Woke this morning to what seemed at the time, that is to say about an hour ago, a very important dream about running a farm and raising farm animals, not for human consumption. All of which had a very important bearing on the climate change matters advertised at reference 1.
A few minutes later this had morphed into building the number of people on the planet into the simple model exhibited there. More people being a bad thing, at least in so far as they increased the consumption of fossil fuel.
And now it has nearly all vanished. It no longer seems important and nothing else remains of it. Beyond the thought that it was curious that whatever it was had seemed so very important not so very many minutes ago.
Reference 1: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/07/advertisement.html.
Wednesday, 31 July 2019
Two failures
At some point after our return from the Isle of Wight, BH read that the stations of the cross for the Catholic church in Garlands Road in Leatherhead had been made in Eric Gill's workshop in Ditchling, under the supervision of the great man himself. See for example, reference 1. So we thought we would take ourselves off there to take a look. Would they look anything like the ones in the very much larger and grander Westminster Cathedral? See, for example, reference 2.
The Church of our Lady and St. Peter turned out to be quite small, and closed. But we good look through the glass screen at what looked like a dignified and decent place of worship. With a fine antepedium, that is to say a hanging for the front of the altar, depicting the unity of Mass with Christ and his Apostles. Just about visible in the snap below.
Stations of the cross clearly on a much smaller scale than those in town, but not really visible from the wrong side of the glass. Something to be taken in on another occasion.
But someone had taken a lot of trouble with the small garden, which looked very well. Books were accessible, on our side of the plate glass screen, part of which is visible left in the snap above, but the font and the other church treasures were behind a serious looking grill.
Being closed rather unusual, with our experience being that Catholic churches work hard to stay open, with their being open a lot more often than Anglican churches. But by way of spiritual consolation, we took ourselves off to the old parish church of St. Giles of Ashtead.
I had remembered that one approached through an avenue, but I had not remembered the size and number of trees in the avenue and otherwise about the place, with one or two of them, sadly, deceased.
Not sure that I had noticed this second yew at the time, but perhaps part of an unconscious prompt for the more serious yew spotting expedition to Newlands Corner which followed, and which will be noticed in due course. At the time, we were more interested in the educational arrangements for the children of the toffs of north Surrey, epitomised by the City of London Freemans, rear left. Up to around £10,000 a term for boarders, plus various extras.
Unfortunately, the front door was very much shut, so we did not even get to see inside, let alone get inside. But the outing had been worth it for the trees alone.
Reference 1: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/08/ditchling.html.
Reference 2: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/05/cheese.html.
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| Antepedium, lifted from the church website |
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| Snapped through glass |
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| Front garden |
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| Accessible books |
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| Side garden |
But someone had taken a lot of trouble with the small garden, which looked very well. Books were accessible, on our side of the plate glass screen, part of which is visible left in the snap above, but the font and the other church treasures were behind a serious looking grill.
Being closed rather unusual, with our experience being that Catholic churches work hard to stay open, with their being open a lot more often than Anglican churches. But by way of spiritual consolation, we took ourselves off to the old parish church of St. Giles of Ashtead.
I had remembered that one approached through an avenue, but I had not remembered the size and number of trees in the avenue and otherwise about the place, with one or two of them, sadly, deceased.
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| One of the larger avenue trees |
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| Yew, front |
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| Yew, back |
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| Yew second |
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| Extensive graveyard |
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| Front door |
Reference 1: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/08/ditchling.html.
Reference 2: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/05/cheese.html.
Roman villa
We managed to get to Brading Roman Villa this year, with last year's visit not getting past their café for tea and cake - probably one of the chewy slices described at Roman somethings, a sort of fruity flapjack set on a layer of chocolate and probably containing more calories than a Mars Bar. A fine café with splendid views over the down lands to the south.
BH claims to remember going to the Villa before the current, rather grand shed was built in 2004, but the best I can do is notice of a visit in 2008 at reference 1. Perhaps every other year after that.
On entry, I was struck by a circular replica of part of a mosaic, about 4 feet in diameter, possibly the head in the screen shot above, taken from reference 2. A bit strong at several thousand pounds, but it might do rather well as a centrepiece in the floor of a casual dining area - provided you had a big enough house and went in for casual dining. Screen shot also included as an example of the bad habit of graphics designers of placing text on top of pictures, with the result that the text is more or less illegible. The booklets sold by heritage sites seem to do it quite a lot too. Does no-one tell these designers that this particular wheeze does not work?
One of things that Villa does is to put on travelling exhibitions from elsewhere in the museum world, and some of them have been very good. Put on in a specially secured room at the back of the villa, a room boasting a door which would not disgrace a bank. This year the subject of the display was hoards, mostly of coins. So we learned that defacing of coins and weapons before placing them in a grave was common, presumably, at least in part, to deter grave robbers. That a single hoard might contain as many as 50,000 coins packed into leather bags. That a small screw topped bottle containing a two or three inch stack of 20 dollar gold coins had been turned up in Hackney. And one set of coins, curiously, had been donated by HM Treasury in 1973, perhaps some obscure working of the treasure trove system.
We were left wondering how ancient coins were made, with BH opting for moulding and with my opting for stamping them out of strips of metal. Inquiring this afternoon, the top of Bing's list seems to be coin dealers who include a bit of history in their websites, for example reference 3. The important bit seems to be that coins were stamped out of blanks using a top die, rather like a chisel or screwdriver in shape, and a bottom die which acted as the anvil. Making the blanks and the dies was another matter, and may well have involved some moulding. But I think I win on points.
We also took their roast chicken lunch, very much the sort of thing you might get in a public house, for example, Wetherspoons, but good value and served in quiet, pleasant surroundings.
We then spent a bit of time looking at the remains of the villa itself. Which included a poster which told us that the roof of one of the bigger outbuildings would have weighed of the order of 100 tons - which sounded a lot to me. Guessing, the tiles on our roof, replaced maybe ten years ago, might weigh around 10 tons. And checking with Bing, he says modern roofing tiles might come in at 10lbs/square foot, which works out about right if we say our roof amounts to a 60 feet square. So something to be checked with the Roman Villa people next time we are there. Maybe an email a little before we arrive to warm them up?
We closed the visit by spitting down the well, said to be around 60 feet deep, and seeing how long it was before one heard the splash. Which turned out to be several seconds. Something else to be done properly, with a stop watch (or telephonic substitute), next time we are there.
Home to take a walk across Brading marshes, starting from Quay Lane and heading in a St. Helens direction. The first item being a mystery tree in someone's garden. A small deciduous tree with compound leaves, ash-like but not ash. My this afternoon's guess of acacia fits the images turned up by Bing, but I do not feel confident enough to claim a full tweet yet.
Lots of swallows and crows. And several old iron opportunities, although no old drain covers to be seen. Perhaps if we had gone back during the week, they would have turned something up, but we did not get around to it.
And I came across a private fishing lake towards the St. Helens end of the Eastern Yar, the river which once flowed into Brading Haven, an important harbour in the middle ages, before the sheep cattle grazers moved in.
And so home.
Reference 1: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=brading+archeological+process.
Reference 2: https://bradingromanvilla.org.uk/.
Reference 3: https://www.capstonecoins.com/the-making-of-ancient-coins/.
Reference 4: https://www.bradingcommunityarchive.com/history-of-brading/.
BH claims to remember going to the Villa before the current, rather grand shed was built in 2004, but the best I can do is notice of a visit in 2008 at reference 1. Perhaps every other year after that.
 |
| A web page |
One of things that Villa does is to put on travelling exhibitions from elsewhere in the museum world, and some of them have been very good. Put on in a specially secured room at the back of the villa, a room boasting a door which would not disgrace a bank. This year the subject of the display was hoards, mostly of coins. So we learned that defacing of coins and weapons before placing them in a grave was common, presumably, at least in part, to deter grave robbers. That a single hoard might contain as many as 50,000 coins packed into leather bags. That a small screw topped bottle containing a two or three inch stack of 20 dollar gold coins had been turned up in Hackney. And one set of coins, curiously, had been donated by HM Treasury in 1973, perhaps some obscure working of the treasure trove system.
We were left wondering how ancient coins were made, with BH opting for moulding and with my opting for stamping them out of strips of metal. Inquiring this afternoon, the top of Bing's list seems to be coin dealers who include a bit of history in their websites, for example reference 3. The important bit seems to be that coins were stamped out of blanks using a top die, rather like a chisel or screwdriver in shape, and a bottom die which acted as the anvil. Making the blanks and the dies was another matter, and may well have involved some moulding. But I think I win on points.
We also took their roast chicken lunch, very much the sort of thing you might get in a public house, for example, Wetherspoons, but good value and served in quiet, pleasant surroundings.
We then spent a bit of time looking at the remains of the villa itself. Which included a poster which told us that the roof of one of the bigger outbuildings would have weighed of the order of 100 tons - which sounded a lot to me. Guessing, the tiles on our roof, replaced maybe ten years ago, might weigh around 10 tons. And checking with Bing, he says modern roofing tiles might come in at 10lbs/square foot, which works out about right if we say our roof amounts to a 60 feet square. So something to be checked with the Roman Villa people next time we are there. Maybe an email a little before we arrive to warm them up?
We closed the visit by spitting down the well, said to be around 60 feet deep, and seeing how long it was before one heard the splash. Which turned out to be several seconds. Something else to be done properly, with a stop watch (or telephonic substitute), next time we are there.
 |
| Mystery tree |
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| Mystery tree enlarged |
Lots of swallows and crows. And several old iron opportunities, although no old drain covers to be seen. Perhaps if we had gone back during the week, they would have turned something up, but we did not get around to it.
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| Lake one |
 |
| Lake two |
And so home.
Reference 1: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=brading+archeological+process.
Reference 2: https://bradingromanvilla.org.uk/.
Reference 3: https://www.capstonecoins.com/the-making-of-ancient-coins/.
Reference 4: https://www.bradingcommunityarchive.com/history-of-brading/.
Monday, 29 July 2019
Advertisement
This by way of advertising a post to come, prompted by a piece in NYRB (reference 1) and by starting to read reference 2.
The rather threatening bottom line seems to go as follows.
The continued economic health of the world has become strongly correlated with ever continuing economic growth. The treadmill of (mainly) capitalist growth.
Economic growth is strongly correlated with the consumption of fossil fuels.
Consumption of fossil fuels is strongly correlated with the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
In the near term, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is strongly correlated with increasing average temperatures. Perhaps as much as 5°C.
In the long term, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is strongly correlated with increasing sea levels. Perhaps as much at 100 feet. And if you doubt, just remember that the rolling downs of Surrey and the white cliffs of Dover were all under water at one point.
Somewhere between near term and long term, catastrophe. Of which the modest flows north of migrants from central America, from sub-Saharan Africa and from the Middle East are an early warning. Which we fail to heed at our peril - or at least at the peril of our grandchildren.
Along the way, Wallace-Wells points to the huge amount of electricity which goes into the production of Bitcoins, enough to power a middle sized country. A particularly egregious example of the wasteful ways of humans.
A more considered bottom line will follow.
Reference 1: Burning Down the House – Alan Weisman – 2019. Issue of NYRB of August 15, 2019.
Reference 2: The uninhabitable earth: a story of the future – David Wallace-Wells – 2019.
Reference 3: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/07/more-city-walls.html. The homeostasis people talked of in this post know all about the narrow environmental limits within which life thrives. The Goldilocks zone. A zone which we are on course to leave.
The rather threatening bottom line seems to go as follows.
The continued economic health of the world has become strongly correlated with ever continuing economic growth. The treadmill of (mainly) capitalist growth.
Economic growth is strongly correlated with the consumption of fossil fuels.
Consumption of fossil fuels is strongly correlated with the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
In the near term, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is strongly correlated with increasing average temperatures. Perhaps as much as 5°C.
In the long term, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is strongly correlated with increasing sea levels. Perhaps as much at 100 feet. And if you doubt, just remember that the rolling downs of Surrey and the white cliffs of Dover were all under water at one point.
Somewhere between near term and long term, catastrophe. Of which the modest flows north of migrants from central America, from sub-Saharan Africa and from the Middle East are an early warning. Which we fail to heed at our peril - or at least at the peril of our grandchildren.
Along the way, Wallace-Wells points to the huge amount of electricity which goes into the production of Bitcoins, enough to power a middle sized country. A particularly egregious example of the wasteful ways of humans.
A more considered bottom line will follow.
Reference 1: Burning Down the House – Alan Weisman – 2019. Issue of NYRB of August 15, 2019.
Reference 2: The uninhabitable earth: a story of the future – David Wallace-Wells – 2019.
Reference 3: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/07/more-city-walls.html. The homeostasis people talked of in this post know all about the narrow environmental limits within which life thrives. The Goldilocks zone. A zone which we are on course to leave.
Arreton
Our last outing to an attraction of the holiday was a visit to a craft village called Arreton Barns (reference 1). A curious place which has been there for quite a while, so it must get by. Despite banning coaches, a move which we learned was caused by the tendency of coach loads of pensioners to take advantage of the restrooms and to take coffee in the pub, but otherwise clutter the place up without spending very much money - entrance being free. Coaches that care enough to park around the corner and get their pensioners to walk the last couple of hundred yards tolerated on the grounds that it is quite likely that they really want to come.
In the middle of the island, maybe five kilometres west by south of the sea mark on Ashey Down, with an early visit to this last being noticed at reference 2. Complete with spelling mistake. Never was a strong point.
Remarks about coffee notwithstanding, after buying a loaf of bread at the farm shop, we headed to the pub, to take coffee and fizzy water. An establishment called 'The Dairyman's Daughter', with this daughter having been made famous by having had her edifying death at an early age documented by a local parson. A document subsequently published by the Religious Tract Society.
I have not been able to track them down and acquire any titbits about the lady's life and death, but Wikipedia does offer a fine drawing of the New York affiliates' HQ in New York, to whom the lady's chair was presented at some point. The pub offered some compensation in the form of a fine collection of bric-à-brac, including the largest collection of squeeze boxes that I have ever seen. It would have been interesting to know how it had been built up, but as a non-diner I did not like to ask. Nor did I think to ask whether they sold the Old Holborn advertised outside the smoking den, a brand I once used to roll, having moved on from the rather stronger Boar's Head. Nor was it clear whether the place really did start life as a country pub, or whether it had been knocked up as the central attraction of the craft village. Maybe reference 3 explains all.
There was also a traditional village pond, complete with a good number of carex pendula. Plus some giant rhubarb which must have escaped from somewhere. I managed to get ticked off for stepping across an unchallenging barrier to take the snap.
On to the rather old and rather unusual church. Heavily restored at some point, but there were still some old bits visible. And whoever built it was clearly a bit uneasy about the foundation of the tower, our never having seen such massive buttresses for such a modest tower, with the slit window left probably the twin of that just visible in the next snap. And including the piano already noticed at reference 6.
An unusual roof light, of a kind which one sometimes comes across in Surrey. Note also the rain water hopper, with the date of 1885 clearly visible on this laptop.
A bell which was replaced getting on for 20 years ago, but which they were not allowed to melt down and recycle as it was a listed bell. No idea why it had to be replaced. One supposes that the new timber left echoes something which was something to do with ringing the thing, rather than the wheel which I thought was usual. See next snap, lifted by Google from somewhere or other.
A church which was clearly far too big for today's custom and it is not clear to me who ought to take (financial) responsibility for its upkeep. It would be a pity to see these churches go - it is even a pity to see them lose their proper function as a church which has been converted into an arts centre (or whatever) does not seem quite the same somehow - even for someone like me, born and bred atheist. Perhaps the sort of café stroke drop in centre which they manage in the old church at Kingston (upon Thames), while maintaining the church as a church, is the way forward in an urban area where there is demand for that sort of thing, but out in a village?
Quite a lot of the craft seemed to involve glass and there was also a surprisingly sophisticated museum of the stuff. Where I found that while one might admire the craft, the overall effect was rather dead. Perhaps this sort of glass does not work well in large quantities. Or perhaps glass as a medium is rather dead? None of the grain of, for example, wood or stone.
We elected to lunch in the village, at the White Lion, rather than in the barns. A place with a large and pleasant dining room, which rather fancied itself. Seats offering little support in the middle, so one was essentially sitting on the frame. Lasagne quite eatable, but rather dry - a dish which I usually find that our public houses can microwave OK. Wine satisfactory.
And so back to Ryde for a bit of terminal shopping, before returning the Brading to pack. Tweeted a low flying buzzard at Arreton and a kestrel at Ashey, this last seeming to be seeing off a number of crows. Missing out on the big church at the top of town, despite discovering that it was both open and boasted a small car park. With our only success with this establishment being noticed at reference 5.
PS: Saturday past, BH turned up an article in the DT about a chap who is trying to photograph all the parish churches in the country, including the suggestion that there are plenty of people of our sort of age who liven up their holidays and days out by visiting the churches they come across. So we are not the only people to take an interest in this part of our heritage - a heritage which is rather different from that of the peoples of the mainland, a lot of whom have the excuse that their countries got worked over by soldiers a lot more often than ours has been. See reference 4.
Reference 1: https://arretonbarns.co.uk/.
Reference 2: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=irregularly+triangular%2C+tapering+masonry+piller.
Reference 3: https://dairymansdaughter.co.uk/.
Reference 4: https://www.parishchurches.org/.
Reference 5: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/07/ryde.html.
Reference 6: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/07/piano-19.html.
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| The map |
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| The farm shop |
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| The smoking den attached to the public house |
Remarks about coffee notwithstanding, after buying a loaf of bread at the farm shop, we headed to the pub, to take coffee and fizzy water. An establishment called 'The Dairyman's Daughter', with this daughter having been made famous by having had her edifying death at an early age documented by a local parson. A document subsequently published by the Religious Tract Society.
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| Tract Society's New York HQ |
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| Carex pendula |
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| Buttresses |
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Change of plan?
|
 |
| Roof light |
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| 1699 bell |
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| Bell wheel |
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| Old door? |
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| Unusual roof trusses to aisle |
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A large private garden, possibly the source of the giant rhubarb
|
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| A derelict wine barrel, made in France |
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| Glass museum - cases |
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| Glass museum - detail |
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| The White Lion |
And so back to Ryde for a bit of terminal shopping, before returning the Brading to pack. Tweeted a low flying buzzard at Arreton and a kestrel at Ashey, this last seeming to be seeing off a number of crows. Missing out on the big church at the top of town, despite discovering that it was both open and boasted a small car park. With our only success with this establishment being noticed at reference 5.
PS: Saturday past, BH turned up an article in the DT about a chap who is trying to photograph all the parish churches in the country, including the suggestion that there are plenty of people of our sort of age who liven up their holidays and days out by visiting the churches they come across. So we are not the only people to take an interest in this part of our heritage - a heritage which is rather different from that of the peoples of the mainland, a lot of whom have the excuse that their countries got worked over by soldiers a lot more often than ours has been. See reference 4.
Reference 1: https://arretonbarns.co.uk/.
Reference 2: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=irregularly+triangular%2C+tapering+masonry+piller.
Reference 3: https://dairymansdaughter.co.uk/.
Reference 4: https://www.parishchurches.org/.
Reference 5: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/07/ryde.html.
Reference 6: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/07/piano-19.html.
Getting ready
On which we were rewarded by a close-up of a large dust cart in action.
However, we had had enough of pedalling by the time we got back, and going out again to gather some of the blackberries we had passed on the way was vetoed in favour of playing stones & beach on the inch and a half shingle strip behind the camera.
Sunday, 28 July 2019
Ventnor
Having missed out on Ventnor Botanic Gardens last year, with the last visit seeming to have been in 2017, as recorded on and about reference 1, we thought we would go this year.
Outward bound, we took the complex scenic route, avoiding the main road running south through Lake, Sandown and Shanklin, only getting slightly lost on the way.
Arrived to clock the piano noticed at reference 2 and then to take tea, coffee and cake on the pleasantly shaded veranda overlooking the gardens. From where we headed north into parts Australian, included the shaded hydrangea walk, which continues to puzzle us as these hydrangeas thrive while seaside hydrangeas in this country seem generally to be planted in full sun. Wikipedia not helpful on this point, although it does list near 50 different sorts of hydrangea and does discuss the colour of the flowers. See reference 3.
Spent a little time with an araucaria araucana in order to try and work out how its leaves worked. Opposite, alternate, whorls, spiral or what?
On the spot, this was a complete failure, apart from coming across lichen in twig two, and I decided that one would need to take a bit of twig to pieces on a bench to get to the bottom of the matter. Then, this afternoon, I thought to enlarge the snap of the trunk, which suggested that spiral was a possibility at the bottom, while whorl was a possibility at the top. So still not much further forward. See reference 4 for a previous failure.
The next puzzle was what can only be described as a hairy cucumber. Not much further forward with this one, despite a lady next to us asking her phone. It seems the idea was that you took a picture and then it told you what it was, a reasonably challenging bit of image processing, which the lady did admit to being work in progress, with its identifications quite often being quite wrong.
A few lizards on the rocks. A few turtles in the fish pond. But the echium pininana's were disappointing. Nothing like as fine as they had been a couple of years previously, for which see reference 1. Maybe they come in bursts, then need a few years to recuperate.
Lunch in the rather fancy café, taking the form of crab sandwiches. Sandwiches themselves were good, but they could not resist adding some mixed leaves, looking but not tasting like dandelion leaves, and some potato crisps made out of assorted root vegetables of colour. But the café was comfortable and did provide some welcome shade.
After which we headed south into parts dry, where there was a lot of agapanthus, aloe and palm. Some cacti, including some rather spectacular prickly pears. Snaps inhibited by the bright sun making it impossible to see what I was doing. Giant lily house rather too hot for me on what was already a rather hot day, and the giant lily seemed to have shrunk. I can only suppose it takes a while to grow a new giant when the old one wears out.
Plus a carex pendula, just to show that their hearts were in the right place. Plus some echium leaves far left and some agapanthus.
All in all a rather lazy day at the gardens. Entirely satisfactory. And we took the main road back to Brading!
Reference 1: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/07/echium-pininana.html.
Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/07/piano-18.html.
Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrangea.
Reference 4: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/05/poundbury-to-holne.html.
Outward bound, we took the complex scenic route, avoiding the main road running south through Lake, Sandown and Shanklin, only getting slightly lost on the way.
Arrived to clock the piano noticed at reference 2 and then to take tea, coffee and cake on the pleasantly shaded veranda overlooking the gardens. From where we headed north into parts Australian, included the shaded hydrangea walk, which continues to puzzle us as these hydrangeas thrive while seaside hydrangeas in this country seem generally to be planted in full sun. Wikipedia not helpful on this point, although it does list near 50 different sorts of hydrangea and does discuss the colour of the flowers. See reference 3.
Spent a little time with an araucaria araucana in order to try and work out how its leaves worked. Opposite, alternate, whorls, spiral or what?
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| Base of tree |
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| Twig one |
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| Twig two |
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| Top of tree |
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| Enlargement |
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| Hairy cucumber |
A few lizards on the rocks. A few turtles in the fish pond. But the echium pininana's were disappointing. Nothing like as fine as they had been a couple of years previously, for which see reference 1. Maybe they come in bursts, then need a few years to recuperate.
Lunch in the rather fancy café, taking the form of crab sandwiches. Sandwiches themselves were good, but they could not resist adding some mixed leaves, looking but not tasting like dandelion leaves, and some potato crisps made out of assorted root vegetables of colour. But the café was comfortable and did provide some welcome shade.
After which we headed south into parts dry, where there was a lot of agapanthus, aloe and palm. Some cacti, including some rather spectacular prickly pears. Snaps inhibited by the bright sun making it impossible to see what I was doing. Giant lily house rather too hot for me on what was already a rather hot day, and the giant lily seemed to have shrunk. I can only suppose it takes a while to grow a new giant when the old one wears out.
 |
| Snap in the shade |
All in all a rather lazy day at the gardens. Entirely satisfactory. And we took the main road back to Brading!
Reference 1: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/07/echium-pininana.html.
Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/07/piano-18.html.
Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrangea.
Reference 4: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/05/poundbury-to-holne.html.
Saturday, 27 July 2019
This week's project
Firstly, she disliked the aggressively muddled design. A young and inexperienced architect who got carried away trying to make a point?
Secondly, she disliked the cod medieval name of 'Kirkgate'. Partly because it was cod, partly because kirks are more usually found in Scotland. Perhaps in part because she has spent quality time in a real medieval town with streets named for gates in the city walls. Much less fake.
While I dislike putting the definite article 'The' in front. Pretentious. And the slab of building to the right just looks dull.
But I must make a point of visiting the site for myself to see how irritating (or not) that I find it.
PS: an outfit called 'Conservative Buzz' is sending me lots and lots of junk email, far more than anyone else, typically several a day. Presumably I am being punished for taking an interest in their first email, noticed at reference 2. Is it all part of some right wing plot to drown us all with fake news? Fortunately Google knows where to put such stuff. The Eden bible people come next at around one a day, now sustained for years. Possibly the fault of St. Perpetua, noticed at reference 3.
Reference 1: gmaps 51.3333743,-0.2627002.
Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/07/trumpery.html.
Reference 3: http://psmv2.blogspot.com/2014/01/perpetually-perpetua.html.
Ryde Buoys
As is our custom, we caught the Island Line train to Ryde Esplanade at least once, on this occasion to stoll along the fine esplanade, taking in a little sand along the way.
But I start with some ripples in the sand at Yaverland, by way of comparison with the sand to come. With these ripples prompting a reverie about the information content of such an image. A few kilobytes to describe the texture, a few kilobytes to describe the general top left to bottom right drift of the ripples and a bit of noise thrown in for realism? Maybe a thousandth of the 6Mb the image actually occupies?
At Ryde we admired the flashy summer flowers which were to be seen all over the place. Lots of sunny sea & sand, one egret.
While sitting on a concrete wall somewhere, I failed to compute the reinforcing bars. Not like anything that I was used to.
A fine bed of carex pendula, behind the sea facing rampant of Puckpool Battery. Not a very good shot at this distance, but I was too idle to walk round to get a better one. But we did walk around to the café there to take tea and rock cake. Rock cake not quite up to the same standard as those sold in the café at Yaverland, but entirely acceptable.
Leaving the café, we admired the nicely planted putting garden, almost to the point of having a go, but we restrained ourselves, opting instead to sit on an elevated bench and admire the view over instead. Including a possible wren which popped out of the bushes in front of us. BH thought that the unusual flower, climbing all over the place, was the sort of thing that was common in the Canary Islands.
As may be deduced from the snaps above, I am rather fond of big, flat beaches. The worms - sand eels? - making the mounds were quite sensitive to pressure, as the few mounds I saw in action stopped very abruptly as I drew near. Perhaps I should put myself forward for the next Boring Conference? See reference 2 for this year's event.
And so to the Ryde Buoys, aka the Three Buoys of reference 1, an esplanade café which has raised its game from the olden days of trays of tea & sticky buns, and where we have both eaten and drunk in the past. See, for example, reference 3.
For starter we had pink hummus, that is to say more or less regular hummus but flavoured with beetroot. Rather good. Followed by a confection of cod. Cod not too clever, covered with far too many bits and bobs. Another chef who gets carried away by presentation instead of substance - although it was alleged by the waiter that the cod had never seen the inside of a freezer and came from a usually reliable suppler. It was also rather dear, so not very good value either. But BH was pleased with her dessert, which seemed to consist of a dollop of ice cream with some expresso coffee poured over it. Wine good, but see reference 4. Ambience, view and service good.
From a pile of books somewhere along the way I acquired a slender volume by one Ellis Peters, of whom I had never before heard. It turned out to be quite unreadable, at least by me, and was subsequently tucked away somewhere behind the television in our holiday cottage. Also known as Edith Pargeter, the lady responsible for Cadfael. Unusually, and for no particular reason given in Wikipedia, fluent in Czech. Perhaps she was a closet reader, in the original Czech, of 'The Good Soldier Švejk', something of a Bible for Czechs (and for me) growing up in the middle of the 20th century.
Grabbed the last Guardian from the shop at the bottom of Union Street and then caught the train back to Brading. Possible buzzard en-route. And a collection of Shi Tzus in West Street on arrival. Including one retired male, kept on for sentimental reasons.
Reference 1: https://www.threebuoys.co.uk/.
Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/05/boring.html.
Reference 3: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/09/birthday-treat.html.
Reference 4: http://www.riojavega.com/en/recent-news/rioja-vega-coleccion-tempranillo-blanco-2017-spain’s-best-white-wine/. It seems that our wine was very well thought of by its maker, even winning an important prize.
Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Pargeter.
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| Yaverland ripples |
At Ryde we admired the flashy summer flowers which were to be seen all over the place. Lots of sunny sea & sand, one egret.
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| Strange reinforcement, enlarged from the original |
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| Carex pendula |
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| Putting garden, café visible left |
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| Unusual flower |
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| View looking towards Portsmouth |
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| View along the tideline |
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| Ryde ripples |
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| More Ryde ripples |
And so to the Ryde Buoys, aka the Three Buoys of reference 1, an esplanade café which has raised its game from the olden days of trays of tea & sticky buns, and where we have both eaten and drunk in the past. See, for example, reference 3.
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| The wine |
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| Ellis Peters |
Grabbed the last Guardian from the shop at the bottom of Union Street and then caught the train back to Brading. Possible buzzard en-route. And a collection of Shi Tzus in West Street on arrival. Including one retired male, kept on for sentimental reasons.
Reference 1: https://www.threebuoys.co.uk/.
Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/05/boring.html.
Reference 3: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/09/birthday-treat.html.
Reference 4: http://www.riojavega.com/en/recent-news/rioja-vega-coleccion-tempranillo-blanco-2017-spain’s-best-white-wine/. It seems that our wine was very well thought of by its maker, even winning an important prize.
Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Pargeter.
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