psmv5: Trolley 874

Two null circuits on Monday, but there was other stuff.

The day actually kicked off with a visit to Tattenham Corner to buy a washing machine and we were quite surprised to see that they were still clearing up after Saturday's Derby. In the olden days, by late Sunday morning it was down to a bit of litter picking. Quite surprised also to see how much of the downs had been enclosed and how many marquees had been put up. There did not look to be much free hill left at all. Maybe that meant there was less litter - although not, according to a correspondent, less fights.

Then having shown signs of life a few weeks ago, the corner site at the bottom of Station Approach is on the move again, with a substantial scaffold being erected against the demolition of the existing building - a substantial reduction in the width of the pavement for us pedestrians on our way to town. Hopefully the scaffold will come down when the existing building comes down, but who knows?

Nothing in the way of trolleys in the vicinity of the station, but then I had some books to give to Oxfam and was able to look at the back of the view of Delft noticed at reference 2. From Harrod's picture department from before the invention of postcodes and generally very much the sort of thing I remember from childhood, complete with brown tape, a wooden rather than hardboard back and wire rather than nylon for hanging. The back of our version is much the same, but there is no shop label and it is just possible that the donor framed it himself, being quite handy in that way. Also quite possible that it is the same edition of the painting.

Busy with the eco-contraption at the back of the car park at Sainsbury's, with Sunbelt supplying some of the gear. Does not seem very long since they were last at it - although actually, well over a year ago if reference 7 is anything to go by.

Lots of good looking convolvulus in the passage, of which one is snapped above. Not sure about the petal count: maybe I need to take one apart for that.

Then a whole lot of white fluffy stuff hanging off the fence.

I thought perhaps the tree above was responsible, not very accessible for photography, but the snap above shows some of the catkins which might have produced the fluff.

There were also some leaves lying around, so they were gathered up for processing later. I thought that the shape of the leaves and the serrated leaf margins said aspen. From the right in the snap above, verso, recto and petiole - with the narrowing which allows the aspen shimmer clearly visible. With fairly recent notice of same to be found at reference 3.

However, Google Images seems quite clear that it is some kind of poplar, with his results including a lot of eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides), which answers, not least because of all the cotton produced by the female seeds. Gemini tells me that these cottonwoods - it had never occurred to me that this was why they were so named - are to be found in the UK, often as hybrids. Could one make a living spinning the stuff?

Not conclusive, but it seems clear that it is some kind or poplar or aspen, as per reference 4. Bit more thought needed.

On the second circuit, the house which is not coming down after all, last noticed at reference 6. Big wrap round, single storey extension back and right. New garage left. Stream off to the left.

View from the road. No drilled foundations?

The day following, it was baking bread and making lentil soup, so no morning circuit. Usual drill with the lentils, but thicker than last time, using around 12oz of lentils instead of 8oz - and 8oz of brown rice instead of 6oz. Greens on the side topped up with leeks in the soup. Good gear, gear which in the event, did us two days.

Day wound up with a trolley from the M&S food hall, captured underneath Hudson House. Reward in the form of strawberries from M&S and Calvados from Waitrose.

PS 1: only the other day I was wondering about the phrase 'as per', used above, which does not seem to be in current use any more, while I remember it as being common enough when I was young. Gemini's effort above. Not in Longman. Can't find it in the more than two pages devoted to 'as' in OED, but I have not yet looked very carefully. Not could I find it in the half column in my print copy of Webster's - although I did find Milton. Is Gemini being a bit creative? I shall have another go later.

PS 2: done a bit more work on this one, resulting in my feeding Gemini the data snapped above. Upon which he retreats in good order, fighting all the way. Did rather well in fact - if a touch gushing. But then, that is his way. For another view on Gemini, see reference 8.

PS 3: I have just been impressed by the prodigious complexity of our Affordable Homes Programme, having got to reference 9 via the Financial Times followed by Copilot. Understanding all this stuff must be an industry in its own right, never mind the business of actually building the houses. I suspect that it would all have been so much simpler had we let Council Housing Departments get on with the business of building and running social housing, as they had done since at least the end of the Second World War - instead of getting bogged down in arms-length micro-management of private sector - or at least non-governmental - operators - one of which, Peabody, gets an outing at reference 10. Sadly, even if I am right about this, turning the clock back would not now be easy - if possible at all.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/06/trolley-871-872-and-873.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/06/trolley-870.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/10/denham-two.html.

Reference 4a: https://www.treeguideuk.co.uk/poplars/.

Reference 4b: https://www.treeguideuk.co.uk/aspen-5/.

Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populus_deltoides.

Reference 6: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/05/trolleys-826-and-827.html.

Reference 7: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/02/trolley-626.html.

Reference 8: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_(language_model).

Reference 9: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/affordable-homes-programme-2021-to-2026.

Reference 10: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/05/trolleys-843-thru-846.html.