Our look at some of the significant happenings 100 years ago this month.
3. Born. Tony Benn, politician, in London (d.2014)
6. Died. Alexandra Kitchin, 60, British model for Lewis Carroll.
10. The novel The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald was published.
14. Died. John Singer Sargent, 69, American artist
28. Presenting the government’s budget, Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill announced Britain’s return to the gold standard.
Being, as usual, some various things from this month about what I never wrote before.
Saturday 1
St David’s Day. And I’ve heard nothing about it at all this year. So have some Spring sunshine …
Sunday 2
In the alley, at the back of next-door-but-one’s garden, is a reasonably sized, bare, tree. Every evening when it’s sunny the local pair of magpies sit in the top of the tree getting the last of evening sun and getting warm for the night. And doubtless keeping a beady eye open for stray snacks. Who blames them.
Tuesday 4
This evening, 18:30, it’s pitch dark. And the robin is singing away somewhere in the garden. Mind it’s been a lovely sunny day; it almost feels like Spring, especially as I’ve had the window open.
Sunday 9
Very annoying. We have a pile of stuff to get rid of: like dead PC printers and a couple of boxes of miscellaneous metal/electronic recycling; 6 items in all. Just after lunch today we put it all together on the front path, I photographed it and booked the council to collect it on Wednesday – cost £48. Within 2 hours 4 of the 6 items had been magicked away by some slithy toves, leaving just 2 boxes of crap. Just to run salt in the wound, not only will the council not let me cancel the request, nor provide a refund, but I can’t even email them to say “don’t bother”. So they’re now going to have a rather wasted trip; and we’ve wasted £48.
In better news, it was a lovely sunny day, so I decided to feed the pond fish. At first we’re not interested. Then one realises there’s something floating to investigate. Oh, Fred, did you say something about food? Another joins, and another … until most were having at least a snack.
Friday 14
It’s been a deadly week, absolutely swamped with work, mostly for the literary society. In the words of Marvin, the Paranoid Android: “Life. Don’t talk to me about life.”
Saturday 15
Last evening, in bed, something unusual happened. Boy Cat came along. Instead of settling down on top of N, as usual, he snuggled, sausage-like, between us, head at chest level. He then spent 5-10 minutes purring and kneading my armpit. I think in almost 8 years it’s the first time he’s done this; kneading is normally reserved for N.
Sunday 16
A few surprises walking round the garden today. I knew the small bush flowering cherry was in bloom. But I’d not spotted that we had a couple of blue hyacinths out, nor that the flowering currants (Ribes) were just coming into bloom. Lots of leaves breaking on the roses, but none of the trees are yet showing any signs of life.
Monday 17
The gardener came. So did the central heating guy – to look at a radiator which needed bleeding and I couldn’t shift the valve. It needed a completely new valve fitting; which in turn needed a load of stuff moving. Job done. Whereupon the gardener and the heating man had a long talk; they’re old friends and haven’t seen each other for several years. You try getting an Irishman and an Albanian to stop talking!
Friday 21
So Heathrow Airport is out of power and closed – because of a fire at an electricity substation. (I’ve been past that substation hundreds of times, and it is huge! It’s also an open target from the nearby road bridge.) Why do they not have twin-tailed power supplies? They should have at least two connections, on opposite sides of the airport. Both should be supplying power 24/7; and each should be able to automatically pick up the slack if the other fails. That’s normal resilient business operation for critical systems. Not having it is either negligence or a political decision not to spend the money. Whichever it is, someone needs their dangly bits feeling. Having contingency backup that takes time to kick in is not acceptable. I wonder if they’ll be made to pay all the airports who took diverted flights – and, of course, passenger compensation?
Saturday 22
It’s just relentless at present; a continual stream of work on every front; so there’s much that isn’t getting done. Still we had a really good social call for the literary society at lunchtime; only 9 of us but that included one from each of US, Japan, Ireland and France; with an hour or so of interesting discussion. We started with one person in Putney and I (so 8 miles apart as the crow flies) sharing that it wasn’t raining; we ended with the news that it had just started raining in Putney, but not here. Minutes later we started a good thunderstorm!
Sunday 23
The forsythia is in flower. This seems early; I always associate it with May not March.
Wednesday 26
What a wonderful warm sunny Spring day – it really does make one feel much better! Several of the local trees are beginning to burst their buds: ash, silver birch, hawthorn, horse chestnut. The cherry bush in the front garden is an absolute mass of flower; I don’t think I’ve ever seen it with so much blossom. Oh and something obviously had a woodpigeon last night: three significant piles of feathers on the lawn, so it was well plucked. Two of the three below; the third was quite widely scattered.
Friday 28
For the first time since before Covid I had a check-up at the Brompton Hospital for my sleep apnoea. I didn’t need it, but they’re trying to make sure they’ve seen everyone who got postponed. Overall result: Excellent. Modern machines record all the data, so they can download it (I can also get most of it) and the data is good; mostly over 90%. The young lady (Registrar I guess) was fairly delighted. So they’ve put me on the Patient Initiated Follow-up pathway: this means they’ll not call me in for another 5 years, but in the meantime if I feel I need a check-up (or technical support) then I have only to ask. This is a new NHS process which saves a lot of pointless appointments, patient inconvenience, and consultant time; so they can clear the backlogs and get to see those in urgent need much sooner. It has to be win-win all round.
Saturday 29
It’s being one of those days! Even before I’d got down to doing anything this morning, three things had SNAFUed on me. Then the Waitrose delivery was over an hour early! Why do these things happen?
And did anyone notice that we had a partial solar eclipse this morning? I knew it was going to happen, but it was so low-key that it had gone before I noticed! I always seem to miss these things.
Sunday 30
What a glorious, warm Spring day. The pond fish are hungry. The catkins on the silver birch are just starting to break. And the garden is awash with gorgeous sun-yellow celandines – I knew we had some, but didn’t realise quite how much they’d spread themselves around; there are little clumps everywhere, as well as a couple of large patches.
Monday 31
So here we are at the end of March, and in terms of months a quarter of the way through the year already. Although we need another day or two to get to 25% in terms of the number of days. Still, at least, it’s beginning to look and feel like Spring.
Here’s our next instalment of things that happened in ..25 years of yore.
Some Notable Events in 225
Unknown Date. Emperor Alexander Severus marries Sallustia Orbiana, and possibly raises her father Seius Sallustius to the rank of Caesar.
Unknown Date. The first Christian paintings appear in Rome, decorating the Catacombs.
Some Notable Events in 325
20 May. First Council of Nicaea. Constantine I summons an ecumenical Council of bishops in Nicaea (Turkey). .
19 June. First Council of Nicaea adopts the Nicene Creed and declares that the members of the Trinity are equal. The council also decides that Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox.
Unknown Date. Gladiatorial combat is outlawed in the Roman Empire.
Unknown Date. The Church of the Nativity is built in Bethlehem.
Some Notable Events in 425
27 February. The University of Constantinople is founded by emperor Theodosius II at the urging of his wife Aelia Eudocias.
Summer. Roman civil war: Joannes, Roman usurper, is defeated at Ravenna and brought to Aquileia and executed.
23 October. Valentinian III, six-year-old son of Galla Placidia, is installed as emperor (Augustus) of the Western Roman Empire.
Unknown Date. Last known usage of Demotic script in Egypt.
Unknown Date. Buddhism begins to spread to Southeast Asia.
Each month during 2025 we’re offering two tiny changes which may help improve your life. This month …
And so to this month’s selection of recently encountered quotes …
People will announce, “Question everything!” without noticing they have just uttered not a question, but a command.
[Prof. Agnes Callard]
How sad it must be – believing that scientists, scholars, historians, economists, and journalists have devoted their entire lives to deceiving you, while a reality TV star with decades of fraud and exhaustively documented lying is your only beacon of truth and honesty.
[Neil deGrasse Tyson]
And so it is with science. In a way it is a key to the gates of heaven, and the same key opens the gates of hell, and we do not have any instructions as to which is which gate. Shall we throw away the key and never have a way to enter the gates of heaven? Or shall we struggle with the problem of which is the best way to use the key?
[Richard Feynman]
But such people! Ogres with monstrous teeth, and wolves, and bull-headed men; spirits of evil trees and poisonous plants; and other creatures whom I won’t describe because if I did the grown-ups would probably not let you read this book – Cruels and Hags and Incubuses, Wraiths, Horrors, Efreets, Sprites, Orknies, Wooses, and Ettins. In fact here were all those who were on the Witch’s side and whom the Wolf had summoned at her command.
[CS Lewis, The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe]
The universe is vast and far more complicated than we can safely imagine. If we try it can often lead to overwhelm. The urge to add a banister and some crash mats is understandable. There’s no point trying to figure out why a butterfly flapping its wing in Peru might lead to the Hell Mouth opening in Milton Keynes if we are so paralysed by it that we end up brushing our hair with a fork because we forgot the word for hairbrush and in a crisis any tine will do.
[Katy Wheatley; https://substack.com/inbox/post/158429835]
Words do have power. Words are events, they do things, change things … We can’t restructure our society without restructuring language. One reflects the other.
[Ursula K Le Guin]
I’m sorry I didn’t hear about that World event. It’s just that for most of history, people only carried the burdens of their own village, and I’m learning to do the same.
[unknown]
Advice for girls: be loud and gross and take up space. Stop saying “sorry” and start saying “don’t interrupt me”. Stop saying “Because I have a boyfriend” and start saying “because I said so”. Say “no” and say “none of your business”. Take selfies and don’t laugh at jokes that aren’t funny. Be snide and sarcastic and wear your hair the way you like it. Help out other girls and be vocal about what makes you mad. Be masculine and feminine and both and neither and be unapologetic. Don’t set aside your comfort for boys’ egos.
[Spencer McFarland]
The less talent they have, the more pride, vanity and arrogance they have. All these fools, however, find other fools who applaud them.
[Erasmus]
Here are the answers to this month’s six quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.
Language
Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2024.
Ozymandias
Percy Bysshe Shelly
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: ‘Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed
And on the pedestal these word appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.’
Find this poem online at Poetry Foundation
This year our Ten Things column each month is alternating between composers and artists a century at a time from pre-1500 to 20th century. As always, there’s no guarantee you will have heard of them all!
Ten Composers Born in 16th Century
