psmv5: A quiet Sunday

We had planned to go into town this day, a Sunday, but in the event, we decided for something a bit more at-home, starting with this fine shot of the up and coming self-storage facility in East Street. A complicated affair and it would be interesting to hear about what exactly resulted in this girder being over there and that girder being here.

When these flats went up on the site of the Kings Arms in East Street, I thought they were rather ugly. On this rather dark morning, I thought they looked rather well.

Noting in passing that at reference 2, it appears to say that the developer paid the council around £100,000 for the requirement for affordable housing to be waived. Funny business this planning lark.

The number of leaflets, if what we have here counts as compound leaves, appears to vary between five and seven, but always odd-pinnate.

Is it a compound leaf if the whole thing falls off in the autumn?

Seven flower heads?

The story from Google Images. While from Wikipedia we have reference 3 for mahonia.

While most of the images turned up by Google are mahonia, there is mention of Berberis, which is fair enough given the taxonomic confusion documented at reference 3.

I am content to go with mahonia, but not yet ready to make a choice between the various offerings at references 3, 4 and 5. Await colour of berries?

A substantial, battery assisted bicycle parked up outside Sainsbury's at Kiln Lane. I was able to chat with the owner, a gentleman of middle years. Surly is to be found at reference 6.

Surly are very into custom steel frames and rather colourful language. However, they did not have a bike anything like this one, Bing did not turn up one either, and it took the power of Google to get warm with the bike above from the Australian people at reference 7. Also into colourful language, but seemingly more into fashion items for cyclists than cycles. I clearly did not get as much from the owner outside Sainsbury's as I should have.

With all his accessories, I think he must have spent a few thousand pounds.

I associate this morning to the Humvee spotted many years ago - but not properly logged - at Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight. A sort of boys' version of the more common Chelsea tractor. Or possibly a Hummer. See reference 8.

The big ivy down the passage to the foot bridge. The biggest leaf that I measured was about two inches wider than my telephone is long, so about eight inches. Not made any recent progress on why the odd ivy plant has these very large leaves, but I am still hopeful that Thomas of reference 9 will reveal all, even though he writes more about trees.

A serious queue outside the tip at 12:45, stretching back to Felstead Road.

Home to a toad in the hole. BH was not altogether satisfied with the symmetry, but I was satisfied enough with the result on the plate.

Lack of decent focus notwithstanding.

PS 1: Gemini did well on the question 'What is a compound leaf?', telling me that the best criterion is the presence or absence of axillary buds. And on the supplementary 'In the case of a deciduous compound leaf, will it always be the entire leaf that drops off, rather than one of the leaflets?'. He also offers the helpful video at reference 10, helpful but rather spoiled by irritating music in the background. The answer to the second question was generally, yes. Not moved to check further on this occasion. Just need to poke mahonia about a bit.

PS 2: Bentham & Hooker does not give much space to the Berberidaceae, which they call the barberry family, less than a page, where the story is that they are not a proper part of a British flora, although they are about. And the mahonia are mentioned.

Asking Gemini 'Thinking of mahonias, is there any connection between what Bentham & Hooker call the Berberidaceae and the Berbers of north Africa?', the answer seems to be no. In conclusion, he says: 'In short: the plant name is likely from an Arabic word for the fruit, while the people's name is derived from the Arabic use of the word for "barbarian"'.

They don't make the cut in Zomlefer, although they do rate a mention in the buttercup department.

In Hortus Third, they get three pages, with the mahonia getting their own page, where they are described as odd-pinnate, which is indeed what we have above. With a corollary being that we do indeed have compound leaves, as queried above. 100 or so species of which around twenty are briefly described. Mahonia aquifolium, aka the Oregon grape, seems to fit leaf-wise, even though the flowers of some varieties do not fit the image above.

References

Reference 1: https://democracy.epsom-ewell.gov.uk/ieIssueDetails.aspx?IId=6831&PlanId=0&Opt=3#AI5619.

Reference 2: https://democracy.epsom-ewell.gov.uk/documents/s15398/Kings%20Arms%20Public%20House%20144%20East%20Street%20Epsom%20KT17%201EY.pdf.

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

Reference 4: https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/plant-database/viewplants/?plant=408.

Reference 5: https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/mahonia.

Reference 6a: https://surlybikes.com/.

Reference 6b: https://surlybikes.co.uk/.

Reference 7a: https://fyxo.co/blogs/fyxo/surly-big-dummy-cyc-photon-ebike.

Reference 7b: https://fyxo.co/.

Reference 8a: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humvee.

Reference 8b: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummer.