Monday, April 28, 2008

Evening sky - Silver Birch - another storm

This was last night's dusk after the storm, hardly tweaked just cropped. And today, after lunch we had another very bad storm with petits pois sized hailstones, standing water and everything. The roadside drain outside neighbour Derek's never seems to be able to cope, however much he helpfully pokes it. Eventually the water dissipated.

A Derbyshire dialect word for that type of drain used to be a 'suff' but I have no idea of its derivation. Maybe someone else knows?

Morrisons for essentials and then I cooked a stir-fry for lunch. Computer time has been spent transferring loads of pictures onto my external hard disk in order to free up my laptop somewhat. Not only had I too little space on my laptop hard-disk but it was becoming very sluggish. Whereupon a good clear-out is always recommended.
For the past few days during my travels, I have been keeping my eye open for the definitive 'Silver Birch' (Betula) to illustrate the lovely poem for children which begins -

"The silver birch is a dainty lady
she wears a satin gown......"

By Elizabeth Nesbitt

Then I realised I didn't have to go far - just to the end of the drive and point my camera over the football field for a very ladylike example.

Tomorrow morning, unless rained off, Y and Joan plan to do their Bestwood Park walk (meet in Pub Car Park at 10.45am) and if Bungus feels up to it he is going to join us. He can hold onto one of the handlebars of my wheels. Easy-Rider or what?

What's the betting that within 30 yards of Bestwood Lodge Hotel Car Park I am surrounded by groves of magnificent Silver Birch trees?

Comments.....Bungus.... Thanks, as always. But I can find little to comment on. I must be cracking up. If the 'helping hand' people do incorporate my design idea, without slipping me a few notes, I shall do very little of the 'basking in satisfaction' - more of the grumpy letters and suggestions of legal action.

The RadioNottm quote is very unfair on accountants. I have known several accountants who are lively people and, especially if of the 'chartered' variety, very attractive to women if for no other reason than their wealth.

If you've not listened to radio since the 50s, how do you know about Mornington Crescent?

AnonymousRob ....... If misled over the 'pinhole' position you needn't apologise because I am fascinated with the technique and can't wait etc., Please bring the Magnolia Tree with you when you come because I'm keen to see it in the flesh so to speak. I think Bungus is quite wrong, and the image to me seems, as I said, remarkably 3D. Perhaps experimenting with the distance of the 'pinholed' body cap from the sensor could yield results more similar to film. Extension tubes or a bog-roll core spring to mind.

I agree with most of the old radio shows although I was never a big Goon Show fan. And having since learnt that Prince Charles is a fan makes me happy that I wasn't. All the Kenneth Horne shows were good. The earliest I think was 'Much binding in the Marsh' with Richard Murdoch.

For different current radio comedy I've got to recommend the Garrison Keillor show late Saturday early Sunday on Radio 7. If you ever were a Lake Wobegon fan you need to catch up on what has been happening.

...... Cheers folks. Catch you tomorrow all being well. Sleep tight.


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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

We too had an afternoon storm with more distant thunder and lightning.
Are you sure it isn’t ‘sough’ which means something like the wind in the trees sound, so seems unlikely. But a nice word, unlike your ‘suff’. I think we just called it a ‘grating’.

Glad you have found your silver birch (any hoof fungus attached?).
We have one at our drive entrance, not yet fully in leaf.
But I had thought it was a weeping willow you wanted and that is what I have been looking for!

I think you should get some sort of platform attached to your wheels. Then I could ride pillion – and you could also freewheel downhill which sounds a promising prospect for minor disaster to keep us all amused.
Perhaps you had better wear your red scarf (Spanish Republican springs to mind, or Che)at Bestwood lest you get lost in the birch groves?

The Radio Nottm quote was a joke (told by an accountant). Of course it is not universally true, it is a generalisation and everyone knows that “generalisations are never true”. One of my favourites is:
“The Scotsman never wears rubber soled shoes because they give.
The Welshman prays on his knees and prays on everyone else.
The Irishman doesn’t know what he wants and is willing to fight for it.
The Englishman is a self made man who worships his creator.”

Without listening to radio I sometimes hear it (and, to recap, I do listen every night and morning to Radio Nottingham).

I loved the Goons.

Rob:
Re the assault on Haslam. He didn’t hit him hard enough.

Re ‘posh’, I have to admit liking the aristocracy more than the nouveau riche. The few aristocrats I have met have invariably been kind and polite (as I would be in their position). The Michael Winners I find totally objectionable.

As I understood it, the team members had to recite in turn the names of tube stations until one of them said 'Mornington Crescent' and won. It makes no sense which I think was the sole intention.

I’ll go along with Take It From Here, Round the Horne (including Beyond Our Ken), the Goons, I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again, and Al Read.
I did not like The Navy Lark, The Clitheroe Kid or Educating Archie, although I agree about the radio ventriloquist (who had been preceded by an American, Edgar Bergen (and Charlie MacArthy).

Reg:
I was regular listener to The Billy Cotton Band Show, Happidrome, and Forces Favourites (although they did not have the laughability of those above). Itma I liked very much at the time but it was heavily reliant on catch phrases (‘Can I do you now, sir’, ‘This is Funf speaking’) and I think has dated badly.
Didn’t Much Binding in the Marsh precede Round the Horne?
On Sunday nights, I also listened, with my parents, to The Palm Court Orchestra with Albert Sandler!

Anonymous said...

From Wikipedia:
"A Sough is an underground channel for draining water out of a mine….The term is closely associated with the lead mining areas of Derbyshire..."

Sadly, I am old enough to remember Educating Archie and all the others I mentioned. We didn't have a telly (or electricity) until we moved into a council house when I was aged about 11. Consequently, before then, we used to listen to the radio a lot and especially the comedy programmes on Sunday lunchtimes. Just before they came on it was Two-way (or Three-way) Family Favourites. I also remember Friday Night is Music Night and Sing Something Simple on a Sunday evening.
Put another nickle in
In the Nickleodeon
All I want is loving you
And music, music, music

They don't write them like that anymore....thank goodness.

Don't we have Monty Python to thank for giving birth to the boring image of accountants?

I hope the Bestwood trip went well.

Rob

Anonymous said...

Rob
Coming from Lincs I excuse you for not knowing the proper words
i.e.
Put another Nickle in
In Notts Counties Football Tin
All we want is football,
Football Football.

Anonymous said...

Rob
Coming from Lincs I excuse you for not knowing the proper words
i.e.
Put another Nickle in
In Notts Counties Football Tin
All we want is football,
Football Football.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Reg, I haven't heard that one before. Is there a reason why it's County and not Forest? Maybe because they've always been short of money.

Before the age of 11 I'd never heard of Nottinghamshire let alone Notts County but I knew quite a bit about the Irish Protestant culture of Northern Ireland.

Rob

Anonymous said...

Rob In those days county was the superior team, in 3rd div North forest were in 3rd div South and had Tommy Lawton to pay for.

Anonymous said...

Better correct that it was County who had Tommy to pay for Sorry didn't read it after typing