CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE. REPEAT IF REQUIRED.
I forgot to mention yesterday that when I returned home I found that my cheque from Laithwaite’s had been delivered.
The Félicité Perpétue rose in the front garden has been sending thorny tentacles across the drive. This morning I restrained them with green wire.
Alongside the marguerites that accompany the rose,
a nasturtium trumpeted its presence.
Opposite, the clematis Mrs. N. Thompson and solanums
twine amongst the honeysuckle from which bees flit to and fro.
This new hollyhock is in bloom along the back drive.
In June 1981, I made a series of colour slides of gasometers. I scanned them this afternoon.
Here are sections of side views;
and one of a top.
There are glimpses of three in this image.
I cannot, for the life of me, remember where these were. Maybe the car wrecks could provide a pointer for anyone who may help identify them;
or maybe these snapdragons? Perhaps not.
The major problem for anyone attempting to assist is that these emblems of our industrial past may no longer exist.
This is what Wikipedia has to say about our gasometers: ‘A gas holder, sometimes called a gasometer, is a large container in which natural gas or town gas is stored near atmospheric pressure at ambient temperatures. The volume of the container follows the quantity of stored gas, with pressure coming from the weight of a movable cap. Typical volumes for large gasholders are about 50,000 cubic metres (1,800,000 cu ft), with 60 metres (200 ft) diameter structures.’
Today, there are very few left standing. The reason for this is described in this short video made by Tom Scott:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SopJr0yHt-w&w=560&h=315]
One iconic gasometer, protected, or, listed since earlier this year, is visible from The Oval cricket ground. I spent many a day in the summers of my teens watching the rise and fall of this famous cricketing symbol. Wikipedia provides this photograph.
For our dinner this evening, the Culinary Queen produced smoked haddock, piquant cauliflower cheese (recipe), new potatoes, crunchy carrots, and sautéed leeks and peppers. We both drank Marlborough Oyster Bay sauvignon blanc 2015. Needless to say, it was all delicious.