Kubla Khan
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round;
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
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 Artists Born in 18th Century
Just to prove that I occasionally do some real photography these days … Earlier in the week I was sitting outside our local hospital, waiting to be picked up after having just interviewed my wife’s consultant. Unusually for me the only camera I had on me was my mobile phone – I normally carry at least a small “point-and-shoot”. But I thought, let’s see if I can take enough OK shots with my phone to make a panorama.
I like this this joiner technique, which I originally saw done by David Hockney. The angled edges and not quite perfect fit of the images make the whole thing interesting.
Here’s the result. It’s turned out better than I expected.
If animals could speak, mankind would weep.
Anthony Douglas Williams
As well as everything else, each month I offer you something to think about and get the brain working. This month …
Observing a green apple increases the likelihood of all ravens being black.
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.
General History
Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.
It’s summer, so the supermarket have gooseberries. Mostly green gooseberries, although the other week they did have some gorgeous red desert ones. Anyway they need to be encouraged to these seasonal (and local) fruit and veg options, so we try to buy them when we can; hence the enjoyment of English asparagus (see many earlier posts). The supermarket also already have English plums – blimey they’re early even for Opal – so we’re on those as soon as they arrive.
Before anyone says it, no I can’t be doing with growing my own (I wish I could); if nothing else my back won’t do it. Besides gooseberries are always destroyed by sawfly; ours were at home when I was a kid, and the couple of bushes we had when we were first here were destroyed too; there really isn’t room in our garden for a fruit cage (we could have done it instead of the pond, I guess) and I won’t use “industrial” pesticides.
Anyway, back to gooseberries. Having made gooseberry tart the last couple of weeks, this week I decided to try something I’ve never done before: Gooseberry Fool. As usual I merged several recipes and then made it up as I went along. So this is how it went.
Gooseberry Fool
Serves: 4 for a normal size sweet course
Preparation: 10 minutes and 15 minutes, plus chilling
Cooking: 10 minutes
For the Gooseberries
For the Cream
What to do …
Notes
Our look at some of the significant happenings 100 years ago this month.
2. Born. Alan Whicker, British journalist and television host (Whicker’s World), in Cairo, Egypt (d.2013)
7. The United Kingdom passed the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act, making it illegal to sell peerages or any other honours.
12. Born. Twin brothers Norris (d.2004) & Ross McWhirter (d.1975), founders of Guinness World Records, in Winchmore Hill, London
15. Born. Oscar Peterson, Canadian jazz pianist (d.2007)
18. Born. Brian Aldiss, science fiction writer, in East Dereham, Norfolk (d.2017)
22. Born. Honor Blackman, English actress (d.2020)
27. Born. Nat Lofthouse, footballer, in Bolton, Lancashire, England (d.2011)
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.)
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.
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.![](https://zenmischief.com/wp-content/uploads/ladybird-29-1S.jpg")
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.