Ulmer Münster

Just been reading about Ulm Minster in 'Germania', noticed yesterday at reference 1, with the Minster being the subject of references 2 and 3. It seems that this largely brick structure, started in the middle ages but not completed until the late nineteenth century, was once the fifth tallest building in the world. Left the Roman fold early in the sixteenth century and now of the Evangelical-Lutheran persuasion - rather disturbing my assumption that north Germans were prots and south Germans were papists.

The author of Germania managed all 750 or so steps to the top of the steeple, while I am quite sure that while I could probably still manage the steps if I took them slowly, I almost certainly could not manage the attendant vertigo.

Google - showing right spire left and west

Wikipedia - looking south

Inside the spire - one

Inside the spire - two

Nice picture but wrong spire

It took me a while to work out that the last of the snaps above was the wrong spire, that is to say one of the two on top of the twin east towers, perhaps spanning what we would call the crossing.

While the right spire looks all far too open plan for me. I can manage the similarly open plan staircase to the new gallery in the triforium of Westminster Abbey, but that is very much lower and a proper staircase, such as might be found in a regular building. I don't think I could manage very much of this one at all.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/01/history-by-enumeration.html.

Reference 2: https://www.ulmer-muenster.de/.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulm_Minster.

Herald Copse

Last Wednesday morning saw our first visit of the year to Herald Copse for the snowdrops, a place last mentioned a few weeks ago at reference 1.

A misty morning. The central field, long grass in the summer, was showing signs of wear around the edges, with plenty of mud. Perhaps some of the many dog walkers who use Nonsuch Park are a bit thoughtless about using the grass when the ground is wet and can't take it.

Followed our usual route, across to the site of Henry's Palace, hang left around what had been a park keeper's cottage, east along the avenue and then hang left again to head north up to Herald Copse. Lots of bits of conversation with doggy people - including one cheerful lady with democratic accents who didn't mind at all that I thought her handsome gun dog looked rather like a fox hound. Something foreign I think, but I forget what.

A fine clump of thistles, just past the car park

Herald Copse, southern portion

Google view

Marked in red highlighter on the snap above. The snowdrops were certainly up and running, particularly in the southern portion of the copse, but probably a fortnight to go before they would be in full flood.

Primroses

Yew enclosure

Tea and cake in the café - which continues to offer a good range of cake. And we managed to get a seat inside, which was good, it being a bit cold for al fresco. Onto the gardens, formal and wild, to the south of the house, where we found the odd clump of primroses, but no daffodils under the trees. Also a rather splendid yew enclosure, the result of which looked like some extensive restorative pruning & planting. It should look pretty good in ten years time.

My second attempt at snapping catkins this year

Mist over the central field, from the south

The key

Back to the car. Decided not to walk home, which was just as well as it turned out, as when we got home BH found that she had mislaid her car keys. She went off to her next engagement, while I returned to the park to find that the force was with me on this occasion and the key was still where it had fallen, some half an hour or so later. Which we were very pleased about, our understanding being that a replacement, for some very important reason, cost around £150, not a trivial sum, even for retired civil servants on something not that far short of half pay.

Stalled reconstruction

Google view

Later in the day, I took a turn around town, taking in another stalled construction project on the return leg up Hook Road. A small block of garages from, I guess, the 1920's, the subject of a stalled reconstruction project. Possibly something to do with the Amber Group, an Epsom plumbing company, which may have some interest in the back land, that is to say the patch of what looks like black plastic sheeting in the snap above. With the derelict garages being bottom right, and what looks like access connecting the two.

On to pay a visit to the newly reopened Blenheim, known in these pages as TB. At around 1630 fairly quite, with maybe half a dozen of us being looked after by a very pleasant young day barmaid, a local resident with two girls in one of the local primary school's, the same one, as it happened, as our own children did time at - with these two not best pleased at the moment, having been made camels in the Christmas show for parents, rather than the higher status donkeys. Quite a handsome refurbishment, done with the idea that sitting round the bar was bad, so there was plenty of open space around the more or less empty bar, with all the seats and so forth arranged around the outside. Fine when the place is busy, but a bit bleak when it is not, as was the case on this occasion. And I broke the new rules by fetching a bar stool to the bar from the periphery. The bar itself had been re-polished but was otherwise unchanged.

The same sauvignon blanc as was noticed back in September, from the Rifleman down the road and noticed at reference 3. But rather cheaper at £5 a pop, that is to say large glass. Optics all gone and replaced by the presently fashionable pouring bottles - with one advantage of this being that a single bar person had a much better view of the whole house, which made running the bar single handed a more practical proposition. Plumbing for real ale said to be still present and real ale said to be on its way - not that real ale is any use to me any more. I was amused that they still offered the Newcastle Brown as a substitute in the meantime, the substitute that I used myself for a good chunk of my time there. But the punter concerned on this occasion was not impressed.

Plenty of CCTV, of much the same sort as is to be found in tube trains and bars everywhere; that is to say little red hemispheres stuck to walls and ceilings.

Chablis

Haggis

Home for an early Burns' Night supper with both Haggis and Chablis from Sainsbury's. Cooked in the pan shown, but cooked while mostly still in its plastic wrapper, standing in a little water and covered with foil. Boiled vegetables, naturally. All very good.

The wine may be a product blended in France for Sainsbury's. So essentially a Sainsbury's own brand product, but none the worse for that. A lot better than a lot of the cheaper Chablis to be had - which I tend to avoid. While in the Hedonism place in Davies Street they seem to think you need to spend at least £100 a bottle to get something drinkable - and I must say the sample I had for a tenner was very nice. But not so nice that I stumped up a hundred, settling for something much more modest, not a Chablis at all.

From where I associate to my affectation for blended products, particularly in the whisky department. Blending being a well known and successful way of delivering a reliable product, riding over the vagaries of the natural world and weather.

PS: I learned later that Greene King had been a bit careless when they commissioned the smart new pub sign, with the horse depicted thereon being a jump horse rather than a flat horse. Which carelessness has no doubt been the subject of much comment among former customers. The van trade which seems to have gone missing.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/01/fake-96.html.

Reference 2: https://www.amberplumbers.co.uk/index.html. Their owner is said to be Amber Marsella Ltd, but it not clear whether this entity only exists for tax purposes or what. No independent existence that I can see.

Reference 3: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/09/celebration.html.

History by enumeration

I recently finished reading a book about Germany - reference 1 - by the same chap who put his name to the best selling reference 3. At the time the (presumably busy) Director of the British Museum, so while I get the impression he actually wrote this second book, I imagine most of the legwork for the first was done by BBC and BM staffers.

I have only dipped into reference 3, which was OK in its way, but I found this new book (new-to-me that is, actually picked up from Raynes Park platform library) much more satisfactory: perhaps the difference is that we get thirty topics in 600 pages rather than a hundred objects in 700 pages.

One of the topics was that touched on at reference 2. Another is the sort of handcart used by many of the refugees and otherwise displaced Germans at the end of the second war. Another is the invention of the printing press. Another is the iron cross and its originally austere and decent symbolism. And with nearly all of these topics full of interest.

But some of the early ones which really caught my notice were about important German cities which are no longer German: Konigsberg (now Kaliningrad, a Russian naval enclave on the Baltic), Breslau (now Wrocław in Poland), Strasbourg (now French) and Prague (now Czech). Not to mention Aachen which the French coveted along with Charlemagne and all the Germans who settled, by invitation, along the Volga. The first of these was badly damaged during the second world war, but the Soviets, while getting rid of most traces of the Germans, did restore the German cathedral. And, from an amusing aside, I learn that the Soviets did not bother to replace all the drain covers, embossed with the name of their German maker to this day.

I was reminded of the French aggression against Germans and Germany running from the time of Louis XIV to Napoleon I, not to mention the lesser Napoleon, the Napoleon III vanquished by the Germans at Sedan in 1870. Which goes some way to explaining what happened subsequently - and we should be grateful that the French and Germans are trying very hard to have a grown up relationship.

Aggression which is partly balanced by the fact that the victories which put the 'great' into Frederick were victories against other Germans. Better liked in the England of his day than in Saxony or Bavaria. Which reminds me that many higher class Germans in these last two spoke French rather than German right through the nineteenth century. For which see the novel noticed at reference 9.

Another sort of growing up is the way the Germans have tried hard to moderate the sort of triumphalism of which there is a great deal in the UK and in France - a triumphalism which seems rather out of place now. The monument snapped above excepted. One example being the blank restoration of one of the large panels on the triumphal arch at Munich, otherwise the Victory Gate. Although I don't suppose President Macron would get much more support for renaming all the big roads in Paris presently named for Napoleonic marshals than he got for his save-the-planet policy of jacking up the price of petrol.

Next move: revisit reference 7. Will I find it more irritating than informative? Will I give up and reread the present book instead?

PS: reference 4 is a venture along the same lines by a Frenchman, noticed at reference 5. A book which I continue to dip into from time to time.

Reference 1: Germany: Memories of a Nation - Neil MacGregor - 2014

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/10/tombstone.html.

Reference 3: A History of the World in 100 Objects - Neil MacGregor - 2010.

Reference 4: Histoire Mondiale de la France - Patrick Boucheron - 2017.

Reference 5: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/05/metermorphosen.html.

Reference 6: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2011/03/mainly-germania.html.

Reference 7: Germania - Simon Winder - 2011. The book of reference 6.

Reference 8: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2011/03/monument.html. An appendage to reference 6. With the superior picture of the monument to the Battle of Leipzig above taken from the museum reference therein. Must have been a bit lazy last time around.

Reference 9: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2011/04/health-safety.html.

Trolley 377

The rules committee allowed this marginal trolley, captured outside our Costcutter, on grounds of novelty. One of the half dozen or so usually kept inside for serious shoppers.

Off camera to the left we had two delivery lorries, one very large and one just large. Are these lorries travelling emporia from which shops like this one stock up on an ad-hoc basis, in the way of housewives stocking up from the grocers' vans that plied housing estates when I was young, or are they all loaded up at dawn on the basis of overnight till records from the shops on their round - with no possibility of change once the lorry has left the distribution warehouse?

From where I associated to a minicab driver from many years ago who had once made a living out of delivering bananas to shops, on his own account. He would buy the bananas from banana ripeners and them peddle them to the shops in his area. Banana ripeners clearly still exist, with the first two found by Bing included below. But what about one man and a van type operations between them and small shops?

PS: note the pedal, left over from the days when I used to wear toe-clips to cycle. I have been meaning to get them changed to something more suitable for no-clip cycling for years, but somehow never get around to it. Needless to say, my collection of antique cycle tools does not run to anything which can move today's pedals.

Reference 1: https://www.jnfoxandsonsltd.co.uk/index.html.

Reference 2: https://www.bfsbananas.com/.

National Power

The notice from Power Networks noticed at reference 1 said no generators for private consumption. A rule which has been relaxed during operations round the back of Bourne Hall.

Operations which also involved temporary lights at the three-way junction. With additional lights for the pedestrian crossing side of things. Presumably, these days, the ganger man just plugs the lights into his laptop and does something click n'collect flavoured with it to tell the lights what he wants them to do.

Reference 1: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/01/fake-98.html.

Trolley 376

Captured outside the Ford Centre in Blenheim Road, having been spotted in the distance the day before.

Large new recovery vehicle present. Large showman's caravan missing. The chap checking a car out on the Ford forecourt had very little English so I was not able to find out what had happened to it. Presumably not a customer facing role, despite his presence on the forecourt.

A bit further on, a couple of crows, not jackdaws so perhaps rooks. The larger was standing very quiet, head down, while the other groomed said head with its beak. Rather a vulnerable pose for the first if the second throws a wobbly, so perhaps some kind of precursor to mating. For a squirrel version from last year, see reference 1.

Trolley returned to what looked like a fairly busy Sainsbury's.

I thought to visit the 'Fresh Kitchen' operation upstairs, noticed at reference 2, to find a rather smart and rather large café offering drinks and snacks - that is to say cakes, buns, biscuits, toasties and modest fry-ups. I thought rather attractive, with the seating in three slightly separate zones which would keep the noise down. But not many customers. Perhaps the place doubles as the staff canteen, which would make sense from the point of view of provision. Perhaps it also does builders first thing in the morning, giving them a working clothes exemption, most of the traditional builders' cafés having closed, not that many of them ever did offer copious parking.

A space carved out of the main shed at first floor level. Views over some of the shopping areas.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/07/grooming.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/10/trolley-318.html.

Winter garden

A week ago to see the winter garden at Polesden Lacey, to correct the rather not very satisfactory taste left by the Christmas Grotto, noticed at reference 1. Clearly a busy day as I found time to secure warfarin supplies (before Brexit) and to capture two trolleys before the off - with the second being noticed at reference 2.

The gatehouse

First thought was at the gatehouse, snapped above by the Google Street View people. Great ugly thing, serving no apparent purpose other than marking the boundary and providing a frame off which to hang the gates, presumably rarely used as the place is open getting on for every day of the year. Just Christmas Day excepted? Just think of all those hundreds of pensioner volunteers with nothing better to do. All 800 of them according to reference 1.

Was it a job creation scheme put on by a kindly landowner during the depressed years between the wars? Did the gatehouse once contain little guard rooms where the gatekeepers logged comings and goings in some huge leather bound ledger? And who gets to live in the accompanying lodge right?

The main car park was nearly full at 1115 and it was clearly time to open the overflow car park in the field next door. And we learned later that the both car parks filled up the next day, Sunday, and that people were being turned away. People who might have driven a long way to visit the winter gardens, the shop - or perhaps just to walk their dog.

Lots of all kinds of people to go with the cars. Quite a lot of people in wheel chairs. Quite a lot of small children. At least one party of people from what sounded like the US. Perhaps from the nearby school for same. Apparently one of a small family of such schools, with the website being a little coy about the US connection. Even about what 'ACS' stands for - with my guess being American Community School - a usage not to be found among the near 200 suggestions offered by Bing. A usage which always irritates my Canadian relations, who think of themselves as Americans too. See reference 3.

Hellebores at entrance

Box?

Box like edging to a rose bed. Looking very healthy, with no caterpillar or other damage, and not quite like regular box.

Winter aconites one

Winter aconites two

The star turn in the winter garden was a display of winter aconites, far more flashy than the display you get in the wild part of Hampton Court Palace gardens. Not fully out, but doing pretty well. Plus a sprinkling of snowdrops and cyclamen. These last in foliage rather than flower mode.

Escaped from the Isle of Wight

Some modest echiums, a grand display of which is to be found at Ventnor Botanic Gardens, the place which used to be a TB sanatorium when TB was rampant - a disease which is very visible in the early Maigret stories, written in the 1930's. Last noticed at reference 4.

Start of the yew walk, looking back towards the house

A bit further on

Root. In memoriam, Monica Poole

Headed east into the trees, then back along the yew walk, running above the formal hedge overlooking the downland. With the formal walk which goes with it - to the left in the first snap above - probably rather the worse for wear and winter. Probably closed. Plenty of yew trees and bushes, nothing quite on the scale of those at Newlands Corner, noticed in August last year.

Big trees

Trunk one

Trunk two

Trunk three

Base

Leaves, for the avoidance of doubt

Scar

Big trees looked well in the bright morning light. Scar left by trenching in the power for the Christmas sheds not so well. See reference 1.

Promise of daffodils to come

Sturdy lights

Lights had been strung up all over the place to service the grotto. Looked like fairly serious stuff and must have cost a fortune. Which I might not like, but apparently the takings in the shop during grotto time were double what they had been the corresponding period last year, despite some moaning about the poor quality of the sheds. And takings in the shop are no doubt what matters to the senior management team, or whatever such people are called in National Trust speak.

Decided against both elevenses and lunch on this occasion, choosing to head home instead, with our car park slot being snapped up as we left it.

Came across a new to us Infiniti car on the way home. Bing tells me that this is a luxury brand from Nissan which has been discontinued in this country. With the car executive now holed up in the Lebanon having had ideas about jumping onto the eco-band-waggon and going electric. Which this one certainly was not, having two large exhaust pipes peeping out. Not much to be gleaned from reference 5. Reference 6 rather better. Both quite keen on arty shots of mountains and forests.

And then there was a large pot hole under the West Street bridge. One of the lowest spots in Epsom, so perhaps the heavy rain had got to it, despite the soakaway into the chalk under.

And amused after we got home, to read in the DT that it was not very clever to keep more than perhaps 10% of your money in the UK. Better pickings elsewhere. And this from the newspaper which trumpets the glory of Brexit with Boris. The newspaper which, according to a rather sour piece in the current NTRB, once used to pride itself on the accuracy of its reporting. Journalists guilty of error up before the editor for wigging or worse.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/11/grotto.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/01/trolley-368.html.

Reference 3: https://www.acs-schools.com/#1.

Reference 4: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-big-tomb.html.

Reference 5: https://www.infiniti.co.uk/.

Reference 6: https://www.infiniti.com/.