Thursday, October 02, 2008

Quiet but rewarding day - Y at Burton Joyce

.
Picture 1 is a monster fungus from Reg, posted as a 'bungus-baffler' ? At first I thought it might be 'honey-fungus' which is bad news. But a low-level 'google' has convinced me it isn't. The matter will have to be resolved by reference to Bungus's Bible, or he may of course identify it from his own knowledge bank.

Reg has also set a 'spot the 50p piece' competition for the above. If you download the picture, you will be able to use Picasa 3' s 'Text' tool. Find the 'symbol' font and use an arrow to show where you think the coin is !

The Michaelmas Daisies are breaking colour and at about the correct time. They are usually out for Goose Fair, which is this coming weekend. (the link is to a nice bit of YouTube shot at last year's Fair).

The snap on the left explains itself (with the text) and it was an excuse to use the programme's user-friendly text tool - having previously used 'retouch' to 'airbrush' out a few unnecessary Japanese Anemone flowers.

It is most fun to go in the evening for the lights and the atmosphere. Most Nottingham people love it, and the pleasant air we have been having, with a nip in it, is usually called 'Goose Fair Weather'. David tells me the grass is now covered with an open mesh metal carpeting so, even if there's a lot of rain, it isn't the squelchy experience it used to be.

I took Y to the tram, the start of her journey to Burton Joyce where she had a lovely but tiring day. Miles is off School but nearly better, and when I went to collect Y around 4.15pm, I had a good hour with the children. On the return journey we stopped for a 'carvery' at Seven Mile House (I would have done a link, if I could have found a decent one. They all seemed to be PDF documents, without pictures) and I was pleasantly surprised by the quality.

Brian came round this morning and we messed-about doing 'links' and 'attachments' and had a good laugh about things in general. I decided against the Camera Club this evening because it is a judged competition. Honestly, I don't mind what people say about my pictures. It's just that camera-club judges can be extremely tiresome about anyone's pictures. They are invariably poorly informed in art-critique terms and utter the most vapid drivel ! I've had a much more stimulating evening at home.

The last snap is a close-up of the same michaelmas daisy on a wide-aperture, hence the softness of the furthest away flowers.

Comments

bungus ...... Thank you for reminding me the other day about the demo in support of John Crosby !

An interesting feature was that one of the policmen policing the demo actually called me Sir, as I stood there with my placard ! which was nice. I gather that, as a boss, I was not too unpopular.

The chowder recipe sounds well worth a go. I think I still have some dried fenugreek leaves you gave me years ago. A few days ago I had occasion to check it and it still seemed fine.

The difference between The Cliff Inn and The Bird-in-Hand views is that from inside the Cliff Inn you can't actually see the view. It is from the car-park on the opposite side of the road.

Re your blood-pressure. Y tells me that the figure you quoted is really high, and must be of concern to your medical advisers.

Re Thomas H Huxley. He was related to Aldous. Please click here for the Wiki page about the family.

anonymousrob ...... "we were in Torremolinos again in ’64 which, as ......." So this neglecting your Sports Desk duties in order to toddle off on holiday is not a new thing !

I think you are right. We will not pursue the question of camera-club judges !

Indeed it was a neat pick-up of the 'after the hanging' line, by Bungus. I would like to say I penned it with that in mind. But I didn't.

Your 'rear-view' ideas for my wheels are good. Interestingly enough - if I put the brakes on and sit down, I am facing backwards anyway.

I don't understand the next-to-the-last line. about your job?

..................................................

Quotation time ......... in an e-mail from the other Brian ........

"The Americans have George Bush, Johnny Cash, Bob Hope and Stevie Wonder. We have Gordon Brown, No Cash, No Hope and no BLOODY WONDER! "

Sleep tight - catch you tomorrow



.








3 comments:

Anonymous said...

DIARY
Drip-trip OK. Picked up at 11.00 to arrive City half-hour early for noon appointment. Because of problems with pharmacy (my dose had to go back to be checked because someone had accidentally labelled it ‘use by 3 Sep’ instead of ‘3 Oct’ - it only has 24 hour life – and I assume the same thing had happened to others) I didn’t get in for treatment until 1.30. But I had last Sunday’s Observer Review Section, with crossword, and when I came out at 2.30 I only had to wait a short time for transport and was home just after 3.00.
The nurse who hooked me up had a symbol tattooed inside her wrist so I enquired what it was.
“A Buddhist Mantra,” she said, “Om mane padme hum,”
“Oh,” said I, “Om mane padme hum,”
“Do you know what it means,” she asked.
“Hail, Oh Jewel in the Flower of the Lotus,” says I.
Brownie points.
I remember it from college when a fellow student enlightened his yearmates (it is inscribed on prayer wheels).
So nurse and I had a little chat about Buddhism, which was nice.

I think you would enjoy Seasick Steve. The following is from The Observer:
“He’s only on his second album, following 2006’s ‘Doghouse Music’, but Seasick Steve sounds like a relic from a bygone era. He sings about jumping freight trains, drinking Thunderbird wine and waging war against chiggers – all factors in the lifestyle of an American hobo. This creates an odd sense of dislocation, as Steve stopped riding trains in his youth, some forty years ago, and is playing the blues for a major label. But his sound remains rough and ready and he has an easy-going charm, and a gift for telling rambling stories about holing up in the woods (see ‘My Youth’) in his side.”
Killian Fox

BLOG COMMENT
I shall research Reg’s monster fungus (first thought is Dryad’s Saddle – I once collected a single one over a metre across – but it doesn’t look quite right)

I must get Picasa 3. Is there any problem with that?

It is years since I went to Goose Fair but I always used to enjoy it – just wandering around and wondering at the Steam Engines without going on any of the rides.
I liked the ‘wall of Death’, the boxing booths and some of the other sideshow attractions.
Mist was another essential feature of the October weather, developing into dense fogs in November (generally a thing of the past since ‘clean air’).

As so often seems to occur when one ‘happens across’, I had the Seven Mile House 'carvery' recommended by a hospital transport fellow passenger (a resident of Calverton) only a month or so ago.
Sandra has recently eaten a couple of times at the newly refurbished White Post (Farnsfield) which has a good menu, mostly in the £8 to £10 range, and offers ‘2 for 1’ on all main meals (pay for the most expensive, cheaper one free).

Please don’t give up the camera club until you have found something else to cause aggravation.

Fenugreek leaves do seem to retain their flavour well (unlike parsley for instance). But they need keeping in an airtight container, as they are remarkably pungent (the smell which pervades Indian food shops).
Fenugreek is amazingly easy to grow (even easier than coriander) but never seems to achieve anything like the right fullness of scent and flavour.

Yes, my blood-pressure does seem to have settled at a high level aftr having fluctuated and become ‘normal’ a couple of months ago. My bottom level is fairly consistent (about 2’ above GL, before you ask) which I understand is more critical than the top reading. No doubt the GP will adjust my medication when I see her next Tuesday.

After some puzzlement, it seems that Thomas H Huxley was grandfather to Aldous and insanity ran in the family (in ours it takes a gentle stroll).

Well done in transferring my "we were in Torremolinos” comment to Rob.
Rob/Bob? I suppose it is possibly excusable other than on grounds of fading faculties.

Whoever said ‘never look back’ was talking through his arse.

I think you got the last word of yesterday’s blog slightly wrong.
Rather than ‘tonmorrow’ you surely meant ‘on’t’morrow’

Anonymousrob:
Oh dear! I am getting more confused than I thought! The first Torri holiday, the one of the poem, was in ’66. So the second must have been ’67.
That makes a nonsense of the start of both versions of the poem as a ‘factode’.
I must regroup and revise (yet again!).
“No such thing as a finished poem", right enough!
But RG has confused things even more by transposing my words to you. You will be pleased. It’s bad enough being accused of the things you HAVE said or done…

I do not think there was such a thing as a chip cob in Notts before the mid-1970s. I had certainly never heard of them until then (when we started serving them in the pub) and I think their first local incarnation was as a ‘chip buttie’ (‘buttie’ being either a Scouse or Geordie expression, I believe?).
If I remember correctly, which seems increasingly unlikely, Pierrepoint came from S Yorkshire so chip cobs would have been alien to him too.

I like a lot the ‘great pictures are behind me’ comment..

I don’t know quite whether to wish that you don’t get the sack or not? Or is that too negative a non-wish?

Anonymous said...

Just a very quick visit to have a quick skeet to see what's been happening in your neck of the woods and to say a great big thank you for the lifeboat book which I received today. You are so kind. it will make good bedside reading and when I've finished I'll take it down the boathouse where I know others will read it avidly......Bungus, thank you for your recipe I will try it out soon and will post back. many thanks. Oh and if you do visit my pages any of you just drop a line in the guest page it would be nice to hear from you. Latest from the island is that the Queen visited this morning and I was there to get some shots with my new camera. Go on have a skeet.....

http://www.freewebs.com/mannananscloak/ramseyramblings.htm#257620809

Anonymous said...

Fear not everyone, the country is in good hands - Mandy's back!! Please, please, please can I win the lottery this weekend and emigrate? I promise I'll still comment on the blog.

This weekend my mother-in-law and sister-in-law ( a couple of my Shameless in-laws - copyright Bungus) are visiting. So it's party time!! However, we have to stay sober to drive up to the caravan to sleep as there is only one bed in our house at the moment.

Bungus, I don't mind having your words attributed to me but when the blogmeister gets it wrong the other way round you may be concerned. Especially if it's praise for Alex Ferguson!

Maybe someone should write the definitive history of the chip cob. I remember, as a child, the thrill and joy of eating chip sandwiches (mum came form a posh part of Northern Ireland) and I'm pretty sure we started referring to them as butties before I moved to Notts. However, I could be wrong about that; perhaps there was some "northern" tv comedy that used the term.. I certainly didn't see chip butties or chip cobs on sale in chippies until after I moved to Notts in 1977. Going back to childhood, I also remember we had fish and chip sandwiches - heaven!

The quote is interesting, not least for the fact that it appears to praise George Bush, or is he being damned with faint praise? I'd rather have Gordon Brown than George Bush. I bet my friends in Cuba are just as well off and just as happy as they were 18 months ago.

Bungus, whatever else you do, do not worry about the fact that you cannot remember what you were doing in the 60s. You know what they say - if you can remember the 60s you weren't really there!

Rob