why we spend so much time, effort and money shoring up our old churches and cathedrals: I’m sure their attitude would be “Why are you repairing it? Can’t you already do better than that!”
I’m also fairly sure that our ancestors would be astonished at our lifestyles. OK, so we live in a 1930s terraced house, which is really the 1930s version of a Victorian two-up-two-down. But we have more space, better amenities, and more money than most of them ever would.
One thing Noreen and I have been doing over the last year, during lockdown, is making sure that we eat well. Actually we always did eat well; just it got a bit better! Food and wine are two of life’s pleasures, so they help with keeping morale up and helping keep us healthy (maybe!).
Now our ancestors (both mine and Noreen’s) were in large part AgLabs, labourers (skilled and unskilled), mariners and fishermen. They would not have had a lot of money; nor good housing; and they may well not have had access to good or sufficient food, with the possible exception of bread and beer.
One of the comments Noreen often makes is to wonder what our ancestors would have thought of our food habits. We can (and sometimes do) have strawberries and cream in the winter; pheasant; decent sized pieces of good meat; fresh and smoked salmon; duck salad with asparagus (in season); wine with a meal; and at weekends a liqueur with our strawberries. As she says, they’d probably say we were living like the gentry.
But then compared with them we are the gentry! At least in terms of our disposable (and secure) income, secure housing, and easy access to good food.
The cottage in Rolvenden, Kent, in which my paternal great-grandfather,
Stephen Marshall (1849-1946) was born.
Top: as it was probably c.1900. Bottom: as it was in 2014.
It is salutary to think that my father’s maternal great-grandfather Jabez Hicks (so my great-great-grandfather; born c.1820, died 1905), a mariner in Dover, would likely not have had a very wonderful diet, or good housing – even after he became a coal & wood merchant and lived his last few years on his own means. He lived in a pretty ramshackle area of Dover, near the docks, for most of his life. His sons mostly did well for themselves: working on the railway; in a senior position for Dover Council; with a business as a fly-proprietor (the taxi/car hire company of the day). But then, largely due to two World Wars, things pretty much stagnated until our generation and the easier availability of good secondary education and universities.
Although we were born with no silver spoons in sight and we’d both say we’re working class (at the very, very best lowest middle class) by origin, yes, we’re privileged on many counts:
We’re white, cis, able-bodied, heterosexuals.
Our parents were married before we were born.
Although our families were never well off, they got by without state help or social workers.
We can read, write and think fluently.
Our parents engaged with us, encouraged us, and taught us many things outside school.
We had the last of the good, free, grammar school education in the 1960s.
We also had state funded university education (around 10 years between us) in academic subjects.
That enabled us both to have professional jobs for prestigious institutions.
Our jobs paid enough for us to buy our own house (despite stinging interest rates), without recourse to the Bank of Mum & Dad.
Our jobs also provided us with pensions; and our parents frugality with some money in the bank.
We’re our own people, with our own, considered, views and beliefs.
To our ancestors (in general) most of that would have been things to aspire to, and would certainly mark us out as at least solidly middle class. All basically thanks to our hard work and our parents’ thrift and foresight.
We may be privileged, but it is largely privilege of our own making. Thanks to the inexorable rise of capitalism (I blame a combination of Harold Wilson and Margaret Thatcher) sadly a lot of the younger generations today do not have many of those opportunities we had. I’m sorry to say that our generation of “boomers” forgot its (mostly hard-earned) privilege and we’ve buggered it up for the younger generations.
