Tag Archives: July

Unblogged July

Being some things what I done, or what happened, during the month of July.


Tuesday 1
OMG! We’re over halfway to Christmas. Already!


Wednesday 2
There’s just been a Cavalcade of Hats going up the road. (There’s a community transport group here called HATS, who use minibuses to deliver disabled children to the school down the road. So every morning, shortly after 09:00, there’s a line of their minibuses promenading up our road.)HATS minibus; stock image


Friday 4
And fun was had by all. We needed to swap in N’s new PC. This meant she had to clear the rats nest off her desk, and the one under her desk, then play like a rat to crawl under the desk to find where everything plugged in. Having ripped out all the old cables we put the new machine in, with less, and rather tidier, wiring. We had a countless number of various cables left over. We still have to clear up the remains. Oh and having recovered the space on my desk, I can now start work on our new file server.


Sunday 6
The only trouble with spending Friday humping computers etc. around is that I’ve done my back; and it isn’t settling down. It’s probably the old, old injury, but I don’t now have an osteopath. So tomorrow it will be find a new osteopath.


Monday 7
So today we went a-hunting an osteopath – and captured an appointment for late tomorrow afternoon.


Tuesday 8
Hopefully that trip to the osteopath has fixed my back; although it doesn’t quite feel like it yet.


Wednesday 9
This hot, humid weather makes everything hard work; it’s completely draining. But the butterflies like it. In the last couple of days we’ve had Large White, Small White, Brimstone, Red Admiral, Peacock, and Comma on the buddleia outside the dining room window – not as many as there used to be, just odd ones, but better than none.


Sunday 13
We sat down to evening meal, and suddenly there were two small whiskered faces looking up at us. As so often, word had got round amongst the felines that the humans were about to devour cold chicken (well make that any chicken). I think the only thing which out-ranks poultry are prawns – they hear them come in the door!


Monday 14
The evening of the two tarts. (No, not that sort!) We had gooseberries (albeit from the supermarket), we had blackberries from the garden, and we had some very ripe nectarines. We also had two sheets of puff pastry. Sheet one was used flat with gooseberries in a layer on it; no need to pre-cook the fruit, just sprinkle with sugar. Sheet two had blackberries and nectarine piled in the centre and the ends folded over, to make a sort of rustic pie-cum-pasty (again sugar applied). The gooseberry was delicious, still warm, with some cream. Haven’t tried the blackberry yet as it was still too hot. As N said, they’ll make breakfasts for the next several mornings.


Tuesday 15
Rain! We have rain! Only short sharp showers, but it’s water from the sky, which we desperately need. And if you believe the weather forecast we’re likely to have rain on and off for the next week.


Wednesday 16
So the gardener cometh not, which verily was a nuisance as we had lots that needed doing. On the other hand it gave us a “free day” in which to savour the delights of completing this year’s tax returns. And ouch! How much to we owe HMRC?


Thursday 17
It’s been one of those days when everything is a struggle. I wish I understood why this happens – what in the Universe controls it – then I might be able to circumvent it. Otherwise it is very annoying and depressing.


Friday 18
And suddenly there was on my desk a small Common Green Lacewing (Chrysoperla carnea). They’re surprisingly pretty (note the red eyes) – and their larva are great aphid eaters.Lacewing


Saturday 19
A good doctors’ patient group meeting this morning. Only half a dozen of us with the Practice Manager, but sane and sensible considering the recent appalling patient survey results. The Practice Manager and I were both dreading the meeting. Basically something has to happen to improve the front of house, which we’ve been bleating about for ages. Meanwhile: we have rain! Lots of rain! Just as forecast. And badly needed.


Sunday 20
In the kitchen this evening, a very lively ichneumon wasp. I think a Woodland Darwin Wasp (Echthrus reluctator) but I’m sure the experts on iNaturalist will confirm (or not). Also found a very dead, melanistic ladybird; confirmed later on iNaturalist as a melanistic Harlequin.Oh, and this afternoon, three greenfinches in the top of the silver birch. Haven’t seen greenfinches for some years as they’ve been almost wiped out by a virus; so great to see them again.


Monday 21
So what happened to all this rain and thunderstorms we were supposed to be having? Well we had a few heavy drops of rain, but hardly enough to properly wet the pavement.


Tuesday 22
Do other people have days where they just feel totally incapable of doing anything? Because I had one of those days today. Apart from starting the supermarket order, I spent the day fiddling about because I could not get down to do anything. Very irritating.


Friday 25
I’ve spent a large part of the last couple of days striping apart several old laptops and PCs. If nothing else I wanted to get the hard drives out of them so I could clean off the data. I can’t get over what hard work it was to get them apart: hundreds of tiny screws, half of which you can’t move; and then plastic components clipped together and equally recalcitrant. Any way I’ve eventually got them stripped down to recyclable electronic components, several chassis, miscellaneous metal which can also be recycled, and a bin bag full of garbage plastic. All the hard drives have been added to my collection of “spares”; all two dozen of them. Mind, all that work has created almost no free space! Now I’m wondering what we’ve got hidden in the loft!


Sunday 27
Just how did the England girlies manage to win the European football? They never seemed to have been in a winning position, always coming from behind, and then somehow mesmerising the opposition when it came to the penalty shootout. Did they deserve to win? I have no idea. Am I surprised? Yes, very. I guess at the end of the day it all comes down to who has the best self-belief and can keep the cooler head. On that score: well done Lionesses!


Monday 28
Is there no end to the excitement? Today, for both of us, the 6-monthly trip to the dentist for a check-up and the hygienist. Clean bill of health for both of us; so we’re just booked again for January.


Tuesday 29
Rescued this morning, one Harlequin Ladybird, which was trying to drown itself in a sink of soapy water. It seemed to recover OK and, having had a rest, was released outside.


Wednesday 30
It’s a medical week. Dentist on Monday (as above). Audiology for a new hearing test yesterday; followed by a call from my doctor’s to book my annual diabetes check-up. And this afternoon N and I were round at the doctors for a couple of hours – in our patient group capacity to talk to patients in the waiting area. We never talk to many people (most just want to sit and zone out) but the conversations we do have always provide useful feedback. At the same time we tidy up the book exchange and check over the noticeboards etc.


Thursday 31
Today the first sizeable chilli harvest of the year … I picked 15 Hot Lemon chillies; the largest are about 4cm long. OK they’re not huge, and this isn’t a gigantic haul (although we have already had two or three smaller picks), but it’s from two plants crammed in a pot on the study windowsill, and now in their third season.Considering the number chillies, both these and scotch bonnets, we have in the freezer it wouldn’t matter if we never grew another plant. These Hot Lemon Chillies aren’t very hot if you remove the seeds/pith, but if used raw do have a slight citrussy flavour.


Monthly Links

Here we go with this month’s collection of links to items you may have missed – and we have a good selection of both science and history this month.


Science, Technology, Natural World

Let’s start with a look at some counter-intuitive statistics from the Men’s Soccer Under-21 Euro competition.

Still on statistics, here’s another look at the Monty Hall Problem (above) & the meaning of life.

Now for optical illusions rather than mental illusions.

Now to geology … and there are some deep pulses beneath Africa.

Observers think it possible that some fragments of meteor have landed on Ben Nevis.

Cosmologists report that they’ve seen the gravitational waves from the largest ever seen merger of two black holes. [££££]

The Owl Galaxies (below) (what a wonderful name) are hiding a secret, but observers can’t agree on what the secret is.

And here’s a clump of quasars which really shouldn’t exist in such a small volume of space.

Now we have three items on the third (known) alien visitor to our solar system. The first from Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy Newsletter, then the Scientific American report [££££], and finally Scientific American also look at seven mysteries [££££] [LONG READ] about the object.

Now let’s come back down to the gory details of life on Earth. Around 13 million years ago there was a huge “terror bird” and one of them appears to have been killed by an equally huge reptile. Truly a battle of apex predators.

More up to date … How do various apes settle status disputes? [LONG READ]

Apparently evolution can explain human testicle size but says nothing about our unique chins.

And finally for this deep science section … every one of the thousands of rose cultivars is ultimately derived from one (or more) of three original species.


Health, Medicine

First a recap of something we already knew … Measles isn’t just dangerous, it can wipe your immune system’s memory leaving you exposed to infections from which you’ve previously recovered.

Plague (Yersinia pestis), aka the Black Death, is still alive and still causing illness and death – albeit at a much reduced level than 400+ years ago. [££££] [LONG READ]

On the curious variety of blood groups, which has uncovered Gwada-negative, the rarest blood group on Earth carried by just one person.

A look at how currency can affect clinical trials.


Art, Literature, Language, Music

A historian looks at the lack of female labia in sculpture. [LONG READ]

Meanwhile another historian takes a look at the history of adultery in art.


History, Archaeology, Anthropology

The first, almost complete, Denisovan skull has allowed researchers to suggest what our ancient cousin looked like. [££££]

A short step across to Neanderthals, and it appears that individual groups had their own local food cultures. [££££]

Once upon a time Pharaoh came in the Nile.

Also from ancient Egypt, in an unusual burial in a pot, the skeleton has undergone whole genome analysis.

A quick hop across to Peru where archaeologists have found a 3500-year-old city.

Back to Europe and one archaeologist points out that most Minoan art is made up – if only by joining the dots to fill in missing sections. [LONG READ]

Going Medieval looks at the Crusades, and how they were pretty much all failures. [LONG READ]

A buildings archaeologist shares some thoughts on cellars. [LONG READ]

Here an archaeologist discusses some of the medieval treasures in Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum. [LONG READ]

Here in the UK we’ve not long managed to escape from this year’s Wimbledon tennis championship, but in the 16th-century (real) tennis was a decidedly dangerous sport.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned the New River before, but in case you missed it, here’s its history. [LONG READ]

And lastly here, we’re right up to date with news of Denmark’s radical experiment in archaeology which embraces metal detectorists. [LONG READ]


London

Matt Brown has taken on the task of colouring John Roque’s 1746 map of London. Here’s the latest section Tyburn Tree to Hide Park Corner. [LONG READ]

Kew Gardens is going to close its iconic Palm House for five years from 2027 in order to give it a major make-over and conservation.

As many here will know GWR have been trialling a battery-driven train on my local branch line, and it seems this technology could bring significant benefits to many small lines.


Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

A microbiologist looks at how often one really should wash all your bedding.

Let’s finish with three useful and explanatory articles on naturism. First, naturism is only exhibitionism in disguise, isn’t it? Well no, actually.

Secondly a piece on navigating social nudity and group dynamics.

And finally … So what is wrong with tattoos or piercings which have traditionally been frowned upon in nudist settings? Spoiler: nothing.


Quotes for July

We have only a short list of quotes encountered this month …


I reflected, not for the first time, how mistaken it is to suppose there exists some “ordinary” world into which it is possible at will to wander. All human beings, driven as they are at different speeds by the same Furies, are at close range equally extraordinary.
[Anthony Powell; The Acceptance World]


Most “bad” people are actually good people lacking in skills to appropriately get what they legitimately need.
[Dr Chris Stevens]


Capitalism has invented something called “Cost of Living” where your very existence is an ever-inflating expense that you must overcome just to survive.
[unknown]


At all stages of life, people will gladly offer you unsolicited lists of things you “must” do, be, or have. Most of the time you can nod your head, walk away, and ignore them.
[unknown]


If you can imagine something, then someone in history has carved, drawn, painted, etched, handwritten, collaged and sewn it into pornography.
[Hannah Rose Woods]


And finally remember …
Hanlon’s Razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.


July Quiz Answers

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

Biology

  1. What is the fastest land animal? The cheetah
  2. How many hearts does an octopus have? 3
  3. Gentoo, Adelie and Macaroni are all species of what? Penguin
  4. What comic strip’s joke name for the row of spikes on a stegosaurus’s tail, the “thagomizer,” ended up becoming the official name? The Far Side
  5. Which fruit did many people in the Western world think was poisonous until 1820? Tomatoes
  6. What is the natural compound present in green plants that gives them their colour? Chlorophyll

Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2024.

This Month’s Poem

The Rolling English Road
GK Chesterton

Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode,
The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road.
A reeling road, a rolling road, that rambles round the shire,
And after him the parson ran, the sexton and the squire;
A merry road, a mazy road, and such as we did tread
The night we went to Birmingham by way of Beachy Head.

I knew no harm of Bonaparte and plenty of the Squire,
And for to fight the Frenchman I did not much desire;
But I did bash their baggonets because they came arrayed
To straighten out the crooked road an English drunkard made,
Where you and I went down the lane with ale-mugs in our hands,
The night we went to Glastonbury by way of Goodwin Sands.

His sins they were forgiven him; or why do flowers run
Behind him; and the hedges all strengthening in the sun?
The wild thing went from left to right and knew not which was which,
But the wild rose was above him when they found him in the ditch.
God pardon us, nor harden us; we did not see so clear
The night we went to Bannockburn by way of Brighton Pier.

My friends, we will not go again or ape an ancient rage,
Or stretch the folly of our youth to be the shame of age,
But walk with clearer eyes and ears this path that wandereth,
And see undrugged in evening light the decent inn of death;
For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen,
Before we go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green.

Find this poem online at Poetry Foundation

July Quiz Questions

Each month we’re posing six pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. As always, they’re designed to be difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers – so have a bit of fun.

Biology

  1. What is the fastest land animal?
  2. How many hearts does an octopus have?
  3. Gentoo, Adelie and Macaroni are all species of what?
  4. What comic strip’s joke name for the row of spikes on a stegosaurus’s tail, the “thagomizer,” ended up becoming the official name?
  5. Which fruit did many people in the Western world think was poisonous until 1820?
  6. What is the natural compound present in green plants that gives them their colour?

Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.

July 1925


Our look at some of the significant happenings 100 years ago this month.


1. Died. Erik Satie, 59, French composer

18. Adolf Hitler published Volume 1 of his autobiographical manifesto Mein Kampf.

20. An annular solar eclipse, visible across the south Pacific.

20. Born. Jacques Delors, French economist; in Paris (d.2023)

21. English racing motorist Malcolm Campbeli becomes the first man to exceed 150 mph (241 km/h) on land; at Pendine Sands, Wales he drives a Sunbeam 350HP automobiie at a two-way average speed of 150.33 mph (242 km/h)Sunbeam Bluebird

29. Born. Mikis Theodorakis, Greek songwriter; in Chios (d.2021)


Unblogged July

Being miscellaneous things from the past month.


Monday 1
Why do these things always happen late at night? Last evening at 11 N says we have no hot water. It was fine in late morning as we both had showers. I check: it’s the same low pressure error that we had last December. But can I remember exactly how to fix it? I’m certainly not confident. Spend 45 minutes hunting for my notes from that previous time – to no avail; they’re not in any of the places they should be. Very annoying; have to leave it to the morning. So this morning I message our boiler guy, who reassures me I had remembered correctly. Problem then fixed in about 2 minutes. Now I’ve made some notes; they’re stored in at least 4 places, and I’ve given N a copy. Also fixed boiler man to come next week to do a service.


Tuesday 2
I do just love days like today. I spent the whole afternoon checking that I have all the paperwork and information needed to complete our tax returns. Despite my careful housekeeping during the year there were inevitably gaps in what I needed. This entailed logging on to internet banking for everywhere we have money – and of course ending up having to double check every bank account. This isn’t just soul-destroying work, it’s so laborious when every institution needs 3-4-5 different codes before they’ll actually log you in. I’m knackered! Still, with luck I should be able to complete the actual tax returns quite quickly now. When I can make myself do it!


Wednesday 3
Another day at the coalface. So anything could have happened, and probably did. Of course, as it’s Wimbledon, it’s been wet on and off most of the day – and not very warm.


Thursday 4
So today is General Election day. Everyone, including the pollsters, seems to be predicting a landslide for Labour. I think it’s going to be a lot closer than that and, as I’ve said before, we could still have a minority Tory government, or even a small Tory majority. Sure there will be a lot of tactical voting, but if all the Reform and Tory voters the polls say are there decide to unite it’s going to be a close call. I think Joe Public will chicken out when he gets to vote and decide to go with the Devil he knows, who he thinks is going to put money in his pocket and not raise taxes. I hope, for everyone’s sake, that I’m wrong and I have a pleasant surprise. We’ll see, although all may not be clear until Saturday.
(For the record I’ve not seen the news today and this is written at about 19:40. I also live in what should be a safe Labour seat.)


Friday 5
OK, so I was wrong. Labour have a huge majority. The LibDems and the Greens have done well, but so, unfortunately, have Reform. It’s interesting that 4 of Reform’s 5 seats are in the less thinking areas around the east coast, especially Essex. It’s just a shame that the LibDems couldn’t relegate the Tories to be third party in Westminster. As for the Tory big-hitters who are left in Parliament, I don’t fancy any of them as Leader; I wouldn’t trust any of them, and many even less than that; what a choice of the bad, the ugly and the dangerous! It’s going to be interesting to see what happens now. The Labour government now have 5 years to turn things round; I wonder how much of it I’ll live to see?


Saturday 6
I know I say this every week, but what day is it? I’m totally thrown these days. It’s partly down to being retired, although I should be used to that by now. But N’s hospital days aren’t helping; it seems unnatural to be going to the hospital on a Saturday, as well as Tuesday and Thursday. It throws the weekend out of sync, which is in part down to the fact that we end up having a light, quick Saturday evening meal. We always used to cook something more special on Friday, Saturday, Sunday but the Saturday has now gone by the board. And I’ve not adjusted.


Sunday 7
Having talked yesterday about weekend food being disrupted, we did today revert to our usual good Sunday evening meal – we gave up cooking Sunday lunch many, many years ago in favour of eating in the evening (as we also do at Christmas). Anyway this week I’d bought a small piece of beef topside with no intention of roasting something so pathetic. This morning I cut it into slices and marinaded it in some lemon, brandy, olive oil and Worcs sauce with garlic and ginger. This evening I pan fried it for us to enjoy between bread with individual bowls of salad. This was followed by mixed fruit crumble (we had lots of fruit to use) and cream. All washed down with a non-celebratory bottle of Champagne. Verily it was a substantial repast.


Monday 8
Comes the gardener. I didn’t think he was going to get a lot done as it was forecast wet from lunchtime, but it stayed dry all day, and a lot was achieved keeping everything in order.
However comes not the man to service the boiler. Not entirely unusual, but a bloody nuisance. A courtesy call would have been helpful. What is it with plumbers etc.?


Tuesday 9
Yet another dismal day, in so many ways: definitely feeling like I need a new body and a new head, and – surprise, surprise – it’s been raining on and off all day. In fact it was raining so hard at one point this afternoon that I couldn’t see the hill which is no more than a mile away as the crow flies. It doesn’t help that I’ve not slept very well the last couple of nights: not lying awake but just not restful either. So I was quite grateful to have my morning meeting postponed until next week.


Wednesday 10
Finally N managed to get the Boy Cat to the vet for his dental, which had been outstanding since April. Poor little bugger had 8 extractions (on top of the 2 he’d had previously) and a load of stiches, and is going to be sore for a few days. He’s becoming a toothless senior cat at the not advanced age of 7. One doubts, however, that the lack of teeth will stop him guzzling dried food – does he not crunch it because his teeth hurt, or are his teeth bad because he doesn’t crunch dried food? But blimey, the dent in the credit card. Let’s hope the insurance pays up!


Thursday 11
Boy Cat seems to be recovering OK, although he’s still a bit dopey. But then he managed to tuck away a bowl of tinned tuna this morning and a bowl of fresh cooked cod this evening – it’s called a light diet! But all three cats are getting fed up with being kept in; we think they’ll have to be allowed their freedom again tomorrow.


Friday 12
It feels like it’s been a successful week, for once. Several meaty chunks of literary society work completed during the week, somewhat against the odds as I wasn’t looking forward to doing them. Boy Cat’s dental done, thanks to N, and a claim form sent off to the vets for them to complete their bit. And today I filed both our tax returns in under 1½ hours total. That was made possible by (a) spending a couple of hours last week ensuring I had all the information to hand, and (b) a good, easy to use, software package to pull it together and then file it online. Overall a result, so a small glass of sherry might be had while I cook Friday evening dinner.


Saturday 13
Why does everyone care so much about this godforsaken football match tomorrow? OK so England are in the Euro final. So what? Will it matter in 5 years (weeks?) time? Win or lose the country is going to be unbearable for the next week, at least; and I’ve no doubt there’ll be a few bars trashed tomorrow night, more if we lose. Actually I hope we do lose because the great unwashed supporters need to understand that we’re not God-given champions but a set of overpaid prima donnas. They all think it matters. It doesn’t. It’s a game, which like all the others has been ruined by money. (Which is why I now have no patience with cricket, which I used to love.)


Sunday 14
The melon experiment [see Culinary Adventures #111] concludes. I had another couple of slices following lunch, and again I have a sore throat, although not as bad as previously. I also gave N a piece (less than ¼ slice) and she later reported a slightly sore throat and slight queasiness. So it does look as if we are both, at least to some extent, intolerant of melon, although it clearly isn’t a full on allergy.


Monday 15
So we lost the football last night. What a surprise and what a shame – NOT. I’ve not been following the football, but it sounds as if England have been dull and lucky to scrape through each round. On the other hand, it seems that Southgate has been a decent manager: quiet, thoughtful and has got the most out of a set of less than effective players. Can England get further? From what little I’ve seen not without a completely new set of more dynamic players; but no need to change the manager.


Tuesday 16
Teatime this afternoon and I could hear some gentle but persistent rain. Looking up, the sun was shining. A rainbow? Yes. An absolute stunner, although I could see less than half as it disappeared behand our oak tree. Clear, wide and bright against a very dark cloud. So clear you could easily see off into the far red on the outside and into the far violet on the inside*, which is unusually clear. I managed to get a few quick snapshots with my little point-and-shoot camera on a sunset setting.**rainbow* I won’t say infra-red and ultra-violet as we can’t see them, but that’s what it felt like.
** It pays to always have a camera readily at arm’s reach; you never know what you’ll suddenly see. It also pays to know your camera settings.


Wednesday 17
Boy Cat went back to the vet for his post-op check-up, and got a clean bill of health. Which is more than our credit card did, as the insurance has declined to pay for his dental work on the basis that he’s had previous dental work before we changed to policy to the new provider, so it counts as a pre-existing condition. Such is the way insurance works, as I know well as my father worked in insurance and always said it amounted to gambling against the insurance company. Still at least we can afford it, and we’d do it for ourselves.


Thursday 18
Most of the day taken up with a long and difficult meeting with GP’s Practice Manager, and then documenting it. Lots of survey results, and recent data, which isn’t all good reading, so we were trying to get to see what we (the patient group) can do to help the Practice turn this round. Not easy; there are no easy answers; all GPs are under the same pressures – which was emphasised by a BBC News report this afternoon on the same issues being faced by a larger practice at the other end of the country!


Friday 19
A day for doing nothing except melting in as few clothes as possible. It was scorching hot. RAF Northolt (5km West) recorded 31°C, Heathrow Airport (10km SW) 30.6°C, and a weather station in Hatch End (7km NNW) 31.5°C. So we likely topped 30°C. Definitely the hottest day of the year but some way to go to get to 2022’s approx. 40°C which really was unreal. Cool showers required.


Saturday 20
Blimey it was hot and sticky last night. Despite having the fan on most of the night I was perpetually wet, so with nasty wet bedding. Gah! Thankfully much cooler today, as forecast, but still quite humid and sticky across the middle of the day. I had all the study windows open which was very pleasant, with the merest of breeze – and we had a shower of rain this afternoon. Otherwise a noteworthy day for being completely unnoteworthy!


Sunday 21
A day of odds & sods. Potting up my germinated date stones (7 of 11 have germinated). Unload images from the trail camera, which I didn’t do last week as it was raining heavily. Stocktake/audit the contents of the wine rack, only to discover we have a lot less wine than I thought, but a lot more spirits. And then cook dinner: salmon en croute, with broad beans, sugarsnap peas, and a green herb & cream sauce (this latter needs to be improved), followed by nectarine tarts & cream, with a bottle of Crémant de Bourgogne. Of course the cats helped with the salmon and the cream!


Monday 22
Cometh the gardener to cut the hay meadow of a lawn. This upset the cats as they now have nowhere to hide on the savannah! It’s surprising how much better, and bigger, everything looks with a cut lawn. It’s a bit brown where it’s been long, but a solid night’s rain and it’ll soon green up.


Tuesday 23
Well that’s the biannual (maybe triannual) wine order done. As usual Champagne** (just 6 bottles) from Majestic; they always have pretty decent Champagne at reasonable prices. Some Crémant on this week’s supermarket order; again they do a good one at a sensible price. And another 3 dozen of various from the Wine Society. It’s only money; and it’s something we enjoy at a weekend. The next order will probably be in the run up to Christmas, unless we run out of Champagne first!

** In the words of Hester Browne “Always keep a bottle of Champagne in the fridge for special occasions. Sometimes, the special occasion is that you’ve got a bottle of Champagne in the fridge.”


Wednesday 24
Sitting outside late this afternoon over tea and cake and there were two red kites circling overhead. They appeared to be a pair as one was that bit smaller, so probably a male (unless a juvenile); and they were doing acrobatic close flying manoeuvres. They’re big birds: a passing gull (probably black-headed gull) was not impressed but soon backed off as the kites were noticeably bigger. They eventually drifted off towards the west. It would be interesting to know if they’re nesting anywhere close.


Thursday 25
Last thing yesterday N came in from the garden bearing a feather. A Ring-Neck Parakeet feather – and that after I had commented earlier in the day that I was surprised never to have found one. Unexpectedly it was mostly dark grey but with green along the leading edge and tip. Checking, it is obviously a primary (wing feather), probably P1 as it was about 13cm. Out of curiosity I checked it under UV light, and the quill is very slightly fluorescent. I managed to photograph it under normal light but couldn’t also get a good shot with my little UV torch.parakeet feather


Friday 26
Today was the day the supermarket delivery system tipped me over the edge. The “warehouse” (sorry, fulfilment centre) which supplies the deliveries holds a much smaller range than even a medium size store. This is a retrograde step as deliveries used to be fulfilled from the nearest large store. There are items I can get via UberEats (yeuch!) quick delivery from our nearest (medium size) store, but which the fulfilment centre doesn’t carry. This seems daft in the extreme. And the fulfilment centre range seems to be dwindling, with products just disappearing. All this has been annoying me for a long time. But recently the fulfilment centre, and the UberEats delivery, have done some stupid things. This culminated in both Customer Services and the Executive Office getting a very stroppy (but polite) email. What I didn’t say, but could have done, is that the whole offering is predicated on ready meals and barbeque fodder, all of which is over-processed rubbish. I don’t expect anything much to happen as a result, but if they aren’t told nothing will change. We’ll see what management bollox they come up with!


Saturday 27
The Ring-Neck Parakeets have been squawking non-stop all day! N says they’ve half emptied the large seed feeder in under 24 hours. One, this evening, was flying around right by the study window; almost as if it was trying to land on the open casement window. There was a loud “bonk” so I think it flew hard into next door’s bedroom window; it fluttered off into the ornamental crab apple tree and sat there looing dazed for a few minutes.


Sunday 28
More natural history … Late last evening I found a small parasitic wasp which had self-immolated in my bedtime mug of tea. The poor thing must have thought it has a nice piece of wood to sit on, but instead found itself instantly cooked. Anyway I rescued it, but CPR was not effective. I kept the corpse to photograph today.tiny black parasitic wasp, with spread iridescent wings, and red-brown legs, and a long ovipositor; wingspan approx. 12mmWhen you look at them, these things are rather splendid (for all their gruesome lifestyle). The engineering is incredible, considering it had a wingspan of about 12mm. It’s even more incredible when you see a tiny, tiny gnat – how can legs that thin be constructed (with exoskeleton, muscle and nerves) let alone work?


Monday 29
Blimey, it’s been hot again today, although with weather stations locally recording only 29°C, not quite as hot as the 30° of a couple of weeks ago. But it must have been even more humid; it was unbearably sticky this afternoon, to the extent that I was bathed is sweat – horrid! I sat outside for 10 minutes after lunch and had to give up and come indoors as it was just too hot. Even now, in mid-evening, it hasn’t cooled a lot. Tomorrow is forecast to be about the same; then it gets gradually cooler with some rain and likely thunderstorms. We need something to clear the air.
In other news we took delivery of our Wine Society order at 08:10 this morning. The wine rack now looks a lot healthier!


Tuesday 30
Another blisteringly hot day, about 2°C hotter than yesterday, so probably the hottest day of the year so far. It left me feeling completely knocked out. Even lying in the bedroom in front of the fan didn’t help much; and I must have drunk at least 3 litres of water during the afternoon. It’s no wonder I have a headache.


Wednesday 31
Late last night a rather pretty yellow/brown moth in the bedroom – probably a Yellow Shell (Camptogramma bilineata bilineata). Wingspan about 25-30mm. I photographed it with my phone, so not a brilliant picture.yellow & brown mothIt didn’t want to be caught and put out the window, so as the windows were open I left it sitting on the ceiling and it had disappeared by this morning.


July 1924

Our look at some of the significant happenings 100 years ago this month.


2. Marconi described his new beam system of short-wave wireless transmission at the Royal Society of Arts in London. This could transmit more words per day than previously possible, and more economically, resulting in a general reduction in telegraph rates.


2. Portuguese Prime Minister Álvaro de Castro fought a sword duel with Flight Captain Ribeiro over a political dispute. Ribiero was wounded in the arm.


6. The first photograph is sent across the Atlantic by radio.


10. Denmark gains Greenland when Norway ends its claim.


12. The original trademark application for Kleenex was filed by Kimberly-Clark Corporation.