The Good
A couple of weeks ago, Nancy in
Charlotte left a comment about Primula eliator – Oxslip – which
she has planted and is hoping will be happy in her neck of the woods.
We both hope this works for you, Nancy, as it is a lovely plant and
just as quintessentially English as its cousin, Cowslip, as is
demonstrated by this quote from Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s
Dream.
“I know a bank
whereon the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and
the nodding violet grows,
Quite
over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet
musk-roses and with eglatine.”
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| Cowslip or Primula vulgaris |
I’m not sure which musk-rose
Shakespeare had in mind but I assume not the Rosa moschata (which I
understand is a native of the Himalayas and unlikely to be common in
England in the late 1500’s) although he would probably recognise
Rosa rubinosa as his Eglatine. Any thoughts, Nancy?
The Bad
Anyway, enough of that. We have moved.
That part wasn’t too bad but having arrived we started to hit the
usual IT problems that seem to beset us whenever we do anything
unusual on the computer front. This time, of course, it was a
transfer from one ISP to another and so I called in a chap called
Richard Bravo to help us out. In the old days I would probably have
struggled on until I found some sort of resolution but life is too
short so I thought we needed a bit of proper expertise for once. I’m
glad I did as I would not have solved this one. It seems that the
house is so built that the wi-fi signal from the hub cannot penetrate
properly into my study. This is, as I have now learned, easily
solved: use the house ring main as an ethernet connection. There, now
you know (but my guess is that it will mean as little to you as it
does to me).
Meanwhile, I have been having problems
with my PC which has been infected by various odd programmes I don’t
want which has slowed it up to the point where some things are quite
painful. Richard took it away and carried out some clever first aid
and all seems to be well again.
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The grass covered car – again.
These
pictures were sent to me by Ros Foreman with the following comment.
“Photos attached of another artificial grass covered car taken
during the Iford Butterfly day event in 2012. It was parked in a
field being used as a car park and was almost camouflaged against the
real grass.”
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The Ugly
Another Richard, with the help of Nick
and Dean, moved us. These guys are not beautiful but they’re
wonderful which, in the circumstances, is far more important.
Moving can be extremely stressful but
this trio made it pretty much stress-free. We were so lucky with the
weather. It was wonderfully sunny but the fine spell broke on
Thursday so the “window” was quite short. Anyway, all the boxes
are now unpacked in the house even though there is still a fair bit
to be done in the office. That doesn't really matter, all the
urgent and important stuff is to hand and the rest can be done
gradually over a couple of months.
The main downside this time is that I
have put on weight. This is because we have been spoiling ourselves
and eating out (mainly in The Cott Inn) most lunchtimes. Time to cut
down.
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| Taken at lunchtime to-day: one of the hanging baskets now adorning the walls of the old Cott Inn. |
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We do not know what this chap is
called. He was wandering around Totnes market with a lead over his
shoulder but I couldn’t work out to whom he belonged. He was
obviously on very friendly terms with a number of people, traders and
customers, but clearly none of these were his owner. In the end, I
ran out of time (or, to be more accurate, the parking ticket on the
car had) so he has remained nameless.
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