Tuesday, June 24, 2008
The plasterer's apprentice
Two small holes (formerly for side lights) now packed with chicken wire, rendered and plastered. Let's hope the live wires I left in the holes in case we or our successors want the side lights back don't short in the meantime. One large hole (formerly for the stove chimney) now rendered and plastered. Getting the right amount on proved easier than expected. Getting a decent finish harder. But a whole lot easier for big holes than Polyfilla which behaves likes thick soup and does not stay where it is put - unlike this stuff from Thistle which stays where it is put despite looking rather wet. Overall, not too bad. Should be OK when dry give or take a bit of sanding. The big hole will not be an invisible mend - something that I think is more or less impossible, even for a real plasterer - but with a pot plant in front of it, no-one is going to notice.
Another Israeli factlet via a TLS review of a book by one Benny Morris. To the effect that during the second world war (aka the second world complex emergency in emerging UN speak), many Arab nationalists from Palestine took refuge in Germany and that the Arab population at large was strongly pro-German. The Jews in Palestine were understandably concerned at what would have happened to them in the event of a German victory. Apparently a suitable German unit had been earmarked for the task.
And an oddity from the previous edition. It seems that despite our heavy use of the word 'Tudor', the word was hardly recognised or used by the Tudors or their subjects, except perhaps in Wales. Henry Tudor - Henry VII - was far keener to promote his link to the Lancastrian house through his mother, a descendant of John of Gaunt and his third wife - than to advertise his father's obscure Welsh family - which amid some scandal had picked up Henry V's French widow. It was left to Hume in the mid 18th century to raise the term 'Tudor' to the pedestal it has been on ever since.
Forgot to mention the excellent Dorset apple cake from Ilminster. A fresh, sweet cake without icing or gunk. So many otherwise good cakes are spoilt by surfeit of same. Don't recall ever having had such a cake before. Maybe, we will try and make one when the cooking apples come around again. Also the fact that there was a grammer school at Ilminster, which served the community there from 1546 or so until dissolution in 1976 or so. While I have no strong view on grammer schools, slightly saddened at the sweeping away of such an ancient institution. As at Blair's sweeping away of the Lord Chancellor. Abolishing a bit of tradition - which was doing no harm and still had some life in it - just to prove how go ahead New Labour is. Or perhaps it was just to remind us that Blair was in charge and we had better not forget it or we might be abolished. Or perhaps The Cherry was cheesed off that some judge did not care to curstey to her and so nagged hubby until he had a go at the lot of them.
Prior to Ilminster we passed Stonehenge which was being prepped with a large number of yellow cones for the summer solstice the dawn following. There were even four new yellow trucks specially adapted for the carriage and management of cones. Perhaps on the basis of one cone for every solstice nut. Whatever, I expect the cone men had just as much fun as the solstice nuts they were bossing about and they were getting paid. Did they have bivvies, camp fires and cocoa, traditional parephrenalia for nocturnal scouts and nannies?
And a reminder from Honiton of the passing of wordly honour. I could buy a mint condition 1960 edition of Ulysses, from the Bodley Head, less dust jacket and without any bow, for £3. A centenarian master work practically remaindered. Whereas a large and somewhat worn travel paperback from Paul Theroux went for £4. We had them both.
And lastly an agricultural curiosity. Driving through the New Forest on the way to Winchester, we pass a large pink field. The pink appeared to be the flowers of some tallish thick crop, maybe two feet tall. But not a clue what it might be.
Another Israeli factlet via a TLS review of a book by one Benny Morris. To the effect that during the second world war (aka the second world complex emergency in emerging UN speak), many Arab nationalists from Palestine took refuge in Germany and that the Arab population at large was strongly pro-German. The Jews in Palestine were understandably concerned at what would have happened to them in the event of a German victory. Apparently a suitable German unit had been earmarked for the task.
And an oddity from the previous edition. It seems that despite our heavy use of the word 'Tudor', the word was hardly recognised or used by the Tudors or their subjects, except perhaps in Wales. Henry Tudor - Henry VII - was far keener to promote his link to the Lancastrian house through his mother, a descendant of John of Gaunt and his third wife - than to advertise his father's obscure Welsh family - which amid some scandal had picked up Henry V's French widow. It was left to Hume in the mid 18th century to raise the term 'Tudor' to the pedestal it has been on ever since.
Forgot to mention the excellent Dorset apple cake from Ilminster. A fresh, sweet cake without icing or gunk. So many otherwise good cakes are spoilt by surfeit of same. Don't recall ever having had such a cake before. Maybe, we will try and make one when the cooking apples come around again. Also the fact that there was a grammer school at Ilminster, which served the community there from 1546 or so until dissolution in 1976 or so. While I have no strong view on grammer schools, slightly saddened at the sweeping away of such an ancient institution. As at Blair's sweeping away of the Lord Chancellor. Abolishing a bit of tradition - which was doing no harm and still had some life in it - just to prove how go ahead New Labour is. Or perhaps it was just to remind us that Blair was in charge and we had better not forget it or we might be abolished. Or perhaps The Cherry was cheesed off that some judge did not care to curstey to her and so nagged hubby until he had a go at the lot of them.
Prior to Ilminster we passed Stonehenge which was being prepped with a large number of yellow cones for the summer solstice the dawn following. There were even four new yellow trucks specially adapted for the carriage and management of cones. Perhaps on the basis of one cone for every solstice nut. Whatever, I expect the cone men had just as much fun as the solstice nuts they were bossing about and they were getting paid. Did they have bivvies, camp fires and cocoa, traditional parephrenalia for nocturnal scouts and nannies?
And a reminder from Honiton of the passing of wordly honour. I could buy a mint condition 1960 edition of Ulysses, from the Bodley Head, less dust jacket and without any bow, for £3. A centenarian master work practically remaindered. Whereas a large and somewhat worn travel paperback from Paul Theroux went for £4. We had them both.
And lastly an agricultural curiosity. Driving through the New Forest on the way to Winchester, we pass a large pink field. The pink appeared to be the flowers of some tallish thick crop, maybe two feet tall. But not a clue what it might be.
# posted by Jim @ 7:34 AM 
