Fourth brick

My third brick since getting permission to scavenge from a skip in Manor Green Road, as noticed at reference 1. My fourth brick altogether.

Plus a bonus in the form of something close to builders' sand from knocking the soft mortar off the bricks - sand supplies also running low.

None of them had the frogs common in modern bricks. Probably local rather than from the brickfields of Bedfordshire.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/01/fake-97.html.

A near thing

A near thing in the sense that on a recent expedition to St. Luke's in Old Street, I came within 2 minutes and 28 seconds of having to pay a surcharge for exceeding the half hour free-loading limit on hire of a Bullingdon.

The record

A cold damp morning which started off with two trolleys - collected under the group search key listed below - and a visit to our GP surgery with an inquiry about health checks for the apparently healthy. The receptionist was concerned that I would not remember the answer and offered to write it all down. Better still, to make an appointment and get on with it. I declined both of these offers.

Adult's tricycle

The Ashmore passage also contained an adult's tricycle, not something one comes across very often - although from time to time I wonder about getting one for myself, for when I no longer feel confident on two wheels. Downsides including their being forbidden on suburban trains, their considerable price and the awkwardness of parking them. This morning's bet is that it is not going to happen.

The incident

The advertisement - from some distance and zoomed

There was some police flavoured incident in a Sussex part of the Southern network. Not affecting Southwestern Trains. On the other hand, having thought that I was exclusive, I was not best pleased to see that a poster advertising Westminster Abbey carried the same design as my members' card. Plus, it was a rather silly graphic, more obviously so in large than in small.

Having pulled a Bullingdon off the ramp, overtaken on the right on the roundabout by a car which then cut left in front of me and headed across Waterloo Bridge. At least he - I assume a he - gave me rather more room than the chap of the week before; not quite so scary. On the other hand, a young lady who stepped out in front of me somewhere in Farringdon Road was very apologetic when I shouted at her - which I find much quicker and more reliable than trying to ring the Bullingdon bell - which mostly don't work very well anyway.

Whitecross Street was busy with people buying street food, while the Market Café for people that preferred to sit down was quiet, at least when I arrived. Including an older chap with flat hat, scarf and a pound-note accent whom I was convinced was Lord Holm, that is to say Edward Petherbridge, from the death in a chocolate box episode of 'Midsomer Murders', an episode which Bing took perhaps thirty seconds to track down. But having tracked it down I am no longer so sure - with this thinking I recognise someone from ITV3 being something which seems to happen quite often these days. Bacon sandwich on top form.

The programme

Reasonable turn out at St. Luke's. The usual four microphones up and five microphones down. With Justin Taylor and the Consone Quartet giving us two harpsichord concertos (BWV.1052 and BWV.1058) and with Taylor giving us a solo toccata (BWV.912). All the musicians looked very young, particularly Taylor, although he turned out to be 23, having been something of a child prodigy.

Something like the harpsichord

The harpsichord was a new looking instrument, something like the one turned up by Bing above, with the lid rather getting in the way of the music - and very much in the way of a page turner, not present on this occasion. Perhaps the keyboard end of the lid folds over.

Apart from the cello, the quartet stood, with the two violins using bows of the sort noticed at reference 3, bowing, as it were, the wrong way. And somehow, we often had a sound very like that of an oboe. I thought the viola responsible.

In any event, quiet (which I rather liked) and well up to the standard of the previous two Bach concerts I had been to earlier in the month. An encore, something in F minor, which involved nothing but plucking from the strings. Bing suggests the largo from Bach's concerto No.5 in F minor for harpsichord and strings, but all the YouTube versions seem to involve pianos which rather drown the strings. Next stop my rarely opened box of Bach concertos from Archiv, possibly from the mid 1970's, where we have Karl Richter and the Münchener Bach-Orchester offer this concerto with a harpsichord which sounds more like it. So maybe. And while Richter may be an eminence, I think I liked the string quartet versions of the concertos better. We also had some presenter prompted thoughts from Taylor about improvisation, including something about our being a bit obsessive these days about the ur-text, about what the composer really wrote, perhaps forgetting that at the time he was writing, any particular piece might be a bit of a moveable feast.

I thought for a change to get to London Bridge via Tower Bridge, but I was quite taken aback by the amount of heavy traffic on the roads of this part of east London. Lots of interesting buildings, lots of old-style public houses and quite a few conversions of same. Clearly a place to be visited on foot.

And so to the cheese shop in Park Street, next to Borough Market. Some discussion about the ease with which some cheeses bruised, leaving unsightly and uneatable patches - too much of which means the shop grates the stuff and sells it to restaurants. I was also moved to try a bit of Wensleydale - in addition to my usual ration of proper, hard yellow cheese. Rather good, but not something that I would want to eat a lot of. Special occasion stuff.

And then called in the shop in the market run by the restaurant people, Brindisa. And yes they could sell me Presa Ibérica, albeit frozen, with a couple of frozen shoulders in a small fridge. Maybe £25 a go. Loaded down with cheese, I declined on this occasion, but I have the card to call should I ever want some for real - from which I learn that they have a branch in Hildreth Street, Balham of all places. See reference 4. Furthermore, according to the Waitrose website: 'Presa Ibérica Free Range Pork Shoulder ... The ultimate pork meat which delivers an intense flavour! This award winning free range Ibérico pork is from South West Spain. This ancient breed roams freely and forages for food. Ibérico is widely revered as one of the best meats in the world due to its rich delicious flavour. Ibérico Presa Roaming freely in the dehesas, sparsely wooded pasturelands of quercus trees that can only be found in the south-west of Spain, this ancient grazing breed is perfectly adapted to this environment. Ibérico pigs are able to store large amounts of fat which makes the meat especially succulent and tender. The constant exercise and natural source of feed also mean that the meat is delicious ...'. Quercus is probably marketing speak for oak.

Outside, I tried to extract some money from a Santander cash machine, but what with insensitive screen and strange user interface I had to settle for £20 rather than the £100 I wanted.

And so to Waterloo and on to Epsom. Arrival at which was enlivened by the presence of two young ladies in full war paint, despite the rather early hour. Has some night spot in Epsom broadened their appeal with thé dansants? While my taxi driver, of Spanish extraction, explained that the pigs ate acorns to give them their special flavour. He also tipped me off about the racing solecism of the new pub sign outside TB, previously noticed at reference 5.

The last visit to St. Luke's for a while, as the concerts continue but the programmes drift off into regions which do not interest me.

PS: the Chinook helicopter which had flown east and low over our house the day before did not reappear on this day. Not something that we see terribly often in Epsom and when we do it is more commonly south-north rather than east-west. Some new mission?

Reference 1: https://www.justintaylorharpsichord.com/home.

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

Reference 3: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/01/ss-luke-cera.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/01/no-spatburgunder.html.

Reference 5: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/01/herald-copse.html.

Group search key: lkc.

Trolley 382

A Sainsbury's trolley captured by the side of the alley leading from there to the footbridge over the railway at the bottom of West Street.

On the way I had come across various useful bits of timber lying on the pavement, but I think they had too recently fallen out of the timber retaining wall to the earth bank at the back of the Sainsbury building for it to be fair for them to be gathered up. There was also a substantial cast iron drain cover and frame, something I am on the look out for, but it looked a bit too substantial for my needs. Designed for a lorry park rather than the drive of a suburban estate house. See reference 1.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/06/more-diy.html.

Reference 2: http://russiasperiphery.blogs.wm.edu/. Looking for the name of the third Baltic statelet this morning, which I had been unable to recover on my own, I came across this website, which looks interesting. Parked here for future inspection and interest.

Trolley 381

Another M&S food hall trolley captured at the eastern end of the market square, maybe 100 yards from the front entrance to M&S. The bottom of the front of the basket had been bashed hard enough to burst some of the spot welds holding the wires together, but the trolley was still entirely usable.

The red building top middle was once proud to be Epsom's Post Office, closed for some years now. But at least it is not just the UK as I once came across a picture of a very grand post office building, I think in Italy, now upcycled for some quite different 20th or 21st century purpose.

While the building behind the ambulance used to be the Spread Eagle, an important waystation on the way to the Derby up on the Downs, in the days when the Derby was an important national institution, attracting one or two hundred thousand people, nearly all both drinkers and smokers - and some ladies in fancy clothes. As the Derby went downhill, the Spread Eagle became a high end clothes shop, one which featured old-style salesmen on commission who had little notebooks involving elaborate springs and carbon copies in which they recorded sales. A shop in which I have spent a fair bit of money over the years. But a high end clothes shop whose day is done and who knows what the future holds for the building - probably in the firm grip of the heritage people.

Trolley 380

This M&S food hall trolley was captured in the Ashmore passage. There was a tendency for the wheels to resonate at my walking pace, even on quite good surfaces, such as that inside the Ashley Centre. I imagine that this is not a problem at in-store speeds.

Car ports

On the way back to the Stones Road underpass from Kiln Lane this morning, for the first time ever I took what turned out to be a short cut through the Farriers Road estate, on this occasion all very clean and tidy, with none of the scaffolding in evidence on Street View.

I was rather impressed with what I imagine are called town houses, with short car ports underneath, a short drive and small rear gardens. Quite large enough for a few plants and a place to sit in the sun. The car ports include the front doors and are wide enough to take dustbins, cycles, umbrellas, outdoor shoes and other bits and bobs of that sort, as well as the front end of a car. And it looked as if the average car would go far enough in that you could get in and out of the front of it in the dry, should it be raining. I thought all rather neat.

A place to downsize to in years to come? With Sainsbury's and its useful café a few steps one way and a mental health facility - the Brickfield centre - the whole area used to be a brick field or brick yard - a few steps the other. This last appeared to be up and running but its website contained nothing other than a suggestion that it was something to do with mental health.

Whistleblowing?

There was a piece in yesterday's Guardian about whistleblowing trouble in a hospital somewhere in Suffolk.

I didn't read it with any care, but I was left with the thought that hospitals are unlikely to work very well if surgeons are continually worrying about whether their next mistake or error of judgement is going to find its way to some conspicuous place in a newspaper. And the same is going to be true of any demanding profession - with the difference that the great British public get much more excited about schools and hospitals than most other fields of endeavour. Excited in the sense that news of this sort sells newspapers, generates clicks, excited likes on Facebook and excited tweets on Twitter. And generates revenue for the tech titans. What is subsequently described as a tsunami of anger and fury.

My understanding is that in both the armed forces and the civil service there is a chain of command in these matters. If you think something is going wrong you should complain to the appropriate point in that chain of command, and if you are not satisfied escalate up the chain. But if your complaint is found to be unjustified or vexatious, don't be surprised if your career falters. And the higher up you have gone, the more faltering there is likely to be. A sort of double or quits.

And complaining to some outsider, like a journalist, is very much a last resort. And also something of a (possibly rewarded) cop-out - so not something a conscientious objector should do until he or she has conscientiously exhausted the proper channels. And if you go to the press without so doing, don't be surprised if you get hauled up before personnel for possible disciplinary action.

PS: I don't suppose the great British public is any worse than most others in this regard. But I don't know any other.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/11/city-boys-episode-1.html. The only place that whistleblowers seem to have popped up before. I had thought there were others and the search continues.

Birdsong

Reference 1 and reference 2 being a recent Christmas present, now consumed.

We did the film first, in two or three sittings, with Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Wraysford catching our eye as the chap who played the star struck third assistant producer in the rather jolly film at reference 3. A film which also features Chief Inspector Japp of ITV3 fame.

A war film packaged up with a romance (most of which took place a few years before the war in question), with one connection being Wraysford who leads in both parts and another being Amiens which figures in both parts. Perhaps the idea was something for everyone.

A film which was entirely watchable, but in which I found the continual switching around in time rather tiresome: I have always like my films to move steadily forwards.

The book came with educational packing. Billed as a Vintage Future Classic. An introduction by the author, written for this edition. Almost exactly 500 pages of text. Closed with a readers' guide by the author. Perhaps, eying the 'Inspector Calls' phenomenon, he is targeting the market for set books in schools and universities - for which see reference 6.

A book which is rather too long and which is divided in seven parts of varying lengths. I admit to a certain amount of skimming. Some of the shorter and later parts concern a granddaughter of Wraysford who is moved to stir up her grandfather's past and being lucky enough to turn up his diary; a sub-plot which the film omits. The film also omits, elides or otherwise tweaks quite a lot of details some of which I thought important - but overall the film is a pretty fair rendition of the book. Leaving aside the important thought from reference 7, turned up in connection with Blessed's film version of Lear, that an adaptation should be judged on its own merits, not given marks out of ten according to how well it reproduces the nominal source.

A book which rather smells of the library. Of a great deal of research on materials from the first world war, not altogether successfully patched together into a novel.

Apart from the romance, perhaps a third of the text, most of the book is about two interlocking groups of soldiers: a company of infantrymen who like to fight above ground and a company of tunnellers who prefer to stay down under. And the tensions that this sometimes caused. A small fact here being that the tunnellers, while part of the army, were not quite full-on soldiers, and at least some of them joined up for the pay, better than that which was obtainable at home at the time. Another small fact might be that quite a lot of people get very scared about being in confined spaces, never mind underground. What happened to the ones who happened to be infantrymen, but who were still sent down the tunnels? I associate to a short story of Lawrence's about a solder in the German army who cracks up by being made to climb a tall ladder, vertigo notwithstanding. A plight I can sympathise with. See reference 10.

Quite a lot of the mess of blood and guts which results from bits of shells hitting people. Some of the romantic scenes are a bit purple in that way too, not altogether to my taste.

Quite a lot of text given to how all this blood and guts - a lot of it once belonging to people with whom one might have lived in close quarters with for some time - deadens one. There is little talk of suicide but one imagines that there must have been quite a few - guessing, a lot more than there were executions for what was called cowardice or something of that sort. Which just for the record, in the UK army totalled just over 300, say one a week. While the total deaths in combat were of the order of 750,000.

So an interesting read. But mostly without the literary merit of the various famous books written much nearer the time - for example those of Ernst Jünger and Robert Graves. Maybe these last aren't messy enough for modern taste. Maybe too much of the smell of the playing fields of Eton about them. See, for example, reference 9.

By a lucky chance, the NYRB had a piece in its 13th February number on what is now called the post traumatic stress syndrome, as it affects fighting soldiers, references 4 and 5. I learn that people - particularly medical people in armies - have known about this syndrome, under various names, for a very long time, although it has taken a while for fighting generals - people like Patten of the ivory handled revolvers - to come round. People, no matter how well suited to the work, now matter how well trained, start to fall apart if kept in combat for too long. With the rule of thumb given here being that 200 days is about the limit - although I feel sure that I remember a much shorter period, say 100 days, from somewhere else. Things can be stretched out a bit with regular breaks from combat. And in the US they now try to apply a rule of thumb which says three years back at home for every year at war - a rule which they have been hard put to stick to in the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In which connection, I think there were also 30 mission tours for bomber crews in both the RAF and USAF in the second world war. A fact I need to check.

Reference 1: Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks - 1993. Vintage 2005.

Reference 2: Birdsong - Eddie Redmayne, Clémence Poésy, Philip Martin, Abi Morgan - 2012.

Reference 3: My Week with Marilyn - Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne - 2011.

Reference 4: The human mind was not made for war - David Oshinsky - 2020. Being a review in the NYRB of reference 5. My source for the snap above: 'Robert Chamberlain, a veteran of two tours to Iraq and a Rhodes scholar who has struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder, on the day he was promoted to the rank of army major, Brooklyn, 2011'.

Reference 5: Signature Wounds: the untold story of the military's mental health crisis - David Kieran - 2019.

Reference 6: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-inspector-calls-again.html.

Reference 7: Screen Adaptations: Shakespeare's 'King Lear': A Close Study of the Relationship Between Text and Film Paperback - Yvonne Griggs - 2009.

Reference 8: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/12/blessed-lear.html. Where Griggs is unfortunately spelt Grigg.

Reference 9: http://psmv2.blogspot.com/2015/11/pour-le-merite.html.

Reference 10: The thorn in the flesh - D. H. Lawrence - 1914. So written, as it happens, just before the first world war of the present book, by someone who was far too unhealthy to fight in it. My next port of call.

Finders keepers

The soft toy - a llama according to BH - was captured on the way back through the Ashmore passage with trolley 378. I assured the amused older lady sitting on a nearby bench that I had a good use for it.

While the two estate agents' signs were lying on the East Street pavement, a few yards short of the Kiln Lane turning. The opportunity to pick up another couple of lengths of two by two was too much for me, so I picked them up on the way home.

In the course of removing two fake bolts (see reference 1) and six galvanised (pointed screw) bolts which held the two signs on, I learned that different estate agents favoured different ways of attaching their signs to posts. And some I had noticed on the way home even had a long groove cut in the top of the posts to take the signs, making the top two feet useless for any purpose I was likely to come up with. I might also say that the fake bolts seemed to work better than the galvanised ones.

Monocular present for inspection of the new roof tile out back, which had been put in to replace a broken tile earlier in the afternoon. Snapped clean across for some reason.

PS: I am noticing a tendency for my brain to get out of sync. So here, when typing 'two by two was too', I actually typed 'two was two was too'. A more common error would have been 'two by was was too'. Either way, the bit of brain controlling the fingers for key-behind has been pushed off its perch by the think-ahead bit doing the composing. A sign of the times.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/01/fake-97.html.

Trolley 379

Trolley 379 was visible from the capture point of trolley 378 just posted, but in the private part of the car park across the fence. Reached via the second passage, the one that runs down the western side of 'Plaice to Eat'.

Oddly, given the Sainsbury's was quite a long way away (having left this part of Epsom town centre maybe twenty five years ago). Who on earth would have bothered to walk it this far? Notwithstanding, I was content to take it back. Despite the vibrato of the wheel lock, probably defunct, as the number of Sainsbury's trolleys with them seems to be declining.

Checking on the Thames Water waste water tanker at the bottom of East Street on the way, last noticed at reference 1. All present and correct today, still no sign of any action to repair the broken sewer.

And then, happening to pass TB on the way back from Kiln Lane, I had the opportunity to find that the rule about no bar stools at the bar was for real, despite it being late afternoon, the bar being more or less empty and not very inviting. The new young manager was not to be moved by my observation that I had been sitting at the bar at TB since before he was born. I did no more than observe that the rule was rather silly, down my drink and leave. Probably not to return.

I wondered whether this bit of nonsense was a wheeze by Greene King to make sure the refurbishment failed and that the council would then allow the site to be put to better use, that is to say affordable flats. The cost of refurbishment - perhaps £250,000 and more - could be offset against the profits to be made from such a development. See reference 2.

Against that, there is the consideration that the 'Station' at Stoneleigh, an even bigger pile of a pub from the same fleet, right next to Stoneleigh Station, does rather well - although it would be interesting to see the books as it is another big site and would be worth a lot as flats. But whatever the case, perhaps Greene King think that they can pull the same trick off again at the back of Epsom, in another residential area, but one without the pull of a successful parade of shops and without a busy railway station.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/01/waterworks.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/01/herald-copse.html.

Trolley 378

A trolley from the M&S food hall, captured in the Ashmore passage. Front of basket slightly dented. No handle lock, no reward.

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/.