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Alison visited today and brought us a wonderful set of wind chimes. Given the amount of wind we usually experience, it is sod’s law that the air was now perfectly still.
On display during her walk around the garden were
Japanese anemones
and dahlias;
clematises and petunias;
begonias;
and bees approaching kniphofias
or stocking up on sunflowers.
A response to yesterday’s post from Pauline, The Contented Crafter, prompted me to look into the fire at Mr Pink’s Fish And Chips shop. It was on the evening of Wednesday 24th August that the oil in one of the chip pan vats caught fire. Three firefighting crews were rapidly in attendance to extinguish the fire, and no-one was hurt. The best fish and chip shop for miles around will, however, be closed for some weeks.
We had been considering for some time visiting The Cliff House at Barton on Sea, an hotel with a restaurant serving, among other things, fish and chips, so when Pauline asked us what we were going to do on fish ‘n’ chips nights, this seemed a good reason to try it.
We did that this evening. We both enjoyed excellent hake in sourdough batter, served with chips in a tin mug and peas in a pottery dish. My delicious dessert was summer berry Eton mess which came in a jam jar. Jackie’s trio of ice creams was enjoyable, but she wasn’t sure about the flavour of one, and asked for my opinion. I suggested Plasticine, on the grounds that it was the same colour of that modelling material after children had been at it. The waitress informed us that it was blueberry. Jackie drank Erdinger wheat beer and I drank an Italian pinot grigio. The service was friendly and efficient. We will return.
Love fish and chips! And the wind chimes!
Many thanks, ML
Lovely to still see all blooming in your garden, and sorry to hear that your best Fish and Chip shop is out of action.. Glad no one was hurt in the incident. Have a great rest of the week Derrick.. Hugs Sue
Many thanks, Sue. X
You are most welcome xxx
Such a shame the blueberry tasted like plasticine. They are such a vibrant tasting fruit. Your flowers embody this time of year. 🙂
Many thanks, Widdershins. The ice cream just looked like Plasticine. It was of an indeterminate taste 🙂
Proper blueberry ice-cream is a treat. Hesitate to pick up on the choice of such a wordsmith, but don’t you mean “indeterminate”, rather than “indiscriminate”?
I most certainly do, Paul. Thank you. I’ll change it immediately.
Well that is rather posh fish’n’chips – tin mugs and pottery dishes and sourdough……. Shame about the plasticine ice cream. We never get served peas with our fish’n’chips, just an endless array of fried extras as requested. In my time in the UK I once had mushy peas and pie, which is another staple I believe. Some good has come from Mr Pink’s unfortunate event and you have tried a local posh establishment – I’m most pleased to have encouraged you both in this little venture 🙂 And the garden is still looking lovely!!
Many thanks, Pauline. Warm smiles on reading this.
Our lunch-time companion today had mushy peas. Without trying to stereotype, he’s a Londoner
‘Nuff said!
With eels?
The wind chimes are really nice. Your garden looks so lovely considering it’s September already.
Thanks, Karen. One would never know it was September at the moment
Yes – I agree! Love the wind chimes and the garden is just stunning. My little yard is pouting about the months of little to no rain. I am taking the day off to spend in the garden, today, though, so hoping things look good enough for a picture soon!
Good luck, Jodie
That wind chime reminded me that I’ve always wanted to make one… will I never have an original idea? 🙂 In fact I picked up a piece of junk from somebody’s Council ‘check out’ that may just work as the top…
I hope Mr Pink’s place will be up and running again before I arrive at the vicinity 🙂
I am also trying to attract more bees – there are more flowers in my garden now than ever before since I started looking at them on others’ blogs – yours is a daily reminder, like being brain washed 🙂
Happy to wash your brain, Mary. It’s a very good one. Also happy to provide inspiration to such a creative person. Thank you
Thank you, Derrick and Jackie.
Beautiful flowers and I love the lantern at the beginning. It seems you had a nice dinner too 🙂
We did. Thanks, Geetha
Welcome. I always look forward to reading about what you ate at the end of the post as I am a foodie 😀
Ah…fish and chips. ☺ That is all.
Thanks, Van. 🙂
I love the descriptions of the vessels your food arrived in. Original AND the food was good.
Upon perusing the names of the flowers in your garden, my eye stopped on “kniphofias”. I feel a new character being born – a ladies man I think based on its key attribute – named Knip Hofia. I may change it to “Kip” which comes nicely loaded with other meanings. Thanks for the inspiration, Derrick.
I’m always intrigued by the modern cod-Latin namings of natural things after their discoverer, where the language of one doesn’t flow with the with the language of the other. Some work quite well, like Rafflesia (after Raffles), Buddleia (Buddle) and Aubretia (Aubrey) but Mr/Ms Kniphof has something to answer for! Smythii also seems a horrible construction to me. There are lots of others.
I had the same pause over kniphofias as Susanne did, probably for the reason you propose, Paul. We call cod-latin dog- latin. A common illustration still lives in the rhyme well known to first-year latin students:
Patres conscripti took a boat
and went to Philippi;
Boatum est upsettum magno
cum grandine venti.
Omnes drownderunt
qui swim away non potuerunt……etc.
Our friend Bruce Goodman first used kniphofia when commenting on our red hot pokers. I’ve had to check the spelling ever since
Blogging is so edifying. I learned about dog/cod-Latin, kniphofia, and that all these fancy-schmancy Latin plant names were named for people. It seems only fitting then, that I should turn the plants back into people in fiction. It’s all so delightfully circular.
Fuchsia is one I find intriguing
So pleased, Susanne. I look forward to his arrival. Many thanks
I hesitated to raise the discomfiting subject of Herr Fuchs (rendered “fooks”). For those not in the know, he lends his name to fuchsia (a perfectly proper Latinization, compared to some of the awkward constructions created by botanical academia). More delicate sensibilities have caused his flower to be pronounced “fyoosha”, to avoid embarrassment and social pariahdom at the Royal Horticultural Society Annual Dinner. I hesitated to raise this, precisely because of its predictable appeal to the puerile side of our favourite blogger’s humour.
Things could have been worse: followers of plant-names may have noted a recent adoption of “Buddleja”, rather than “Buddleia”, for no apparent reason. Just imagine a newcomer trying to pronounce “Fuchsja”…
(For those interested, Buddleja is a reversion to Linnaeus’ original writings [Carl von Linné is the father of the system of generic and specific naming, aq duality used in all natural science descriptions (the discipline is called taxonomy). Because the educated spoke and wrote in Latin and Greek in the 17th Century, his system used Latin (he was Swedish). He’s known as Linnaeus, as a nod to his system adopting Latin as its base language]. The “j” in Buddleja is a long “i”, so I gather the pronunciation doesn’t change. There’s academics for you!
Hope you’re even more edified, Susanne.
Me, puerile? Or did you mean someone else?
On my one and only visit to the United Kingdom we stopped at a fish and chips shop in Anstruther, Scotland. Supposedly it is the best fish and chips shop in the world. I’d just eaten a heavy lunch and did not partake of the fare, a mistake I will regret to my dying day.
To be fair, quite a lot of fish’n’chip shops adopt that moniker. You’d be quite stuffed to put the claim to the test!
I should have at least sampled their wares. Woe is me!
Thanks, Leslie. Some years ago someone in America hired a plane to have an Indian Takeaway delivered from UK. Have you thought of that?
If I ever have that kind of money I’ll just fly myself over!
🙂
Your plasticine suggestion has made me giggle.
🙂 Thanks, Sue. I love to provoke a giggle
Wind chimes, Fish and Chips, and flowers…it doesn’t get any better, does it? Wind chimes are a favorite sound of mine, Derrick.
Very many thanks, Jill. It’s strange that that was one thing we didn’t have in the garden
such nice wind chimes and vivid colors!
Thank you, Lynn
One good thing (among many) about wind chimes, I’ve found: they can warn you when it’s becoming all too much, and you might run out and save some things from being blown over….
Pertinent as ever, Cynthia. Thank you
Brilliant! Never thought of that.
Beautiful wind chimes and flowers. Your evening meal sounds scrumptious. 🙂
Thank you, Sylvia. It was
Lovely to see that photograph of a real old fashioned chip shop. Let’s Mr is soon back in the Pink!
Thanks, John
Wind chimes, pretty flowers in all colors and shapes and fish n chips.. could one ask for more… you truly bring wonderful experiences to my soul through your lovely posts Derrick. Thank you so much for such refreshing posts!!
Very many thanks, Zigyasa
Pleasure is all mine Derrick
Wind chimes are a wonderful addition to any garden. We even had a small set on our balcony for a long time. I hope Jackie’s ice cream was delicious and didn’t really taste like plasticine (which I’ve never eaten, but suspect is less that appetizing). 🙂
Thanks, Bun. The ice cream was fine – I couldn’t resist the joke 🙂
Lovely flowers!! And appetite Inspiring fish and chips?We just got back from the beach where we too enjoyed our fair share of fish and chips…yuuuumy???????
Thanks, moon maenad
The wind chimes are lovely, as are your photos, of course.
That is sad for the restaurant owners to have to be closed, but I’m glad no one was hurt.
Your dinner sounds good–except for the “plasticine” ice cream. 🙂
🙂 Many thanks, Merril
I like wind chimes made from bamboo and I like this one too. 🙂
Thanks very much, Timi
Your meals always sound so original and delicious, Derrick! 🙂 I like the different pieces of crockery each part of the meal was served.
The lovely wind chimes will ring out and are beautifully set against the rugged stone backdrop.
The bee approaching the flower and the two on the sunflower were just exquisite shots.
Many thanks, Robin
Lovely wind chimes!! And clematis still in bloom? Fish and chips I cannot comment, for we don’t have it
Thanks, Tamara. We have such a lot still in bloom – I noticed antirrhinums this morning; and solanums are still festooning trellis and trees
Lucky you! Here asters are now in full bloom, I was in mountains today and saw late Gentians , it was already too dark for a good photo , but I’ve put some other pics on the blog, just to share fall feelings from Slovenia 🙂
Many thanks, Susanne
Cynthia J — I had an inkling that “cod-” and “dog-“, in those contexts, were different: we have dog-Latin (and dog-many other things) over here [keep the smut out of this, Knight!!]
My understanding, seemingly backed up by a hard-copy dictionary, is that cod-Latin was designed to convince it was real (which your verse purports to do, but clearly with no attempt at disguise); dog-Latin is plain poor-quality (and, since we were on that subject, applying the prefix to plant names signifies [relative] worthlessness, as in dog-rose, dog-daisy). My dictionary gives “dog-” as the equivalent of “[sorry] Bastard-“, thus mongrel, and cites “dog-Latin” as an example usage; in one [old] sense, “cod” means “to hoax”, etc., though no examples are offered: “cod-Latin” seems as good as any.
By chance, the verse you cite might be called dog-cod-Latin, since it’s humorously trying to be Latin, but (if it were a serious attempt) it would be bad!
You learn something every day!
I guess if Susanne Fletcher is looking out for circularity, discussing cod-Latin at the end of a post headed Fish ‘n’ Chips can hardly get rounder 🙂
Nice one, Paul
My dear Paul,
You are a paragon of erudition….persnickity beyond (?) reproach and, to wit, a wit besides. I always learn something from your comments.
And I love these exchanges
How nice! And I like these exchanges, too (though I fear my offerings are always too long).
Also, isn’t it wonderful that English has these incredibly fine nuances? And why should both these aspects of e.g. Latin be named after animals? 🙂
Food for thought.
Re your bits in parenthisis, Paul – you deserve thishttps://derrickjknight.com/2012/06/22/geoff-austins-shoes/
🙂 Thank you.
Living up to my newly-awarded moniker from Cynthia, square brackets [ ] are, strictly, not parentheses ( ), but I recognize that “in parenthesis” has its own meaning. However, I enjoyed the element in your piece you must be referring to. Very London humour.
A friend in upstate New York has an in-joke with me on this very “matter” [sez he, choosing his words extra-carefully], so SHE’s going to get an excerpt of the blog. She bemoans the fact that she can’t joke with her American friends on subjects like this (I can’t think that too many people would miss the opportunity… )
I had to check out the Kniphofias (seems she forgot the ‘n’) Susanne mentioned at Wuthering Bites. And I’m glad I did!
Many thanks, Donna
Hello, Derrick! Susanne’s delightful story sent me to your garden. I fell in love with the chimes and never made it past the Japanese anemones – delightful!!
Oh, and my sister-in-law Daisy, from Cliff House, apologizes for the plasticine in your blueberry ice cream. Apparently, her crafting club was using the kitchen that morning… (just kidding).
Thanks, Sharon. The humour in this sent me to your site, which I like. 🙂
Not so funny as yours, but heartfelt as well! thanks 🙂 I look forward to catching up with your other posts!