This weekend was the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch, when members, supporters et al are invited to spend an hour watching for birds in their gardens and reporting numbers sighted. Having hung around at the window for various spells and seen two wood pigeons and a blackbird, I gave up early, and will not be putting in a report. It was cold and breezy, so I imagine any woodpeckers and goldfinches with an ounce of sense were staying under cover.
But the breeze certainly cleared the air, which made for a nice ride down to Brighton, where Barbara regaled us with amuse-gueule, fine wines and three delicious courses, leaving us with appetites for no more than a slice or two of toast in the evening!
The garden is coming along - buds on the snowdrops and magnolia, leaf on the potentillas, sedums starting to push up timid new stems, pink shoots appearing on the roses. I still have to look at photographs to remember how the garden looks in flower, but things are starting to come to life again, thank goodness.
Monday 31 January 2011
Monday 24 January 2011
Another week older...
...and not a whole lot to show for it.
Well, I did go manic last Sunday and made two batches of marmalade and one of rolls, this sudden burst of energy motivated by a day of brilliant sunshine. It was shocking, as always, to realise just how much sugar went into it - for about three and a half kilos of fruit, it needs over 5 kg of sugar. Don't think I've ever bought a 5kg bag of sugar before! Anyway, the result is so much better than shop-bought mass-produced marmalade.
I had a couple of rather short days at the Crown Court, where an appellant failed to show us that he'd more likely than not consumed most of the skinful reflected in a well-positive breath test after he'd last driven the car (the so-called 'hip-flask defence'). Well, that's all the real judicial work I've got scheduled for this month, but the Association is taking a lot of my time. We still managed to get out to the good old Red Lion for lunch on Wednesday, and I had a pretty good meal for the old geezer's rate of £8. Martyn's main course alone came to more than that, and it was the same as mine. The walk was pleasant too - I like to see what other people's gardens are doing, even if, like ours, it's not a whole lot. It'll be a nicer walk home, though, when the sun's a bit higher in the sky.
As usual, the mayor's quiz on Saturday night was a lot of fun. Four of us beaks and respective partners usually make up a table, One couple from last year's team couldn't make it this year, and the replacement couple were very good. We played our joker (which gives you double points) on geography this year, so I've been swotting up subjects like US state capitals and -stans for the last month. Neither came up, of course. Well, we came 15th equal out of (I think) 36 teams, so it wasn't exactly a rout. But next year, if there's a Books, Stories and Legends round, we'll move our joker there - we got 10 out of 10 in that round!
Well, I did go manic last Sunday and made two batches of marmalade and one of rolls, this sudden burst of energy motivated by a day of brilliant sunshine. It was shocking, as always, to realise just how much sugar went into it - for about three and a half kilos of fruit, it needs over 5 kg of sugar. Don't think I've ever bought a 5kg bag of sugar before! Anyway, the result is so much better than shop-bought mass-produced marmalade.
I had a couple of rather short days at the Crown Court, where an appellant failed to show us that he'd more likely than not consumed most of the skinful reflected in a well-positive breath test after he'd last driven the car (the so-called 'hip-flask defence'). Well, that's all the real judicial work I've got scheduled for this month, but the Association is taking a lot of my time. We still managed to get out to the good old Red Lion for lunch on Wednesday, and I had a pretty good meal for the old geezer's rate of £8. Martyn's main course alone came to more than that, and it was the same as mine. The walk was pleasant too - I like to see what other people's gardens are doing, even if, like ours, it's not a whole lot. It'll be a nicer walk home, though, when the sun's a bit higher in the sky.
As usual, the mayor's quiz on Saturday night was a lot of fun. Four of us beaks and respective partners usually make up a table, One couple from last year's team couldn't make it this year, and the replacement couple were very good. We played our joker (which gives you double points) on geography this year, so I've been swotting up subjects like US state capitals and -stans for the last month. Neither came up, of course. Well, we came 15th equal out of (I think) 36 teams, so it wasn't exactly a rout. But next year, if there's a Books, Stories and Legends round, we'll move our joker there - we got 10 out of 10 in that round!
Sunday 16 January 2011
A 'must-see'
We went and saw The King's Speech last night. Superb performances by Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush, and not a bad one from H. Bonham-Carter either. Claire Bloom is sadly under-used as Queen Mary, though Michael Gambon's George V is nicely scripted and acted. Guy Pearce plays a suitably vacuous and infatuated Edward VIII opposite Eve Best's Mrs Simpson. I thought Derek Jacobi an odd choice for Cosmo Lang, though, portraying him as a rather lightweight Archbishop (which Lang was not), and waspish rather than severe. His time-expired assumption of unquestioned influence over the King came over clearly enough.
It looks like we might get the odd glimpse of sun today, at last. The unrelieved grey and wet weather is bad for the spirits, particularly when the days are so short. On glancing out just now, there was another spirit-raiser - a magnificent woodpecker, the first I've seen this year, and resplendent in his orange 'trousers' and scarlet collar. He was shifting the last of the suet balls in the feeder, so I'd better squelch out there and refill. Must grease the pole it hangs on as well - the squirrels are getting more than their fair share.
It looks like we might get the odd glimpse of sun today, at last. The unrelieved grey and wet weather is bad for the spirits, particularly when the days are so short. On glancing out just now, there was another spirit-raiser - a magnificent woodpecker, the first I've seen this year, and resplendent in his orange 'trousers' and scarlet collar. He was shifting the last of the suet balls in the feeder, so I'd better squelch out there and refill. Must grease the pole it hangs on as well - the squirrels are getting more than their fair share.
Saturday 15 January 2011
Deliveries
A bit of traffic to our front door this week. First was a new monitor for my PC, delivered from Amazon the day after I ordered it. Good, eh? Next was a new piano stool that Martyn had ordered. By the time I'd got downstairs to answer the door, the wretched delivery man had taken it to our long-suffering next-door neighbour. I suppose everyone's under pressure to achieve more deliveries per hour these days. Keeping the best for last, Martyn's new piano arrived on Thursday. It's a digital job, and he's very impressed with the progressive touch, as well as the range of voices and whizzo special effects. And we hadn't realised that it came with a matching piano stool... Not a problem: we can now pension off the lethal folding stool (it tips over far too easily) that he uses at his keyboard.
I suppose a lot of goods have always been delivered to the door, but I'd be interested to know what impact on-line ordering has had. My impression, from the number of vans I see whizzing past the house, is that courier deliveries have multiplied like rabbits. We see a lot of grocery deliveries as well, and if fuel prices continue to rise at the present rate, we may be taking a look at that too. In my childhood, most grocers delivered, and indeed I made a bit of money driving a local grocer's deliveries after school. (Vauxhall Victor estate car with a 3-speed column-change gearbox. Dreadful thing: it quite poisoned my mind to steering-column gear levers until my lovely old Renault 16 showed just how good a good one can be.) But with the growth of the supermarkets and the consequent killing off of so many independent High Street grocery businesses, home deliveries disappeared for a couple of decades.
But it's justice I'll be hoping to deliver next week: I have a 2-day appeal at the Crown Court. My sittings are so few and far between at the moment that I've pretty well forgotten how it's done. Still, 'iz 'onner will do the talking, so the audience will be spared my gaffes.
I suppose a lot of goods have always been delivered to the door, but I'd be interested to know what impact on-line ordering has had. My impression, from the number of vans I see whizzing past the house, is that courier deliveries have multiplied like rabbits. We see a lot of grocery deliveries as well, and if fuel prices continue to rise at the present rate, we may be taking a look at that too. In my childhood, most grocers delivered, and indeed I made a bit of money driving a local grocer's deliveries after school. (Vauxhall Victor estate car with a 3-speed column-change gearbox. Dreadful thing: it quite poisoned my mind to steering-column gear levers until my lovely old Renault 16 showed just how good a good one can be.) But with the growth of the supermarkets and the consequent killing off of so many independent High Street grocery businesses, home deliveries disappeared for a couple of decades.
But it's justice I'll be hoping to deliver next week: I have a 2-day appeal at the Crown Court. My sittings are so few and far between at the moment that I've pretty well forgotten how it's done. Still, 'iz 'onner will do the talking, so the audience will be spared my gaffes.
Wednesday 12 January 2011
The gun lobby
We're just grateful to know that our friend in Tucson was not among those injured physically. Now, two questions:
1. What rational voter would vote for Sarah (cross-hairs) Palin?
2. How many voters in the said electorate are sufficiently rational to be allowed to vote?
1. What rational voter would vote for Sarah (cross-hairs) Palin?
2. How many voters in the said electorate are sufficiently rational to be allowed to vote?
Wednesday 5 January 2011
Cough, sneeze, languish
Heaven knows, countless others have much more to complain about, and do so less vociferously, if at all. But as a bloke with a cold, I'm more than happy to conform to stereotype. I'm no longer sneezing so much - just as well, since I've pulled an abdominal muscle (hadn't realised I had any...) in the process - but seem to be settling into the coughing now. Grizzle, whinge. I had to cancel a visit to the press night of Kate's play this evening. The last thing she needed was a grumpy old trustee upsetting the hacks and coughing through the performance.
A few bulbs are pushing foliage through the clay, so it won't be too long before we have a riot of daffodils and crocuses. We planted snowdrops and tulips last spring, so are hoping for great things. The dozen cuttings of Jane's New Guineas on the kitchen window ledge seem to be settling into their pots of compost, but we had to throw out one of the donor plants today. Even with the heating on a frost protection setting out there in the sitootery, it was looking very bedraggled. The other three are plodding along, and we may get some more cuttings from them. There are still buds on one of the patio roses by the front door, and some of the pansies are trying bravely to show a bit of colour. I received a calendar out of the blue yesterday, so shall maybe spend some time tomorrow mapping out the spring sowing schedule.
Oh, and Happy New Year, by the way! We saw the new year in at Gillingham with Marion, John and Dorothy, enjoying a pleasant evening à cinq. A moment or two before midnight I headed out, ringing their doorbell a moment after midnight as their first foot. There seemed to be fewer fireworks around this year, but rather more tipsy neighbours rushing out to shake hands bzw. kiss cheeks. We were our own first feet as usual, arriving home at about 10:30. And dozed away a fair bit of the afternoon.
A few bulbs are pushing foliage through the clay, so it won't be too long before we have a riot of daffodils and crocuses. We planted snowdrops and tulips last spring, so are hoping for great things. The dozen cuttings of Jane's New Guineas on the kitchen window ledge seem to be settling into their pots of compost, but we had to throw out one of the donor plants today. Even with the heating on a frost protection setting out there in the sitootery, it was looking very bedraggled. The other three are plodding along, and we may get some more cuttings from them. There are still buds on one of the patio roses by the front door, and some of the pansies are trying bravely to show a bit of colour. I received a calendar out of the blue yesterday, so shall maybe spend some time tomorrow mapping out the spring sowing schedule.
Oh, and Happy New Year, by the way! We saw the new year in at Gillingham with Marion, John and Dorothy, enjoying a pleasant evening à cinq. A moment or two before midnight I headed out, ringing their doorbell a moment after midnight as their first foot. There seemed to be fewer fireworks around this year, but rather more tipsy neighbours rushing out to shake hands bzw. kiss cheeks. We were our own first feet as usual, arriving home at about 10:30. And dozed away a fair bit of the afternoon.
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