Water melon

A day for the first water melon of the new season, taking in return of my book to the RHS library at Vincent Square on the way. It was the last day of the loan and while I dare say that renewal by phone was an option, my own copy had turned up. Once the property of the Cape Fear Community College of Wilmington, North Carolina. No loan slip stuck in the front, but there is library paraphernalia stuck in the back.

A river port city with lots of beaches. Cape Fear just above the 'G' of Google, middle bottom. A college which, according to Wikipedia has been rather dogged by scandals involving presidents. It is also large, with an annual enrollment in excess of 20,000 students. I associate to the reports some years ago of the boss of our own Nescot paying herself something north of £250,000, which seemed rather a lot at the time. I think her husband was doing quite well too.

A warm day and the country end of the country platform was occupied by two food delivery riders with their bicycles. Presumably not delivering food, so were they going off-duty or on-duty?

Dozed off to wake at Clapham Junction and to alight at Vauxhall. Pedalled off to Vincent Square to return my book. Didn't browse as that would likely have resulted in another book - when there were quite enough in the pending tray already.

Unable to get onto Vincent Square, large though it is, it seemingly being the exclusive preserve of Westminster School. Presumably they bought it (or otherwise acquired it) before the area was developed. So I sat on some steps with my bread, hard boiled eggs and water, and admired it from the wrong side of the railings. Perhaps I should have tried to get in and see if I was challenged.

After which it was time for Clapham Junction and water melon, which involved taking what seemed a very long way around Vauxhall bus station to get onto Nine Elms Lane, the low road to Clapham Junction. Where I bought a large chunk of melon from Battersea Food & Wine, a useful place where I have bought a fair bit of stuff over the years.

Augmented by some magazines from Raynes Park.

And a little later. The melon was very good, and only lasted a matter of a day or so. My favourite kind of melon. With melons being very much the thing at the moment - a bit of under-the-counter-water to counter my low fluid regime, which can be a bit tiresome when one is hot or busy.

PS: not for the first time I wondered about the Schmidt kitchen showroom next to Epsom Station (reference 5). I imagine that their stuff is expensive - a lot more expensive than Howdens where we got our kitchen from - and that seemed dear enough - and I have never seen anyone there. Whatever does the salesman do with himself all day? Does HQ send him a whole lot of clerical work over the wire to keep him busy? How long will they hold out? Contrariwise, I don't suppose they pay a great deal of rent, with the the previous occupiers, as I recall, not having done very well. Maybe the problem is that all the posh people with money turn the other way out of the station.

References

Reference 1: Guide to flowering plant families - Wendy B. Zomlefer - 1994. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill.

Reference 2: https://cfcc.edu/. 

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Fear_Community_College.

Reference 4: https://www.nescot.ac.uk/.

Reference 5: https://home-design-schmidt.uk/showrooms/epsom/.