psmv5: Titbits

Various odd and ends from recent strolls around town. Epsom town that is, not the big one up the road.

Starting with this out of area bicycle at the top of Stones Road, from Forest, people last noticed a month ago at reference 1. People who, according to reference 2, operate in 14 of the 30 odd London Boroughs, a swathe from north to south, but certainly not in Epsom. However, be that as it may, this cycle moved on fast enough. I might add that the caravan behind had a rare outing too, actually moving out for a day or so, something which has not happened, to my knowledge, for a long time. But then, I don't walk Stones Road (it leads to the Screwfix Passage) every day.

Then there are a lot of these pretty mauve flowers in the verges at the moment. Flowers which the snap above does not really do justice to, but good enough for Google Images to be clear that it is hedgerow cranesbill (Geranium pyrenaicum), a member of the geranium family.

The stream at the top of Longmead Road fairly well up after the recent rain. A stream which drains the northeastern part of Epsom Common.

Nearer home, a new-to-me plaque for a BMW car, maybe an inch or so in diameter. Reminding me of those effects, perhaps optical illusions, that you can get from suitably patterned spinning tops. Confirmed at car check as a BMW, 1 Series M1351, Silver, 2013, top speed 155mph, 8 speed automatic. So actually more than 10 years old.

I close with a spot of up close and personal from Meadway. Which, for no very good reason, I am sure I would find terribly irritating if I lived in the house to the left. The caravan which has been installed on the other side was noticed towards the end of reference 4. We don't yet know whether it is there for the convenience of the owners or of the builders.

PS: I can now add a few more titbits from the August number of 'drinks business', back in business with us after the summer holidays.

Majestic Wine, despite being pushed out of Epsom, is planning to open a new store every month for the next few years. From where I sit, they suited my wine buying better than Sainsbury's - and this expansion suggests that there are plenty of others in the same position.

People in the hospitality business are waiting with interest for the publication of a new law - Martyn's Law - which will put counter terrorism duties on them. Which is all well and good, but I am not impressed by the way that as soon as we have a problem we reach for the statute book: an instrument which is both blunt and expensive.

Quite a lot of space is given to the closures side of the drinks business. Where there are lots of big companies of which I have not previously heard. For example Herti of Bulgaria, the UK outpost of which is to be found at reference 5. They also do food, pharmacy and water, in addition to their core business of booze.

I read that Buckfast Abbey, keen to brush up the rather unsavoury image of their Buckfast Tonic Wine, perhaps the product which keeps the whole show on the road, by teaming up with celebrity chef Martin Blunos. He is busily coming up with novel ways to include the famous tonic wine in his cooking. See, for example, reference 6.

And lastly, the Rotunda. A restaurant at Kings Place near Kings Cross which we penetrated but did not use only Sunday just past. A restaurant which makes it to a full page 87, where I read first that they have their own farm up north to produce their meat. I already knew that the restaurant sported one of those glass fronted chiller cabinets to display the meat. And second that they have a stellar line up of cocktails - in which they are eco enough to mix in bits and bobs of the fruit and vegetables which pass through their kitchen. A restaurant which we are clearly going to have to try.