Month: November 2024

A Collection Cull

With close to 58,000 photographs in my iMac Photo collection, and thousands more in colour slides and negative format from 1942 to 2012, today I grasped the nettle and began a long overdue cull.

Survivors include me in 1942 and my Dad and me in 1943 produced by my maternal grandfather in Leicester where I was born;

this was taken by a crane driver with whom I conversed in Soho Square Gardens, featured in: https://derrickjknight.com/2012/10/17/meandering-through-soho/

Sam, Holly, Malachi and Orlaith visited us at Minstead on https://derrickjknight.com/2013/03/13/a-hunting-we-will-go/ One of the pictures on that post was produced by Malachi;

this car sent up spray in Minstead on https://derrickjknight.com/2013/03/18/6868/

this was the view of Hampshire fields from the plane on 17th April 2013 when I was returning from Sigoules where https://derrickjknight.com/2013/04/17/she-snatched-my-wallet/

I wasn’t quite so high up when I photographed this scene outside Waterloo Station. It is contained in

https://derrickjknight.com/2013/04/23/taking-a-hint/ – this Pastel Painter in St James’s Park gave me the title of the post;

Jackie bought this hydrangea in Romsey Market on 27th April 2013, https://derrickjknight.com/2013/04/27/just-to-wind-me-up/

this horse drawn cart rounded Minstead in https://derrickjknight.com/2013/04/29/the-benefits-of-hearing/

The total of my digital images has been reduced to 57,343, but perhaps that is enough links for now for anyone who wishes to delve into the archives.

Meanwhile Jackie is continuing with her cull of the shrubs on the Front Drive.

Later, I began reading ‘The Heart of the Family’ by Elizabeth Goudge.

This evening we enjoyed the second shepherd’s pie Jackie had made yesterday, with similar vegetables.

The Last Two

‘The Dream’ and ‘Greenshaw’s Folly’ are the last two of the Entrées in the Crime Club Choice selection of Agatha Christie’s 1973 stories in ‘The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding’.

The Author’s two most popular sleuths, Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple are therefore linked – one following the other among the pages. Each murder also involves the deception of fabricating a false identity exposed in the first case by the Belgian Detective, and in the second by a dear elderly aunt.

The Dream is a recurring nightmare related to Poirot by Benedict Farley and seemingly predicting his demise. The detective was flummoxed. “He was puzzled. His busy mind was going over and over the story he had been told. Yet in the midst of his mental preoccupation, a nagging sense of something wrong obtruded itself. And that something had to do with himself – not with Benedict Farley.”

“That dream was very important” said Poirot, who was told “If we hadn’t got your word for it….” the implication would have been “that [Mr Farley] had committed suicide.

Greenshaw’s Folly opens with a typically engaging sequence catching the reader’s interest:

“The two men rounded the corner of the shrubbery.

” “Well, there you are,” said Raymond West. “That’s it.”

“Horace Bindler took a deep, appreciative breath.

” “But my dear,” he cried, “how wonderful.” His voice rose in a high screech of aesthetic delight, then deepened in reverent awe…….”

Folly itself is a double entendre in that it refers to the remarkable building, about which “One wonders how he ever got hold of an architect to carry out these ideas.” and to his own unfortunate activity.

“with her mouth pursed up very prunes and prisms” displays both the author’s partiality for alliteration and her liking for humorous description.

Possibly the first reader of this book, to use as a bookmark, tore the corner off a page of the Daily Telegraph a few days after this library copy entered circulation. We can also see from the line of text above the use that Miss Marple makes of her memory of someone from her past to inform her about likely traits of those she currently contemplates.

This reminds me of the story of Crocker’s Folly which I once frequented that features in

A Screwdriver Comes In Handy

Referring to ‘The Dream’ above the Marylebone mistake also involved suicide.

Traditionally roast lamb leftovers were minced up on Monday to provide the meat for shepherd’s pie, so it was appropriate that Jackie added to bought mince the leftovers from the recent roast lamb we had enjoyed with Louisa for tonight’s meal which also included pure white cauliflower, orange carrots, and green beans, with which I finished the pinotage.

More On The Front Drive

Today Jackie spent two more long sessions on clearing the east side

of the Front Drive; the first in the morning, taking her about half way;

the second after lunch, taming a stretch of rose Félicité Perpétue.

I rendered minimal assistance in chopping and bagging some of the clippings.

This morning I had posted

Four-And-Twenty Blackbirds

This evening we dined on a rack of pork spare ribs in barbecue sauce with Jackie’s savoury rice and melange of onions, mushrooms, runner and broad beans flavoured with oregano and basil. I drank South African Coastal Region Pinotage 2022

Four-And-Twenty Blackbirds

The twist in this, the fourth story in the Crime Club Choice selection is that Hercule Poirot appears to anticipate a murder – all on account of a blackberry pie reminiscent of the Four-and-Twenty blackbirds in the “Sing a Song of Sixpence” English nursery rhyme that inspired Agatha Christie to write the piece.

The regular waitress of the Gallant Endeavour at which the Belgian Detective dined one day with his friend Bonnington, shared the friend’s impression that men, like me, rarely change their meals in their favourite restaurants, so, when she told these two men that ‘Old Father Time’ had suddenly done so, and what is more, deviated from one of his normal two particular days a week over ten years, this piqued Poirot’s interest.

We were kept waiting and wondering how Hercule could have predicted the crime, the victim, and the perpetrator, until he confronted the killer with definite proof.

“They nodded to each other, swaying about, hanging on to adjacent straps. Then at Piccadilly Circus there was a general exodus……” is just one example of Dame Agatha’s descriptive encapsulation of location as she presents the two friends travelling in a crowded tube train.

Clearing Front Drive

Jackie has spent some time each day recently clearing the rather overgrown front drive. On another oppressively slate grey day she came to the end of the task.

Much of the solanum, roses, and honeysuckle trellis has been cut back; as have

shrubs on the other side, and the euphorbia by the front door cut down. The mossy soil is now mulch around roses.

I filled four more spent compost bags ready to add to the next dump collection pile;

Jackie then swept everything,

including these channels previously full of soil and weeds now replaced by gravel.

Later I read ‘Four-and-Twenty Blackbirds’ by Agatha Christie which I will feature tomorrow.

This evening we dined on Southern fried chicken; savoury vegetable rice; oregano and basil flavoured melange from yesterday, with which I finished the Morgon.

Which Season?

The side effects of my BCG procedure have subsided today, and squirrels and moles have ceased burrowing.

When I returned from wandering around the garden with my camera on this shirtsleeves-mild-slate-grey-air morning listening to the

trickling of the Waterboy, I found that unless I culled my 57 pictures I would be in danger of flooding my readers, so I managed to reduce the offerings to forty.

Having neglected to water the nasturtiums in front of the garage trellis we thought they had died.

New growth is now flourishing. Will we see them Bloom?

The last of the smaller crab apples seen in this image alongside fuchsia Delta’s Sarah have been abandoned by the wood pigeons,

and blackbirds are moving on to the larger red ones.

Other fuchsias such as Army Nurse continue to adorn the shrubberies.

Busy lizzies and erigerons alongside each other drape the patio’s low wooden wall.

Violas are potted everywhere.

Some can be seen alongside cyclamen beyond the stumpery ferns.

Such as these nerines and this lace cap hydrangea brighten beds.

Dahlias we would of course expect at this time of year;

But maybe not so many pelargoniums and geraniums.

This viburnum and our numerous bergenias are also in season,

but solanum sharing a perch above a dead trunk is perhaps surprising at this time.

Leaves from the copper beech flitter rustling down to

the Rose Garden,

to nestle among seedlings of forget-me-nots, campanulas and aquilegias and rose petals,

many of which have yet to bloom or to fall. As usual all these images are labelled in the gallery.

in closing with this blue geranium, orange and yellow bidens and mauve petunias I have to acknowledge that I have no idea which season we are experiencing.

This evening we dined on chicken Kiev; boiled potatoes, spinach, carrots; cauliflower and leek cheese; and a melange of onions, tomatoes, runner and broad beans, and mushrooms flavoured so well with oregano and basil as to make the delicious smell match the taste. I drank more of the Morgon.

Animal Repellent

For lunch today we joined Helen, Bill, Shelly, and Ron at Camellia Restaurant in Everton Nursery. My choice was beef steak casserole with plentiful vegetables. I drank water.

In order to combat the suspect squirrel Jackie has purchased and installed a solar powered Motion Activated Animal Repellent that emits a high-frequency sound which small animals do not like but is inaudible to humans.

It does seem to have proved effective in deterring the squirrel.

She has also been clearing the mole’s ejected soil from between the stones of the footpath through the Weeping Birch Bed. This has been a daily task. We will see how successful this morning’s effort has been tomorrow.

This evening we dined on gammon sandwiches and tomato salad.