| Mon 1 | Mayday – or more traditionally the pagan Sabbat Beltane – a Pagan holiday, which is strongly associated with fertility and the beginning of summer. Beltane is a Celtic word, meaning “the fires of Bel” – probably the Celtic sun god, Belenus. The Celts used to light two bonfires because they believed it would purify them and increase their fertility; they would pass cattle between the two fires, believing it would purify the cattle, and ensure the fertility of the herd. This has now been replaced by more mundane fun like dancing round Maypoles and by Morris Men. |
| Tue 2 | Once more the gardener cometh, and we get nothing done. Mind this was not helped by the fact that we both seem to have slept badly; and it’s already being one of those weeks. But looking at the Alder Buckthorn, which is only just beginning to show leaves, there were quite a few tiny yellow steeples: Brimstone butterfly eggs. Let’s hope the leaves open before the eggs hatch, so we have a chance of more butterflies next year. |
| Wed 3 | Squirrels. We appear to have three baby squirrels; about half grown. They were seen this evening running around in the trees like 5-year-olds on speed. At one point all three were running full speed, nose-to-tail, along a long branch of the oak tree, just as if they were a train. |
| Thu 4 | So I get to have new hearing aids – because yes, my hearing has deteriorated in the last 5 years. That’s not surprising: my mother had hearing aids at about my age and was stone deaf when she died at 99, and her next sister was the same; my father’s kid sister had hearing aids in her 40s! The audiologist and I opted for ones which are moulded to the shape of the ear, so I had to have impressions taken. That’s not as bad as it sounds, and definitely much much less unpleasant than dental impressions. But why does it take 6 weeks to make them? That seems crazy. I can only think its poor supplier management. |
| Fri 5 | Today was the day we were supposed to be building our new office chairs: as expected they’d arrived flat-packed. But we didn’t. So we consoled ourselves making Coronation Terrine [which I did blog about later]. |
| Sat 6 | Coronation of King Charles III. Very wet. Flypast by only Red Arrows, disappointing. You have to feel for all the military in heavy full dress uniform, and bearskins for the guardsmen, in the pouring rain. I remember talking to the then Richmond Herald after the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, when he’d been on one of the barges in the pageant on the Thames in the pouring rain – he said it took days get get his tabard dry; and marvelling that he hadn’t caught his death of cold. |
| Sun 7 | It started out a dull bank holiday weekend, but yay … The sun came out after lunch! The first dog rose is out – well it’s a sucker from a cultivated rose which scrambles madly up and round the silver birch tree – small single flowers in pretty pale pink with rich yellow anthers. The hawthorn is in full flower. And we knackered ourselves putting our new office chairs together. |
| Mon 8 | Oh what a surprise! It’s bank holiday and it’s been peeing with rain almost all day. At least one of our baby squirrels (it’s about half grown) is getting more secure: this evening it came tripping along the fence and over onto the bird feeder up near the house for a good feed of peanuts. I’ve not seen more than one at a time in the last couple of days, so I know not how many we still have. |
| Tue 9 | “Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It’s Back to Work We Go.” Well actually we never really stopped. |
| Wed 10 | They obviously know something we don’t … About 19:00 there began a massive noise of crows. Many crows. They were flying over, going roughly East-West. I stopped and counted. They just kept coming, and I quickly got to 35. But I reckon there were at least 50; we must have had every crow for a 20 mile radius! Now they used to hold a parliament in the nearby Lombardy Poplars (though I never saw more than a couple of dozen) – but those three trees were felled a couple of years ago. An hour later there were still a few odd crows flying around (mostly going away) and calling. Boy do they make a racket en masse. And they all sound subtly different. |
| Thu 11 | Dear God! Some neighbour has let the jackals out again. Someone not far up the road has an obviously small, very yippy canine – I think it is only one dog. When let out it does nothing but bark and yip; what at, who knows. Obviously a badly trained animal belonging to a badly trained human. Gah! |
| Fri 12 | Guys if you’re going to turn up early with the supermarket delivery (as you did today), it would help if you texted or called to warn us, so we’re ready. Otherwise you could be kept waiting for us for 5 or 10 minutes – thus screwing your schedule. |
| Sat 13 | It just shows how things are changing. Had a notice today that we have a couple of ISAs which mature soon. Currently they’re paying only about 1%. But roll them over for a fixed rate 2-year term and you get 4.5%. That’s a no-brainer as it’s more than most of the comparison websites are quoting as the best available rates. |
| Sun 14 | It was lovely and sunny in the middle of the day. Going down the garden to look at the pond and all the goldfish were resting on the surface in a patch of sun. And who should blame them! We followed their example for a while, accompanied by the Rosie cat. |
| Mon 15 | Accompanied N this afternoon to see her nephrology consultant. Another really nice guy, who listens, explains, is humane, and personable. Another that the NHS could do with many more of. And spent a nice half hour sitting in the sun, on a bench on a small area of green with wildflowers in the grass and the holly and elder in flower – spoilt only by a view of the arse-side of a 1970s brutal-ish piece of concrete architecture.   |
| Tue 16 | Wandering round the garden after lunch to discover the first of the rambler roses has its first bloom. It’s Albrighton Rambler; a Bourbon alike which was bred by David Austin in 2013. The flowers are fully double, medium sized and pale blush pink – although sadly it doesn’t seem to be scented.  |
| Wed 17 | The pond man cometh; finally, after a couple of rearrangements. Everything cleaned over and fettled for the summer, and a load of new plants installed. Blimey he works quickly; all done in little over an hour! He says no-one’s water lilies are moving much yet (not enough sun); and he’s seen hardly any frogspawn this year, presumably due to two very cold snaps and a dry February. |
| Thu 18 | Fairly big delivery from the Somerset Smokery (https://www.brownandforrest.co.uk/) today. Not cheap; but worth the quality. It all comes well chilled; vacuum packed; on overnight delivery; and with decent Use By dates. And it can all be frozen, so there’s a nice piece of traditionally smoked haddock in the freezer and we enjoyed another for tea tonight. Waiting in the wings there’s kippers, smoked duck breasts and a whole smoked chicken. There’ll be some good food over the next couple of weeks. |
| Fri 19 | Eating dinner this evening and to the NE there was a picture book rainbow. No rain here, nor any sun, but both must have been nearby. Although only a small segment (maybe 30°.) was visible, it really was picture book: bright colours, wide, and all 7 colours discernible. It’s a long time since I’ve seen such an impressive performance. Impossible to photograph. |
| Sat 20 | Nice surprise at the end of this morning’s PPG meeting – in person for the first time in over 3 years. A friend at the meeting, who had returned just this morning from the Bahamas, not only offered us a lift home, but gave us a small Bahamian Rum Cake. Devoured this evening with strawberries and ice-cream. Yummy!  |
| Sun 21 | Eating dinner about 20:15 (yes, late as usual) glad to see one of our foxes in the garden. I knew from the trail camera they were visiting in evening daylight. But this is I think a new one – certainly not one I’ve seen before this week on the camera. It’s quite distinctive with a circular dark mark (slightly paler centre) on its left flank. It looks very unnatural, so I’ve no idea how it may have occurred. |
| Mon 22 |  Who knew that the Israelis made good wine? Well of course you would if you’ve read the Bible! But today? Yes, they still make good wine. This evening we tried a bottle of Canaan, which was an odd bottle I picked up in Waitrose some while ago. And very drinkable it was too; with the slight sweetness of hock but not quite as aromatic. It went well with smoked chicken (see above). Will I try it again? At £15 a bottle, maybe. Give me 25% off then more likely. |
| Tue 23 | Oh joy! Trip to the dentist for check-ups and hygienist. Hygienist was good, sensible and quick; which is refreshing. Saw the head man for the check-up and he’s not happy. No fillings etc. needed. But he doesn’t like the crown his young lady colleague did for me earlier in the year and insists it is redone – at their expense; again! While it’s nice not to have the cost, I did represent to him I didn’t feel this was fair given that the crown has already been replaced free of charge once. But no, he insists; he sees it as all being part of a service industry to get these things right! At the end of the day that’s between him and his young lady colleague; but I can’t think she’s going to be too happy. So another trip to the dentist in 8 weeks time. |
| Wed 24 | Last evening there was some delightful sunset, with a widely dispersed gorgeously peachy-pink contrail running west-east. Sadly it didn’t last long. But it was followed a while later in the western sky with a lovely crescent moon and Venus shining bright at about 5 o’clock to the moon. It was great to have a super clear sky for once.  |
| Thu 25 | It was one of those days. The gardener didn’t come – he has a “cold”; told him to test for Covid. Shed loads to do, and it just keeps coming, so not everything got done; including preparation for the talk I’m giving on Saturday afternoon. And the NHS send me a bowel cancer screening test – joy! So I ended up miserable and depressed. |
| Fri 26 | Is it Thursday? Is it Saturday? No I’m led to believe it’s Friday. Really? But then the continuation of yesterday’s depression doesn’t help, so much so that Noreen was out for lunch and I just couldn’t make myself get out of my chair and fix myself lunch. And that is pretty much an all-time low for me. |
| Sat 27 | This evening I finally gave my talk to the literary society: a very quick run through of all the places our hero had lived during his long life. There’s quite a bit we don’t know in detail, mainly following his father’s and then his own peripatetic life in the army. But even without that there’s a lot to cover. It seemed to go well, although it was 10 minutes longer than I’d planned. Good Q&A afterwards. |
| Sun 28 | As usual on a Sunday, I unloaded this week’s images from the trail camera. They provided a small amusement. One evening earlier in the week Noreen had put out a bunch of pretty life-expired grapes. We know the squirrels like grapes, but would they get them? Well no, they didn’t. Who knew that foxes liked grapes too? One of our foxes was caught on camera trotting off with the whole bunch of grapes in it’s mouth! |
| Mon 29 | The third bank holiday Monday this month; and it was a lovely sunny day, although still unenticingly windy. We need more of these. But not if they’re going to be days like this when everything conspires against one. I spent a chunk of the day interrogating Googler Maps to work out a tour round London – and swearing about the Byzantine one-way systems. Then the day culminated in Noreen’s PC resolutely refusing to talk to the printer: it could see it, but not print to it. An hour of trying to fiddle the software ended with having to do an uninstall and reinstall. And after such a day, what to do but console oneself with well stuffed smoked salmon sandwiches and extra strong G&T. |
| Tue 30 | If anything happened, I didn’t notice. |
| Wed 31 | I’ll leave you this month with a photograph of a ear of grass from the garden I photographed. |
Category Archives: personal
Self-Portrait, May
[Click the image for a larger view]
Unblogged April
| Sat 1 | It’s literary society subs time, so I spent half the day wrangling renewal payments. But why is it that to do job A, you first have to do H, and to finish that do T, and that means also first doing Q. By which time you’ve lost the thread of where you’d got to with A. It does my head, even when I’m running at full power, which is like never! |
| Sun 2 | Isn’t it great when you have a good day! I think I managed everything I set out to do, barring a couple of odd jobs. And wedged in a couple of things I’d not planned to do. With luck that’ll have freed me up some time tomorrow. |
| Mon 3 | A lovely sunny day which encouraged me to have a short while in the garden; mostly to feed the fish and fettle their filter. The hellebore now has about half a dozen flowers on it; there are little clumps of celandines and violets popping up and flowering everywhere; and a lot of things are beginning to wake up. |
| Tue 4 | It isn’t full moon for another two days – it looks so full this evening that I’m surprised we have to wait that long. But then I’m not a connoisseur of celestial moons, full or otherwise. Calliope on the other hand … |
| Wed 5 | Had a phone call this afternoon from one of our GP’s patient group members who doesn’t do online (by his own admission he’s not bright, severely dyslexic and over 80 – so why should he). I mail him our monthly newsletter and he calls me occasionally to keep in touch. He’s a lovely guy who always remains cheerful, but once you get him on the phone you can be there all day. Today I needed to be patient and listen as he obviously needed to talk. He’s been unwell and in and out of hospital over the month or so; and fighting with the District Nurses (lack of) organisation. Against that he had nothing but praise for the hospital medical staff and our GPs. |
| Thu 6 | It’s a long time since I facilitated (and took part in) a project definition workshop/kick-off meeting. But with a big project on the horizon for the literary society I got everyone to agree this was necessary. Having done the homework we achieved a lot in just over an hour. Now we need another meeting to properly define the requirements. |
| Fri 7 | ‘Tis the day when for some totally inexplicable reason the western world celebrates the murder 2000-ish years ago of a little known Galilean prophet by a paranoid, fascist Roman Provincial authority. Beats the living daylights out of my brain. Still we get a holiday out of it. |
| Sat 8 | An afternoon spent in the kitchen resulted in a large Pork Pie with proper hot water pastry; a mixed fruit galette (use up some fruit from the freezer!); and then for dinner pan-friend hot smoked scallops, with pan-fried asparagus and mushrooms, baguette, and champagne. |
| Sun 9 | Another lovely sunny day, before several days of predicted biblical rain. So we spent half an hour in the garden, much of it just sitting, when we were joined by the Rosie cat (the other two were sleeping hard on our bed!). It was surprisingly quiet apart from the occasional passing metal bird.  |
| Mon 10 | Well that was a British Standard Bank Holiday: peeing with rain and windy, but with a bit of sun too late in the day to do any good. |
| Tue 11 | You never know what you’ve got until you look. Somehow we’d built up a surfeit of tomatoes. Rather than let them go to waste we decided to make tomato soup. Having cooked down the tomatoes etc. it needed sieving to get the skins out. This turned out to be a tedious job, which would be better done with a centrifuge – which we don’t have. Do we really not have such an attachment for the (hardly ever used) food processor? Well there’s this centrifugal juicer. Will it work? Yes, sort of. It wasn’t brilliant or ideal, but better than the alternative slog. So we found a use for something we didn’t know we had, because we decided to excavate the back of the cupboard in desperation. |
| Wed 12 | Went for my annual diabetic eye screening this afternoon – the appointment which got screwed up a couple of weeks ago. Yet again I got away with not having to have my eyes dilated, which is a definite result: less invasive for me, saves time for the tester, and saves the NHS the cost of the drug. But in terms of Covid, people really have given up; of the about 40 people I saw while waiting (patients & staff; majority over 60) I think at most five were wearing masks. Afterwards I sat outside at the bus stop (sans mask, avec fresh air & drizzle) while my minicab arrived, whereupon I masked up again. |
| Thu 13 | Why is it that people who use Apple machines never seem to know how to make them work properly with things like Zoom? But then why can’t a large percentage of the population not get to grips with any computing? Answer: because they’re frightened of it. Many years ago (like late 80s/early 90s) at work (remember large IT company) one big location actually ran courses for IT illiterates (viz non-techies like secretaries & admin people) called “Computing for the Terrified”. Given the ubiquity of computing now, at least 50% of the whole population could do with that training. |
| Fri 14 | Yes, they’re extremely annoying, but I can’t properly function without them these days. |
| Sat 15 | Well I suppose it happened, but today has been a completely nothing day, despite a literary society online talk. |
| Sun 16 | The gardener decided not to come today. Which is a pity because it was a nice day. At last the pond fish are out and feeding eagerly. And there are all sorts wild flowers springing up in the lawn – which means it won’t be cut until July; treat it like a hayfield. |
| Mon 17 | It’s beginning to feel like Spring is here. Our small ornamental crab apple has been in flower for a week. The Ballerina crab apple is suddenly full of bright pink flowers. The young eating apples are just beginning to look like flowering. Suddenly today the silver birch catkins are beginning to open. The buds on the oak tree are just beginning to break. In the last two days we’ve had a couple of queen wasps find their way into the study, and out the fanlight again. We need a lot more of this! |
| Tue 18 | So today I finally got to go to audiology at the local hospital for a hearing test – well I’ve had my current hearing aids for 5 years and I think my hearing has deteriorated further in that time. But there’s no test as there’s too much wax in my ears. So soften the wax and go back in two weeks to have my ears vacuum cleaned; and then a test, we hope. It’s so seldom easy, and it’s a continual round of appointments. Yep, it’s called getting old! |
| Wed 19 | At last! The gardener cometh. Having been given some instruction as to what we want doing (or rather not doing) he spent a few hours tidying up, eating our lunch and cake, and having a good moan about the state of the world. |
| Thu 20 | Not just a good day, an excellent day. Lovely and sunny morning and early afternoon, but with a chilly northerly wind. Just after lunch, the first Holly Blue; and then the first Brimstone Butterfly ♀ which latter was fluttering around the Alder Buckthorn, despite it not yet being in leaf. So far so good, but then a first for me: a Hairy Footed Flower Bee (Anthophora plumipes) ♀ (all black) feeding on the newly opened lilac. Also a queen wasp or two around, quite a few small (probably solitary) bees, and lots of flies of various types. Which all bodes well for having the apples pollinated. |
| Fri 21 | Squirrels! Not one, not two, but four squirrels in the garden at lunchtime. No wonder the peanuts get emptied so fast from the bird feeders. But I like seeing them, and their acrobatics – as do the cats! |
| Sat 22 | Australian comedian Barry Humphries has died at the age of 89. The creator of the uncomfortable charicatures Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson he was extremely knowledgeable about literature and art, especially dadaism. He was an expert on the artist Charles Conder, an interest he shared with author Anthony Powell, whose work he also enjoyed. On several occasions we tried to get him to talk to the literary society, but he was elusive, especially as he always seemed to be touring. |
| Sun 23 | Today yet another stupid foot race through the streets of London. I wonder how many runners it’s managed to kill this year? [As at 26/04: only one that I’ve seen mentioned.] |
| Mon 24 | Flame red and yellow tulips! |
| Tue 25 | The gardener cometh, so nothing much got done. Just having him here is so disruptive; somehow one can never settle to doing anything which requires concentration. Which is quite mad really, because the Rosie Cat does any supervising required. |
| Wed 26 | I really must pot on some seedlings that are growing on the study windowsill. A few small chilli seedlings don’t seem to be growing much, but the lemons (from pips) and coleus are growing well. And the endive is going to need harvesting as a small portion of micro-greens. No sign of my lottery mix cacti yet though. |
| Thu 27 | A day of buggering around doing odd jobs, which is just as well as I slept badly. N’s study chair has finally given up after 30+ years, and mine (much younger) is aiming to join it, so spent some time looking for replacements. And a phone call with my GP to follow up on the vascular appointment of over a month ago; we agreed on conservative management – ie. do nothing for now. |
| Fri 28 | Well, no, today was actually Friday. At least that’s what they’re trying to convince me. |
| Sat 29 | So we had to bite the bullet and order new office chairs for both of us – but they’re horribly expensive. To make up for it we also ordered a large bouquet of flowers for next week. Well it’s only money! |
| Sun 30 | I was awake just before 04:00. Coming from outside there were 3 or 4 barks. Clearly not dog but fox. By the time I’d exited my warm bed and looked out the window there was, naturally, no sign of anything. However here’s a trail camera image from about 3 hours later of one of our local foxes investigating about 5 metres from the back door. |
World Pinhole Photography Day
Today, the last Sunday in April, is Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day. I wrote briefly about pinhole photography with this month’s self-portrait. But, of course, I had to have a go on the day itself – especially having made my own pinhole.
Unfortunately the results were less enthralling than I’d hoped, especially as I ran out of steam after bout half an hour. That, though is part of pinhole photography and also a penalty for making your own, imperfectly engineered, pinhole. Anyway here are the two best shots (slightly enhanced for exposure in post-processing).
[Home-made pinhole; 30 second exposure; ISO 200]
[Home-made pinhole; 10 second exposure; ISO 200]
I rather like this impressionist apple blossom.
While these are not top class pinhole photos, when I make up my mind I will probably submit one of these two images to the Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day Gallery.
Self-Portrait, April
So here’s this month’s self-portrait. I took this using a pinhole “lens” I made for my Canon dSLR. I actually made three pinholes, which came out slightly different sizes – it’s quite hard to get a really tiny hole. This is the best of them as it is the smallest aperture. This was a 30 second exposure with a fairly slow film speed setting of ISO 200.
[Click the image for a larger view]
Anyone who wants to try making their own pinhole, I followed this article on wikiHow. It isn’t difficult; if my ten left thumbs can do it then anyone can!
Unblogged March
Some stuff what I didn’t blog about this last month.
| Wed 1 | Why are there days like today, when everything conspires to be at least an irritant, if not downright obstructive. Neither of us slept well, or enough; I was awoken at 06:30 by Queen Cat trampling on my stomach, a 10lb weight in each of her hobnail boots. It was all downhill from there; nothing was straightforward; everything fought back. And to top it all it was bloody cold. Anyone would have thought it was Monday 13th! |
| Thu 2 | The gardener cometh. Ah, no, the gardener cometh not. Silly bugger has a stomach upset. When shall we see him again? Well the next two weeks look cold and wet, maybe even snow, so little prospect of sensible gardening for a while. |
| Fri 3 | It’s Saturday again. Oh, no! It’s only Friday. Why does my brain always do this? Every week! Yesterday it was Friday; today is Saturday; tomorrow will probably be Sunday; and oh God, then we get Sunday again! Why? It does my head in. |
| Sat 4 | Yes, as predicted today was Sunday – at least according to my addled brain. It’s all very confusing and disorientating. Worse when you have a sinus infection and would rather be hiding under the duvet than having to attack a weekend of work which has to be done. |
| Sun 5 | This one should be N’s really as she saw it. In the bucket for the compost heap which lives outside the back door, there was some discarded damaged avocados. Early this morning N saw the squirrel sitting on the fence panels, by the house, munching away at one, and dropping the pieces of skin everywhere. Apparently when a cat appeared the squirrel was quite unable to carry away its booty. Luckily N got a photo. |
| Mon 6 | So now we know how things get moved around the garden. Last night N put out some bits for the fox on a lightweight orange plastic plate on the upper lawn. Lunchtime today along come our pair of magpies, prospecting. Swiftly followed by one of the local crows – the one with a few white feathers. Said crow went prospecting around the plate, poked its beak underneath, lifted it up at a 30deg angle, and then picked it up in its beak. I thought it was going to make off with the plate, but in the event it moved the plate only a few inches. By this time crow #2 had arrived and the magpies left. Two crows proceeded to spend 15-20 minutes ferreting around, obviously finding tasty morsels, and drinking from the birdbath. |
| Tue 7 | Oh how the critters amuse one. We’ve a new, young, ginger cat on the block. At lunchtime he was in our garden and was seen dashing full speed across the garden in pursuit of a squirrel. Needless to say the squirrel was too fast and was 8 feet and more up the oak tree in a trice. But cat was going so fast and couldn’t stop before he too ended up 4 feet up the truck of the tree, clinging on for dear life with all four feet splayed, but still wondering how to get up the tree after said squirrel. Real life cartoon stuff! |
| Wed 8 | Snow. It must have snowed gently somewhere between about 04:00 and 08:00, and it was still trying when I woke up. Mind, there wasn’t much, not really even a proper covering. However the cats were not impressed and more than one declined to go out. It tried more snow on and off all morning before giving in to light but steady rain; by the lunchtime all the snow had disappeared. I can’ find the records online (they must be there) but snow in London in March must be fairly unusual. |
| Thu 9 | Most of the afternoon spent reading the papers for the CRP meeting next week. And how refreshing to look at something which isn’t a collection of massive high-rise blocks. Almost anything which is residential in London, let alone this borough, is predicated on building as high as you can get away with. The problem is that if the borough doesn’t approve the plans, an appeal to the Mayor of London will just overturn the decision. It’s madness: high rise is an environmental disaster; the higher you build the proportionally more environmentally damaging materials you have to use and the more energy you use pumping water etc. to the top of the building. And that’s before you even think about safety, the fact that people don’t like tower blocks, and that many are scared to live in them. But we can’t get developers to see that. |
| Fri 10 | So the UK economy grew 0.3% in January. Well guys I hate to tell you this but 0.3% of naff all is still naff all. |
| Sat 11 | The weather for most of the day was not inclement. So after lunch I actually got to sow (indoors) all the seeds I’d been putting off: hot lemon chillies, endive, coleus and some mystery mix of flowering cacti. I also cut back (fairly hard) the existing chilli plants – I can’t remember if this will be their third or fourth year but it’ll be interesting to see what they produce. |
| Sun 12 | Americans drive me up the wall at times. Yesterday I sent out subscription reminders for the literary society. Within hours I had payments, via our online shop, from 8 American members; all paying for “5 years for the price of 4”. 50% of them got it wrong and paid the UK rate rather than the Overseas subscription rate – and that’s a significant difference. Gah! |
| Mon 13 | Following up on yesterday’s Americans, and to be fair to them, once I pointed out the error of their ways they all paid up like lambs within 12 hours. After which it was time for a haircut. Oh the excitement! |
| Tue 14 | Why is it that developers presenting to a meeting have to waste half their presenting time with a sales pitch, so they then don’t have time to explain properly what they’re trying to do. And why can they not explain things simply: A,B, C; and not waffle for 5 minutes and confuse people. It’s bad presenting and unprofessional. Tailor your presentation to your audience! They could have got a lot more out of that meeting. |
| Wed 15 | A five star night. Awake at 03:30 and looking out of the bedroom window I can see five stars. That’s unusual because of the disgusting light pollution from the urbanopolis. The normal is two. |
| Thu 16 | Hospital trip again today. Now if all senior consultants were like this one, the world would be a much better place. Head man of the area specialist vascular centre: an urbane, considerate and thoughtful Swede. I was treated to a very polite and measured version of “I don’t know what they’re all worrying about; there’s no real problem, but do come back if it recurs”. The NHS needs more such. |
| Fri 17 | Yes! Early English asparagus is in the shops. I spotted that the supermarket were offering it. So of course I put three bunches on this week’s order, and much to my surprise it appeared. It is very early; it must be polytunnel grown as the season doesn’t really start until St George’s Day and then lasts only 6-8 weeks. Anyway I cooked the first bunch with tonight’s prawns & pasta. What a delight! We shall make the most of English asparagus while it’s available as I won’t buy the imported stuff year round. (You can’t totally avoid buying stuff that’s shipped round the globe, but we do try to avoid it where possible; hence not buying non-European wine.) |
| Sat 18 | I’m getting into my stride now with Postcrossing. It’s quite interesting. In the last 6 weeks I’ve sent 7 cards, of which 4 have arrived. And the one to Vladivostok has arrived faster than the one to the US mid-west (which is still somewhere in the postal system). So 7 sent (Germany twice, USA, Russia, Czech Republic, Spain, Finland) of which 3 are still travelling; and 3 received (from USA, Germany, France). It’s random, but I’m still slightly surprised not to have been allocated one to SE Asia or South America yet — but who knows what’s up next. |
| Sun 19 | You take a trip round the garden after lunch and take a handful of photos of the small daffodils near the pond. Not one is in focus as they’re waving about so much in the breeze. But the sturdy hellebore is rock solid, and rather pretty. |
| Mon 20 | We used to have a lot of feral pigeons, but they seem to have disappeared over the winter. Instead we now seem to have more woodpigeons. There is a pair who always nest in one of the Christmas trees at the bottom of the garden. And this year there’s another pair at the front. The latter came along this morning prospecting our pittosporum tree for a nest (predecessors have nested there before); but they were quickly followed by a third. There then ensued a squabble about who was going to have it off with who. Exeunt omnes. |
| Tue 21 | Bastards! Had to ditch my diabetic eye screening appointment at the last minute – because I couldn’t get here. Why? Because the taxi company were being inept and untruthful; and the car was over 25 minutes late, leaving me right up the Khyber. Luckily the screening appointments people are efficient and understanding and we’ve rearranged for 3 weeks time. As a result I got a free afternoon in which to do bugger all; so I started on the weekly supermarket order. |
| Wed 22 | So inflation went up to an annual 10.4% in February after falling for 3 months. How do I not find this surprising? Everything is getting more expensive by the month. And food inflation is said to be 18.2%. From my perspective this is very conservative; I’d say food inflation is more like 30-40% judging by the way our weekly supermarket shop has jumped in price – and that’s when the commodities you want (eg. salad) are available. Two examples: in under two years Vinegar has gone up from £1 to £1.45; and Ginger Nut biscuits from £1 to £1.50. |
| Thu 23 | Despite the rain, Spring is here. We’re past the equinox. The forsythia is in flower; as is the delicate small cherry in the front garden. Next door’s ash tree is just beginning to open its flower buds. And the apple trees are just beginning to move. There’s lots to be done in the garden, but it is so wet and we’re promised rain every day until at least the end of the month. Mind you we need the rain for the water supply. |
| Fri 24 | It’s been raining most of the afternoon, but with little bits of sun. Towards sundown we had a decent rainbow – actually a double, but the second was very faint – followed by some strange peachy coloured light. Rainbows are so hard to photograph well. |
| Sat 25 | Another really good lunchtime literary society social call with almost 20 of us from New England (where it was 8AM), through us here in London (at 12 noon) to Japan (where it was 9PM). We talked for about 90 minutes covering a range of topics from biographies to society events and conferences. These calls are always good because it gives members from across the globe a chance to meet and chat which they would otherwise not have, and for new members to get to know us and find that we really aren’t a scary bunch who know it all and shoot newbies down in flames. |
| Sun 26 | Tilly, aka. Queen Cat, has been walking back and forth across my desk most of the day, as if on elastic. She jumps up to my left walks straight across – albeit taking care to avoid my keyboard. She sits, or stands, to my right wanting a small amount of attention. She’ll then walk back across to my left and just lie down, regardless of what’s there. It’s lovely to have her presence, but it does get a bit wearing: the continual back and forth; lying on what you’re trying to work on; generally hampering; and not to mention the occasional wet muddy paws. But if you stop her, or remove her, she mutters plaintively at you. |
| Mon 27 | Spent the day tearing my hair out over literary society stuff. Trying to reconcile my part of the accounts and get our money out of PayPal took almost all morning, instead of the 5 minutes it should take. Why? Because of PayPal’s Byzantine and thieving system. Then mailing out a new publication: the Chairman has just given away (literally) almost 20% of the print run, which he didn’t allow for when he set the RRP. Every time I looked at my email he wanted another sent out. Oh, and he managed to give me at least one non-existent address. God save me from bankers and lawyers! |
| Tue 28 | We finally bit the bullet and changed the cats’ insurance. I looked at it last year and N didn’t want to change, but this year we both agree. PetPlan have been good over the years, but they are ever more expensive. Tilly is now almost 10, so one expects her cover to be going up steeply. But Boy Cat is even more expensive to insure, as although only five he’s male; even (though neutered) male cats still carry this expectation of being reckless thugs and wanderers. Moving the insurance to John Lewis has literally halved our monthly premium for what looks to be essentially the same cover. And yes, we wouldn’t be without the insurance; it doesn’t get used a lot (touch wood, our cats have always been pretty healthy) but veterinary care is so expensive – on a par with private human healthcare. |
| Wed 29 | So what happened today? Not a lot really. I seem to have spent the day fiddling about to no great effect. Despite sleeping well for the last couple of nights – and having some odd dreams – I blame the depression which seems worse this week. |
| Thu 30 | Arrggghhhh! What day is it? What week is it? Does it even exist? Or is it all a really tedious dream? |
| Fri 31 | So a pretty dismal end to a pretty dismal month. According to the Weather People (they’re a slightly saner version of Village People, aren’t they?) we (in London) have had the wettest March since 1981, with around twice the average March rainfall. Consequently we’ve had half the average March sunshine, although it seems temperatures have been around average. There are still a few hours of the month left and as I write this it’s still raining, so we’ll have to see what the final figures are when they’re released next week. Don’t hold your breath, but it looks as if we might get a few nice days next week – and we could do with some warm sunshine! As they say in these parts: “Onward and buggeration!” |
Orchids
I like orchids, especially the Phalaenopsis and Dendrobium species, and over the years I’ve bought a fair few, including several for my mother (who’s been dead now for almost 8 years) although probably not far into double figures. Growers have bred a huge range of flower colours, and those flowers last for weeks – anything up to 8 weeks – so although the flowering plants sold in supermarkets etc. aren’t cheap, you do get value for money.
The flower is actually somewhat darker than in this image
[Click the image for a larger view]
But why does everyone think that these orchids are difficult to grow and have to be thrown out when they’ve finished flowering? If you follow a few simple rules they actually aren’t difficult. And they’ll come back into flower, usually once a year, although you’ll probably never get the magnificent flower spikes the growers can with specialised heating and lighting. I wrote about my rules for keeping orchids some years ago. (My rules say to stake the flower spike, but frankly I never bother these days, but allow them to arch gracefully as they will.)
[Click the image for a larger view]
You won’t manage to keep every orchid going and some will resist flowering again. However I still have four which have just come back into flower, and yesterday I took the opportunity to try photographing them – I don’t find them easy; they need a dark background to show well, and there’s always extra flowers your don’t want in the frame. These images are the result.
[Click the image for a larger view]
The small purple stripy orchid above is indeed a small cultivar. It is one I bought for my mother, so maybe 10 years ago, and every year it produces this lovely spray of half-size flowers. The others are “full size” with large flowers around 9cm across; they’re all some years old and mostly produce only a couple of flowers.
[Click the image for a larger view]
These are all Phalaenopsis orchids. By contrast I’ve never managed to get my one Dendrobium back into flower; but I keep it going in the hope it might one day it might forget itself and put up a new flower spike.
Self-Portrait, March
Another monthly self-portrait for your bemusement.
[Click the image for a larger view]
Unblogged February
This month’s list of things I didn’t write about during February.
| Wed 1 | Aarrggghhhh! I was going to write about a lovely sunny day, but … yes, it was sunny but ceased to be lovely. N discovered very late in the afternoon that the pond was losing water and was half empty. No idea how or why as by this time it was too dark to do anything much except put a call out to our pond guy. |
| Thu 2 | Crocuses! We have the first few crocuses in flower. Just a scattering of 6 or 8 pale lavender coloured ones in the lawn. No idea how they got there, as I don’t recall we planted any in mid-lawn – but they looked good in the morning sun. No sign of the others yet, but the gardener has helpfully scattered prunings awaiting shredding everywhere. Bloody gardeners, they take no notice of what you tell them! |
| Fri 3 | Even more crocuses! There are now a couple of dozen in flower scattered about the lawn. An absolutely delightful harbinger of Spring. I also spotted a nest high up in one of the silver birch trees; it must be last year’s; I think not big enough for a squirrel drey but it might just be big enough for a woodpigeon. |
| Sat 4 | Weird. The pond having lost half its water at Wednesday teatime, and having been filled up to level in daylight on Thursday morning, 48 hours later is still up more or less to level. It’s maybe dropped at most an inch. Looking at the wetness around one corner, I had suspected that the weld in the liner had failed; but it currently looks as if this isn’t the case. All very odd. |
| Sun 5 | Royal Mail have had international outgoing mail suspended for almost a month following a “cyber attack” (thought to be a ransom demand). They’ve been slowly restoring services over the last couple of weeks starting with the high value, low demand services. At last this weekend they’ve restarted normal “air mail” services. So at last I’m able to ship AP Society merchandise to overseas buyers, some of whom have been waiting all this time. With luck the packages will get collected tomorrow and be on their way. |
| Mon 6 | Awake in the early hours to appreciate a bright silvery full moon, veiled in some ethereal gossamer cloud. And then this evening through the filigree twigs of the trees. |
| Tue 7 | A strange morning. At 06:00 it was crystal clear and beautifully moonlit, with the moon setting to the SW. By 07:00 it was thick fog. And by lunchtime glorious sunshine which enticed two of the cats out to solar charge. |
| Wed 8 | Continuing the moonshine theme … Just gone 06:30 this morning; there’s the merest chink of daylight; it is cold, frosty and moonlit. And there’s already a crow up and doing; sitting on a nearby TV ariel proclaiming it’s territory. |
| Thu 9 | Everyone in our street has received a very snotty letter from the council accusing us of obstructing the highway with traffic cones and threatening us with fines. It’s not addressed individually, nor signed, so is unlikely to stand up in court – indeed unless they can prove one is a culprit they’re on a hiding to nothing in court – they have to prove an offense by an identifiable individual. So basically it amounts only to bullying. I’m very tempted to write them a snotty reply pointing this out. |
| Fri 10 | Now this is interesting, at least to me. I’ve become aware that over the last few weeks the barometric pressure in the UK has been exceptionally high – like up to 1046 hPa (the normal range is roughly 998 to 1032, with an average of 1013). That doesn’t sound a lot, but it’s quite a significant increase and some people have been reporting headaches as a result. Which could explain at least some of why I’ve been feeling so hit on the head, on and off, for the last few weeks – especially as I’ve always been prone to ear disturbance and motion sickness (which is why I can’t do yoga). Having checked back some of the local records it seems to sort of fit, although I don’t have a detailed record of how I’ve felt. |
| Sat 11 | For some while I’ve been thinking about taking part in Postcrossing. It’s a project that allows you to send postcards and receive postcards back from random people around the world. That’s real postcards, not electronic! Why? Simply because there are lots of people who like to receive real mail. Receiving postcards from different places in the world (many which you’ve likely never heard of!) can make your mailbox full of surprises. But I can’t make up my mind whether it’s a good and interesting thing, or whether it becomes just another chore. Anyone out there take part? |
| Sun 12 | So I decided to take the plunge and try Postcrossing. Two cards will go in the mail tomorrow. Then we just have to wait and see … |
| Mon 13 | Lovely and sunny at lunchtime, so I braved the elements and went to photograph the crocuses. But all that bending and crouching down doesn’t half play havoc with my back.  |
| Tue 14 | And it’s Valentine’s Day. So what more natural than we have two squirrels fucking in the silver birch tree. |
| Wed 15 | I was lucky enough to be up in time to see a glorious red, fiery sunrise – although it lasted only minutes. Totally unable to photograph it. What a contrast to yesterday’s fog when you couldn’t see the top of the road, so visibility down to about 100m. |
| Thu 16 | I’ve been trying for the last several months to go back to what I always used to do which was to have alcohol only Friday, Saturday, Sunday evenings (well and odd exceptions like celebrations and holidays). I was doing reasonably well until this month when the internal application of alcohol has been necessary at times during the week. Not surprising really when you look at a day like today, which seems to have had an all-round fit of the dismals. I guess we need to get the “worries” over with: that’s “Janu-worry” and “Febru-worry”! Roll on Spring! |
| Fri 17 | Walked into the study to find Queen Tilly Cat sitting, bold as brass, on the printer surveying her empire. |
| Sat 18 | Gah! The perversity of the cat drives you demented. No.1 is given grated cheese as a treat at lunchtime and turns up her nose at it. No.2 is given a teaspoon of cream at dinner time and also turns up her nose. No.3 won’t come for tea when called, remains steadfastly asleep; appears 2 hours later and goes out. There are times – many times – when you do wonder why you bother! |
| Sun 19 | As usual on a Sunday I unloaded the pictures from the trail camera. At one point we have two cats, not much more than a metre apart. And between them a rather worried rat: “Oh bugger; there’s two of them!”. What happened? No idea; no images to tell us; if it was despatched it wasn’t brought home.  |
| Mon 20 | A dismal start to the day but nice a sunny by lunchtime, although breezy. So I had 5 minutes in the garden with a point-and-shoot camera catching the last of the crocuses, and the snowdrops which are are out, at last! Also lots of visibly grown small goldfish drifting around the pond in the sun.  |
| Tue 21 | The power company were encouraging us to try saving power at teatime today, so it was a good opportunity to audit the cellar (aka. the wine rack in the dining room). Discovered we were getting low on stock: just 5 dozen bottles various plus a dozen champagne. So there’s now a large order in with The Wine Society. |
| Wed 22 | Oi, Mr Magpie! Every year you come and rip bits off my trees for your twiggy nest. I don’t mind you doing a little light pruning, but it would please me if you took only what you need and not drop 2 out of 3 on the lawn, from where you never bother to recover them. The whole garden is littered with bits of magpie-pulled twigs. |
| Thu 23 | Cooked an “omeletatta” for tea (sort of omelette-cum-frittata). A big omelette, with lots of sautéed onion, garlic, spinach and mushrooms; with a bit of Applewood cheese in the egg mix and topped with some grated cheddar. Devoured greedily with chunks of bread & butter. No good for all you unhealthy vegans, but great for the rest of us! |
| Fri 24 | Took advantage of being up early to get ahead and to sort out N’s PC. A couple of fixes needed, new batteries for the mouse, and do all the updates. It took a good 40 minutes plus I didn’t count how many reboots. And of course then I forgot to do the same to my machine! Duh! |
| Sat 25 | Did anything happen today? I suppose something must have done; somewhere. But I didn’t notice. Oh, yes, lamb chops happened. |
| Sun 26 | One of the earliest members of the Anthony Powell Society, from upstate New York, is 101 today. What an achievement! He served in the US military and I believe was part of the US administration in Japan; following the war he was a graduate student and Fulbright Fellow at the LSE; and eventually become Professor of Public Administration at Syracuse University. It was initially for him that I created a special membership category of the AP Society: any paid up member who reaches the age of 90, is given honorary life membership – in recognition that Powell reached the age of 94. But 101 is something else! |
| Mon 27 | Today I set myself three fairly chunky tasks to accomplish – with the expectation of completing only two of them. The first was a bit of a slog, which didn’t bode well, but it was killed just after lunch. I then tackled number three as it was time-critical, and it wasn’t too bad. As it was now only mid-afternoon I figured I’d better have a go at number two. Despite having planned it, I was expecting it to fight back. But it didn’t; it turned out to be fairly straightforward, apart from a bit of a fiddle at the end to make the code do exactly what I wanted. So a successful day, and a bit of time to spare to be wasted. Definite result! |
| Tue 28 | So much for a quiet day clearing up odd jobs. All went well until midday when I get a phone call. “Can you attend a meeting at 18:30 this evening? We’re short of panel members.” (I’m on the other panel of this group.) “Yes, but how much is there to read before the meeting?” “It’s not much. I’ll send it over now.” “OK, then.” Not much turns out to be 60 pages, on a scheme I really didn’t want to be involved with; and it’s all marketing bollox. Goodbye afternoon. As it turned out the meeting wasn’t too bad; though I did put the boot in, maybe too hard and too early – I might learn one day. |
Self-Portrait, February
I offer you this for my monthly self-portrait.
[Click the image for a larger view]