Trolleys 837 and 838

Trolley 837 was captured the Schmidt end of Station Approach and returned to the M&S food hall. Schmidt being people who have a showroom selling kitchen units and so forth at the corner of Station Approach and Waterloo Road, but in which I have never seen any action. Maybe they needed an office for some reason and they thought it might just as well double as a showroom?

This was followed up by a rare Sainsbury's trolley outside what I think is the unmarked entrance to the Thames Water place in East Street, 50 metres up from the marked entrance. 

At least, that is what I deduce from satellite view in gmaps. Blue and orange spots respectively.

Gas people left, on the other side of the swimming pool. Slated for redevelopment, without preservation of gas holder, as far as I am aware. Not like Lambeth, previously noticed.

And an opportunity to have a go at this substantial plant, last noticed at reference 3. This time, Google Images goes for hollyhock, which I had not thought of, on the additional clue 'south facing, sunny spot, roadside Epsom uk'. Its AI story starts: 'The image shows a Hollyhock plant (Alcea rosea) in a south-facing, sunny spot in Epsom, UK. Hollyhocks thrive in full sun and well-drained soil, making this location ideal for their growth. They are known for their tall, erect stems with large, saucer-shaped flowers that bloom from summer to early autumn...'. Plausible, but it is a lot bigger than the ones presently coming up in front gardens in and around our (Chase) estate. Not completely convinced, so I just have to hope that it survives long enough to flower. 

Action on the long dormant site at the top of Kiln Lane. Last noticed six months ago at reference 4.

After depositing my trolley at the front of the store, I was able to admire the new growth on the large-leaved ivy in the alley between the store and Glynn School. My efforts last year to find out anything much about large leaved ivy and why it might thrive in this particular spot, were a failure. See, for example, reference 5, more than 150 trolleys ago now.

Some buttercups. Colours much better on my laptop than they were on the telephone at the time, where the shadows were a very improbable red-brown. The human eye much better at guessing the colours behind the shadows.

One might almost be out in the country. But actually in a wild bit of Blenheim Road, just past the tip.

An unusual car outside Costcutter in Manor Green Road. Complete with an energetic and talkative young man selling something, I did not work out what, to two young ladies.

Car Check does not recognise the number plate, so perhaps that just rests on when the car is on station, as it were.

Bing tells me that 'ciroc strawberry limonade' is a sort of fancy vodka, sold in all decent booze outlets, but it takes the power of Google to get me to reference 6. Complete with flashy and expensive looking video - plus the odd still, one of which is borrowed above. So was the car visiting TB or Costcutter - or even both? Who were the young ladies, who did not look to belong to either place?

It being Wednesday, the DIY day, home to a spot of impromptu lentil and bacon stew. 4oz of lentils, one pint of water, about an hour start to plate. Very good it was too.

PS: we thought that we had leaking water meter problems, but this meter in Manor Green Road is much worse than ours ever was, with the water visibly bubbling out from the edge of the plastic cover. If our nominal bill got up to £3,000 or something, what on earth must theirs be?

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/05/trolleys-835-and-836.html.

Reference 2: https://home-design-schmidt.uk/. For some reason, the Bing search listed them fourth after Kesseler, Wren and Harvey-Jones. Wren, as it happens, I have seen a couple of times on our estate, other two never heard of. Maybe Schmidt are not paying Microsoft enough.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/04/trolleys-818-and-819.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/10/fake-183.html.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/04/trolley-677.html.

Reference 6: https://www.ciroc.com/en.

Group search key: trolleysk.