1. Write thank you letter to Alistair for inviting me to the Hotel Chocolat last week. Here’s the bar of chocolate I made. Looks like a dog mess but I won’t stress that in my letter.
2. Write thank you letter to Alan for Sunday lunch at Holborn Dining Room. V good steak and kidney pudding.
3. Sort out dates and logistics for a walk up-river with Ian in the autumn.
4. Write speech to be delivered after lunch next month. This has been preying on my mind since August last year.
5. Update PG Wodehouse Society website. The home page is, bafflingly titled “What” and signs off with a single “pip”. Details about the Emsworth Museum need to be added. It has curious opening hours.
6. Update A Dash of Wooster Sauce on PGW website.
7. Check in and print boarding passes for upcoming trip that encompasses my birthday.
8. Book flights, trains and hotels for upcoming trip that encompasses Robert’s birthday.
9. Put pheromone moth trap out to monitor attendance of Cydalima perspectalis that destroys the box hedge in the back garden.
10. Collect something that requires a signature from the Post Office.
I went back to the London Wetland Centre yesterday morning with my ornithologically-orientated cousin, Caroline. Here is a list (from their website) of what we didn’t see.
Fungi: a small selection of winter fungi on show – Purple Jellydisc, Birch Woodwart, Candlesnuff Fungus, Silverleaf Fungus, Wet Rot, King Alfred’s Cakes, Dead Man’s Fingers, Hazel Woodwart, Witches’ Butter, Yellow Brain, Jelly Ear, Dead Moll’s Fingers, Crystal Brain, Willow Bark-spot, Jelly Rot, Bitter Oysterling, Common Bonnet, Velvet shank.
We did see a lotta birds and Caroline did some good talking to the people in the hides. I was really only up to speed on snipe, common and Jack, and woodcock due to familiarity with shooting them – a subject to be avoided . If you see on TV an interview about the Lottery Heritage programme you might notice C and me in the background. If I may nominate my most despised words they are lottery, heritage and social media which is what you will hear on that prog.
If I had thought of it I’d have called this website Crystal Brain. Reader HH will suggest Jelly Rot. While you’re out looking for snipe all you find is sugar.
Perhaps ‘Crystal Brain’ may be used to describe a common condition: bloggers block. The publication of trivial, mundane lists is surely a symptomatic sign of forlornness, viz ‘Ten things to do’ (before you die?). It begs the question what may follow- the publication of the authors Christmas card list, or his shopping list for Waitrose? Jelly rot, wet rot or just pure tommyrot?