Energy law

[The Staudinger power plant in Grosskrotzenburg, east of Frankfurt © Alex Kraus/Bloomberg]

The piece at reference 1 caught my eye this morning. The bottom line, albeit from the German Minister of Finance, seems to be that Germany is managing its energy crisis. But, confused by talk of price brakes, I asked Google who turned up a couple more pieces from Freshfields, the big London lawyers, references 2 and 3. Where the bottom line seems to be that the lawyers will do OK. Plenty of pickings for them from energy crises - and not that unreasonably, given that the sums of money involved are large and the details are tricky.

I then wondered about the extent to which civil servants suffered from the not-invented-here-disease. Did they prefer to cook up their own schemes rather than look at what other people, people maybe a bit quicker off the mark have got up to? As ever, a balance, a judgement call: given the different circumstances of different countries, how much effort is it worth putting into working out what those different countries have done and whether any of it is applicable to one's own country?

But, thinking of here in the UK, has our ingrained disdain & dislike of all things from across the Channel resulted in tunnel vision?

PS 1: Lindner is just 43 years old and the leader of the German Free Democratic Party, a party which has had a bumpy ride over the years. A professional politician who is neither lawyer nor banker. Conservative, with a preference for small government, free markets and privatisation. Presently part of the ruling coalition. According to Wikipedia: '... The FDP is a predominantly classical-liberal party, both in the sense of supporting free market economic policies and in the sense of policies emphasizing the minimization of government interference in individual affairs. The party has also been described as neoliberal ... identified the FDP as closer to the CDU/CSU bloc than to the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) on economic issues but closer to the SPD and the Greens on issues such as civil liberties, education, defense, and foreign policy ... The FDP supports the legalization of cannabis in Germany and opposes proposals to heighten Internet surveillance. The FDP supports same-sex marriage in Germany'.

PS 2: stop press: the camassia lily bulbs which BH planted in the wake of the visit noticed at reference 5 seem to be on the move, rather to my surprise. Well shall see... Plus, one of the Ohio buckeyes, noticed from time to time last year, thought dead and buried, is still there, maybe with buds. Again, we shall see...

References

Reference 1: A resilient Germany is weathering the energy crunch: Government measures to encourage lower consumption are market-based and do not interfere with price signals - Christian Lindner (Germany’s minister of finance), Financial Times - 2023. The source of the snap above.

Reference 2: https://www.freshfields.com/en-gb/our-thinking/knowledge/briefing/2022/12/the-german-electricity-price-brake-act-and-the-levy-of-any-surplus-revenues-ueberschusserloese-regulated-therein/.

Reference 3: https://www.freshfields.com/en-gb/our-thinking/knowledge/briefing/2022/12/gas-price-brake-for-entities-with-high-gas-consumption/.

Reference 4: https://www.alexkrauss.com/. Appears to be a photographer of the exteriors and interiors of buildings in his day job, but does other stuff for fun. And some of this last is quite fun.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/05/a-house-and-garden.html.

Trolley 839

An afternoon which started with camassia. last noticed at reference 2, although the flowers have been spotted since at both Wisley and Polesden Lacey. With our pot yielding just the one flower head this year after its repotting in 2023. Taking a while to get properly going again, although there do look to be some seedlings coming up. Odd that there seems to be no record later than February last year: maybe lost due to spelling error?

Over the hill and into town to draw a blank on the trolley front, but then the creationists of East Street came up with another, this one from Sainsbury's, just like they used to.

Delivered to the stacks at Kiln Lane, then back through the Screwfix passage to find this pair of DeWalt boots. Our last builder carried a full range of DeWalt tools and a chap at Wetherspoon's was wearing a pair of their shorts on my last visit. And now the boots.

Clean and very nearly new. Very little wear at all. Size 9, so far too small for me, and I was just wondering whether I knew anyone who had size 9 feet when a chap came along on his cycle who did. He was pleased to gather them up and I think they have found a good home. Maybe £50 worth according to reference 5.

Odd thing to drop on the way home though.

PS: another washer was added to the collection at some point recently. A rather newer one than the one before. Against a backdrop of 'It can't happen here', noticed at reference 3. A book which I am getting on with, getting through, albeit not terribly quickly. As far as that goes, a bit like 'The Job' which came before.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/05/trolleys-837-and-838.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/02/trolley-636.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/05/the-heat-of-day.html.

Reference 4: It can't happen hare - Sinclair Lewis - 1935.

Reference 5: https://www.dewaltworkwear.co.uk/.

Reference 6: https://www.dewalt.co.uk/. The proper DeWalt site. Have the work wear people just rented the name and the branding?

Group search key: trolleysk.

Sunny Wisley

A fortnight ago to Wisley to see what was cooking there, our last visit having been in January, as noticed at reference 1, a visit for which the photographic record is dominated by the dry department of the big hot house. A department for which I have a soft spot, and which may have provided some of the motivation for the current flirtation with phyllotaxis, this being very visible in the patterns made by the leaves of many of the plants there.

No problem getting across the A3/M25 interchange, but we did manage to miss the turning to Wisley, which meant carrying on more or less to Guildford before we could turn around. Where we passed a sick Wellingtonia on a roundabout, but it was not convenient to stop at that particular point. Having arrived on one navigation failure I thought it prudent to take a couple of sighting shots from the car park which should have helped with finding the car, had we lost it on the way out. Which is not as silly as it sounds given the size and number of car parks.

Next stop the cafeteria where I took tea and sausage roll. The tea cup was on the heavy side and the roll was one of those flaky confections which are popular at the moment, lots of rather fatty meat inside, dripping oil and not very thoroughly cooked in this case. But no harm ensued.

The overall impression of the gardens was lots of fine flowers - including lots of onions of various sorts. And, having recently acquired some camassias ourselves, we were pleased to find some meadows in which there were lots of them.

But we started with a handsome, wall-mounted magnolia, Magnolia delavayi, named for a Catholic missionary to China. With the Magnolias being an ancient lineage, older than bees according to reference 2.

While the Magnoliaceae are the second family listed in the reference 3 catalogue, out of well over a hundred, corroborating the ancient theory. Plants organised on rather simple lines, mostly pollinated by beetles attracted to their strong smell - without there being any nectar on offer. It seems that the Lirodendrons which attract my attention from time to time are a somewhat anomalous genus in this family. That aside, the arrangements of the many stamens, carpels and seeds look like they are well worth the attention of a phyllotaxist.

What I do not get, or at least not yet, from reference 3, is a sense for what make magnolias different from everything else. What are the distinguishing features?

Some quite decent foxgloves. More spirals.

Not like the liriodendron, aka tulip tree, aka state tree of Kentucky, on West Hill (at Epsom) at all.

Not least because of the variegated leaves. On the other hand it was called Liriodendrum tulipfera 'Snow Bird'.

Wikipedia admits to a variety which has variegated leaves, so maybe these handsome trees, similarly shaped by pruning and snapped in Vancouver, are the same.

A very striking and showy tree in the bright noon-day sun. Either the label had gone missing or I failed to note it, but Google Images says some kind of dogwood, possibly the Japanese dogwood (Cornus kousa) of reference 4. Something to check on our next visit: I believe there is a facility whereby you can ask in which bed a particular plant is to be found, so maybe time to give it another whirl. Helped along by both beds and plants being labelled on the ground.

There were a lot of roses. All shapes and size and some very handsome, both plant and flower.

The edge of one of the camassia meadows.

A heavily zoomed snap of some tower blocks to the northwest (I think). With the zooming leaving a curiously rectangularised effect on the trees on my laptop, an effect which may survive publication here. Looking at the map, we have the Woking-Weybridge corridor in that general direction, but picking out these particular buildings in the absence of a bearing is pretty hopeless. Oddly enough, I had thought to take a compass on this occasion, but didn't.

A cluster of very smelly trees on the way to the hothouse. BH found the smell obnoxious, but all kinds of insects thought otherwise as the flowers were covered with them. The ticket said 'Crataegus persimilis (Prunifolia Spendens)', but there was what looking like common or garden hawthorn sprouting just below what I took to be the graft, just above ground level. Wikipedia, at reference 5, says a US variety of the common hawthorn, and I did not see anything about the smell. That said, Horton Lane is quite smelly when the hawthorn is out.

Next stop the 'Company of Cooks' in the cafeteria next to the hot house, an establishment which served us well on our last visit. Started with the same fizzy drink that I took last time, mainly made from concentrated grape juice, label and branding notwithstanding, plus something which might have been described as cheese straws. Very light and insubstantial they were too, but perfectly edible.

Followed by a mushroom risotto, the whole providing balance to the Gregg's style sausage roll with which I started the visit. A very civilised establishment, very comfortable inside, out of the sun.

And so into the hothouse, where the first plant to catch my eye was the whale fin snake plant, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The rather short Wikipedia entry does not say how it got its name.

Are they whorls or are they spirals? Can one be sure without taking the thing apart?

A fruit with six segments, rather than the popular five? Google Images not too clever on this snap.

But does rather better with this one, suggesting the Crown Imperial, which I did not know was a variety of fritillary, Fritillaria imperialis. Which seems quite plausible, but a closer look is needed in the morning. The fruit looks spot on, but I have no idea how specific this particular form is. Maybe there are lots of them. In the meantime, see reference 6.

Closed the day by inspecting some large carp in one of the ponds. One wonders just how much grub one of these fish, some of them perhaps half a metre long, need to keep them going. Are they fussy about what they eat? Do they eat each others' offspring? Their own offspring? I think I once read that crocodiles are not particular in that department.

In the course of the day we passed just three people showing any kind of tattoo and just one person with a fag on. A bit slack compared with the Saturday morning show at Epsom. Nevertheless, another good visit.

PS 1: while writing this, Microsoft Start has brought me the news that our former fat leader has lent his support to convicted felon Trump, using his column in the 'Daily Mail' as a platform. As one fat conman who thinks that rules and telling the truth are for little people to another? Real men go to Putin's parties. A reminder that we had Trump-lite here, and might, if we are not careful, get the the real thing one day in the future.

PS 2: the next day: the back garden turned up three three-lobed seed cases, snapped above. From the top: dwarf iris, bluebell and ceanothus, this last being a shrub with showy blue flowers. OK, so the wrong number of lobes and the wrong size, but the general idea is clearly common enough.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/01/overdue-visit.html.

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

Reference 3: Guide to flowering plant families - Wendy B. Zomlefer - 1994. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill.

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

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

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

Cod Lacey

About a fortnight ago, on a bright, warm and sunny day, we made it to Polesden Lacey, our first visit of the year, with the last visit, the festive visit, being noticed at reference 1.

The weather and the school holidays meant that Chessington World of Adventure was on the move, and their queue stretched back through the Malden Rushett crossroads, most of the way back to the motorway.

And following the sighting noticed at reference 2, we spotted plenty of cowslips in the verges along the way.

We decided against carrying our picnic to the summer shed at the back of the orchard, last noticed getting on for a year ago at reference 3, settling instead for a picnic in the old stable yard, quite near the car park.

Following the imperial doubts expressed at reference 4, no doubt about the crown imperials to be found not far beyond the stable block. I wonder how long it will take the Guardian to launch a campaign for changing the insensitive name of these plants: possibly irritating for those hailing from the subcontinent, by heritage if not by birth?

Closely followed by what we took to be a splendid specimen of a white honesty, some relation of the bank of regular honesty (Lunaria annua) growing at the back of our garden. A diagnostic that Google Images was happy to confirm with white-flowered honesty (Lunaria annua var.Alba).

More cowslips, in among the blue bells.

And I rather liked these blue flowers - quite often preferring the more modest flowers to the more showy ones - like, for example, camelias. Google Images is reasonably confident that it is navelwort (Omphalodes cappadocica var.Cherry Ingram).

Another member of the borage family which is causing me so much bother. Wikipedia more or less agrees at reference 6, but Bentham & Hooker has a more complicated story. I smell taxonomic controversy, perhaps now died down, just leaving a few echoes.

One of the various benches on which we took the sun on was at the side of the splendid croquet lawn. A game which I understand is very good for apparently demure young ladies to get off a spot of steam. Quite an aggressive game really and FIL was rather keen on it. The snap does not give much of the idea of the lawn, but it will serve as an aide memoire.

A clump of Camassias, going a lot stronger than the comparatively weedy ones in a pot on our back patio. Maybe they will come to something yet. Google Images not very confident about this one, with the majority vote going to the ribwort plantain, aka narrow leaf plantain (Plantago lanceolata), which is quite different.

Does better on a head shot snapped out of the original, again not completely sure, but with the majority vote going to Camassia leichtlinii var.Caerulea. I had not noticed the dark flower stems before, present at Polesden Lacey, but I am not sure about our patio.

The centrepiece of our picnic was a couple of the substantial Scotch eggs to be had from our Manor Green Road butcher. Better, bigger and dearer than the Sainsbury's offering.

All in all pleasant and relaxed visit.

Followed up by a visit to the nearby fishmonger, Fowlers, who was just closing. No entire lemon soles (as notice eighteen months ago at reference 5), but he did fish a couple of bits of cod out of an ice box for us. A little disappointing in the event, pushing out a lot of water when baked and ending a bit soggy. Perhaps we should have drained and then dried a bit in the oven before serving. Perhaps buying at the end of the fishmonger week not so clever.

PS 1: in parallel with this post, batch No.718 was on the go, coming to a successful conclusion just before 15:30 having started out at around 09:30, six hours previously. One loaf in the freezer, the other about to be cracked open. Probably to be taken with a spot of Poacher.

PS 2: while next door, the triffid aka aloe is on the way out. Last noticed at reference 7. Must take a proper look and have a go at working out whether the florets could be described as being in a helical formation. Doesn't look much like it from this snap, but should be clearer with the real thing.

Kitchen not yet put back in its box, although progress is being made.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/12/polesden.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/04/indecision.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/06/rose-festival.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/04/tulips-at-hampton-court.html.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/11/autumn-lacey.html.

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

Reference 7: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/04/trolley-674.html.

Trolley 636

This being a small Sainsbury's trolley captured in the course of a Ewell Village anti-clockwise, just past Kiln Lane, just past a convenience store on the south side of East Street. A bit full of litter, presumably acquired from passing youth over the past 48 hours or so. Luckily I was wearing gloves with a rather rubbery finish and there was an empty litter bin across the road, so emptying the trolley was not a big deal. Returned to the very full stacks outside the front entrance to the Kiln Lane store.

Before the off, there had been a bit of snapping, both indoors and outdoors. Starting with this huge, velvety red amaryllis. Sprouting out of a not very big bulb - perhaps a four inch pot - bought from Wisley. The first time BH has grown one for a while, having in the past grown one most winters. I think with a bit of TLC you can get more than one year out of them, but second and subsequent years do not come up to the standard of the first.

Then, next to it, I noticed that the Aloe Vera was coming into flower. Something else that has not happened for a while. Maybe as much as five years ago. See reference 2.

Then outside, to see the Camassias of reference 3, repotted last Autumn, with at least three of them shooting well. Maybe this year we will get around to finding a permanent home for them. I dare say they would like a bit more sun than they will get if I leave them in this corner. See reference 3.

The three ponds have nearly become one.

And the jelly lichen is having a go. With reference 4 being early notice of same, back in the days with FIL first identified it for us. Well over a decade ago now.

While after the trolley, just by the parade shops at the bottom of Longmead Road, some chain-saw action. Maybe the people in the house behind the lorry were getting a bit restive about roots. Maybe the chain-saw people has some story about the dark rings to be seen in the otherwise pale timber being some sort of disease. Whatever the case, a shame to lose yet another tree as I believe that we need all we can get, reference 5 notwithstanding. I have only skimmed it, but I think the beef there is more destruction of ancient and valuable grasslands - rather than trees being a bad thing. There is also the point that one might get better value for money, by spending it on stopping, or at least slowing, the felling of ancient forests. Like those of the Amazon or Canada. For which last see reference 6.

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/02/trolley-635.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/search?q=tfc&max-results=20&by-date=true.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/search?q=camassia.

Reference 4: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2010/11/jelly-lichen.html.

Reference 5: Global tree-planting push threatens African grasslands, warns report: Research highlights risks posed by pan-continental reforestation project - Michael Peel, Kenza Bryan, Financial Times - 2024.

Reference 6: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/01/boreal-landscapes.html.

Group search key: trolleysk.

A house and garden

The Garden House being a place that BH knew about and which we have finally got around to visiting. A garden created after the second world war by Lionel Fortescue and his wife Katherine after he retired early from teaching languages at Eton. A keen gardener, particularly keen on rhododendrons. Probably with family money as there is talk of several gardeners.

The house was built in 1826 as a vicarage for Buckland Monachorum, subsequently sold in favour of something more convenient. About 10 acres of garden which includes some ruins from an earlier vicarage and a great many plants, many of which were in flower on the day we visited. Part of the ground floor of the substantial house is now the shop and cafeteria. Originally just the bit right middle in the snap above, now extended to left and right.

Starting off with tea and cake in the cafeteria. This despite having taken hog's pudding for breakfast, along with granary bread from the Honey bakery at Horrabridge and a fine orange from the Co-op at Yelverton. Pudding from Bidder, also of Yelverton: a place we visit twice a year and which still features a cashier in a booth at the back of the shop.

A cake, in my case involving apple and some rather damp sponge. With the large windows looking out over the veranda and the garden beyond being the sort that come with built in-internal shutters, shutters which might well still shut. A type of window that must cost of care and attention to keep in working order. A type of window that I first came across in Somerset House when I started work there in the mid 1970's. I am fairly sure there that the shutters did not shut.

Did the gardens, which were interesting with lots of interesting plants, but which I found a bit fussy. A fussiness made worse by all the bits of wall and ruin. And not helped by the lie of the land.

One of the features of the garden had once been a line of ten lime trees. Sadly, now down to two or three, having lost two or three more in the recent storms.

Back to the cafeteria for lunch, which in my case took the form of a ham sandwich. Ham plentiful, if a little salty. Decorated with a dab of pink coleslaw, pink which I think was from beetroot rather than from red cabbage. Rather good. View from the veranda where we took lunch snapped above.

One of the plants I liked were the camassias, a kind of lily which was growing all over the place and which came in three colours - white (snapped above), pink and blue. And as one of the gardeners was taking some out, I was able to acquire some - and now taken in hand by BH. We will see how they fare in Epsom - in ground which is a lot drier than that from which they were taken.

A kind of lily which used to grow in large numbers in what is now the US and the bulbs were widely used as food by the First Peoples (if that is the presently correct term). See reference 2.

From the garden we moved onto the associated church, which until then we had only seen from the outside. Entrance at the bottom of the tower from the street which can't be seen at the back of the snap above.

A rather grand interior. The columns may be granite  monoliths, but if not, they have been very neatly jointed. Must take a closer look next time.

A rather flamboyant memorial to Lord Heathfield of Gibraltar, an eminent soldier of the second half of the eighteenth century, married to Ann Polex[f]en Drake, daughter of the fourth version of Sir Francis. Of Scottish gentry stock and who went to university at Leyden, now to be found at reference 4. Possibly took on the nearby Drake family home, Buckland Abbey, after the death of his sister's brother, the fifth version, without issue. 

Fairly sure that the font is a monolith. Rather ugly too.

To my mind, a failure of detailing. The arch springing to the left off the head of the column has not been properly thought through.

The moat around the church. Presumably, with all the people and coffins being dug into the ground around, that ground gradually rises, leaving the church behind. You can't really see in this snap, but a lot of the gravestones are surprisingly thin, well under the more usual couple of inches. Presumably some special sort of stone.

On the way back to Holne, we stopped by the bridge at Hexworthy, where we made the acquaintance of a grandmother from Houston, her daughter who lives over here, and her daughter. She was able to confirm my story about frying turkeys in oil drums, a yarn which I thought I got from reference 5, although I cannot presently track it down. Very good, she said, if done properly.

References

Reference 1: https://www.thegardenhouse.org.uk/.

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

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/05/piano-55.html.

Reference 4: https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en.

Reference 5: https://texasmesquitegrill.com/.