Month: March 2023

Sir John Barleycorn Revisited

“As the wind howled and the rain lashed at our window panes”, it seemed appropriate this morning for me to recover the pictures from

The Uses Of Enchantment

Later we drove through just such a gale to meet Helen and Rob for lunch at the Sir John Barleycorn pub at Cadnam.

All the following photographs are by Jackie.

We were greeted with a tree blown across the road nearby.

Arriving just before midday opening time,

my Assistant Photographer was taken with the owls topping the entrance porch thatches. This will surprise no-one familiar with our garden.

She also produced some inside images, including the stack of highchairs, one of which may sometime prove useful to Ellie.

I chose the Railway-on-the-bone lamb curry with pilau rice; Jackie, a burger, chips, and salad; Helen, fish chips, and mushy peas; and Rob, skate wing, chips and salad. We all enjoyed our fusion choices, except that Rob, for whom this was the first such fish dish, wouldn’t choose it again. My brother in law and I both drank London Pride bitter, while the driving ladies both chose soft drinks.

An enjoyable, animated, conversation took place throughout.

This evening we all dined on Jackie’s wholesome chicken and vegetable stewp with fresh crusty bread, of which, on account of my lunch, I enjoyed a very small portion with a glass Patrick Chodot cru du Beaujolais Fleurie 2021. The Culinary Queen drank Hoegaarden.

Clean Air Blooms

This morning, after mending the wooden side gate,

Martin continued working his way along the West Bed. He cut back dead plant stems, weeded, and dug up brambles and other such invaders, bagging them for burning when the weather is dry enough.

I wandered around photographing garden views and flowers, each of which is entitled in the tiled gallery.

Perhaps the most pleasing flowers are those fashioned by the lichen clinging to the Nottingham Castle bench. This replica has travelled with me for three decades in various residences from Newark to Downton via London. As a tribute to the clean air of the forest this is the first home in which it has scattered its blooms.

I spent the afternoon on picture recovery of:

Islington
Durmast House Gardens
A Knight’s Tale (52: My Secondment)

I recategorised the second as Garden.

This evening we all dined on Jackie’s wholesome chicken and vegetable stewp and fresh baguettes, with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Shiraz

Troubleshooting

This afternoon I recovered the pictures on, and recategorised as Garden

Downton

This was to prepare for a very helpful troubleshooting meeting with James of Peacock Computers. This two hour session was very encouraging, giving me confidence that the final migration problems of my site will be capable of resolution.

Elizabeth visited and joined us for dinner this evening. She and I drank more of the Shiraz and Jackie drank Hoegaarden with the Culinary Queen’s Chicken Tikka, aromatic rice, and fresh salad with all the ingredients one would expect in an Indian restaurant.

A Touch Of Green

Gloomy. Cold. Wet. Take your pick of epithets to apply to the afternoon on which Jackie, after purchasing provisions at Ferndene Farm Shop, drove me, listening to rain pattering on the windscreen and the rhythm of the wipers’ whirling arms, into the forest until turning back for home when we had had enough.

Or select all three. It was not only the enticing aroma of fresh bread emanating from the back seat that made us look forward to this evening’s wholesome chicken and vegetable stewp.

The slalom that is Jackie’s course around potholes in our roads and lanes currently begins outside our front drive.

I stepped out on Burley Road to face the piercing raindrops for the benefit of our readers.

Ripples skimmed across the surface of pools filled after all our recent rain. A car hubcap, having rolled down a slope, was now waterlogged.

Against forbidding skies writhed skeletal branches, some of which

rose from the water.

I wondered how many more springs this degenerating stump would see. At least the grass it feeds, like mossy roots

added a touch of green to the day.

Attentive readers will already know what we had for dinner this evening. Its creator photographed it. With the meal I drank Paarl Shiraz 2022, and Jackie drank Hoegaarden.

Ecological Duties

Much of my day was spent on time consuming administration involving e-mails, phone calls, and research concerning blogs, electricity consumption, and on line banking..

Later, after making purchases at Ferndene Farm Shop Jackie drove me briefly round the forest.

Irises have pierced the ground beneath the surface of the reflecting Winterborne pool upon which camellia blooms have mysteriously arrived alongside Bisterne Close. How did the flowers get there?

Mossy tree roots hold firm on the corner of Bisterne Close and

Bennetts Lane, opposite which a tree, toppled

and sawn up a few years ago is steadily carrying out its ecological duties by degenerating into dust to replenish the soil.

A pair of ponies foraged between burnt gorse stems and golden gorse alongside Holmsley Passage.

This evening Jackie and I enjoyed second helpings of yesterday’s Red Chilli takeaway accompanied by Hoegaarden and the last of the Malbec, while Flo and Dillon consumed Ferndene sausages, carrots, mashed potato and broccoli, and Ellie was happy with Mashed potato and mango chutney juice.

Canine Encounters

I wasted two hours attempting to recover missing pictures to one of my Streets of London series of posts, then gave up and resorted to

‘Strike While The Iron’s Hot…….’

which required the comparatively easy Convert to Blocks approach.

The Pharmacy at Milford on Sea shares the forecourt with our GP surgery and the Memorial Hospital. When we arrived there this morning the area was deserted, because neither of these other services is open on a Sunday and heavy overnight rain, according the the staff had kept people away on this first day of British Springtime clocks being put forward.

The consequent acoustics were such that, when I exchanged greetings with a woman emerging from the dispensary as I was approaching, our voices echoed.

From there Jackie drove me to the coast alongside Hurst Road,

where figures were silhouetted atop the shingle bank over which I crunched and listened, against the backdrop of the roar of waves and the mewing of the gulls, to the pebbles responding to my weight by hissing against each other as they repositioned their formation.

Norwegian Boulders form part of the defences against the

sparkling waves constantly

crashing along the rocks and the stepped seafront.

Dog walkers were out in force both there and

at Barton on Sea where a number of canines enjoyed close encounters.

Elizabeth visited this afternoon, bringing more clothes for Ellie donated by Ella and Jack, and staying for pleasant conversation, cups of tea, and a Tunnock’s tea cake..

Later, the rest of us dined on Red Chilli takeaway fare. Jackie’s main choice was Butter Chicken; Flo and Ellie’s, Chicken `Korma; Dillon’s, Chicken Dhansak; and mine, Naga Chilli Chicken. We shared Tikka Panir, Peshwari Naan, Pilau Rice, and Special Fried Rice. Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Malbec.

Rugby And Recovery

Before watching the Women’s Six Nations rugby matches between Wales and Ireland, and between England and Scotland on BBC iPlayer this afternoon, I recovered the following two posts:

A Knight’s Tale (113: Terminal Illness)
“Don’t Get Me In Your Picture”

The first was of the Attempt Block Recovery variety, to which I added the Header picture; the second, Convert to Blocks in which I changed the Header.

Later, I published https://derrickjknight.com/2023/03/25/droll-tales-17/

This evening we all dined on tasty roast gammon and kumara potatoes; creamy mashed potato and swede; juicy ratatouille; crunchy carrots; and tender Sweetheart cabbage, with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank Mendoza Malbec 2021.

Droll Tales 17

There is no illustration by Mervyn Peake in the Folio Society edition of the 7th of the second Decade of these tales, entitled “An Expensive Night of Love”.

This publisher is perhaps choosing to head the story unambiguously, unlike the publishers of Gustave Doré (The Dear Night of Love)

or of Jean de Bosschère (A Dear Night of Love), each of whom follows the example of the double entendre style of the author, Honoré de Balzac, who, with his usual clever, fluent, prose, conveys descriptions of manipulation of events and romantic dalliance conducted, before the protagonists are able to come to grips with each other, by means of lustful glances and gestures to rival those of Tom Finney and Joyce Redman in

Further details of each of these publications is given in https://derrickjknight.com/2023/01/06/droll-tales-1/except that the second Decade is published by New York’s Covici, Friede in 1929. It is America’s first edition thus and is a limited copy. The illustrations are not protected by tissue but the book’s condition is good and covered by a cellophane wrapper. 

Shedding Shag Pile

Scudding clouds mottled promising skies over Downton at dawn this morning. The first two of these images show the trees in our back garden; the third looks east along Christchurch Road.

By midday darkening clouds had largely squeezed out azure skies, after Jackie and I had shopped in a well stocked supermarket where the middle aisles surrendered a stair gate and a white Livergy XL cotton T shirt sporting a Lidl logo.

Ponies beginning to shed their winter shag pile cropped grass in woodland bordering Forest Road.

One Life Cut Short; Another Changed Forever

The pivotal post I converted to block editing, changing the header picture, and adding three more photographs taken by Vivien, will be largely familiar to my longer term readers, but informative to my most recent ones.

This evening we all dined on pork spare ribs in barbecue sauce, with Jackie’s colourful savoury rice and even more colourful fried peppers, with which I finished the Pays d’Oc with no assistance from anyone else.

Nothing Here And Attempt Block Recovery

I discovered an unpleasant occurrence in the front garden yesterday. A blockage in the septic tank piping had been enough to push up a mound of detritus sufficient to shove the manhole on top of it. I had not been in that corner since before Christmas. Fortunately Greg Mouland, of Mouland Drainage was able to visit and clear it this morning. The culprit was rusty iron dropping from another decades old manhole half way down the track into the pipes below. Greg was pleasant, efficient and left the area jet washed clean.

The three earlier posts for which I recovered the pictures today were as follows:

The Angel And Blue Pig Inn
The Cot In The Kitchen
Ronald Searle Does Dickens

The first two of these were the “Nothing Here” type where clicking on an image reveals that notice. The third was of the “Attempt Block Recovery” variety. I also recategorised it as Books.

Later I read more of Balzac and published https://derrickjknight.com/2023/03/23/droll-tales-16/

Becky returned home to Southbourne early this evening and the rest of us dined on tender roast chicken and green beans with Jackie’s colourful savoury rice, with which she drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Nero di Troia.