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.