Getting munched

From seven in more or less full flower in late July, noticed at reference 1, we are down to five, with the bleached flower heads now drying out. They are also being eaten, particularly the one far left, although we have not caught anything at it. So it could be any or all of grey squirrels, birds, snails and slugs. Maybe even foxes, known to eat grass and yew berries as well as slugs and snails. But maybe all the husks and fibre would be too much for them.

The seeds are not very big, but they are recognisably sunflower seeds. I think, in the past, I have husked and eaten such things, probably grown on the allotment. Maybe this evening I will try again, over a spot of something that warms.

The used potting compost is being redeployed for repair and refill work. Probably best not to use it as potting compost again - even though it seems to hold the water well. 

PS: and I might say that, despite the French 'tournesol', these sunflowers did not turn to face the sun and certainly did not follow it about.

References 

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/07/the-mainly-yellow-corner.html.

DIY not

Just about a year ago, the back wheel of my bicycle was thumping gently through the saddle. Eventually I got myself to Fudges and the problem was fixed at the cost of new tyre and tube, as noticed at reference 1.

Then a few weeks ago, the front wheel started thumping gently - and intermittently - through the handlebars. On at least two occasions, I hoisted the front end up from the rafters of the garage and inspected both spin and tyres. Spin not perfect, even a hint of vibration from the bearings, but near enough. Couldn't see anything wrong with the tyre.

So once more down to Fuddles expecting the worse, that is to say buying new wheel, tyre and tube and then getting them to give the old one a going over. Or cheapskate, just a new wheel and throw the old wheel away. The same young man peered at the offending wheel and spun it a bit. Tried the brakes. Felt the spokes. He thought a ball bearing problem would have more pronounced symptoms. He thought checking out a wheel without a bicycle was not going to work. Then he thought that maybe the lump under the valve was hitting the road, as it were, through the tread of the tyre. Not enough pressure. So he pushed a bit more air into both tyres, using a natty garage-style air line. Much quicker and easier than a pump, even the sort of foot pump that I now use.

Tyres now rock hard and the problem has more or less disappeared, with just one short spell of thumping between Upper High Street and home - via Mill Road, Farriers Road, Stones Road and so on. Plenty of bumps to set it off, if it was going to go off. Hopefully end of problem, at least for now.

PS 1: maybe 40 years since I last stripped a bicycle wheel down to its ball bearings. What would it take for me to have another go? Would it cost more in grease and ball bearings that Fudges would otherwise charge? I do have a pot of old ball bearing, kept for years and years just in case they came in, but not at all sure that I would want to use them for something so important.

PS 2: there were a number of expensive looking cargo bikes lined up outside - with one of them possibly having been the Raleigh Stride 2 Family Cargo Bike snapped above - with the electrical bits and bobs looking to come from Bosch. On the road for around £4,500. Plus you would need a fair amount of probably suburban space to store the thing. A bit fancy to leave propped up against your front wall.

PS 3: Bing also turned up the the more DIY looking one snapped above. Probably a lot cheaper to buy - but also a lot harder on the legs. I remember cycling an old fashioned grocer's bike from Thornton Heath to the Aldwych a few times and that was hard enough on the legs - fifty years ago. There is even a dim memory of having to push the thing up a hill, in the dark, on the way back.

Reference 1: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/08/maintenance-time.html.

Reference 2: https://fudgescyclestore.com/. The cycle shop in Upper High Street.

Reference 3: https://www.raleigh.co.uk/gb/en/stride-2-family-cargo-bike/.

Littlebredy

A week or so an expedition to Littlebredy, a village a little to the east of Dorchester. Very near the headwaters of the River Bride, which flows west to the sea at Burton Bradstock, the place that was home to a stranded container ship full of crates of brand new BMW motorcycles and stuff like that a few years back. Not to be confused with the River Brit which flows to the sea at Bridport.

On the way we passed a field containing cows with very extravagant and very sharp looking horns. Which, we were told, made them a pain for agricultural purposes, but very well suited to acting as extras in costume dramas based on things like the novels of Jane Austen. Directors just love them.

Parked by the side of the road, a little way along from the bus shelter. Or perhaps it is just a higher grade public bench. Very much in keeping with the tied village, below to the left, mostly rebuilt in chocolate box style, with thatch and all the trimmings in the middle of the nineteenth century, by the Williams family, a banking family involved in the bank once known as William Deacons, a bank swallowed up by RBS in a fire sale in 1929. For a fuller story see reference 1. But it was a real village before the Williams family got there, so not so much of a fake as the nearby Poundbury (out of HRH the Prince of Wales, that is to say the Windsor family). Nothing like as big either.

With the house in the middle being a different phase of the rebuild than the rest, the thatch being omitted for some reason. The house just visible on the left used to be the house for the under-gardener. The over-gardener had a slightly larger house, next to the walled garden a little to the west, once the kitchen garden for the big house. For which see reference 2.

And so down to the lake for our picnic, as advertised at the end of reference 3. Quite possibly complete with picnic blanket and picnic knife. Tesco did us well. And it was a first-class spot for a family picnic.

On the way down we passed what I call an umbrella tree, that is to say a tree with a modest central trunk but with lots of suckers growing up, upside down umbrella fashion, around the central hub. Some from branches which dropped down, some from roots which pushed up. There had been a lot trees of this sort at Stourhead, noticed at reference 4, thought to be western [red] cedars. On a quick look, the only clue is the vaguely umbrella like branch offered by Wikipedia. So not convinced. And not convinced that this one was the same either.

But then we had a diversion. Did we have the scales of a Wellingtonia, despite the unusual, not to say unique, habit of the tree? How do they compare with the pictures at references 6 and 7, all of trees with labels. Not convinced, and eventually worked my way to reference 8, which offered the snap below of the cones of a Japanese cedar, a tree often mistaken for a Wellingtonia.

So for the present, I settle for that. But there was the tree already noticed at reference 5, as a consolation prize.

Next stop, back up the hill to the church where we found a novel form of memorial in the graveyard. A memorial to a daughter to the Williams family, a teenager known to family and friends as 'Plum'.

That is to say, a modest bronze tablet set in a wooden frame, with the frame set onto a pair of metal rods, possibly also bronze, set into concrete below. What impressed me was the legibility of the text after near 100 years. Don't know that lettering in stone would last that long, without being touched up.

Another novelty was a then newfangled way of bringing control of the bells down to a frame in a cupboard at the foot of the tower, so doing away with the need for bell ringers and a bell ringing chamber. The frame had a special name, but I forget now what it was.

The last novelty noticed here was the stone pulpit, unusual in this country, in country churches, but common enough in northern Italy, where I remember them as being the size and shape of a sarcophagus, with elaborately carved side panels, set on legs and in which the preacher could march up and down as he preached. Perhaps the architect had gone on the Grand Tour with his patron.

But I close with part of what I think is called the Creed, done in an early form of Arts & Crafts, a style to become much more elaborate as the nineteenth century wore on.

Bridehead, the big house, noticed at reference 9, was discretely screened, so there was not much to be seen from either the lake or the road, but Bing turns up various pictures, just the same. So above we have the house from the road, a picture owned by one Mike Searle, whom I thank for the use of it. When we were there, two ladies emerged from having walked around the lake, which must have involved trespass on the land reserved to the owners. Just the sort of thing to infuriate the chatelaine, should she have happened to be in residence and looking out of her windows.

We also have a couple of watercolour offerings of the place from one Henry Moule, 1825-1904, also the inventor of Dorset County Museum, which probably now houses them.

And so, picnic completed and candidate Wellingtonias inspected, off to a neighbouring hill fort and then to Toller Porcorum.

PS 1: we wondered whether Evelyn Waugh, a notable wangler of invitations to house parties, had visited the place and taken the name for his 'Brideshead Revisited'.

PS 2: next time the Valley of Stones. A site which might have been of comparable importance to Stonehenge, had the stone age inhabitants thought to build a henge. Bottom right on the opening snap.

References 

Reference 1: http://www.weymouth-dorset.co.uk/little-bredy.html.

Reference 2: http://wgw.org.uk/littlebredy.com/gardens.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/08/axminster.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/search?q=stb. I might say that so far I have not got very far with either of the two volumes of the memoirs of the Comtesse de Boigne.  A lady who was mainly French but in whom there was an Irish connection. But I still own them, so maybe one day.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/08/wellingtonia-41.html.

Reference 6: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/01/a-stake-in-ground.html.

Reference 7: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/07/identification-of-wellingtonia-closed.html.

Reference 8: http://www.redwoodworld.co.uk/redwood_types.htm.

Reference 9: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1000712. It might not be open to the public, but it does do television drama and historic England do know about it.

Group search key: wgc.

Wellingtonia 41

A juvenile, captured at Littlebredy in Dorset, a little above the lake which separates the public from the stately home, of which more in due course.

PS: the people noticed at reference 3 who seem to be able to bring very ancient Wellingtonia back to life in the form of very small plants - probably not seedlings as I don't they use seeds - have replied. It seems that the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive have given some of their plants to the Eden Project in Cornwall and they seem to be open to offers. Sadly, I don't suppose a suburban garden qualifies.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/08/wellingtonia-40.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/search?q=wgc. The other place.

Reference 3: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/08/big-trees.html.

Group search key: wgc.

Fake butter

I don't know how much butter costs or how that relates to the cost of other oily confections for spreading on bread, but there is clearly a market for fakes, that is to say oily confections disguised as butter.

I forget why we have this one, with BH using Sainsbury's just presently, but we were struck by the packaging.

A buttery spread in a mainly yellow container, decorated with buttercups. All very bright and cheerful.

The top ingredients, presumably in descending order of the weight of their contribution, are water, palm seed oil and rape seed oil. Reconstituted butter milk (whatever that might be) clocks in at 3.5%, just before the flavourings, additives and so on.

The amount of effort that gets put into making stuff look good on shelf and table! Never mind the economy with the truth.

PS 1: I did not get as far as looking inside. I always use butter.

PS 2: I did not see any soothing message about orang-utans not being disturbed during the palm oil part of operations.

Hazels

Hazel nuts are reasonably prominent in our affairs here at Epsom, as perusal of references 1 and 2 will reveal. Nuts to make sage and onion stuffing with, nuts from hedgerows roundabout, nuts from Neal's Yard Dairy, witch hazels and miscellaneous mentions. Also the destructive habits of grey squirrels. And then, during my childhood, we had two middle sized hazel nut trees, one on each side of our front drive, yielding getting on for a cubic foot of nuts a year, including the shells and their wrappers. So I was interested to come across the article about nuts in Italy at reference 3 this morning - an Italy where I believe lots of small hill farms are being abandoned as no-one can be bothered with them. Italians, like most of the rest of us, would rather live in a town with urban amenities, urban hours and urban salaries.

But it seems they are getting themselves into a right twist about Progetto Nocciola Italia, or the Italian nut project, from Ferrero, the Italian company that makes Nutella, the world’s largest buyer of hazelnuts. A project with the aim of bringing hazel nut production back home from Turkey, far and away the world's biggest producer, with more than seven times Italy's production on less than three times the land.

Much agitation about industrial scale monoculture destroying the essential character of rural villages, destroying the heritage, the environment and much else. But also much agitation about the need to repatriate ('reshoring') food production so that it can be properly supervised: no slaves and no unpleasant chemicals. Oddly, no mention of squirrels, grey or otherwise. Perhaps the Italian menfolk with their penchant for shooting anything small that moves, have killed them all.

I expect BH will put it all down to what she calls the silly season.

PS 1: the curious behaviour of the illustration when you click to enlarge is probably down to it being a png file, rather than my more usual jpg file. Behaviour which can be eliminated by passing the file through Microsoft's Paint, Snip & Sketch or some such.

PS 2: the next day: a rather different kind of farming story at reference 4, mainly about Spain, olives and water. But a problem which is spreading.

References 

Reference 1: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=hazel.

Reference 2: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/search?q=hazel. Easy enough to reach the other volumes by changing the digit 2 to 3, 4 or 5.

Reference 3: Farmers fear for their land as hazelnuts spread across Italy’s hills: Nutella maker’s push to shorten its supply chain stokes environmental backlash in rural communities - Davide Ghiglione, Emiko Terazono and the FT - 2021.

Reference 4: Spain counts cost of agribusiness in rising desertification: In Europe’s most affected country, the agricultural overuse of water is made worse by climate change - Daniel Dombey and the FT - 2021.

Easing again?

The summer bulge seems to have eased a bit in the fortnight since the graphic of reference 1, mainly because 'rest of Asia' seems to be easing. The US and Mexico seem to be back into growth, while the rest of Europe, Middle East and Africa are large and steady. Let's hope we are not in for a repeat of last year, with a modest bulge in the summer and big bulges in the winter following.

No progress with where Russia, Australia and the Pacific islands figure and a quick look around the FT site failed to help, either with the answer or with a suitable contact point, although the people who ought to know should be in the 'FT Visual & Data Journalism team'. Maybe I will try the catch-all phone number tomorrow.

I also wondered about latitude and the fact that winter up north is summer down south. From reference 2, I learn that: 'just under 90 percent of the world's population lives in the northern hemisphere. In fact, more than half of all humans can be found north of 27 degrees latitude above the equator. For reference, 27 degrees north passes through South Padre Island in Texas'. To be found at the bottom of the pink zone, No.5, in the graphic below. So maybe half the world's population live in the northern third of the globe where winter means what it does here in the UK.

While reference 3 offered the graphic above, with the world divided into ten bands of latitude, each containing a tenth of the world's population, rather than the population by latitude that I was looking for. Neat graphic, just the same.

Maybe it would be more interesting to match coronaviral deaths to mean monthly temperature, perhaps to some other meteorological variables as well, but that would involve a fair amount of work and I doubt whether I will do it. Maybe the people at reference 4 have already done it - despite a quick look suggesting they are mainly interested in England & Wales, rather than the world at large.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/08/its-not-all-over.html.

Reference 2: https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-percentage-worlds-population-lives-northern-1073876. Reliability unknown.

Reference 3: https://digg.com/2019/worlds-population-by-latitude. Reliability unknown.

Reference 4: https://www.data-mashup.org.uk/research-projects/climate-weather-infectious-diseases/.