Wisteria

The white wisteria of Victoria place was doing well a week or so ago, on a mid-morning circuit. I remember that at one time the various creepers had got to the eaves above, but were, one fine, day, vigorously cut back.

More creeper as I approached the Screwfix underpass, spreading nicely over the chain link fencing. My guess was some sort of  bryony. This morning, Google Images agrees with me:

'The plant in the image is White Bryony (Bryonia dioica), a common perennial climber native to England and frequently found in southern regions like Epsom. It is a member of the cucumber (Cucurbitaceae) family and is known for its fast growth, climbing up to 4 meters in a single season using coiled tendrils...'

I learn that all parts are very toxic.

Oddly, while he mentions the five lobed leaves, he does not mention the five petalled flowers. Although he does mention the rough texture of the leaves and the green stipes of the flowers.

Broadly confirmed by Bentham and Hooker, who, inter alia, go into a lot more detail about the flowers. This one, I think, is a male flower. Have to take both book and magnifying glass on my next outing.

Not to be confused with the black bryony, a relative of the yam and quite different.

A bit further on, the whitebeam was looking well.

While nearer home, I came across a vintage gate. Which, despite passing it most days, I have not noticed for a while, if ever. Could it be as old as the house, which would make it getting on for a hundred years old? It seems a bit unlikely.

While back home, on our back patio, the distinctive yellow flowers have reappeared, in among the debris of various other stuff, including, presumably, what is left of the jelly lichen. Google Images says Creeping Woodsorrel (Oxalis corniculata), which is what he said last summer, as recorded towards the end of reference 1.

This morning has been busy too.

In connection with reference 2, last noticed at reference 3, I had been worrying about where I had come across something like social constructivism before, quite recently, albeit not under that name. I, with some help from Gemini, have now run it down to the Zafimaniry of Madagascar and the Bloch paper of reference 5. What I was doing there will be revealed in due course.

I have also resolved a muddle about whether Madagascar was populated from Africa or parts east, with the answer being, in large part, from the the east, from what is now Indonesia, all part of the great Austronesian expansion out of Taiwan, for which see reference 6. A fact which is clearly not sinking in, as it has been noticed in these pages at least twice before, back in 2022 and 2019, at references 7 and 8.

Not to be confused with another large island, Sri Lanka, populated from various parts to the north, rather than to the east. Albeit with the wave of migrants from the north of the subcontinent coming in boats: nothing new about boat people! Nothing new under the sun!

There is another worry about where I have recently read about burying people on platforms, on top of substantial poles, before, that is, I started on the poles of the Pacific north west coast. Sadly, reference 5 is not the answer, and while Gemini turned up various people who did this, none of the names rang any bells. Work in progress.

[So far, HS2 has started work on 45 viaducts and 132 bridges, and excavated 46 miles of tunnelling © Neil Hall/EPA/Shutterstock]

Then there was a rather different puzzle arising from reference 9, in which it is claimed that the expert advice was that cancelling HS2 would cost even more than pushing on with it, the continuing climb of the bill notwithstanding. Part of this seems to be:

'... [HS2 chief executive] Wild had concluded that the “collective assessment of the current legal position” if HS2 was scrapped was that the land would have to be fully remediated...'.

Which seems rather odd. Why not just leave it all there? The cynical answer would be that Wild would be unlikely to punt the option that would do him out of a job.

However, Gemini agrees with his assessment, citing all kinds of contractual and legal obligations. In sum:

'... When factoring in the billions already spent on digging up the landscape, the cost of cancellation isn't £0. Internal government reviews and National Audit Office updates have estimated that the strict legal and physical requirements to safely close down sites, undo earthworks, and remediate land can easily tack hundreds of millions—or even billions—of pounds onto the final exit bill, leaving the taxpayer paying a fortune just to put the dirt back where it originally came from'.

Not good. I think a similar conclusion was reached when someone wanted to cancel the second shiny new aircraft carrier. The one that does not presently have any aircraft. All in all, our track record on large public sector or near public sector projects is not good. From where I associate to the Simon Jenkins thesis that the public sector is badly equipped to fend off massive sales efforts, sales assaults, on behalf of giant projects. Giant projects which generate giant fees for all manner of consultants: experts on endangered donkeys, endangered Neolithic settlements, you name it. Not to mention pre-historic fire places, for which see reference 10.

PS: it took the power of Bing to run down reference 10, as searching the archive did not cut it on this occasion. Not the first time that I have lost this particular post.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/07/trolleys-911-912-and-913.html.

Reference 2: Giving Meaning to Grief: The Role of Rituals and Stories in Coping with Sudden Family Loss - Julia Janelle Barnhill - 2011.

Reference 3: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/05/polish-grub.html.

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

Reference 5: Teknonymy and the evocation of the 'social' among the Zafimaniry of Madagascar – Maurice Bloch – 2006.

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

Reference 7: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/08/bad-reporting.html.

Reference 8: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/02/an-archaeological-fad.html.

Reference 9: UK ministers considered abandoning HS2 amid spiralling costs: Analysis earlier this year concluded that decommissioning the scheme could cost as much as continuing to build the railway - Gill Plimmer, Jim Pickard, Financial Times - 2026.

Reference 10: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/10/beeches-pit-one.html.

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