Screwfix Monday

On Monday, off over the hill and through town to inspect the new garden outside Big Yellow Box, previously noticed, to find that management had not found time to get their new garden watered and the elephants's ears (Bergenia cordifolia) were not looking happy at all. But they are pretty tough and they may well survive until its starts raining on a regular basis again.

I suppose management might have thought that watering their new garden was not in the spirit of current water usage restrictions, even if going out with a few watering cans was within the letter. Perhaps they should have waited a few weeks before planting? Maybe their roll-out schedule does not include that kind of flexibility?

On to admire the strong growth of suckers from the tree of heaven, previously noticed at, for example, reference 2. They had been cut to the ground earlier in the year, but have now bounced back. They looked quite odd-pinnate to me, even if there was a tendency to lose the lead leaflet.

And so to the Screwfix whitebeam.

With the berries coming on. If the hawthorn was anything to go by, even if they are edible, they would be a lot of bother to the pound of jam.

I give Bing the clue 'berries whitebeam edible', and Copilot tells me that they are edible, but like medlars, best eaten when they are nearly rotten. Best to leave them until after the first few frosts - if the birds leave them that long, that is. I think 'bled' is the word for it. Which Bing corrects to 'blet'. A senior slip from a hard to a soft consonant or something of that sort.

Later in the day, a stroll through Court Recreation Ground, more or less along the line of what was Pound Lane, starting on West Hill. Lots of drought damaged mature trees to be seen, and this more or less dead tree, which I did not remember noticing before.

And what might prove to be my last fresh blackberries of the season. Small and difficult to pick, but surprisingly tasty. Do not be confused by the apparent breach of the rule of three for fruiting stems: there are two stems here, one fruiting, one not.

While a bit further along, the bees were having a fine old time on a bank of ivy flowers in the late afternoon sun. I associated to a similar sight at the Sea Trout Inn at Staverton, noticed at reference 3. A place where, as I recall, the Bishop of Exeter, then a very big cheese, once got into a row with someone - perhaps some rebellious abbot - about salmon fishing rights.

I close with the banana tree of Manor Green Road. A chap on my bay at the hospital had known all about it, which pleased both of us at the time. A chap who liked to sport his rather fine cheesecutter indoors.

Cheesecutters being a type of hat, noticed in these pages from time to time, most recently at reference 4. Search of the archive suggests that the first, passing notice, took place in 2010, at reference 5.

PS: talk of cheesecutters reminds me that at least of 2 of the 15 patients on my ward - not counting turnover - were veterans of the Epsom cluster of mental hospitals, now almost completely closed down. A reflection of their one time importance as employers in Epsom, presumably having thousands of employees on their books. Including a number of tree-loving hospital superintendents, whose Wellingtonia flavoured legacy is still with us today. 

References

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

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/search?q=heaven+pinnate. It took the power of Bing to sort out the senior slip from tree of heaven to tree of paradise. I suppose 'paradise' is the older, more biblical term, so more firmly lodged in the brain.

Reference 3: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/10/critical-national-infrastructure.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/05/cheesecutter.html.

Reference 5: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2010/01/exit-visad.html.

Group search key: 20260921.