Month: October 2024

Boldre To Botany Bay

Frances was driven here from Swindon by a friend, and collected by Jacqueline for lunch at Elizabeth’s where they will spend the weekend. Over coffee and cake Jackie and I enjoyed a morning of reminiscences and revelations with our sister-in-law and my sister.

This afternoon, stopping off at Otter Nursery for yet more bulbs, we took a forest drive.

We got no further than the Parish Church of St John the Baptist at Boldre which took us on a virtual journey to Sydney, Australia.

At Church Lane we stopped for me to photograph reflected trees bowing over the still stream.

Around the corner we were attracted by a banner stretched on the church fence celebrating the tercentenary of the birth of Rev William Gilpin.

Unusually the doors – a memorial to John Bousquet Field, his wife, Cecilia, and their 16 year old grandson, Thomas Mostyn Field, midshipman on HMS May sunk at the Battle of Rutland in 1916 – were unlocked.

As shown by the list of incumbents on the wall, Gilpin was the vicar from 1777 – 1804.

This text from Lt Col Peter Chitty can be enlarged in the gallery, as can the following extract from Chitty’s pamphlet below.

It is Rev Richard Johnson who

takes us with the First Fleet to Botany Bay, arriving in 1788. The story, featuring in the caption beneath Brian J Down’s drawing of St Philip’s Anglican Church, can be enlarged in the gallery. When I visited Sydney in 2008 many shops carried lists of the names of those first passengers in their windows. I imagine they are still there.

Jackie produced these images of the exquisitely carved lectern

and the flower arrangements in situ.

Field horses are at home in the pastures below the church.

This evening we dined on Tesco’s Kentucky Fried Chicken; onion rings, chips, baked beans, cauliflower and its chopped leaves with which I drank more of the Haut-Médoc.

Further Along West Bed

This morning Jackie and I transported another fifteen bags of garden refuse to Efford Recycling Centre from the heap that had continued growing in the last couple of days.

In the meantime Martin made sure that what was left was more than we started with.

He cleared far more than I had left in the West Bed, and

littered the Brick Path once more,

not failing to clear and bag up the debris.

Jackie continued working in the shade of the wisteria, where she proudly inspected the lily bulbs she had found.

This evening we dined on Nando’s peri-peri sauce on Jackie’s roast chicken pieces, with her colourful savoury rice; firm cauliflower, and tender runner beans, with which I drank a deliciously smooth La Réserve de Sociando Mallet 2016 Haut-Médoc by Sylvie et Jean Geautreau which Tesco clearly hadn’t been able to sell at £28.00 so Jackie splashed out and bought it on Yellow Ticket at £15.40.

Behind The Shed

In preparation for the winter quarters of her potted plants Jackie has spent time tidying the greenhouse where she will now perch on her shower seat recently acquired from Efford Recycling Centre.

The area behind the adjacent garden shed had become a dumping ground for various artefacts no longer in use, for forgotten trays of bulbs such as tête-à-têtes, and for a now collapsed table, all standing on uneven ground harbouring twisting tree roots and prolific stinging nettles. Jackie has also cleared this, uprooting the nettles and having suffered a number of painful stings in the process.

Martin, this morning, opened up the area around the bay and holly trees by lopping branches in order to lift the canopies of these, thus revealing ornaments like dragons which have been obscured for a couple of years.

Between them our two proper gardeners have filled many more bags of refuse to add to those of mine.

Later I read more of ‘The People’s Act of Love’.

Giles had been admitted to Lymington Hospital following a fall last Wednesday. We therefore visited him early this evening. He is out of bed and mobile.

Afterwards we dined on Mr Pink’s first class fish and chips with baby plum tomatoes and cold baked beans, with which I drank more of the Cabernet Sauvignon.

Finishing Off (For Now)

Now that the fierce winds have eased off the day was warm enough for T-shirts and bees; although the autumn crocuses have taken a battering Rosa Siluetta Lavender, grateful for the rain, continues its rapid climb up the Weeping Birch trunk.

Jackie was able to clear the Cordyline leaves, brambles, and stinging nettles from behind the Australian tree this morning and leave them for me to bag up this afternoon,

along with a few clippings in a trug.

I filled five and a half bags then swept up the debris.

After drafting this I received a most helpful call from Natalie, one of the nurses in the Southampton General Hospital urology department. She was very friendly and clear in her explanation of the reason for, the procedure, the follow up and the after effects of the BCG vaccine installation, confirming that I would be sent a letter with relevant dates. Interestingly she had the results of my recent blood test which she told me was normal, and that the symptoms I have been continuing post-procedure are quite usual, clarifying why.

This evening we dined on spicy peri-peri chicken (milder than last time); Jackie’s colourful savoury rice; carrots, cauliflower, spinach, and broccoli, with which I drank more of the Cabernet Sauvignon.