pumpkinstrokemarrow

When I was in the land of work, I often heard it said that a picture was worth a thousand words. And it is certainly true that describing an object without the aid of pictures or diagrams is a demanding and interesting business. Some people are so good at it that they have become famous. However, in the case of road signs that infest the sides of our roads, someone ought to tell the promoter that the inclusion of a little icon next to the two or three words which tell one what the subject of the sign is, is not usually helpful. So, for example, the sign to the Roman villa at Brading (on the Isle of Wight) consists of an icon of a helmet and the words 'Roman villa'. To my mind the helmet is uninformative, and just takes up space which might otherwise have been devoted to making the letters on the sign a bit bigger and so legible from a big enough distance to make taking the road signed a realistic possibility.

The villa itself certainly worth a real visit although http://www.bradingromanvilla.org.uk/ does give some idea. Particularly interesting in that a day or two previous we had visited a much smaller and more modestly presented villa at Newport - stranded in the middle of the pre-war housing estate, the construction of which had presumably resulted in the discovery of the villa. Which gave over maybe a quarter of its floor space to the bathing arrangements. And which was said to be the home for nearly twenty people despite having about the same floor space of a three bedroom suburban villa built in the last century (our house being, I think, described as a suburban villa in the deeds. And I think the word villa is used quite freely when describing houses by estate agents in Scotland. Not seen the usage down here). There was also an example of a special earthernware pot used to fatten dormice for the pot (or perhaps the spit). More disconcerting was part of the lower jaw of a Roman horse. Which looked rather like two plates of bone with the teeth as the filling in the sandwich. Not the solid lump of bone with post holes for the teeth I would have expected. If my jaw is built on the same lines, I might soon be having trouble, having lost all the filling for part of my sandwich.

Nearby we came across the first bank of garages with fancy pointed roofs that I have ever seen. That is to say, a row of small garages each with its own pointed roof, each roof with nicely carved barge boards and what have you. Mock tudor beams stuck vertically onto the triangular bit.

Returning to the fancy villa at Brading, perhaps the most memorable thing was the building that it was housed in. A large roof over a good part of the villa, built out of composite wooden beams, cantilevered with steel connecting rods. Floor suspended from the roof so as not to further damage the floor of the villa. Roof planted with vegetation, red in colour of the day of our visit. Was this some eco thing? Or was it to try and hide the building in its area of outstanding natural beauty? In which case green plants might have worked better.

The display of the villa in the interesting building was mainly directed at school children who, presumably, account for most of the custom. But it was also, disconcertingly to my mind, self-conscious about the archeological process. It was as if they were as keen to tell us about archeology through the ages as about a Roman villa. Do we have 'Time Watch' to blame or has the post-modern disease got into archeology?

Back at the ranch I'm clutching at straws to put off starting the redecoration of our extension. So, this evening, we are now the proud owners of a meshed gate between our house and one of the boundary fences, thus denying foxes passage between the road and the back gardens, at least in this part of the road. Maybe it will slow them down a bit. Learnt along the way that cutting the wire plaster lathing that Travis Perkins sold in lieu of a small bit of chicken wire, is quite fiddly if one it doing it with wire cutters. Maybe plasterers have some sort of shears. Also, being rather sharp stuff, the cause of sundry small cuts. Was lucky that the lathing was the right width - despite the top of the gate being nearly 2 inches wider than the bottom (these old- fashioned workmen not being very into their verticals when they put fence posts in) - and so had only one 75cm cut to make. Quite enough for one day.