Two early mornings

The early morning walk regime continues, with the idea being to set off around 06:30 and to be back at the proper time for breakfast, around 08:15. On the Screwfix counter-clockwise, this takes me past Costcutter, with the option of a morning newspaper. Guardians or Observers are usually available at that time of day.

On the first day, the main event was returning a trolley to the near empty stack outside B&M and forgetting to remove my walking stick before locking my trolley into the stack. A locking which, on this occasion, unlike when there is a pound at stake, worked. Getting my walking stick out was like doing one of those Chinese wire puzzles where you have to separate the two pieces, but in this case I did manage it in the end. I wonder whether I would have bothered to go back later if I had failed? Would anyone have bothered to put the stick aside somewhere?

While the reason that I had picked up the trolley at all, from the middle of the Kokoro Passage, which I no longer visit on a regular basis, was the checking up on the builder's yard, late of Station Approach, noticed at reference 1.

Pushed on past the reliably open McDonald's, to the creationists' pad at East Street, where some kind of a leak was enough to make a glitter of water running down the gutter below. The leak seemed to be coming out of the pavement itself, rather than the cover to the left. My own shadow to the right.

Somewhere along the way, a new looking but small dustcart collecting food waste, from a company which looks as if started by collecting used cooking oil. Gemini soon fills me in, and visiting company website, I find lorries in the right livery, if not the particular lorry that I remember.

I dare say I could have got to the same place using old-style Bing or Google, but such searches could take a little time. Nothing like as easy as Gemini, who seems to be pretty good at turning your question into the right sort of search.

There was also a new looking but small lorry delivering for Olivier, the baker who operates out of Borough and Kingston markets, and, I dare say, others. I rather like his bread and usually buy some when I have the opportunity. But I was surprised that it was worth his while to be delivering, presumably to restaurants, pubs and cafés out in the suburbs. A good sign.

On second thoughts, having taken a more careful look at his website at reference 3, it is more likely that the van was delivering to his suburban market stalls - with any commercial sales being a bit more ad-hoc.

The things one gets to see by being up and about bright and early. Still a novelty. Going to and from work was not really the same: I suppose one was not relaxed enough to take much interest in one's surroundings.

And so on to the Screwfix whitebeam, scoffing a few blackberries to break my fast on the way. Rather an oddly coloured snap on this occasion, perhaps the result of the bright but low light.

And so on to the newish build house, by the stream and behind the electricity distribution box, noticed from time to time in the past. The garage left had appeared without my noticing it going up; presumably while we were on the other island. Maybe I should run a book on our road's WhatsApp group on when the drive will be finished?

I also wonder whether the new owner is yet in residence. I did meet him once and the talk on that occasion was of arrival and then, only yesterday, I saw what I took to be wife and daughter turning up. On the other hand, I have not yet seen any signs of dustbins in the road, let alone milk bottles at the door.

Then, this morning, I noticed that large chunks of the sunny side of what I take to be a small holm oak at the junction of Manor Green Road and Christchurch Roard were dying or dead.

The CrossFit people have cut back the brambles outside Epsom Autos to make way for their new sign. Fortunately, in the absence of some rain, I think we have already had the best of the berries.

More of the funny morning light. No doubt photographers know all about it.

The trolley, a summer 2025 trolley, was returned to the M&S porch, the store proper not then being open. In fact nothing was open at around 07:00 apart from McDonald's, and, by the time I got there, Costcutter. Signs of life at Gail's, but I don't think that they were actually open.

There were sign of life at Big Yellow Box, not in the form of actual workmen, but work did seem to be in progress. Including, what seemed to be cutting away around the roots of this small tree, which looked decidedly unhealthy up above. Failed on focus on this occasion.

The water leak, noticed above, looked to have been fixed. My money is on the blue and white connector, back right in the hole. Looking west in the snap above.

A new to me logo on a modest looking car off East Street, perhaps Victoria Place, on my way to the Screwfix passage. Carcheck says 'Abarth 595 Competizione', capable of 140mph, so perhaps not so modest. But never before heard of.

Google Images knew what it was too, without having the whole car to go on, offering the observations snapped above in response to a supplementary. Complete with show off exhaust noise!

The Russian vine, across the grass from the Screwfix whitebeam was looking a bit thin too, as if it too was suffering from the drought. Although, thinking with my fingers again, I dare central Russia is hot and dry enough in the summer.

Does First Line Recovery rise from the dead, after descending into administration? Or has the new owner of one of their fleet of recovery trucks not got around to blotting out all the original branding? Expensive business, if you want to do it neatly, as previously noticed.

Picked up an Observer from Costcutter. Confined indoors for so much of the time, we are consuming more print newspaper than usual. And I keep forgetting: the Observer is still quite a decent newspaper.

One of the gas holes in Manor Green Road. Did they damage a water pipe putting in the new gas main? Given the sizes of the pipes and of the holes, I would be surprised if they did not have little accidents from time to time.

Or was the mishap down to Thames Water, a little bit further along the road? Perhaps the gas people have the water people on call when they have a big job on and vice-versa.

A busy outing.

PS: and before that, there was a busy dream. I did not take notes when I first woke up, but it was very vivid in a pictorial way and I have retained no less than four episodes.

I was travelling from somewhere in south London to somewhere in north London, on the train, but getting in a muddle on the way. I thought it might be an idea to get a tube train, using a little used passageway to get onto the platform. This is a passageway which crops up in my dreams from time to time and this time it was rather more dark and dreary than usual. I arrived on a dark and deserted platform and it all looked a bit hopeless, but after a while a few more people joined me, and a while after that a train came along. All was well, after all, at least as far as that went.

I then found myself in Westminster, somewhere near the river, without much of a clue where the right station was. I end up wandering around, coming across all kinds of curious old buildings, steps and passages which I never knew existed. All very interesting. Finding the image above, which suits quite well, and which was turned up by Google, is  left as an exercise for the reader.

And then I was opposite Westminster Abbey. On the grass by the Abbey, a lot of posh people were taking tea and so forth. Maybe a spot of champers. The sort of people you might see going into the new stand up on Epsom Downs. Lots of fancy dress.

Then in the road next to the grass, there was some kind of street market. Unusual in some way that I now forget. 

But running along side of the road, mixed up with arches under railways, we had an outdoor sorting office for our once royal Mail. Clearly them, although the sorting seemed to be taking place in a series of stalls arranged along the wall. Some kind of a throw back, I suppose, to one Christmas, well over fifty years ago, when I put in a couple of week's of nights at the central sorting office then near St. Paul's. Complete with all-night canteen which served such delicacies as baked sheep's hearts. Jolly good they were too.

We then had a change of tack, and I was trying to reach BH on my mobile phone to explain that I was going to be late. Which was a nuisance for her as she was planning on some expedition with our two boys. Maybe she was going to get cross. But I got in a complete mess with the phone and was quite unable to get the telephone app up: I seemed to be lost inside some other app to do with mapping and I could not find the way out. A variation of another dream which I have from time to time, involving being lost inside a personal computer in the same sort of way - and failing to get to a command line which I understood.

At this point I woke up. Fairly quickly on this occasion, not taking many seconds to disengage from the dream. A process which sometimes seems to take lots of seconds. Maybe even minutes.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/07/dorking-road.html.

Reference 2: https://www.olleco.co.uk/.

Reference 3: https://www.oliviersbakery.com/.

Group search keys: 20260730, 20260802.

Identification

Just about a month ago, I had a bout with Google Images and his AI assistant (GI) about a small mystery plant, just inside our front garden wall. BH thought perhaps a goldenrod, perhaps a white Michaelmas daisy that she cut down. At that time, GI and I opted for Michaelmas dasiry. This was noticed at reference 1. 

This morning, despite the drought, the plant has put on some growth and is starting to come into flower. Time to try GI again. Logged in.

He confirms his first diagnosis. He picks up a bit more quickly on the red start to the midrib of the leaves this time around, but I do not think he has access to a transcript of our last conversation; no more than some general knowledge gleaned therefrom, perhaps stored away in my profile.

The odd finish to the leaves does not disturb things. And I am reasonably confident that he is adding value, not just agreeing with me.

The aster adjacent. I added the bit about Epsom as the conversation seemed a bit New England flavoured and I was not sure that he was picking up on my location.

GI's closing summary. Plus a spot of Gemini flavoured gush!

That aside, he is making me look at plants more carefully, and he may make a botanist of me yet. Even if I never do stretch to the jargon of the serious to be found in Bentham & Hooker. And it certainly helps to have the plants in question within reach; much more satisfactory than bringing the odd leaf or twig home from far away.

PS 1: just to round things off, the aster adjacent.

PS 2: a little later, I wondered why the New York aster, our Michaelmas daisy, was named in Latin for Belgium. Gemini explains that 'belgii' was the 17th Latin name for the Low Countries, which then included both what are now the Netherlands (to the north) and Belgium (to the south). So 'novi belgii' was entirely reasonable for a plant coming from what was then their North American colony. A more succinct version of which story I would have got from Wikipedia, had I bothered to look there first.

Yet another place with a complicated history. From the time when the France was the pushy power in western Europe. From where I associate to the depressing piece at reference 2, from today's Observer.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/07/michaelmas-daisies.html.

Reference 2: Water cannon diplomacy as Beijing moves further into Philippine waters: Tensions rise as China seeks to expand its claims, firing water cannon and ramming fishing boats in Philippine waters - Nga Pham, The Observer - 2026

Group search key: aigoodsk.

Roll call

A synopsis of our recent visit to the other island, that is to say, the Isle of Wight, once well-known to holiday makes for its fine weather and fine beaches - that is to say before the invention of package holidays in even hotter places.

I had thought that I could track down our various outings by consulting the PayByPhone - the (rather slow) telephone charging for car parks provider used by the council - on my credit card bill. But as it turns out, all that that says, in effect, is 'Isle of Wight', which is no help at all. No doubt a policeman could do better.

Given the more or less unbroken hot weather, we did not stray far, and generally stayed out of the sun in the middle of the day. From that point of view, having a cottage to go back to was a great improvement on a hotel, at least the sort of hotel that we can afford.

But to start with travel, contrary to my expectation, there was no long queue to get across Malden Rushett at 09:00 on the way out. Chessington World of Adventures had not taken it over. On the other hand, we did lose about an hour in road works at Guildford on the way back, managing to miss the turning into Guildford Cathedral along the way. We ended up taking our picnic in the comfort of our own kitchen instead.

On the way out, we took a break at the Queen Elizabeth Country Park of reference 4, quite near the Hambledon and Butser Hill of our younger days, noticed here from time to time. A useful pit-stop with all the usual facilities - other than petrol, although I dare say there was charging - and lots of healthy people, either with their bikes or their walking boots. We even came across one youngish lady walker, solo and foreign, with a large back pack, who may have told me that she did not have a tent, but just slept under a tree or something. Very brave of her: not something that I have done very often - if ever. Occasional barn yes, tree no.

As it turned out Ryde West and Ryde East (aka Puckpool) took a large chunk of our time. This because it had a long esplanade with a good supply of shade and of what we called bus shelters to sit in - plus various other facilities. Not least the fine beach. Puckpool scored with its shady car parking and fine cafe - offering quite decent line in things like bacon and eggs baps - even if the baps were not that clever. See references 1, 2 and 3.

In previous years we have made much heavier use of the fine beach at Yaverland, but this year we were defeated by the sun. Plus we don't swim any more. Notwithstanding, we did manage the one visit, as noticed at reference 5.

Baywatch is shorthand for the cafe at St. Helen's, a pleasant and airy place on a hot summer's morning. To be found at reference 6. We took coffee (for her), water (for him) and sweet scones, but there was a lot more to the place than that and I was amused this afternoon by the inclusion of an AI assistant on their website: very go-ahead and up-to-date of them. I dare say they get crowded later in the day.

Moving on, the gold star for food went to Tesco for its fine premium bloomers. Silver star to Brothers of Brading for their traditional fish and chips. Bronze star to the café at Yaverland for being an old-style beach café, untouched by foodies or television chefs.

Some of all this has been noticed already. More may well be noticed in the days to come - particularly if I continue to be marooned indoors, out of the sun!

PS: I was in error regarding the AI assistant at Baywatch. The assistant, by name Concierge, is a function of OpenTable, not the places to which OpenTable is connected to. But I thought his answer about the availability of Ventnor crab sandwiches was fair enough.

Gemini is a bit more fulsome. He goes on to tell me about wholesale fish markets on the mainland, and, in response to a supplementary, agrees with me that it might be a lot simpler for a fisherman to sell direct to a wholesaler, perhaps at auction, than mess about with selling bits and bobs to small eateries. My bet is that not many of these last want to bother with actual fishermen either: but I don't know and I don't suppose Gemini does either - although he may like to give the impression that he does. Unless, of course, I suggest that I am expecting a 'sit-on-the-fence' answer. He is often responsive to hints which are part of the question. 

PS 2: last night, having failed to find the adaptation of Thérèse Desqueyroux which we had watched earlier in the year and noticed more recently, Amazon Prime offered us instead a French/Belgian biopic about someone called Violette Leduc. Never before heard of, but someone who, after a long apprenticeship, found fame after the second world war. A rum bird, but we got through it in two sittings, helped along by subtitles and music which did not dominate in the way that it tends to in other Amazon offerings like 'Bosch'. Didn't involve BH continually having to turn the volume and down. Much more restful. However, I very much doubt if I will ever attempt any of her books, in either French or English. Far too French and avant garde for me. See reference 8.

I associated to Thyde Monnier, noticed at least three times in these pages. Probably because she too was an unusual writer from France, very much a contemporary.

But Gemini knows all. It seems that they moved in different circles in mostly different places and probably never met, despite the link through Simone de Beauvoir.

PS 3: the curious need to be careful: Blog search might be case blind but it is not accent blind.

PS 4: STOP PRESS: I have just learned that our new leader, otherwise anxious to be all things for all men, is not minded to be helpful about letting us off messy and unpleasant deaths. That is to say, he is against the assisted dying bill, certainly in its present form, and is not minded to be helpful. Which is disappointing, but not unexpected, given that he is a Catholic. He may also be close to Streeting, also against. An Anglican rather than a Catholic, but then our new Archbishop is against too. Perhaps they all think that taking the pain is good for our souls.

References

Reference 1: https://theoldbarracks.co.uk/. Gemini tells me that the 'f' top right is probably an error left behind by the software tool - Avada or something of that sort - used to b.uild the website. It might well have been intended as a link to the corresponding Facebook account, although the 'f' itself is more likely the first letter of something called 'Fusion social'. A story entirely consistent with my having seen these 'f's from time to time before.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puckpool_Battery.

Reference 3: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/07/scone-report.html. Previous notice of the Old Barracks.

Reference 4: https://www.hants.gov.uk/thingstodo/countryparks/qecp.

Reference 5: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/07/yaverland.html.

Reference 6: https://www.baywatchonthebeach.com/.

Reference 7: https://quarrabbey.org/.

Reference 8: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violette_Leduc.

Reference 9: https://www.dignityindying.org.uk/.

The missing tree of Meadway

This post is about a conversation I had with Google Images and his AI assistant, a conversation which took place when I was not logged in. Which may well have affected how much effort Google put into the conversation.

It was triggered by a dug-over patch appearing on a verge adjacent to the roundabout where Meadway crosses West Hill Avenue, snapped above, where BH thought that there had been a mature oak tree, a cause for concern for the occupant of the house behind.

I had no recollection of the tree in question, despite the fact that I usually pass the spot several times a week. Twice a day when I was still working, but that was twenty years ago.

The conversation was very like one with a human. That is to say rather disorganised and quite a few wrong turnings and mistakes.

Also like a television detective drama – say Morse – in which the detective concocts a plausible story around the few facts at his disposal. And sometimes the facts are not facts at all and he has to concoct a new story.

Long summary of the conversation

The conversation with Google Images and his AI assistant (G). It started on the morning of Tuesday, 28th July. In what follows, my inputs are normal text, while Googles replies are summarised as indents.

Round one

[A winter snap of the tree, lifted from Street View, without leaves. Such images are much lower resolution that those which come straight from my telephone, but still look clear enough to the naked eye. A cropped version of the snap above].

A road side tree near Clay Hill Green in Epsom. Said to be an oak but it does not look much like an oak to me.

• G offers three reasons why the tree look more like an ash than an oak

• He says that there are a lot of oak trees in Epsom, but there are plenty of others too. And this one is an ash.

Since the camera-man went by, the tree has been felled. If it was an ash tree, might this have been one of the two ash diseases which I believe are on their way?

• G tells me all about ash dieback (now) and emerald ash borer (to come)

• Epsom & Ewell Council know all about ash dieback

The tree does not appear on the map of ash trees - which looks as if someone has tried to enumerate every ash tree in the borough - in the appendix to the action plan. But I imagine there are going to be gaps in such an enumeration.

• G gives me various good reasons why this might be. One being that Epsom Borough does not do road-side trees, which are mostly a Surrey matter

I have my own ash tree, maybe thirty five years old with a fair bit of dead wood in its lower parts. But last time I sent a picture to the Forestry Commission, they said no problem. I shall take another, more careful look. 

• A digression. G gives various tips on diagnosing ash dieback.

How do I save this conversation for future reference? Copy and paste?

• Cut and paste is the way to do it. While Gemini, at least when you are paying, keeps the history for you. At least most of the time

Round two, a bit later in the afternoon

As it happens, from a different viewpoint, Street View offers a different, much more recent image, with leaves, and with no dead wood visible. Can I upload that without you losing the thread?

• Yes

The new image, dated October 2022. The first one was dated March 2018. 

• G changes tack with the new leafy image, a cropped version of that above. The tree is now an oak after all, specifically Quercus robur. This despite the leaves not being resolvable in the image from Street View. Low resolution compared, for example, with my telephone

• He goes on to put the now-missing tree on the edge of Clay Hill Green and the proposed Allonby development there

This is the sort of thing that the Epsom Civic Society would have taken an interest in. I have had a quick look, without success. Are you able to 'read' their website? 

• G says that he can, and goes on to tell me about their activities. With this particular tree being covered as part of their response to Allonby

This tree is on the roundabout at the junction of Meadway and West Hill Avenue. I think the development you are talking about was a bit further to the south, adjacent to Clay Hill Green itself, complete with listed wall.

• G says that this makes it a Surrey matter and is probably all mixed up with damage to utilities. In which case, the tree can be cut down with much less bother

• He points the Civic Society being concerned about the loss of roadside trees in this area

Round three, a bit later still in the afternoon

Going back to Allonby, following the link you gave, I read that the council rejected the application for development in January 2022. And I have yet to see any sign of action at the site. Just a bit of wall which fell down and has not yet been reinstated.

• G acknowledges his error, without attempting to explain how he came to make it. He then picks up on heritage walls

I am not that keen on preserving old walls. The council should have more important things to do with its money - and with ours!

• G is a happy to go along with anti-wall too!

THE END

Short summary of the conversation

During round one, G locks onto his identification of the tree as an ash tree. He is quite good on on ash dieback in general and on the Council’s response in particular.

At the start of round two, he switches to a specific species of oak.

I did not ask, but he does not comment on how you can sometimes get quite different views of the same thing in Street View. Although I can see that checking with Street View without a more precise location might have been difficult. 

But he does lock onto the Allonby development a little way down the road. When I point out his error, his changes tack without offering any explanation of how he came to make the error.

In the snap above, the tree can be seen to the right of the upper spot. The development was to be under the lower spot. 

 In this context, gmaps was much more useful than OS. Maybe they do satellite view too, but I have not found it.

In round three, I point out his error about the status of this development. He can put his hand on the relevant document and goes on to pick up on my throwaway about heritage walls. Again, without offering any explanation.

The parable of the countryman

I vaguely remember my father, who was brought up in the country between Huntingdon and St. Ives, telling me that a countryman could identify a tree, say an isolated hedgerow tree on the other side of the field, by its general shape and appearance. No need to inspect the leaves, let alone the buds, fruits or flowers, or for any of that fancy stuff that botanists go in for.

It occurs to me now that his countryman might not be so much cleverer than Google Images after all.

First, the countryman probably worked on a farm and probably knew all the trees on and around his farm. The general shape and appearance of the tree, winter or summer, was a help, an aide-memoire, but he could pull up the identification from a catalogue in his memory.

And yes, his brain had digested all this information and would have a stab at a strange tree, a very confident sounding stab. But how often would you actually check him? How often would this be convenient or possible? Maybe he actually got it wrong quite often.

So maybe, the botanists are right. You cannot be sure of a tree’s genus – never mind – species from its general appearance from a distance, any more than you can be sure of its age from its girth, let alone its height. These inputs just do not tell one enough about the tree’s unique life history. 

On a quick glance, for example, one is quite likely to call a pollard oak by a river a willow. Pollard willows being a conspicuous feature of the riverine landscape, certainly in Huntingdonshire.

Photographical aside: not much dead looking wood in the winter snap, which one might expect in a diseased ash. While in the summer snap, the tree looks rather bigger – and perfectly healthy. To be fair, it is also four years older.

Botanical aside, turned up by Bing: ‘Oaks are in the genus Quercus which is in the Beech family. There are more than 600 species worldwide. There are two native oaks in Britain, the English Oak and the Sessile Oak. Three more oaks are shown here but there are many more species in parks, urban settings or botanical gardens in Britain. These five species show many of the key characteristics of the oak genus. Oak tree identification – English, Sessile, Turkey have lobed leaves, Holm and Cork have evergreen leaves, all 5 have male catkins and acorns’.

Conclusions

G makes a positive error in his identification of the leafless tree. He is equally positive about the leafy tree. I have not done the necessary work to confirm his second attempt – although I dare it was an oak, if not necessarily the specific species suggested.

He jumps to conclusions about the location of the tree.

He gets the planning status of the Allonby development wrong, despite the right answer being readily available to him.

He was good on the working of the ash diseases, the Civic Society and the Councils. Matters which could be well dealt with in words, without needing to get into the tricky interactions between words and pictures.

Maybe he would have done better had I been logged in. But one of his lesser efforts, nonetheless.

PS: by way of contrast, he was able to put me right without fuss on working on two documents at once in Word today.

References

Reference 1: https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/land-planning-and-development/interactive-map. A clever map, but I did not find it helpful in this context.

Reference 2: https://www.treeguideuk.co.uk/oaks/. Helpful on distinguishing the various oaks commonly found in England.

Reference 3: https://www.epsom-ewell.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/residents/access-nature/trees-epsom-ewell/Ash%20Dieback%20Action%20Plan%202023%20%2B%20Map.pdf. Council on ash.

Group search key: aisk.

Thérèse

I have been reading the English version of Mauriac's four Thérèse stories, references 1 thru 4. The original prompt for this being coming across an adaptation of the first story on Prime Video (or was it BBC iPlayer?) last year, shortly before my excursion to west London. I may have another go at the French version in due course.

Previous notice having been given at references 7 and 8.

The stories are about the life and times of an unsuccessful lady poisoner, let off in the first instance, but who goes on to lead a messy life haunted by her crime. So the immediate prompt, arising from the second or the third of the four stories, was thinking about confessions, a subject which was clearly of interest to Mauriac, a devout Catholic. With the thought being that if one has had a sinful life and seek absolution through confession, what happens in the likely event of your forgetting some of your sins, not getting them onto the balance sheet, not getting them taken into account, in the jargon of our criminal justice  system?

Part of Copilot's unsolicited effort on the search term 'absolution for sins' is shown above.

Now suppose that I have committed seven crimes and I only confess to six of them. For one reason or another I cannot bring myself to confess the seventh.

I make a seemingly sincere and contrite confession of the six, and the priest grants absolution. Absolution, as it were, in the eyes of the world - Criminal Justice System aside. But God knows that I have, knowingly, not confessed all. This renders the sacrament null and void as far as he is concerned. I will still present at the Pearly Gates carrying the full burden of my seven sins.

Next suppose that I had just forgotten about the seventh; it was all a long time ago and it just got lost in the mists, possibly substance filled mists. Maybe God would make allowances.

Next suppose that I had failed to pay a parking fine during the same period that I committed my seven crimes. I had got off, but I had also confessed shortly afterwards. Does this break the rule that a confession covers all the sins since I last confessed. I can't bundle them up into packages to suit me and deal with them one at a time, perhaps going to a different priest on each occasion.

I suppose a psycho-analyst would take it all in his stride, the whole performance is part of the therapeutic process. And I suppose that most of them are atheists and so can, in large part, leave the Lord out of their ruminations. That said, I also believe it to be true that Freudian confessions were an easy step to make from Catholic ones. Harder for us Prots who are not brought up to that sort of thing.

The ramifications and complications seem to be without end. Maybe this is part of why to be a Catholic priest, you have to spend quality time at the seminary. Maybe attend lectures by learned Jesuits.

Something to ponder on on my morning rambles. At least so one might think, but I find, at least presently, that I do not ponder in a connected way when rambling. I might have the odd bright idea, the odd spark of inspiration, but most of the time I am not 'thinking' at all, certainly not in a way that could be put into words. Think Hurlburt, finding whom is left as an exercise for the reader.

PS 1: with thanks to eBay France for the illustration at the head of this post.

PS 2: given that I am an atheist for whom being forgiven by our Lord is a non-runner, I associated to the dancing angels which came up recently at reference 11. But I think that there is more to the matter than that. Confession to a priest is one thing, but confession in general is probably a good thing and if properly managed therapeutic for all concerned; for the criminal, his (in this case her) victims and their nearest and dearest.

References

Reference 1: Thérèse Desqueyroux - François Mauriac - 1927.

Reference 2: Thérèse chez le docteur- François Mauriac - 1933.

Reference 3: Thérèse à l'hȏtel- François Mauriac - 1933.

Reference 4: La fin de la nuit - François Mauriac - 1935.

Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Mauriac. François Mauriac.

Reference 6: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A9r%C3%A8se_Desqueyroux_(novel). Thérèse Desqueyroux.

Reference 7: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/10/french-affairs.html.

Reference 8: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/11/survival.html.

Reference 9: Oeuvres Romanesques – François Mauriac, Flammarion – 1965. Two fat volumes. Copy No.1920.

Reference 10: Thérèse – François Mauriac, Gerard Hopkins, Penguin – 1972. The four Thérèse stories.

Reference 11: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/07/more-davidson.html.

Dorking Road

My second circuit on return from the other island was a stroll up to Dorking Road and back, reasonably early in the morning and heat was not a big problem.

I could tell I was getting warm, as a few of the tabs they use when taking a cardiogram were to be found on the pavement, snapped above. Just the thing for small people to use to play at doctors, nurses and hospitals.

On the way back, I found that the bank fall, previously noticed at reference 3, was now home to some quite decent blackberries.

More of them, outside Epsom Autos.

Picking up two more washers for my collection along the way. I have still not solved the stink problem in the washer pot. Maybe I need to give them a good wash. Maybe, even, some sort of household hygiene chemical.

The rest of the day was given over to the compost bin, previously noticed. As was the good condition of the Carex pendula, snapped above. It seems to manage better than the grass, lower right, despite my notion that it is a sort of sedge which is quite keen on water too.

At reference 4, Wikipedia confirms sedge and adds: 'it occurs in woodland, scrubland, hedges and beside streams, preferring damp, heavy clay soils'.  Clay we can do, and damp we can do in the spring: maybe that is enough. 

That evening the matter of Mayonnaise vs. Salad Cream came up again. I use salad cream in chopped eggs, tuna fish and things of that sort, never in dollops on lettuce. While I do not care for mayonnaise at all. My attitude (for which see reference 5) is clear enough, but the reason why is not. Perhaps attitudes are accessible, robust cerebral structures, while the facts and events which drove those attitudes in the first place are further down, perhaps lost. From where I associate to the convenience of teaching a child that X is bad and Y is good, without having to bother about the reason why. The good and bad attributes stick, and that is good enough.

Curiously, given that I do not care for vinegar in many of the contexts in which it is used, the answer seems to be that salad cream is mainly vinegar, while mayonnaise is mainly oil, with dollops of egg and sugar. A much more unhealthy food.

Littré has the origin of the word 'mayonnaise' uncertain. OED just says the word is French of uncertain origin, although he does add that it arrived in this country in the mid 19th century. But I want more and go on to dig deeper.

Reference 6. Mayonnaise appears at No.3 in the section on sauces. Very much the ingredients above, but with the warning that mixing the stuff by hand is quite tricky. A warning with BH confirms, although I have no idea when she might have made the stuff. Not on my watch!

I failed to find anything like salad cream. Perhaps because the book is not strong on green salads made with lettuce. At least, I failed to find them.

Aside, Gemini explains that 'Mariette' is the name given to a series of food columnists writing for a popular women's magazine, the 'parent publication, the famous women's magazine Le Petit Écho de la Mode'. All part of a successful branding operation. A story which fits well enough with a quick peek at reference 7.

Reference 9. A whole chapter on salad dressings, with French dressings and Mayonnaises both prominent. Lots of variations. The French dressings contain vinegar as well as oil, but not as much oil as our Salad Cream. While the Mayonnaises are variations on the Sainsbury's theme.

There are also some salad creams - but these involve milk or cream and rather less vinegar. Maybe the ancestor of the stuff invented by Heinz?

Gemini explains all. The Anglos first moved from mayonnaise to boiled dressings and from there to the bottled, factory product that I go for. I associate to all those people who prefer Bird's Custard to the real thing. And all those who have no idea what the real thing is... I suppose that bottled mayonnaise came later, when food science had moved on a bit.

And I have learned the Heinz arrived in this country, at Fortum & Mason, before the start of the First War. While I had thought that they were a more or less exclusively US operation until much more recently.

Reference 10. I found salad dressings near the end of the section on cold dishes and appetizers. Starting with mayonnaise and ending with vinegar and oil dressing - this last very much the sort of thing that a former correspondent used to put on his green salads. Too vinegary for me. Some cold sauces involving dairy. But nothing much like our salad cream, perhaps because that is a factory product, designed to mimic  something else.

Maybe it will stick now.

PS 1: earlier in the month, at reference 1, I noticed signs of the builder's yard on Station Approach being dismantled. At that time, I thought it might have been there twenty years. But then, yesterday afternoon, in the margins of something else, I came across reference 2, from which I learn that it has been there about five years. So there.

Checking this morning, I find that it has all gone. And the site has cleaned up pretty well after five years' wear and tear.

PS 2: I decided not to investigate what this advertisement, which turned up in my email, is all about.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/07/wigmore-last.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/12/art-from-more-than-one-country.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-end-of-month.html. A post that took some finding, not least because I was not quite sure in which volume of the archive to look. Eventually turned up on the key 'timber'.

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carex_pendula.

Reference 5: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/07/more-davidson.html.

Reference 6: La cuisine familiale - Mariette, Montsouris - 1923, 1969.

Reference 7: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Petit_%C3%89cho_de_la_mode.

Reference 8: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/2016/01/truffes.html. Previous notice, with picture, from way back.

Reference 9: The Boston Cooking School cook book - Fannie Merritt Farmer - 1896, 1931.

Reference 10: Book of tasty and healthy food - Ministry of the Food Industry, USSR - 1939, 2012.

Group search key: 20260720.

Adgestone

As trailed at reference 1, we paid the vineyard to be found at reference 2 a visit in the course of our second week on the Isle of Wight. One of our very few visits to a visitor attraction of the holiday.

OS shows that the vineyard is near the bottom of Brading Down, on a south facing slope. While gmaps suggests that it was once just one large field, with the modest winery buildings bottom centre. Very artisanal, much more so than our own Denbies, of reference 3 - which last gets just the occasional visit - it being more use to us as a pit-stop than as a wine-shop. But they share a desire to attract paying guests.

The view from the car park, with cows. I suppose cows can make something of dried out stubble, but I don't suppose that it is much.

One of their contributions to a local carnival. Someone must have put a fair amount of work into them, one supposes a someone with ready access to the necessary materials and tools. Would get a bit expensive otherwise.

At the check-in we were greeted by a very personable young lady, perhaps a daughter of the house, who seemed to be something of a jack-of-all-trades front of house. All very friendly and relaxed.

A type of bar stool which I first came across in Great Windmill Street, at which I used, a long time ago, to take an occasional Jamaican cigar of a lunch-time.

And so onto the grapes. BH was fortified with a little audio guide which played into ear plugs. Which, as I recall, worked well on top of the ear pieces of her hearing aids. About the size of a telephone, only rather fatter.

The echium enclosure. Not in the same league as the ones at Ventnor, but probably on the way. See, for example, reference 4. For the plant, which only lives for two or three years, despite its woody trunk and size - these specimens being much smaller than the ones at Ventnor - see reference 8.

The arrangements for getting tension in the line wires. I wondered how deep the peg lower left, underneath the bit of blue pipe, was driven. Did it have a corkscrew thread? No-one about to ask.

A spider's nest with blackberries, yet to ripen. I think the spider was at home, but I can't find him in the snap this afternoon. 

Google Images suggests that there may have been two spiders at this point, with the male expiring or being expelled before eggs start to appear late summer. Ought to be easy enough to check.

No doubt about there being chalk here. I failed, once again, to find any pyramid orchids. Previous failures yet to be noticed.

Looking south east from the top of the field. A thoughtfully placed bench in the shade.

A grape pickers' box stash. Hidden away, a bit out of the plastic-rotting sun?

A bit of expensive looking boundary fencing. We were told protection against rabbits and foxes, rather than deer.

Google Images says common chicory (aka Cichorium intybus). Which pretty much agrees with what I find in Wikipedia at reference 5, particularly in the helpful botanical drawing. I think I see the hairy stems and Google Images is not bothered by the absence of the larger toothed leaves, which he says are buried, withered or died away.

I think he is right, but it is a pity that I did not manage a better snap for identification purposes.

The visit closed with an unsupervised visit to the vats and bottles in the cellar: I can't imagine such a thing happening in Denbies, or, for that matter, in the Neal's Yard Dairy cheese room underneath the arches at Bermondsey.

The wire cages must be stronger than they look, carrying, as they do, considerable weight.

A detail.

The brain.

Gemini's take fits what I saw. No reason to doubt him on this occasion.

And so onto the Roman Villa for a light lunch. We had thought it too early and too hot for the wine tasting offered - although we did visit the shop. But a pleasant and relaxed visit: just the thing for a hot morning.

PS 1: I don't recognise much of Great Windmill Street in Street View today, and a bit of digging suggests that the Red Lion that I knew, some time after the snap above was taken, has been rather clumsily rebranded as a Be-At-One. From my time, I remember a steady trickle of girls, possibly Thai girls, making their way upstairs. The landlord might have been from what was then Yugoslavia. And before that there was the once famous Nosh Bar, a little way down the street: famous for its salt beef, the like of which I have never had since. The salt beef at the fake caff at Selfridges comes nowhere near. The real caff, as I recall, was decorated with arty, signed, black-and-white shots of boxers and other entertainers.

PS 2: today is, hopefully, the crest of the current wave. 93°F in the roof of our garage, or 34°C in new-speak. Comfortably beating the 87°F I recorded in the second half of June. I have not ventured out of doors since I got back from s Screwfix circuit at around 08:00. Quite hot enough then.

It seemed much cooler by 21:00, and I did not believe BH's telephone which said that it was still 27°C, which I think of as pretty hot. I then visited the garage again, where it said 86°F, that is to say 30°C. My telephone by then said 26°C, that is to say 79°F. To be fair, my reading was just under the flat roof of a shut garage. Hot air rising and all that.

Maybe it is not just temperature control that goes AWOL as one gets older, but also temperature sensing.

PS 3: 19:30: for the first time in maybe a year, I have just taken my Trek road bike up and down the road. The tyres had held their pressure, so all I had to do was tighten up the back brake, add a spot of oil to the the chain & cassette and off. All seemed well, except that something was wrong with the front wheel. It did not look buckled, but something was not right. 

• Option 1: put the bike in for a full service somewhere? What might I have to pay for that? 
• Option 2: buy a new front wheel and hope for the best. 
• Option 3: having regard to reference 6, buy two new tyres and tubes.

I have failed to work out when I stopped using the Trek in a regular way. There was confirmed usage in 2020, as noticed at reference 6. Then there was heavy use during the plague, with the more or less daily Jubilee Way run. Confirmed usage in 2022. I look to have been on the trolleys, that is to say walking rather than riding, by 2024. But there seems to be a gap in the record for 2023.

Notwithstanding, I don't think trekking ever really recovered after my exit at reference 7, at the end of 2023, although I remained connected to the Bullingdons.

So I think that the best that I can do is that regular trekking more or less stopped sometime during 2023, some three years ago. 

Certainly, the ancient Karrimor saddle bags are looking a bit tired and the zips are very stiff, possibly to the point of breaking points. The elastic ties which attach the bottoms of the bags to their frame are perished -  something of a weak point in otherwise well made articles. I took the bags off for the purposes of the test drive. 

I already had them when we were living in Norwich, and while I can't remember what bike I was riding at that point, possibly a Dawes, I must have kept the bags and carried them forward.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/07/scone-report.html. The present excursion being the trigger for the deer story to be found here.

Reference 2: https://www.adgestonevineyard.co.uk/.

Reference 3: https://www.denbies.co.uk/.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/08/ventnor.html. A hot day in 2023.

Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicory.

Reference 6: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/08/maintenance-time.html. Back wheel problems.

Reference 7: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/12/exit-portal.html.

Reference 8: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echium_pininana.

Reference 9: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/06/blue-maid.html. I got back on the Bullingdons a month ago, but have been put off since both by the heat and by the idea of travelling in hot trains.