Closed

This volume of the blog is now, after some five years service and something more than 2,500 posts, declared to be closed and activity has been moved to volume 6, to be found at reference 1.

With the closing snap reminding me that the US attorney for the District of Columbia, a reasonably senior position in the legal hierarchy in the US, was until recently a hostess on TV. But to be fair, as is explained at reference 3, before that she was an ambitious career lawyer.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/.

Reference 2: Former Fox News host runs the gauntlet with Jay Powell probe: Jeanine Pirro’s investigation into Fed chair’s testimony raises questions over independence of the country’s judicial arm - Stefania Palma, Kaye Wiggins, Financial Times - 2026.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanine_Pirro. '... In November 2019, she described Trump as "almost superhuman"...'.

Half tweet

A few thrush sized birds in the hawthorn out front this morning, but they would not stay in view for long enough to be properly inspected. Long pointed beaks, but no flashes of red. Nevertheless, I think that they were probably redwings, even though they usually come late in the old year rather than early in the New Year. A half-tweet.

Searching the blog for 'redwing' produces nothing more recent that reference 1. Which seemed a bit odd, but then I worked out that blog search is a bit literal and I tried for 'redwings', which turned up reference 2, which is not an actual sighting, just a mention.

To think that they used to be regular and tweeted visitors.

Image above turned up by Bing. My birds were not as fat as this one.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/11/human-forest.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/10/near-house-bound.html.

Labour force

Having been reminded yesterday of the abuse scandals in the mental health and care sectors in the second half of the last century, the piece at reference 2 makes me wonder what sort of people are going to wind up staffing the health and care sectors when we have driven net migration down to something like zero.

I dare say Farage himself has amassed plenty enough money to go private should he or his have need of health or social care, and will not be experiencing any of this at first hand, but I dare say also that plenty of his followers - nearly all of them in fact - have not. Let's hope that they do not change their tune when it is too late.

When will our leaders collectively come clean with us and tell us that if we want decent care going forward, we are going to have to make do with fewer foreign holidays and fewer consumer toys?

PS: FIL had lots of experience of recruiting mental nurses from Mauritius, for the Exe Vale group of hospitals, with the first wave of same being of very high quality - and, over the years, I have come across a number of them here in Epsom. The snap above was turned up by Bing.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2026/01/shirley-oaks.html.

Reference 2: Is UK immigration set for ‘net zero’: Migration surge after Brexit and Covid lockdowns has eased while clampdown has slashed arrivals - Delphine Strauss, Financial Times - 2026.

Shirley Oaks

Having turned up Shirley Schools yesterday (see reference 1), for some reason I carried on poking it around today. It did not seem to be as visible as one might have thought it should be and I was having trouble finding what was on the 1910 map at reference 1 in either today's Ordnance Survey or gmaps. It all seemed to be housing estate. Plus a large field of allotments.

But I did turn stuff up, starting with the silent film at reference 2, where everything looks dandy, at least for the time. Produced by the curiously named 'Bermondsey Borough Council's Health Propaganda Department'. All very Orwellian - but perhaps again, of its time.

I was very struck by this image of the Bermondsey. Presumably the children were not that different from those of Hartlepool whose teeth my father was attending to at about the same time - where it was not uncommon for a child to have lost all their teeth before he or she had left school.

All a far cry from life at Shirley, aka Shirley Oaks, from where the snap above is taken.

And there is a fair amount about the schools to be found at reference 3.

Stuff which, for some reason, is copy protected, but which did include the snip above. The welfare world of the Victorians had moved on and London then Lambeth took over.

It then occurred to me that this might be something to test Gemini on. I had found out a fair amount about these schools, so what would Gemini turn up?

He tells me that:

At the turn of the century, there was a movement away from "barrack-style" institutions. Opened in 1904, Shirley Oaks was designed to look like a normal village street rather than a prison or a hospital.

Which is fair enough - although the village was rather self-contained, in the way, of the mental hospitals of the time, with their own kitchens, workshops, laundries and so forth. But he goes on to tell me that:

While the early 1900s were seen as a period of "progressive" reform for child welfare, the school’s later history (particularly under Lambeth Council in the mid-to-late 20th century) became the subject of major public inquiries due to widespread systemic abuse.

Today, the original school building has been replaced by the Shirley Oaks Hospital, and many of the original cottages have been demolished or converted into private housing in what is now known as Shirley Oaks Village...

 The Numbers: Between 1965 and its closure in 1983, it is estimated that over 500 children were sexually abused at Shirley Oaks alone. Allegations were made against at least 177 adults connected to the home.

So what had started with good intentions, turned out to be quite incapable of stopping widespread abuse. What would now be seen as appropriate management structures and protocols were just not there. No wonder that they chose to knock most of it down. See, for example, reference 4.

There are much more substantial reports at references 8 and 9. That at reference 9 suggests that Lambeth Council was far more interested in picking fights with central government than in looking after the children that should have been in its care. It makes very depressing reading - not that I have done more than turn a few pages. It also provided the aerial view snapped above of the school at Shirley.

With what was the school at the northern end of the site now being the Shirley Oaks hospital, run by the Circle Health Group and to be found at reference 5. And also, a little confusingly, at reference 6. The business of health has moved on too.

I have not yet attempted to check Gemini in detail, but it is clear that he has brought to my attention something that I would otherwise have missed. I would have gone away with the idea of an idyllic model village set in glorious country grounds. Perhaps a little old fashioned, but well meaning and good for its time. Maybe the odd Wellingtonia, after the fashion of the cluster of mental hospitals that we used to have here at Epsom.

Gemini is the source of the snap at the top of this post.

PS 1: perhaps someone should tell the curators of reference 3 that their material ought to be updated. Maybe I will get onto it.

PS 2: Gemini is still reminding me about my passing interest in the granite of Dartmoor, over a year ago now. See reference 10. Why does he keep picking on this one, rather than one of my other passing interests - acorns for instance?

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2026/01/news-from-comet.html. 

Reference 2: https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-shirley-schools-1929-online. 'The care and education of Bermondsey's orphans and abandoned children - before the introduction of the welfare state'.

Reference 3: https://www.workhouses.org.uk/StOlave/.

Reference 4: 'I have suffered all my life': survivors tell of abuse at Shirley Oaks children's home: Four siblings from one family describe their experiences while in care in south London: Over £46m paid to survivors of abuse at Lambeth children’s homes - Nick Hopkins, Guardian - 2020.

Reference 5: https://www.circlehealthgroup.co.uk/hospitals/shirley-oaks-hospital.

Reference 6: https://www.nhs.uk/services/hospital/shirley-oaks-hospital/NT436.

Reference 7: https://www.iicsa.org.uk/.

Reference 8: The Report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse - Alexis Jay, Malcolm Evans, Ivor Frank, Drusilla Sharpling - 2022. October. HC720. 450 pages.

Reference 9: Children in the care of Lambeth Council: Investigation Report - Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse - 2021. July. HC704. 230 pages.

Reference 10: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/12/granite.html.

News from the Comet

A couple of snippets derived from a recent number of the Epsom and Surrey Comet, our local freebie. 'Pay peanuts get monkeys', as they used to say.

Starting with Coombe, once a hamlet to the south east of Croydon, of which a general description is to be found at reference 1. The buildings of present interest being Coombe House, Coombe Wood House, Coombe Farm and Coombe Lodge.

Three of which are to be found in the snap above, from around 1870. All now listed buildings and all once part, seemingly, of the Coombe Estate.

Situation not much changed in 1910.

Nor, indeed, in 1940. And it remains a rather rural island, despite the proximity of Croydon. Coombe Wood House, now a fancy restaurant and wedding venue, is presumably one of the buildings in the woods just to the east of the Lodge, with the new name adding a bit of heritage. Coombe House has been through various roles and is now, I think, intended for a school for special needs. The sort of thing that used to be done by the council for a good deal less than the owners of this establishment will no doubt be charging. More public dosh for Bullingdon Boris and his friends; those people who make such a parade of how awful the public sector was - and still is.

Which brings me to Coombe Lodge, a new public house - to be found at reference 4 - which makes a change from all the stories of closure, doom and gloom. Wetherspoons is having another go, having closed two of its houses in Croydon in the past. Although they are hedging their bets by going for a franchise - which answers a question which has often crossed my mind - Wetherspoons do do franchise - a fact which I dare say I could have run down for myself had I bothered to take a look at their annual report - something which presumably exists as they have publicly listed shares.

For this franchise, see references 5 and 6.

An early report on the new house itself is to be found at reference 3. It will interesting to see if a boozers' operation will fly out-of-town, given that few people drink and drive these days. Just think of all the giant road houses there used to be along our main roads, pretty much now all gone. There is also the consideration that the franchisee looks to be new to the business. Maybe we will go and take a look for ourselves.

The second item in the Comet was about Surrey Street Market in Croydon, which I knew near sixty years ago as a very busy fruit and vegetable market, including lots of now near-vanished green vegetables, a market from which we bought, inter alia, the odd sack of potatoes. Last time I visited, maybe twenty years ago, it was very run down, doing very little in the way of old-style fruit and veg. Plenty of candles and and other exotica instead.

It seems that the current traders are cross about parking, in particular that there is no free parking for 30 minutes, in the way that there is in much of the borough. I thought the borough's response was a bit feeble - particularly since the amount of revenue involved must be pretty modest. Why on earth don't they give it a go and see if it breathes a bit of life back into the market?

One might think that there was more money for them in the foot fall than in half an hour's free parking.

PS 1: along the way, I stumbled across an odd clutch of buildings called Shirley Schools. Mostly built to the same pattern and well spread out, right in the snap above. A bit of poking around and I learn that:

'The Shirley Schools were on Wickham Road, and had been established in 1903 for the board, education and training of the Bermondsey Poor Law children and consisted of 39 detached houses for about 16 children each, along with the school, laundry and homes for the staff. The site was set in grounds of around 79 acres'.

Perhaps Bermondsey was exporting its distressed children to Croydon, rather as, at about the same time, Westminster was exporting its distressed adults to Epsom. I think that there is a connection to the church we did not visit at reference 2. 

A step on the way to the recently more-or-less-abolished system of schools run by local authorities.

PS 2: it so happened that we left a red grapefruit in the not-much-heated kitchen when we left for our recent holiday. I discovered today that it was perfectly eatable after six weeks, which surprised me. I would not have thought an orange would have lasted that long, not even a lemon. Some onions were OK too.

PS 3: back in November I was taking an interest in acorns, resulting in reference 7. Today, the people at Academia - a good source of free copies of academic papers - many authors being keener on getting read than getting paid - remembered about this and sent me reference 8. Not quite to the point, but not far off. And I notice once again the euphemism 'sacrifice' for the killing of experimental animals. To be fair, one has to use some word or other, and this one seems to be well established in the context.

PS 4: I close with a piece from today's FT about what not trying to appease Trump might involve. On this story, not such a big leap as at might first appear. Although it would work better if we had not left the EU. And if Norway had joined in. And what about the Swiss, another bunch who like having their cake and eating it?

References

Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coombe,_Croydon.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/08/white-cube-part-two.html.

Reference 3: https://insidecroydon.com/2025/12/23/coombe-lodge-open-at-last-but-it-doesnt-seem-quite-finished/. The source of the opening snap.

Reference 4: https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/pub-histories/coombe-lodge-croydon/.

Reference 5: https://papasgroup.co.uk/our-brands.

Reference 6: https://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/Article/2025/09/08/jd-wetherspoon-signs-franchise-agreement-with-the-papas-group/. It looks as if Wetherspoons franchises are a small but growing part of the mix.

Reference 7: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/11/gemini-pigs-and-acorns.html.

Reference 8: Effect of whole acorns (Quercus pubescens) shred based diet on parotid gland in growing pigs in relation to tannins -M.G. Cappai, P. Wolf, V. Große Liesner, A. Kastner, G. Nieddu, W. Pinna, J. Kamphues - 2010.

Reference 9: Europe should embrace the idea of going it alone: The more the EU has to pay for ingratiation with Trump, the less convincing its strategic rationale for doing so - Martin Sandbu, Financial Times - 2026.

Supplemental

I imagine that with the growing popularity of things like turkey crowns rather than turkeys for the Christmas dinner, there is a good supply of legs and wings. Some of which find their way into processed foods like pies - but some of which turn up discounted on the shelves of the Sainsbury's at Kiln Lane.

So today we took a supplemental turkey dinner. Roast thigh of turkey - costing all of £4.50 or so - recycled potatoes, roast parsnips and Savoy cabbage. Otherwise crinkly cabbage, the first such we have had for a while. Not sure why, as we used to eat a lot of the stuff. I even used to grow them on the allotment, although they rarely grew to the size you get in shops.

One advantage being that they do not overcook as easily as chou pointu.

Rounded off with tinned peaches from Del Monte. The ones named for a sometime luxury hotel in California. For which see reference 2.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/10/counting-pebbles.html. The drumstick version.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Del_Monte.

L'Amie de Madame Maigret

Following advertisement at reference 1, a post to be avoided by readers who are thinking of reading this Maigret story for the first time. A spoiler.

A story which I have read several times over the years, although I do not seem to have written about it before, beyond the mention at reference 4. A story broken down into nine roughly equal chapters of around 15 pages each; a short novel rather than a short story.

The structure of the story

This structure having been put together after several readings of the story. The inner structure, rather than what you get as a reader. In which I hope I have not been too clever, in the way of the people who put together the fancy graphics in the online version of the FT: all very clever but not very comprehensible. From where I associate to paintings where the artist has gone to a lot of bother to include all kinds of tricky stuff, most of which is not noticed by the viewer, at least first time around.

So we have a small gang who commit a couple of murders, one of them one their own. The story starts with one murder, goes on to put the gang together, turning up the second murder on the way.

With the incident involving Madame Maigret with which the story starts, slowly getting woven in.

Steuvels, an art bookbinder with an impressive list of clients, is where murder 2 starts. The former clown who is Steuvels' brother, goes by various names, including Moss, turns out to be central to solving the mystery.

Part of which is the attractive and personable Gloria getting herself employed by the rich old countess. The mistress of the murderous Levine and mother of his son.

Some of the important features of the story.

Most of the important stuff is there from the very beginning, with the three bits of new material only appearing as the story comes to its climax and end.

The shoes, which go with the hat, seem to be a loose end. Evidence perhaps that Simenon wrote his stories from start to finish with little planning and virtually no revision. Unlike, for example, D H Lawrence, whom I believe had several goes at at least some of his novels. Tearing up a manuscript and starting over. Not for Simenon!

Background colour

The usual Maigret stuff. His pipes, his wife, his flat. His relations with the examining magistrates. His many visits to cafés for a little something. His occasional visits to bistros for a spot of choucroute.

His half a dozen or so principal colleagues. Present as names, but without much of their lives or characters being filled in. We do rather better with Madame Maigret.

Barges, rivers and canals crop up quite a bit. While a good number of other stories are built around same.

Some comments

Maigret appears on most pages. He is centre stage most of the time. And the story moves forward: we might learn about things which happened in the past, but in the form of spoken report in the present. None of the jumping around in time that I find so irritating in a lot of the television drama which we watch - although it may well be that large chunks of spoken report would not watch well either.

The pushy young lawyer and his unsavoury ex-police assistant, take up a good bit of space. An opportunity for Simenon to write about same and also to make the space needed for the story proper to unfold. Without the pushy young lawyer the whole business would have been wrapped up much more quickly. Plus Simenon seems to have a bit of a thing about short policemen who dress high and wear high heels. Often Corsicans.

One loose end is that we are left with Maigret knowing stuff which would finish the lawyer off, if reported to the proper authorities. Which I find a bit unsatisfactory.

Getting information from the taxi drivers of Paris was an important ingredient. One wonders whether this is true of the London of today.

One might think that chopping up an adult male and burning the bits in a domestic stove in a small basement room would make a fair amount of mess and result in quite a lot of suspicious material in among the ash, rather more than a couple of teeth and a blood stain on a suit.

Criminals have private lives too. They have hobbies, friends, family and children and may care about them in much the same way as the rest of us. Perhaps their problem is that they think they can have it both ways.

I thought it unlikely that the successful art bookbinder (Steuvels) would be sucked into passport forgery for his wayward brother (Moss). He didn't need the money and he did like the quiet life.

I thought it unlikely that the pushy young lawyer, having made away with the valise and the important evidence therein, would not have put it out of Maigret's reach. Perhaps just by dumping it in the Seine.

We are reminded that the public like a story about old school Maigret vs. flashy young lawyer to be in the papers. A few days entertainment is much more important than the truth of the matter or the hurt and damage that might be caused by such stories. And for that part of the public in the quartier concerned, there is always the possibility of drinks from newspaper reporters or pictures in the papers.

I wonder whether the refrain about the changing ways of police work, here and elsewhere, with the old fashioned ways of Maigret slowly being superseded by bright young things from universities, not necessarily for the better, being part of the attraction of these stories - for all those men of advancing years getting left behind, stranded, by change of one sort or another. Perhaps, in my own case, by the invasion of expensive management consultants with fancy suits, pushing me and my kind aside.

More positively, I came away with the thought that consistency and continuity between one story and the next did not matter that much. One liked the cast and context to stay the same, but more or less the same was good enough. It did not matter, for example, that things did not change much over time. It did not much matter that some of the details about an examining magistrate changed from one story to the next.

On the other hand, I did worry about Madame Maigret, who seemed to prepare lunch and dinner every day, on the off-chance that Maigret would turn up. While when he had an inquiry on the go, he would often fail to show without notice.

Conclusions

An entertaining exercise. One which would probably run in a book club?

In the course of which, I did get to look up more words that I did not know than I usually bother with. Sometimes with surprising results!

I should add, that my various complaints about loose ends above did not detract much from my enjoyment of the story. Nor did the various coincidences. Complaints very much after the event. Maybe a story needs some coincidences, some oddities to make it interesting; otherwise it might all be rather mechanical, procedural in the jargon of television police buffs? Clearly time to consult a story theoretician.

PS 1: talking of words, I am reminded that I need to look up the origins of 'pillow' and 'cushion'.

PS 2: both old words, from at least the 14th century, both with more or less their present meanings. Both having plenty of derived words and phrases. The French for pillow is quite different, being about ears, but cushion is much the same.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2026/01/the-keeper-of-bottle.html.

Reference 2: L'Amie de Madame Maigret - Georges Simenon - 1949. To be found in Volume XV of the Rencontre collection.

Reference 3: https://www.trussel.com/maig/mommme.htm. A proper write-up of the story from a Maigret website. Not read at the time of first posting.

Reference 4: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/02/on-titles-and-titling.html.

The keeper of the bottle

Some years ago, as reported at reference 1, I was awarded the order of the bag. Following more recent service in the bottle department, I am pleased to be able to report that I have been appointed to an assistant keepership of the bottle. Duties and perquisites of the post to run for a year, 'role' in HR speak, but I am allowed to use the title in perpetuity. Using the form 'past assistant keeper' for the avoidance of doubt. Or, picking up the now rare usages, 'lately assistant keeper' or 'sometime assistant keeper'.

An appointment which more or less coincided with end of the holiday announced at reference 2. I shall be reporting on some interesting holiday reading - including a good dose of Maigret - in due course.

PS: I was pleased to see this afternoon that I was already making mistakes with the file names of posts back in 2012. Not a new thing at all.

References

Reference 1: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2012/03/following-post-of-16th-february-i-can.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-end-of-pork.html.

The end of the pork

At breakfast yesterday, I took the last remnant of a recent pork feast in the form of gravy on bread, garnished with a little chou pointu. Loosened with a little fresh water.

The gravy was second edition gravy, made with butter, black pepper, flour, onion and the high grade stock left over from the first edition. Ben had been generous with his pork bones.

Given that I was not getting any colour from the roasting tin, I thought that a few drop of Sarson's gravy browning was in order, last noticed at reference 1. On this occasion, I remembered that it is powerful stuff and only added a drop at a time.

It turned out very well, with this being its third and last outing.

Reference 1 reminded me that the active ingredient of the gravy browning was ammonia caramel, aka E150c, about which I had asked Copilot. So clearly time to compare and contrast with what Gemini has to say today, snapped above. I have not checked line-by-line, but it looks to be a slightly longer version of the same story. I have not gone so far as to check whether they used the same source or sources and what exactly those sources were. Another day.

Readers are advised that, after some considerable time at them, I have decided to take a short break from social media, after which I shall return with the full story of the pork feast.

In the meantime, I did notice the story about soup at reference 2. Noticed because my mother, raised in Canada, was fond of Campbell's chicken noodle soup and we used to have it as part of the light meal we called tea, taken at around 17:00. As I recall, two tins of condensed soup, cut with some real milk, did the six of us. I, at least, have got more greedy since then.

I associate to the boss of Ratner the jeweller being silly enough to rubbish his own products at some trade conference, a rubbishing which made it to the mainstream media. He left the company to pursue other interests shortly afterwards. And the company folded.

Checking with Bing, I find this is not quite the while story. The boss's other interests turned out well enough and Ratner morphed into Signet, which at one point had lots of shops here and elsewhere, particularly North America. Now pushing more into online. Odd that, for a successful company, I don't think that I had heard of them before: at least, I do not remember the name. See reference 3.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/09/chicken-dinner.html.

Reference 2: Campbell’s fires executive who criticised its food in recording: Vice-president of IT department alleged to have told a former employee the company made food for ‘poor people’ - Gregory Meyer, Financial Times -  2025.

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

Italian job

We visited the restaurant called 'Il Capriccio' in Ewell Village many years ago, and while I don't remember anything wrong with it, we did not go back. But the place has survived, the outside appearance never seems to have changed and last week, one Saturday lunchtime, we thought it was time to give it another go. Snapped above from Street View and to be found at reference 1.

Not so many years ago we would have walked, but on this occasion we drove to the car park at Bourne Hall, which gave me an opportunity to visit the library there and BH an opportunity to visit the Christmas craft fair.

In the café area outside the entrance to the library there was also an art exhibition, with the drawing snapped above catching my eye, although not to the extent of buying it. Perhaps a mistake, as I can think of at least one person who might have liked it. The work of one Diane Lawrence, exhibiting under the flag of the Bourne Hall Art Club. The website at least of this last (reference 2), operating under the flag of Cass Art, a new to me supplier of artists' materials, to be found at reference 3.

In the library proper, I parted with £1 for a copy of reference 4, once the property of one Susan Rennie, and I learned that the library was quite happy to take in suitable books whose owners no longer needed them. While from the book I thought I might learn something about how the likes of Gemini can probably dilate about music without being able to listen to it. In the sense that I might be able to read and understand the words, but without being properly grounded in either the music which was the subject of the words or the jargon of the trade. From where I associate to the phenomenon whereby precocious children can sometimes say things which are true about complicated things without having had any experience of the things in question. But I have not yet got very far with this particular one.

Beyond finding that the first musical quote that I try, from Schubert's D.959, is given a bar number. And while some of YouTube versions on offer have a running score - as well as advertisements - the bar numbers seemed to have been struck out - which means that it would take me a while to find it. Maybe going to the printed score first to get the rough position and then use the slide bar under YouTube. I guess a musician would just sit down at his piano and play it for himself. While I don't suppose there is enough demand to justify producing an electronic version of the text in which you could click here to hear, in the manner of Wikipedia.

Out for BH to pose under the coastal redwood across the road, once scored at reference 5 as a Wellingtonia in error. I think I did publish an erratum later, without going so far as to rework the numbers or anything like that.

What used to be an outpost of Ewell Castle School looked a bit forlorn, even for a Saturday. And the sign has gone missing. Have they pulled out? 

As far as I can make out by search it is or was the home of Ewell Castle Nursery and Pre Preparatory School, but is not listed as a part of the school proper. Further investigation needed. But will it follow?

Pushed through the village to take an apéritif at the Ewell Tap Room, now in the premises which were operated by a foodie fair operator, possibly the same people. I had assumed that the offering would include warm beer, but this was not to be. Only cold fizzy. I took something called 'Midway' while BH took something soft and fizzy from Frobishers.

Midway turns out to be from a Chicago brewer called Goose Island, to be found at reference 7. Nothing to do with the Pacific Island, rather midway to an IPA whatever that might mean. Part of the AB InBev family. Nothing wrong with the beer, but I don't suppose I will go looking for it. Ambience pleasant enough, but too far away for me to develop a habit.

While Frobishers comes from the Sowton Industrial Estate of Exeter, giving a connection for BH. Just by junction 30 on the M5. A young company, founded back in 1969. Back in the days when Exeter had a lot more public houses than it does now.

Into the restaurant, where we started with a 2021 Barolo 'Boschi dei Signori', which I eventually ran down to reference 11. Very satisfactory.

BH passed, sticking with bread and olives, but I went for the sardines. As it turned out, good and a good portion.

Followed, for a change, by skate, also rather good. With the potatoes being swapped out for a rather larger portion of chips and the vegetables for a portion of interesting spinach. BH was sitting diagonally across from me, hence the white space. But she didn't take the skate, salmon neither as it was absent from the menu, settling for lasagne. A dish, like tiramisu, which varies a fair bit from place to place. This one was good.

As was the white bread, which tasted a lot better than it looked.

Wrapped up with a light and fluffy tiramisu. Plus what seemed like a hefty shot of grappa. BH stuck with her usual Earl Grey.

Busy enough to give the place a bit of life and I expect that we will not be leaving it so long for our next visit.

Out to notice, for the first time, despite having walked the High Street what is probably hundreds of times, Savage, also of Sutton & Belmont. Presumably a more recent fascia board has recently fallen off.

Google turns up reference 12, from which I learn that Savage was into fish.

A good bed of carex pendula on the way back into Bourne Hall. Being a sedge, I dare say it likes being near the water, although ours seems to do well enough. Perhaps it gets enough water during the often sodden winter, before the trees suck up all the water.

Another ivy with large leaves. Perhaps it is time to see if Gemini has any news about why the occasional ivy has such big leaves.

With proceedings closing with this interesting van. A Sutton based operation, presumably with a stall at the craft fair. See reference 13.

Where I was pleased to read that they do not think it proper to put both cream and jam in a Victoria sponge. Very proper of them. I like raspberry jam, so if I come across it for sale, I shall try some. Maybe even do a mail order job.

References

Reference 1: https://www.ilcapriccioristorante.co.uk/.

Reference 2: https://community.saa.co.uk/art-clubs/w-pittman-6e7f0900de53908c26e0a4140608d00319/.

Reference 3: https://www.cassart.co.uk/.

Reference 4: On music: His collected essays - Alfred Brendel - 2001, 2007. A fat paperback of some 400 pages. Plenty of musical examples.

Reference 5: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/06/wellingtonia-7.html.

Reference 6: https://www.ewelltap.co.uk/.

Reference 7: https://gooseisland.eu/beer/midway-session-ipa.

Reference 8: https://www.ab-inbev.com/. A Belgian flavoured conglomerate also known as Anheuser-Busch InBev.

Reference 9: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AB_InBev.

Reference 10: https://frobishers.com/.

Reference 11: https://www.bosiovini.it/it/.

Reference 12: https://eehe.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/KellyEwellStreetDirectory1936.pdf.

Reference 13: https://jampackedpreserves.co.uk/.

Stolen?

Late one recent afternoon, I was coming back from town, taking the route which runs up the Temple Road side of Court Recreation Ground. And just before I got to the rec, I came across the jacket right above, hanging off a lamp post from the hanger that it probably came with. As far as I could tell, untouched and unblemished. Neither wet nor dirty.

Given that M&S is about the only proper clothes shop left in town, I thought probably something which had been stolen from them and then discarded, perhaps because it turned out to be too small. I could have a bit of fun taking it back to customer services at M&S to see if they would take it back. Unless they had rules about clothes which had been out of their sight, I thought that they probably would take it back

However, closer inspection at home turned up a label from Peacocks, so maybe it had been stolen from their Sutton store, arriving at Epsom on the train. Turning to reference 1: 'Mens Grey Faux Wool Trucker Jacket', discounted online to £36 for Black Friday, and a reasonably substantial item - if rather small - despite being polyester. Left above.

I didn't think that T K Maxx would do Peacock's stuff, so it wouldn't be them, and I wasn't going to go to Sutton.

So off to Oxfam with it in the morning, where the young man behind the counter did not seem very bothered about where exactly it had come from and took it in.

And Peacocks have the consolation that it has probably gone to a good home and that someone has made a contribution to Oxfam.

All of which provided another test for Gemini, with the start of that interchange being snapped above. After supplementaries, the bottom line seems to be that it is a bit of a grey area, but it is unlikely that either Oxfam or I could or would be charged with anything. If it were a higher value item, return to the police station would be the safest bet - and we still have one of those (of sorts) in town.

His summary of the law seemed all very reasonable to me and it is a pity I do not have convenient access to a lawyer to check it.

Gemini continues to close our discussions by bringing up granite tors, the subject of another conversation, quite some time ago now.

References

Reference 1: https://www.peacocks.co.uk/.

Team work

Back in 2020 or so, we had an online meeting with various people involved with adult social care in Devon. A meeting which worked well enough, but which was a bit creaky.

Then yesterday, I had an online meeting powered by Microsoft Teams delivered through something called MyChart, my secure online health connection. This was a huge improvement. I had to do little more than click on a link that someone had sent me and off we went. There was a modest amount of clicking and waiting involved, but it was all well within my capabilities. I was very impressed with it all.

I was told later that Microsoft Teams is an integral part of the office world these days, to the point where it is included with my bundle from Microsoft. Clicking on it directly from my laptop resulted in a blank window popping up, but going in through Bing looks (snapped above) much more promising and, over the weeks to come, I shall try to fit in a bit of learning, if only to see what it is all about.

What is not so clever, was that I also learned later that our House of Lords, following the positive vote in the Commons, have raised more than 1,000 amendments to the Assisted Dying Bill. Leaving aside the merits of what to me is a long overdue reform, what sort of a country are we that this sort of procedural nonsense is the way forward? A sensible way to conduct debate?

From where I jump to the even bigger nonsense whereby the government of the day cannot bring itself to tell the electorate that the central costs of running this country have gone up and that income tax is going to have to be increased in consequence. Less money for foreign holidays and more money for things like health and defence. Instead, it is going for a plethora of fiddly tax increases at the margins, one of which, it seems, is a business rates hit on supermarkets, which will result in them increasing prices by a corresponding amount. A rather regressive form of taxation, hitting the less well off, for whom shopping in supermarkets accounts for a large proportion of their spending. And to think that the government of the day is the party who looks after ordinary people. 

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/11/dying-decision-day.html.

Reference 2: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3774.

Reference 3: https://www.dignityindying.org.uk/.  

The journey home

This being notice of the journey home from the turning point of the expedition noticed at reference 1.

What sounded very like the Epsom police helicopter. I could not see it, but from the sound it appeared to be hovering over St. George's Hospital.

The next event was the former police station at No.522, snapped above. A building which does not appear from the outside to have changed much, if at all, from its days as a police station and there is still police activity in Weybourne Street adjacent (left in the snap above), probably connected with what was once the back yard.

Regular search today (Tuesday) does not turn up much, just the old snap above, lifted from reference 2. So I turn to Gemini, who is quite convinced that the building has been converted into flats while cleverly preserving its external appearance, no doubt at the behest of the heritage people. He also claims linkage, at least from a planning point of view with the rather smaller, newish development called Waldron Hall, on the other side of Waldron Street.

I try the Wandworth planning search which turns up a couple of very old applications.

A bit more interaction with Gemini and I push my way through to the map version of the planning explorer. I find the building easily enough, but fail to find how to find any old planning applications that might have been made for it.

At which point I gave up. The main building has probably been converted to residential use and the police have probably retained use of the secure back yard. But maybe, Gemini, not finding anything specific about this particular police station, has generalised quite imaginatively about what happened to it from what usually happens to such buildings. With Waldron being a red-herring. And then there is the matter of the front door which does not look like the front door of a block of flats. And then there is the awkward shape and interior layout of the old building. Maybe, actually, the police have retained it for some back-room, back-stairs activity not apt for the full light of day. Maybe I shall have another go at some point.

Various lunch possibilities as I made my way back to Earlsfield Station, but I eventually settled for the Halfway House next to the station, a place I have used from time to time over the years. Another Young's house, as it happens.

And a perfectly respectable burger, chips and pint of special. The burger came with remarkably little goo (good) and the pint came a bit short (bad), but the bar man, quite possibly the manager, cunningly absented himself while I wondered whether to ask for a top up - which I probably would have done when I was younger and poorer.

Regarding the tomatoes of reference 4, the burger included a slice of tomato which was getting on for three inches across and appeared to have five chambers - or locules in the language of reference 4.

A stop-over at Raynes Park, where the only botanical in the platform library was too peripheral and too large, even for me. But I did notice that they looked to be attempting to turn the flower beds back into flower beds. I wish them well.

A bit of trolley action on return to Epsom, in the course of which I stopped some cyclists in the approach to the Ashley Centre, more or less by the side entrance to Wetherspoon's. I got a fair bit of coarse abuse from the school age youths for my trouble. Who knows whether it has done any good - but it seems a bit feeble to do nothing when I am pushing a good sized trolley with which to block them.

Another short pint from Wetherspoon's - but a good deal cheaper than the one from Earlsfield and it was warm enough to sit outside, which was good. 

Rather a sticky hand rail to the stairs leading to the first floor - something which I have noticed before, so clearly not part of the cleaners' duties.

Home to find this crop of very small mushrooms.

And the candytuft was still going strong, as it has been more or less all through the year.

The day's haul. Including a cleaning gadget for BH found on a wall and a couple of small loaves from M&S to go with the cold beef. Cleaning gadget yet to be tested.

With the magazine top right resulting in reference 3 below.

All very satisfactory, short pints notwithstanding.

PS 1: in the margins of all this, I remembered about the parcel that we had tried to send to Canada, back at the beginning of October and noticed at reference 5. It turned that the very day I ask Google about this, the dispute looks to have been resolved, with strike action suspended. We will leave it a few weeks for the system to return to normal and then we can have another go.

PS 2: the planning map has lots of layers, listed down the left-hand side, something that I come across from time to time in other people's maps, for example the map of docking stations for hire bikes - Bullingdons in these pages - provided by TFL. Layers which I have previously come across in software used to describe buildings, the likes of AutoCAD. Layers which I have suggested might be a way to describe the way the brain delivers consciousness, organises conscious content.

PS 3: another problem. My understanding is that a good sized fraction of what is called 'secret intelligence' is assembled by careful reading of publicly available information, by combing the media - and the result of all this reading only gets made secret after the event. When one is at war, for example, there is plenty of stuff that one does not want to become more accessible after having been less accessible - except to those bad actors who are very busy. But where are we left when Gemini and his colleagues are indeed very busy? Hoovering up and collating all kinds of stuff in a way that would be well beyond human capability. And more or less freely available to all.

PS 4: rather later: a correspondent has just reminded me that Gemini already blocks questions about things which it thinks are tricky or actionable, like politics or the health of the person asking the question. Although in the case of health, I think it does allow questions about health in general. I think the jargon for this is guardrails and no doubt it can be trained to test both questions and answers against guardrails. Not quite the same as the previous problem, but clearly related.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/11/memory-lane.html.

Reference 2: https://www.layersoflondon.org/map/records/police-station.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/11/marble-lady.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/10/tomatoes-and-other-matters.html.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/10/fake-191.html.

Reference 6: https://www.autodesk.com/. The people that give us AutoCAD.

Reference 7: https://www.drawbase.com/. The product with which I once had a nodding acquaintance. Not as prominent as AutoCAD, but it has survived.

Memory Lane

I learned during the part of the acorn digression noticed at reference 1 about an important specimen of Pyrus amygdaliformis in Streatham Cemetery on Garratt Lane, the small pears of which are a minor food of Sardinian wild boars. Given that for some years I used to walk up said lane from Earlsfield to the Wetherspoon's at Tooting Broadway and once knew the lane pretty well, it was clearly time for another visit - which came to pass a couple of weeks ago.

No trolleys sighted on the way to the station, but there was one black cab on the rank. The rank was still working. As were the builders of the flats next to the station as scaffolding had reappeared - not that it is many years since these flats were built. Less than twenty I should think.

No figs to be seen on the fig tree across the rails from the town platform, this despite the leaves having dropped, leaving a clear view.

There was something wrong with the intercom on the train, with lots of short segments - a few seconds each - being dropped from whatever it was that the guard was trying to tell us. While the computer generated messages were fine.

Off at Earlsfield and headed south down Garratt Lane, past the 'Leather Bottle', with the first thing that caught my eye being the Tesco's which used to be a public house, at the top of the street called Summerstown. A rather sleepy sort of house which I used to use occasionally, if I was early, and which used to run to a seafood stall outside on Fridays. Maybe the 'Prince of Wales', maybe a Young's house. It looked like quite an old building, so maybe I could track in down in the old map service provided by Scottish National Libraries.

Starting with 1870 or so, when the area was not very built up at all and while the railway was there, Earlsfield Station was not. But Summers Town was (middle left above), without any clues as to why it was so called. Gemini tells me that the name is a bit of a local mystery, but one theory is that the River Wandle, a little to the west, was apt to flood, and the land was at its best in the summer. Maybe this has something to do with why the area as a whole was not much developed until the end of the 19th century.

Summers Town then ran to a church, a parsonage and some alms houses. And the buildings where the public house was were called 'Church Row'. The church seems to have vanished. Gemini tells me that it became too small and was replaced by the nearby church - a very substantial looking building - probably worth a visit if one could get in - in Wimbledon Road at the turn of the century. During a transitional period there was temporary iron church (often called a 'tin tabernacle') next to the old church, an iron church which survived as a church hall until 1968.

Nothing much changed on the pub front, but Streatham Cemetery has arrived, along with some light industry and some more houses.

Public house not marked, although it must have been there. While the rather older 'Leather Bottle' and the 'Fountain' (not far from Tooting Broadway, demolished some years ago) are both present and named.

The bigger picture in 1870. No Earlsfield Station - and, as I recall, the Epsom trains did not start stopping there until some years after we arrived. They more or less all do now. Lambeth Cemetery, but no St. George's Hospital. Lunatic asylum, but no Springfield Hospital. And we do get the St. Clement Danes almshouses.

So not much further ahead. But regular search gave me reference 2, which tells me that this Youngs' house went up at the turn of the century, part of a wave of pub building at about that time. Clearly need to visit the Tesco's it now is to see whether any of the interior survives.

Back with the important tree, I am now approaching the cemetery, just visible right. The flats in the middle caught my eye, looking a bit new to have chimneys, just visible at the roof line. Another story to be dug up some time.

The picture of the tree at reference 1 looks to be up against a wall, with some distinctive flats behind, so it seemed like a good plan to walk around the inside perimeter, in so far as that was possible, until I found it.

You can read all about the chambers at the back of the snap above at reference 3. Clearly a go-ahead sort of place.

A rather unhappy looking birch tree. Google Images thinks that all the lumps and bumps are more to do with heavy pruning than galls. I was not at all convinced.

But luckily, he also supplies the image above. About which the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says '... Galls can result from fungal infection, bacterial infection or insect activity. / Sometimes, galls can be found in impressive numbers on a single tree, although their presence generally doesn’t lead to rapid or widespread tree death ... One type of gall, phomopsis, can present a particularly impressive appearance. The result of a native fungus, phomopsis mostly occurs on oak, hickory and maple in Wisconsin...'. I settle for galls. And I now know that galls are not necessarily to do with wasps. Maybe not tannins and ink either.

A sensible and decent memorial to Wandsworth citizens who died as a result of enemy action - presumably bombing - during the Second World War. I dare say some would like the lettering to be picked out again - it is visible under zoom - but I think I prefer it the way it is. Let it slowly fade away.

Bingo! The tree in question, having lost a fair amount of leaf for the year. Complete with likely looking flats.

Plus some junior, rather smaller trees to the right.

Some of the small pears, perhaps half an inch across. For this pear in particular and pears in general see references 4 and 5. I sticks in my mind that the French are keen on pears and used to produce elaborate, lavishly illustrated catalogues, rather as we did with apples, the sort of thing to be found in RHS libraries. Perhaps pears really like it to be warmer than here, although I have not checked up on that point.

There were a fair number of big trees, interesting trees and sick trees, so perhaps some past superintendent had used his position to plant interesting trees, rather as the directors of some of the Epsom mental hospitals. A gardener also told me that there was a busy volunteer group which helped look after the place, help which ran to running some bee hives.

Some interesting monuments, some memorialising people who came, to judge by their names, from interesting parts of the world. Nothing terribly grand though, none of the sort of thing you sometimes come across in inner city graveyards. No Wellingtonias either.

This chapel, one of two, was firmly shut. Impressive pull-in for the funeral carriage.

Some big pine cones - which I found later were oozing some kind of resin. Not unpleasant smelling but sticky.

Closer to.

Google Images' effort. What with that, his deep dive and reference 6, Pinus wallichiana looks to be a good fit. But he is a bit vaguer, offering more choice, when I feed him the first snap, so it is a pity I did not look more carefully at the needles. 

Although zoom suggests that they might indeed be in bundles of five. And I did keep a couple of cones, so perhaps I will see what I can do with them in the morning.

Some new graves, complete with floral tributes.

[Cemetery top right]

Outside, I failed to look into the gardens behind Diprose Lodge, once the gardener's cottage. See reference 7. Something else for next time.

Thus completing the outbound leg of the expedition. The return will be reported shortly.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/11/acorn-statistical-endeavours.html.

Reference 2: https://londonpubsgroup.camra.org.uk/viewnode.php?id=28354. The source of the snap of the 'Prince of Wales' at the top of this post.

Reference 3: https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/bereavement-services/our-cemeteries-crematoria/streatham-cemetery.

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

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

Reference 6: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinus_wallichiana.

Reference 7: https://ezitis.myzen.co.uk/stclementdanes.html.

Reference 8: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/search?q=garratt. A sample of past notices of Garratt Lane.