Trolley 812

An M&S trolley recovered from the ramp leading out of the Kokoro passage, captured a couple of days after trolley No.811 had been taken home for safe keeping.

Much spring action along the Longmead Road stream when I was returning it the next day.

More spring action by the side of Screwfix, the place where the whitebeam of reference 2 is to be found.

What I think is a mature London plane at the entrance to the tunnel proper. I also think it may have been pollarded in its youth. But how did it get there?

Then outside Sainsbury's, I actually caught someone picking up a parcel from the delivery boxes outside, a first. Not that I visit Sainsbury's that often these days, with the East Street creationists having cleaned up their trolley act.

Strolled back to town, to take a pint of Greene King IPA on the Wetherspoon's terrace, only the second time I have done such a thing for more than a decade. For what seemed the very reasonable price of £1.69. Much cheaper than drinking wine, and very much cheaper than drinking wine at the Marquis. Good, because less alcohol. But bad because more fluid.

At first glance, the tables look quite small and it did not cross my mind that the tops were fake. But closer inspection of the corner gave them away. And now, it is clear that you would not get away with slots with real timber - but that did not occur to me at the time.

After which I took the trolley in the passage and stolled home.

Taking in this challenge for Google Images on the way. My thinking is former Christmas tree so some kind of spruce. My idea being that the small cones should give Google Images something to bite on.

So adding the clue 'christmas tree', its AI assistant offers 'The image shows what appears to be a Picea omorika, also known as a Serbian spruce, growing behind a low brick wall. This type of tree is often used as a Christmas tree due to its symmetrical shape and dense foliage. While the image does not explicitly show Christmas decorations, the tree's appearance and the query term "Christmas tree" suggest this identification. The tree is characterized by its short, needle-like leaves, which are green with a silvery-blue underside. It has a narrow, conical shape and is surrounded by other greenery, indicating it is likely growing outdoors'.

Noting that it used just a small segment of the image, just above the bricks, and so missed the decorations.

And this tree does have the tall, slender habit suggested by Wikipedia at reference 3. Of the other suggestions, Nordmann fir looks to be the wrong shape, but Norway spruce at reference 4 looks to be a possibility. Need to snip a bit off when the owner is not looking, or perhaps just talk to him.

PS 1: a couple of stray snaps of the gas works on Clay Hill Green, at the top of West Hill. Not clear where the massive flange bottom right in the snap above comes in. Note the smear of gravel under the top soil, above the brown clay, in the nearest stretch of trench. The brown clay we know all about from our own garden.

The section of trench off snap to the right in the first snap. More gravel. Plus other peoples' pipes cluttering up the trench.

While back home, daffodils from Sainsbury's had done well in their pot from New York. Something over a week old by the time that this snap was taken.

PS 2: I looked up the inpost parcels & locker people, which I don't think I had done before; to be found at reference 5, from where the snap above is taken. All very cuddly. Presumably the trick is to make the offering attractive enough to suck enough people in pay for the investment in lockers. And in the couriers servicing them. An offering which looks to have started out in Poland and to have spread to various other European countries.

PS 3: it turns out that I had looked them up before, more than 300 trolleys ago at reference 6. So they have been around at least three years - and a memory of the locker block in Pound Lane is coming back to me. I shall check if it is still there.

[Brzoska built InPost by capitalising on the ecommerce boom, offering consumers greater delivery flexibility via automated parcel lockers © Bartek Sadowski/Bloomberg]

PS 4: InPost makes it to the FT today. See reference 7.

I liked this snap from reference 8, still life with beer. The chap who did the Polish version of InPost above.

Reference

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/04/trolley-811.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/04/whitebeam.html.

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

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picea_abies.

Reference 5: https://inpost.co.uk/.

Reference 6: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/04/trolley-508.html.

Reference 7: Poland’s ‘Elon Musk’ takes aim at red tape, not politics: InPost chief Rafał Brzoska says he admires US billionaire but denies wanting to slash public administration jobs - Raphael Minder, Finanial Times - 2025.

Reference 8: https://barteksadowski.pl/. 

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