HCP

This to notice a short visit to Horton County Park, part of the plan being to see how the then fairly new rollator got on on country paths.

On leaving the car, instead of just heading west down the made up path down the hill, we thought we would cut into the field adjacent to the left and walk down there. eventually reaching the fine mature oak snapped above and to be found above and to the left of the orange spot on the snap above that.

I wondered how old it was. Presumably not as old as the old pollard oaks to be found on Epsom Common, said to be five hundred years old or more. And of which there is brief notice at reference 3.

A few blackberries and a few sloes, but more important, no exit back onto the path which was now on our right. Had we been fifty years younger, I dare we would have scramble through, but we weren't so we didn't, preferring to retrace our steps back up to the field gate, from where we were able to continue along the regular route, as usually frequented by plenty of cyclists and dog walkers, although on this particular morning they were fairly thin on the ground.

And so along to the pond, seemingly invisible in the bottom right hand corner of the wood to the left of the blue spot.

BH took the bench while I had the comfort of my own seat. A very pleasant spot it was too. Plenty of twittering, in the bushes, although nothing stayed near enough and still enough to count as a tweet. Although there were a few dragon flies and such over the more or less dried up pond - the shiny green marking where the water should have been.

A relic of the days when farms had plenty of odd, wild corners. Not like the farms of today at all, where every square yard needs to be turned to account. Or sold off for houses.

On the way back to the car we took in the Nilgai of Hobbledown, who all seemed to be present and correct. We also came across the flower snapped above. Which BH confidently proclaimed to be a great willowherb, a plant I had never heard of. I was impressed, but thought I had better check, and Google Images seems to think so too. See reference 1.

A pleasant morning's stroll. With the verdict on the rollator being that it can cope with these sorts of path, and with fairly rough grass, but you can't expect as much support as you get when you are rolling along something smooth, when using the shoulders you can, if necessary, take quite a bit of weight off the back and the legs.

And so back to the second round of lentils already noticed at reference 2.

PS: while today we had the piece at reference 4 about a transnational company holding what amounts to a bidding war to see which country will give it the biggest subsidy for a new factory, subsidy which will no doubt be duly reflected in share and bond holder returns. For the world at large a zero sum game: maybe one day we will learn how to share these sorts of things around in a reasonably fair way. While in the meantime, we have the sauce to tick the Chinese off about state aid to the electric car industry.

References

Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epilobium_hirsutum.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/08/more-lentils.html.

Reference 3: https://www.surreyarchaeology.org.uk/content/ashtead-and-epsom-commons.

Reference 4: AstraZeneca threatens to move UK vaccine manufacturing to US: British pharmaceutical company unhappy at chancellor Rachel Reeves’ plan to cut state aid for project - Anna Gross, Financial Times - 2024.