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/.