Ramblings
Today I managed a mammoth ironing session, then made considerable progress with “Vanity Fair”.
Becky and Ian, having returned home to Southbourne after dinner yesterday, were not present for this evening’s meal of oven fish and chips, garden peas, pickled onions and gherkins, with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank Mighty Murray Shiraz.
On the morning of this cooler, dry, generally grey, day Jackie and I dumped another car load of green garden waste into Efford Recycling Centre.
Later, I read more of Vanity Fair, until Jackie returned from shopping at Lidl with a perfect present for our great granddaughter.
The central aisles at this amazing outlet is always a cornucopia of splendid surprises, cheap and of excellent quality, albeit generally short-lived. Ellie is very fond of both clocks and birds, so imagine
Jackie’s delight in finding an Easymaxx Wall clock featuring birds.
Each hour is represented by a named bird in place of a number. Except for the hours of 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. this battery operated device, having a gentle tick, plays, at the correct time, the authentic sound of that moment’s avian representative.
Ellie can recognise and name most individuals on her clock. Otherwise she uses the generic “bird”.
Here, while Becky holds the “not a toy”, she indicates and clearly enunciates “robin” and “owl”, recognising the sound of the latter. Being the comedienne that she is she pulls a funny face during her performance.
This evening we all dined on roast pork, crackling, roast potatoes both white and sweet, Yorkshire puddings, carrots, Brussels sprouts, sweet corn and peas, with tasty gravy all cooked to perfection. I finished La P’tite Pierre.
On a grey but dry morning of intermittent sunshine Jackie and I shopped at Ferndene Farm Shop, then brunched at Lakes View Café before taking a forest drive.
The verge fronting the shop’s chicken fields accommodating a ditch is decorated with daffodils bowed by raindrops.
A few ponies grazed the landscape alongside Holmsley Passage
on which an equestrienne group rode among the potholes pictured yesterday, where
Jackie photographed an elf’s lost hat draped on a post.
Later we saw them, all unscathed, gathering on the moorland.
Still shaggy ponies foraged alongside Wootton Road, where,
the post box still celebrates St Patrick’s Day.
This evening we all dined on meaty Ferndene Pork Sausages; creamy mashed potatoes of white and sweet variety; crunchy carrots; firm cauliflower; and tender broccoli stems with which Jackie, Ian , and Dillon drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of La P’tite Piérre.
On another day of unrelenting fine drizzle Jackie and I deposited the next carload of garden refuse into the local dump now termed the Efford Recycling Centre.
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By Elizabeth Joyce and PA Media
BBC News
Roads in England and Wales are at “breaking point” due to potholes, with repairs at an eight-year high, according to a new report.
The Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) said councils were expected to fix two million potholes in the current financial year.
That is up 43% on the previous year and the highest annual total since 2015-16.
Ministers highlighted their pledge to provide £8.3bn of extra funding over 11 years for road improvements in England.
The AIA’s annual report found that 47% of local road miles were rated as being in a good condition, with 36% adequate and 17% poor.
The survey also found that average highway maintenance budgets increased by 2.3% in the 2023-24 financial year compared with the previous 12 months.
But the impact of rising costs due to inflation meant local authorities “effectively experienced a real-terms cut”.
Meanwhile, the amount needed to fix the backlog of local road repairs has reached a record £16.3bn, up 16% from £14bn a year ago.
AIA chairman Rick Green said: “Local authorities have a bit more money to spend this year but the impact of rising costs due to inflation means they have actually been able to do less with it.
“Couple this with the effects of the extreme weather we are increasingly facing, and the result is that the rate at which local roads are suffering is accelerating towards breaking point.”
Depending on their size, potholes can cause significant damage to vehicles and pose a danger motorists, cyclists and pedestrians.
Although small potholes rarely cause major accidents, if a vehicle hits a lot of them over time, it can lead to damage to the tyres, suspension and steering system.
In Daventry, Northamptonshire, signs have appeared from an apparently fed-up driver welcoming people to “Pot Hole City” and “Pot Holy Island”.
While on the Isle of Man, a woman has planted daffodils in potholes, hoping the “guerrilla gardening” will hammer home the problem.
In October 2023, the government announced it would provide the £8.3bn of extra funding for local road improvements.
This was part of the Network North strategy to use money saved by scrapping the planned extension of HS2 north of Birmingham.
Mr Green said: “There’s still a mountain to climb when it comes to fixing our local roads.
“While it’s great that English local authorities should be getting more money from the government through its Network North funding, it’s clearly not going to be enough to halt the decline.”
AA president Edmund King added: “Our breakdown data shows that 2023 was the worst year for potholes for five years.
“Arguably the road network is a local council’s biggest asset, but not enough planned investment and repairs are being made to make streets safer and smoother for drivers and those on two wheels.”
A Department for Transport spokesperson said the £8.3bn spending pledge was evidence the government was “taking decisive action to resurface roads and fix potholes”.
They added: “In addition, we have made £150m available for local authorities right now meaning funding for most authorities has increased by almost a third compared to last year, with a further £150m to follow in the coming financial year.”
The above is a current item from BBC News.
My regular readers will be aware of the number of hazardous holes we now negotiate daily.
Here is a small selection each no more than a short distance from our home – only those where it was possible for Jackie safely to stop and let me out. Where the edges of the tarmac are nibbled away it becomes hazardous for drivers to pass each other in opposing directions when one will need to crash a wheel over a crater of varying depths – our road surface waters have subsided somewhat at the moment but sometimes they have covered the holes making them invisible. Our local does its best to patch roads that really need resurfacing. Gravelled repairs soon wash out onto the tarmac.
A friend of ours recently drove the fifth car that damaged a wheel at the same spot in less than an hour.
While I was focussed firmly on potholes, Jackie photographed fleeting deer disappearing into the woodland flanking Holmsley Passage, and raindrops dripping from thorns.
Becky and our Grandfamily returned from their trip to Scotland yesterday evening and Ian joined us later so we were a full household able to enjoy Jackie’s wholesome chicken and leak pie; roast potatoes; crunchy carrots; firm cauliflower and broccoli, and meaty gravy. The Culinary Queen drank more of the Sauvignon Blanc, Ian drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of La P’tite Pierre.
Once again I stayed inside with Vanity Fair, until a lull in the drizzle outside led me to photograph the signs of life.
Many of the new shoots, moss, blooms, in or out of season, and even a fresh white feather, bore jewels of nurturing precipitation. Clicking on any image will access the gallery in which each photo bears a title.
This evening Jackie and I dined on chicken Kiev, chips, and peas, with which she drank more of the Sauvignon Blanc and I drank La Petite Pierre vin rouge 2022.
Late last night I watched a recording of the Six Nations rugby match between France and England.
I spent much of another wet day among the pages of Thackeray’s “Vanity Fair”, after which Jackie and I dined at Lal Quilla in Lymington High Street, where we enjoyed a meal of their usual high quality, friendly, attentive, and efficient service.
We started with poppadoms, chutneys, and Kingfisher beer which lasted for the rest of the meal. The dishes are then cleared away and
the main courses served:
mine being prawn dansak and Jackie’s Goan chicken;
we shared mushroom rice, a plain paratha, and sag paneer.
With the bill comes warm wet wipes, chocolate mints, and Baileys – now always termed a complimentary in our household. Jackie, who produced all the photographs, down her complimentary sharpish.
Ellie loves pens, pencils, and drawing. She also has her favourite pictures and likes to combine the two.
She crams as many as she can into each hand and wanders around with them, occasionally sitting with them into her “hidey” place behind the velvet sitting room curtains, where she enjoys adding her own embellishments to adults’ drawings and photographs.
Close scrutiny of her copy of her favourite photograph will reveal Ellie’s fine lines on “Granny”Jackie’s knitted jerkin and on “GramGram” Becky’s neck.
Our front garden currently accommodates both the early blooms of Amanogawa cherry and the lingering prunus Subhirtella “Autumnalis”;
the continuing prolific camellias are seen alongside the magnolia “Vulcan” and the white viburnum, one of several in flower since Christmas;
Pale pink tulips, a bright pink hyacinth, and “Jetfire” daffodils jointly brighten the beds. Such are some of our unusual seasonal floral juxtapositions.
This afternoon I watched the Six Nations rugby matches between Ireland and Scotland and between Wales and Italy.
Becky is visiting Scotland with the Grandfamily for the weekend, but had left good portions of her tasty spaghetti Bolognese meal for Jackie and me to finish for tonight’s dinner with which I drank more of the Shiraz.
A member of the Britannia Thai staff having left a message on Ian’s answerphone to say that they had found my lens cap, I collected it this afternoon.
Jackie drove me via Angel Lane, like many others bearing the deposits of last night’s overnight rain, now desisted, but, as we discovered, also leaving the
moorland more waterlogged and many trees in standing water providing temporary accommodation for mallards.
Primroses like those along Royden Lane, and daffodils along Church Lane with its ancient mossy verges lined our route to Pilley,
where ponies enjoyed foraging on the green where a brisk breeze dried their hair,
and damp donkeys disrupted the traffic along Jordans Lane.
We have all been wondering why I have not received the results of my DNA test allegedly registered with Ancestry on 4th January .
This afternoon Becky and Flo decided to investigate, and discovered that I misinformed all my blogging friends on the above highlighted post by boasting that I had successfully registered when in fact all I had done was register an account with Ancestry DNA and my spit has not been registered. It has, however, been stored somewhere and from today, since the ladies have made a better job than I, it has been activated; the results should be communicated by e-mail in about two months time.
I now feel somewhat shamefaced for bragging about my prowess.
This evening we all dined on moist roast chicken, crisp roast potatoes and Yorkshire pudding; crunchy carrots, firm Brussels sprouts; and tender runner beans, with tasty gravy. Jackie drank Western Cape Sauvignon Blanc 2023, and I drank Mighty Murray shiraz.
Before the rain set in again later this afternoon
Martin completed his work on the Rose Garden Entrance.
Jackie and I visited Elizabeth at Pilley and made our way back through the downpour.
Ian returned home to Southbourne for work, and was therefore unable to partake of Becky’s and sous chef Flo’s authentic spaghetti Bolognese dinner sprinkled with Parmesan cheese with which I finished the Carménère.
This morning’s chiropractic session with Eloise focussed strenuously on reducing the most painful area on my neck. This resulted in not needing a further session for another four weeks.
Afterwards I was rather tired and read more of Vanity Fair, until we enjoyed the family’s report on an engrossing visit to the New Forest Wildlife Centre where Ellie threw herself into playing with some of her contemporaries.
Later I decided to print this picture in various sizes- three each 7” x 5″ for the mothers; one A3 (297 x 420 mm); and finally a bigger one still.
My Epson SureColor P600 printer can be set for sizes up to A3+ (329 x 483 mm or 13″ x 19″) which I was able to produce with my previous Apple iMac that offered this choice in its control panel. I therefore had a box of that size papers which I haven’t been able to use. Becky spent some time customising the computer so that it now offers the larger size, making a great deal of difference.
This evening we all dined on Jackie’s lemon chicken with colourful savoury rice, chopped by Flo. The Culinary Queen and Ian both drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Carménère.