Monday, July 28, 2008

Sandown swifty - Weather good

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Picture 1 is to remove any doubt which still lingers.

It is, without question, "Poached Egg" plant (Limnanthes Douglasii) and here shown growing in Y's top border. She is good at growing it and it flourishes wherever she puts it. The seeds came out of a packet marked Limnanthes Douglasii.

Picture 2 are some Lilies found growing at Ventnor Botanical Gardens where we spent a very pleasant couple of hours yesterday in beautiful sunshine.

The reason for publication is the similarity between them and Jill's (published Friday).

In the published information about them it explained that they start off redder than when fully open, just as Jill said.

We are having a great time. The weather is faultless and the Hotel is adequate.

More may well follow later in the week.

Comments will be covered then.

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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

The first picture you published still LOOKS like poached eggs (ie, not like the poached egg plamnt)

Anonymous said...

The first picture you published still LOOKS like poached eggs (ie, not like the poached egg plamnt)

Anonymous said...

Yep, those are 'my' lilies all right - I also have the same thing in white - but the leaves of mine are in much better condition....Mind you, the snails love them, I collect a few every morning. But these look very brown?

'Adequate' doesn't sound too good, though I suppose it could be worse....

Anonymous said...

I had an e-mail from Bungus recently "challenging" me to comment on the recent reforms introduced by President Raul Castro in Cuba. Bungus referred to me as our resident Cuba 'expert'. Ha! I don't think a fortnight's holiday in the country qualifies me as an expert. However, it seems to me Raul is handling the 'reforms' most skillfully, allowing a cautious but important introduction to technology that the western world now takes for granted (mobile phones, home computers). Despite being an avid user of some of these technologies, I sometimes think the world was a better place without them.

However, today at a work meeting, I was presented with an interesting insight into what must be an unintended consequence of the use of mobile phones. The person I was talking to said that her son, who is mildly autistic, was able to make friends because he had a mobile phone; no need for social skills, just an ability to send text messages. How wonderful!

I had another new experience today. As I was leaving the house to go to work I discovered a lizard, inside the house by the front door. I should have taken time to photograph it but was already late (maybe a few more minutes would have made no difference!) I was somewhat shocked as I have never seen a lizard in this country before, let alone in my house. Where could it have come from? Do we have wild lizards in England, or could it have been doing a runner from a local lizard afficionado? I managed to persuade it into a plastic pint 'glass' and took it across the road to the grass area opposite us. I hope it survives.

Glad to hear the IoW is sounding positive. I guess adequate is below expectations but bearable.

I love poached eggs but prefer them on toast to growing in the garden. The mention of poached egg plants reminds me of the (Fyfe Robinson?) spoof about spaghetti trees.

I still can't remember my mum's unforgettable saying from the night we went for a curry. However, Bungus's comment prompted me to buy 8 notebooks for a pound when I was in Scrooges in Ollerton the other day. I also remembered this the other day:
My mum's saying No.35 (context, Elaine asked me to get her a glass of wine and I was feeling too lazy to do so, so I said, "As my mother would say...")
You'll have to get it yourself, I've got a bone in my leg. It took half an hour to explain to Elaine what I was talking about.

Talking of shops in Ollerton, Bungus, which one belongs to your obnoxious neighbour? I sincerely hope it's not Scrooges.

Rob

Anonymous said...

Rob:

I sort of share your ambivalent attitude to modern technology but I remember once reading that if the internal combustion engine hadn't been invented London would be 20'0" (6m) deep in horse muck.

Lizards are not uncommon but generally well concealed. In the 1940s they used to inhabit Ling Forest on Eakring Road in Mansfield (now 'The Desert', used for illegal off-road activities) where there were also grass snakes and (rumoured) adders as well as abundant and fascinating insect life.

I too like poached egg on toast. It was my prefered every day breakfast for many years. Having a couple of hens ensures that the eggs are fresh.

I was in Scrooges the other day too; buying batteries for the splendid (and cheap from Gizoo) wireless ear pieces I have which enable me to hear the TV with the sound turned right down. I can even go into the kitchenor upstairs and still here it.

'I've got a bone in my leg' is - or was - a common expression in the Mansfield area. Just a slightly obscure way of saying 'I shan't do as you wish because I don't want to.'

My neighbour's shop is called Boughton's Blooms. It is away from the main shopping area but on the main road through the town, just past the mini roundabout at the Forest Road/Whinney Lane/Tuxford Road junction.
We do sometimes hear of others with whom he is not popular (his neighbour on the other side and our other next door neighbour as well as someone who spent soem £350on wedding flowers only to be charged £2.50 for local delivery.
Please feel free to call in for a cuppa at No-None (immediately east of Boughton's Blooms) whenever you are passing (a phone call even a few minutes before might not be a bad idea - but not essential - 01623 863574).

Anonymous said...

Rob:

Thanks for your comment on Raul's reforms. You support my own less informed view.

Anonymous said...

A couple of months or so ago I was talking to a guy who runs a motorcross bike place on the industrial estate just off the A617 in Mansfield (I should know what it's called because Morco photographic suppliers are there). Any road up, I was told The Desert is one of the best motorcross practice areas in Europe if not the world because of the sandy soil conditions. Apparently many of the top pros practice there. He was lamenting the fact that the police are gradually closing it down because of the illegal off-roading that goes on. He was quite willing to engage with local young people and teach them the skills of motorcross and give them some purpose in life. However, when I asked him if he would give one of them a job he said, quite bizzarely, "Why should I help them? They ought to get off their backsides and do something."

Thanks for the invite, Bungus. The phone number is noted and will be rung the next time I'm around Ollerton with a bit of time to spare.

Rob

Anonymous said...

I've seen Sand Lizards on the open bits of the New Forest - they move incredibly quickly, and I think they are quite rare - or perhaps just located in certain areas and not anywhere else? On one of those Spring Watch progs some camerman was trying to film all UKs snakes/lizards etc. in one day, and he did this in the New Forest area. I was reading in the paper today about some child having terrible reaction to adder bite, that was outside Bournemouth somewhere, not very far away.

Anonymous said...

Jill:
The lizard location I described is also sandy, as Rob's motorcyclist confirms.

Rob:
'The Desert' is illegal to motorbikes and all vehicles. Anyone using it does so without insurance and to the annoyance of local residents.
The police have been trying to close it for twenty years or more.
Before the former Crown Farm Colliery used it as a tip for their spoil it was beautiful heathland (Ling Forest) of which only a small portion remains as an area of Special Scientific Interest towards the former site of Rufford Colliery. From birth I lived within about a mile and from the age of about ten cycled down to spend a fair bit of the summer holiday exploring.
There were trenches there from WWI training. In WWII I found either an incendiary bomb or mortar bomb there and took it home in my saddlebag. My mother made me put it in the garden hut (we never called it a shed) and fetched in the local ARP man, who gave me a warning lecture and removed it.
We blackberried there and at the age of 16 I found it good 'courting' country.