A surprise

Yesterday evening, taking a passing interest in the sinc function, I was stuck by the expansion snapped above.

For some reason, it seemed bizarre that someone should have formulated and proved such a thing so long ago, more or less at the dawn of modern mathematics. At a time when much scholarly interchange was conducted by hand written letter, rather than in person, by telephone or by email. A discovery quite possibly made in St. Petersburg, where the Swiss-born Euler spent most of his professional life.

Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinc_function.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonhard_Euler.

Wellingtonia 36

Fresh from a spot of provisioning at Bachmann's, we managed to get a touch lost in St. Mary's Road, Long Ditton, that is to say a little to the south west of Surbiton. First, appropriately given that 'Clarissa' is coming to a climax, we had a Lovelace Road. Then, a bit further down, opposite Sharon Close, we had Wellingtonia 36. The telephone prompted me - something it had never done before - to do something about the light levels or something - but the snaps still didn't turn out very well - despite the sun being vaguely to my left, not in front of me. And not helped by there being a smaller tree in front. And I couldn't touch the tree in question, sometimes included in the rules, as it was just over the fence from someone's front garden, but I was near enough.

A road and an area we did not know at all. Full of very swanky looking houses, with lots of mature trees, including plenty of large conifers. Within walking distance of the excellently connected Surbiton Station. Prices, I should imagine, in millions rather than hundreds of thousands.

Eventually worked our way back to the 'Maypole' and we were back on course again. Not a house I have ever used, despite passing it on many occasions, sometimes when it was open, sometimes after catching a very late train to Surbiton.

To celebrate, BH knocked up a flan for lunch, known to some as a Quiche Lorraine, shown here fresh out of the oven, lightly domed. Very good it was too, despite the dome subsiding (as it does), served with salad and small potatoes. Followed by some strangely pink Spanish plums, much better stewed than they had been raw the day before.

And a little later on, a couple of the natty small cakes sold by Bachmann's, taken along with tea and my winning a low scoring game of Scrabble. Also very good.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/07/wellingtonia-35.html.

Group search key: wgc.

Miscellany for Sunday

Nearly a fortnight ago now, a quiet day at Sandown to recover from the tyre day previously (reference 1). The day on which the good ship Queen Elizabeth got sent out to the Nab Anchorage for overstaying her time at berth, as noticed at reference 2.

Before driving to Yaverland, we took a quick look inside Brading church, empty after Divine Service. I was rather amused by the serious looking and quite modern padlock applied to the very old chest, 1637 if the carving is to be believed. Whatever do they keep in it? Or is the point to stop the curious disturbing the pots above? With the pot top left, more or less contemporary with Clarissa, presently of interest. From the famous Verwood potteries of Dorset, in business from 1250 to 1950, so not a bad run. Perhaps something to investigate next time we are in Dorset. See reference 3.

From Yaverland we strolled along the esplanade to the far end of Sandown, taking in a side-car'd Lambretta on the way. The owner explained that it was a bit of a cheat in that the side-car and main-car had been bought on different occasions. Not even sure now that the side-car was the genuine Lambretta article. From where I associate to a former colleague at the Treasury who had a large collection of Lambrettas, a collection which I believe was valuable, tens of thousands valuable.

Took a bacon sandwich at the Beach Shack Bar, a place we have used and liked in previous years, taking crab sandwiches there. But the plague has rather cramped their style (if not their website at reference 4) and so it was bacon sandwiches outside. Furthermore, while there was plenty of bacon, what should have been a white bap was actually a yellow brioche or something of that sort, probably involving both egg and sugar. Where was the cook brought up?

The outside tables appeared to have been moulded in one piece, presumably from some brown fibre or other, then finished off with this layer of plastic wood. Serviceable, but entirely fake.

We had a talk with a young lady walker, into the second day of a two day round the island walk, that is to say anti-clockwise from Cowes. None of her party, including her partner, wanted the walk, preferring to save themselves for some important football match in the evening, so she went alone. She seemed to be OK, but was glad to stop and char and did admit to sundry feet and leg complaints. Particularly knees as I recall. She also told us that she had done some training on the downs in Kent where I think she lived, but that some more hardy types did it more or less non-stop, just grabbing the odd hour's sleep here and there. She seemed a little manic, so I wondered whether this was down to fatigue, to caffeine tablets or something more exotic. We saw some forty or fifty of them. The main site (reference 5) is rather future orientated, but I did track down this particular challenge at reference 6.

No jet skis, which was nice. Plenty of bench time, in the sun, also nice.

Having had a fairly easy day, I took a turn down Vicarage Lane in the evening, a little the north of the Eagle path we had taken a few days previously.

Crossed the railway, then found myself in a large field, with thick grass rather less than a foot long, path just about visible running diagonally across it, roughly north east. So nothing had been grazing there for some weeks. Plenty of buzzing insects (unseen) and buzzing grasshoppers (seen).

Through to the next field, or rather area, which the RSPB had given over to brambles and dog roses. Which, curiously, was much more attractive to the swifts and swallows than the other field had been.

Two washers to add to my collection in the course of the day.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/07/a-tale-of-tyre.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/07/covid-news.html.

Reference 3: http://www.verwoodpotteries.co.uk.

Reference 4: https://beachshackbar.co.uk/.

Reference 5: https://ultrachallenge.com/.

Reference 6: https://ultrachallenge.com/participant-area/isle-of-wight-challenge-participant-area/.

The entail

In the olden days we had something called the entail, often in favour of the male nearest in descent, not necessarily the eldest son, whereby the owner of property, in particular landed property, was not able to leave that property to whomsoever he or she pleased. All this set up by some ancestor who wanted to stay in charge from the grave, who didn't trust his 'fils à papa', to use a favourite phrase from Simenon, to do the right thing. A subject complicated by the compromise Statue of Wills of 1540, which meant that to a greater extent than had previously been possible, property owners could leave property, by will, to whomsoever they pleased. A compromise between Henry VIII, who wanted to get as much into his own hands as possible, and the rich of his realm, who had different ideas. And the rich, certainly by the 19th century, could spend serious money with lawyers who specialised in breaking entails. All matters which worked their way into plenty of 18th and 19th century novels.

Here in Britain we differed from the Continentals, who had to provide for their nearest and dearest, however badly they might have quarrelled. A subject which was still providing food for the Guardian at reference 1.

All this prompted by a piece in today's FT (reference 2) about how the founders and former owners of Ben & Jerry, the ice cream people, wanted to retain some control, while selling out to Unilever. In particular, for Ben & Jerry to continue to be politically active, active in favour of all kinds of causes - in the present case against the settlement policy of Israel in what used to be West Bank Palestine.

It seems that retiring and cashing-in founder owners are rather fond of having their cake and eating it. That is to say, they want the cash from selling their creation on or from taking it public, but they also want to retain a degree of control, often by creating golden shares carrying, in effect, lots of votes. Zuckerberg of Facebook being one such. According to the FT at least, mostly they don't get away with it and the new owners don't pay much attention to the old owners.

That said, Unilever, not wanting to be shut out of Israel, has got a problem.

PS: Reverso captures nicely my sense of 'fils à papa': daddy's boy, trust-fund baby or trustafarian.

Reference 1: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/jul/31/disinheritance-and-the-law.

Reference 2: Ben & Jerry’s gives Unilever an ice cream headache: The UK group is trying to distance itself from its brand’s Israel policy. It doesn’t wash - Tom Braithwaite/FT - 2021. 23rd July.

Clarissa no more

Having got to page 348 and letter CXX of volume four of the Everyman edition, Belford to Lovelace, I read that Clarissa expired, by her own watch, at 18:40 on the evening of Thursday, 7th September, 1738. The year having been calculated at reference 1. Page 1,363 and letter 481 in the Penguin edition. Dispatched by messenger very early on the (Friday) morning following. The story having started on Tuesday, 10th January of the same year.

Time slowed right down for this important event: many letters and many pages were spent on her closing days and hours, although the lady herself was reduced, in extremis, to brevity and dictation.

Just over 200 pages to go in the Everyman edition. Hopefully that will be enough to tidy everything up.

This appropriately, early on another Friday morning.

Reference 1: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/07/some-important-news-about-clarissa.html.

Brading eagles

This being notice of what turned out to be an important tweeters outing.

We started off in an ordinary way, heading west along Quay Lane, just by Brading Church, and then swinging left to head north east towards St. Helens, following the made up track which used to be the railway, a track offering fine views of Brading marshes, once Brading haven. With the snap above looking roughly east, with Culver Down right.

Lots of birds to be heard, but very few to be seen. But we did have a fair number of dog walkers and cyclists. And then we had some serious tweeters, marked out by their large cameras and their large green telescopes & binoculars. We got talking to one of them, an older gentleman who sounded as if he might have been a genuine caulkhead, and he told us all about the Brading snowy eagles, what turned out to be a slip for the Brading white tailed eagles. But present on the Brading marshes and I was shown a picture by way of evidence.

Checking this morning I find that you have Bald eagles in the New World and White tailed eagles in northern parts of the Old World, including until recently the British Isles. I then get to the tweeting site at reference 2 and the photography site at reference 3. I learn that a small number of these birds have been reintroduced, with some success. With Dennis contributing the snap above: 'G274 [male] and G324 [female] have spent most of the past month together on the Isle of Wight'. With wing span an impressive eight feet.

And while a lot of people in the country are poor enough to qualify for free school lunches, it seems that we can afford to fit these birds with transponders, so we can track them on their extensive travels. Six colours in the snap above for the six birds.

Our informant also claimed a purple heron. While we could only manage a regular heron and an egret. Which last looked rather big to us, but was probably still a small egret rather than the rare large egret.

On the plus side, on the way back through the small housing estate between our cottage and the church, an estate which seems to attract lots of jackdaws, mostly on the grass, we came across this tree, alive with crows, probably a hundred or more. Didn't get to check whether they were rooks or jackdaws, but we had had rooks flocking in trees when we stayed on the other side of the village. See, for example, reference 4.

I expect the birds had flown by the time I got my telephone out, and zooming in only produces some black smudges which might be crows. Not exactly a confirmed sighting.

For lunch, to the 'Hungry Bear', run by a team fresh from successful residencies at various farm shops. They are to be found at reference 5, while there is notice of what came before at reference 6.

We were entertained by their take on a chalk board, made from a roll of industrial brown paper. Much more sensible than a real black board, not nearly so messy and apt to be a lot more legible. I associated to the elaborate chalk board which used to be written out every night at the 'Dark Horse', written out by a shapely barmaid standing on a chair. No doubt having spent most of the afternoon thinking about her wardrobe. See, for example, reference 7.

For starter we opted for prawn cocktail, sold as 'prawn and crayfish delight' or some such. Very good it was too. I associated to the people near Houston of reference 8. Where being Texas, things are both big and rather different.

BH opted for a cheese risotto for her main course, while I went for something called 'Chicken New York', being difficult to the extent of asking them to omit the cheese sauce. Still quite substantial. Let down by their not taking the end off the 'Little Gem' lettuce. Pretty good, but I made the mistake of eating the red bits in the salad, which turned out to be some sort of pepper. I survived.

Helped along with a spot of Sancerre, which was fine, but I thought a little dear. The search key 'domaine sylvain bailly terroirs sancerre' turns up reference 9 fast enough, so a real Terroir, probably nothing to do with the place in William IV Street, often noticed in these pages. Too many references already for a post of this sort, so curious readers will have to search. Not terribly challenging. The Bailly website looks vaguely familiar but search of the archive for both 'sylvain bailly' and 'bailly' fails to turn anything up. Perhaps that's how all mid-range French wine websites look?  Lots of arty shots across fields of grapes?

Pondered about dessert and after a couple of Malbecs (for a change), fell for a sundae (called something fancier) with two spoons. Just the ticket.

Bing knows all about Mira Bai, picked up somewhere along the way, with reference 10 being a sample. Bit late now so put aside for tomorrow.

All in all an excellent lunch. There were other customers and our waiter said that they had 100 booked for the musical evening to follow. He also said that some people came to the restaurant from the large island next door, which seemed to us to be a bit of a stretch for a meal out. Ryde maybe, but Brading?

We thought that they look to have got a better formula than Heima. A bit more mainstream without being ordinary, without being regular pub grub, which should translate into a decent amount of business. 

Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-tailed_eagle.

Reference 2: https://www.roydennis.org/category/sea-eagle/.

Reference 3: https://www.ainsleybennettphotography.co.uk/. Does nature, but seems to be more interested in skies and stars.

Reference 4: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/2014/07/twit-log.html.

Reference 5: https://www.hungrybear.online/.

Reference 6: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/07/heima.html.

Reference 7: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=ambrosia+dark+horse.

Reference 8: https://texasmesquitegrill.com/.

Reference 9: https://sylvain-bailly.com/.

Reference 10: https://feminisminindia.com/2018/03/09/mirabai-devotion-subversion-bhakti/.

Indian bean tree

There are two small trees in showy flower on the Jubilee Way run, one in the hedge just before the turning into Jubilee Way and the other in the verge in Hunters Road, snapped above from StreetView. Very flashy two or three days ago, a bit scorched by the sun now, but still striking

My close-up of the flowers didn't work but the zoomed snap above gives something of the idea of the delicate & distinctive florets, florets which reminded me of orchids.

As luck would have it, someone or something had knocked a small branch off, several large leaves but no flowers, which I was able to carry home for identification purposes.

The yellow squares of the kitchen table are a little less than a centimetre, which makes the leaf around 20cm wide and around 25cm long.

Bing fairly quickly turned up the Catalpa tree, common enough in warmer parts of the US, so this one is either the northern Catalpa tree or the southern Catalpa tree, named for the Catawbas. According to Wikipedia, there is a particular sort of moth which lays its eggs in the tree and the resultant caterpillars make excellent bait for fishermen - some of whom grow small orchards on which to raise them.

Notwithstanding, commonly called the Indian bean tree for its long beans. Not to be confused with the Indian rain tree of reference 3, from the other Indians.

PS 1: a Catawba family in South Carolina in 1908. A huntin' rather than a fishin' family to judge by the rifles.

PS 2: moving on, intrigued by a report in the FT that the Australian government is very cross that Unesco is thinking of putting the Great Barrier Reef on its most-wanted list. All a plot by the dastardly Chinese, who presently hold the chairmanship of the relevant committee.

Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalpa. Illustrated by a winter snap of a rather larger tree from Reading, the one on the way to Swindon.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catawba_people.

Reference 3: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/08/mystery-shrub-no-more.html.