1. Periwinkle, planted in 1984, seems indestructible. It has spent months buried under building materials over the years and gets trampled on by me and the bin men.
2. The beauty parlour at Barons Court station is still vacant. The chemist is having a make-over.
3. There is a planning application for a flower stall outside the tube station.
4. I have accounted for seven mice. There has been no activity but three traps are set. On the advice of a reader two are new plastic ones that are easier to set. They are baited with chocolate.
5. Two new feeders bought at the Wetland Centre have not had any takers yet. The one with a yellow perch is filled with niger seed for goldfinches. Honeysuckle is coming into leaf in the background.
6. The barrage at Richmond Lock was raised when I walked past on Thursday afternoon. Each of the three steel sluice gates suspended from the footbridge weighs 32 tonnes and is 66 feet wide and 22 feet high. There doesn’t seem enough room to hide them under the bridge. They are only raised at high water.
7. Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs, gave a short speech at a Conservative Party fund raising drinks party near Parsons Green on Thursday evening. He radiated optimism and there were no difficult questions afterwards. The local Conservative Association straddles two constituencies; Chelsea and Fulham, and Hammersmith. The party was in the former where Greg Hands (Conservative) is MP. I live in Hammersmith where the incumbent is Andy Slaughter (Labour) but this will change when the constituency boundaries change later this year. Then Fulham will lose its fashionable Chelsea appellation and throw in its lots with Hammersmith that will lose Acton. It means that after the next Election I will probably have a Conservative MP, surely something that will be life enhancing and I can rejoice in?. There was a raffle – here’s what I won.
8. There are some green shoots along the towpath but snow is expected today.
10. In a confusing world I’m adopting the name of this houseboat as my leitmotif and inspiration. Not my idea – thank you R R-W.
When I viewed today’s introductory image I expected to find some lesser clover amongst the foliage (considering the day that’s in it).
Regarding the vermin (point iv. mice, not point vii. politicians) they must be consuming something if not the chocolate. Mice can also chew through electrical cables, with obvious dangerous consequences (for the home owner, not the mice). Have you tried the sonic rodent repeller? My basement has been rodent free since its deployment.
Should the author find himself inclined to take to the water, he may consider naming his dinghy in accordance with his methods: ‘UNORTHO-DOCKS’.
I caught another mouse last night (no. 8) – cold weather driving them indoors? Your advice re using modern plastic traps baited with chocolate has been so effective that I have ordered a PestBye® Long Life Battery Operated Sonic Rat and Mouse Repellent. Is there anything you cannot buy on Amazon?
Items 4,7 and 10
Much to our dismay California ratus N ( Palo Alto pews)dislike almond butter and prefer the cheapest peanut butter available. Our handyman nails down the attic traps in winter so that the roof commandos are the first to go .
Gavi a great favorite and a bit of a cult wine here a few years ago. Terroir descriptions ran the usual gamut but “Piedmontese gravel bordering on Ligurian stringency ” one of my favorites.
“Avanti ” was used by a great friend out mine the late David
Koephli. He was a regular at Harrys Bar Venice and Avanti Savoia was often solemnly proclaimed over martinis. His source for the battle cry probably Tennessee Williams.
Avanti
In response to your last question – non multum, but I would counsel against consistently shopping online. Amazon began as a rather humble online bookstore, now it has a global retail strategy. Consider the numerous independent shopkeepers who have been obliterated in the process. To ensure the preservation of variety on the streetscape I still frequent my local butcher, baker, hardware store, and draper and, although I have to reluctantly make some online purchases (particularly of books, as my local independent shop has closed) I much prefer bricks over clicks.
May I implore the author (and his followers) to go and do likewise.