More trivia

The camassia is shooting well in its pot, in its sheltered corner of the patio. Hopefully it won't be knocked back by a late frost. I dare say that eventually it will become pot-bound, but I think we have a way to go yet.

Will we try eating the bulbs when that day comes? See reference 1.

I guess some kind of borage, sporting handsome, creamy-white flowers, somewhere near Screwfix. I have subsequently seen the blue flowers of its relative, green alkanet.

This snap, however, quite fails to capture the striking creamy-white. Maybe it was the real world lighting which did it for me.

Followed by a tired but decent trolley from Sainsbury's in Blenheim Road. Not captured.

Followed by the first cow parsley of the year, by the stream running down Longmead Road.

Followed by a curious plant growing at the foot of a wall, distinguished by brown spots in the middle of the leaves.

Google was clear enough about what it was, that is to say spotted burclover, aka Medicago arabica, aka spotted medick.

And on closer inspection, the leaves are indeed in triples. Confirmed sighting. Odd that I have never noticed this distinctive plant before.

Furthermore, pedantically, the petioles attach to the apex of the hearts, rather than to the cleavage, in the way of cyclamen, right in the snap above, as I had first thought.

Out again the next morning, to come across this fine new sign for the Rainbow Centre, a place we have only very rarely used since the original swimming pool was made over. The second new sign which has slipped in without my having noticed. See reference 3 for the first.

Checking with gmaps, not yet updated, I find that the change is not as big as I had at first thought. The framework is the same but the signs inside have changed.

Hopefully, they have also lost the irritating chap being massaged at the bottom, which would be no loss at all. Can't tell from my snap, taken from the wrong side.

The Screwfix whitebeam.

Later on, out to take another look at the putative cork oak of reference 5, with the snap above adding the arrangement of the leaves on the stem.

Non inconsistent with Köhler's illustration at reference 6.

Leaves, front and back, with centimetre scale.

Google Images first effort conflated the length of the scale with the length of the the leaves, thinking that these last were of the order of 15cm long. It went for jack fruit, despite my mentioning corky bark and cork oaks. Furthermore, the bark of the jack fruit tree is described as smooth at reference 4. And you can buy chunks of the fruit itself from Borough Market. Rather dear as I recall and I have not been sufficiently tempted to give it a try. Tropical.

His second effort was still not very happy about cork oak. Nothing like as quick to take a hint as his friend Gemini, who is all too ready so to do.

Some support from Google himself, apart from the leaves bottom left which seem to have got into the wrong heap.

In sum, not much further ahead. Perhaps I am going to have to wait until there is some fresh growth.

PS: interested to read this afternoon at reference 7 that gmaps is having a major makeover. As far as I can see, the makeover is all about competing in the navigation aids marketplace, with lashings of voice and Gemini added to the mix. Nothing to do with upgrading the maps themselves, which is what would interest me.

References

Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camassia.

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

Reference 3: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/03/charity.html.

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

Reference 5: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/03/cork.html.

Reference 6: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quercus_suber.

Reference 7: Google Maps is set for a huge overhaul - Michael Liedtke, Independent, MSN - 2026.

Group search keys: 20260306, 20260307.