pumpkinstrokemarrow

Celebrated the stew, a little later in the day, with a bottle of Chilean Merlot from Concha Y Toro (flashy web site at http://www.conchaytoro.com. It seems they are the biggest manufacturer of wine in their part of the world), bought from Mr S. at Marsh Mills. At £10 a pop a reasonably dear wine for us but it was indeed velvety as claimed on the back of the bottle. More notable was the very heavy bottle, weighing in at 1lb 13.5oz. Presumably the glass was a bit thicker than usual to hold all those velvety tannins in.

I had thought earlier in the day that I was on course to solve the puzzle mooted on April 17 2009, that is to say, what are the belfry windows of churches called? It still sticks in my mind from my days of O-level art that they have a special name. Now as luck would have it I came across an interesting little book called 'A concise glossary of architectural terms' at our local Oxfam shop. Full of all sorts of fascinating architectural factlets so I parted with the £2.99 being asked so that I could peruse the thing at my leisure. It seems to be a photographic reprint of a heavily illustrated fourth edition of 1876. Illustrations conveniently printed in page where they are wanted and which look like they are some sort of (intaglio) engravings. So I learn, for example, that a lavatory was a place in a church or cloister for washing. Perhaps no more than a stone sink set into a wall. There is a very fancy one in a monastery in Vienna. Obvious once one has been told. That a louvre, properly speaking, is a turret on a roof which lets light into the room below. From the French. Confusingly, I find that louvre is indeed a French word which means palace, nothing to do with light at all. It finally dawns on me that the derivation must be from ouvrir, to open. That flamboyant is some sort of debased decorated which happened in France when we had moved on to perpendicular. Don't think the author was very keen on it. That a broach spire was not what I thought it was at all. But I do not learn the word I want. There are lots of pictures of windows to belfries but they do not get a special name. There is a mention of something called a sound hole, but this is just a hole to let the sound of the bells out, rather than a window to let the sound of the bells out. So the book did not do the job intended but I have got a handy bit of bed-time & advertising break reading.

Another odd book, has been the Newnes Golden Treasury from 1933 or thereabouts. A four inch thick compendium of improving or interesting facts and fodder. A mere £1 from a charity shop in Totland in the Isle of Wight. Arranged in 22 chapters. One, of forty pages, on the mysteries of wireless, then relatively new. Another on the art of public speaking, including models to be used at various likely occasions. A funeral. The annual general meeting of a tennis club. Introducing a speaker to an evening meeting of the W.I.. Another containing stories from the ancient world. Another containing the answers to a selection of the sort of questions you now get in pub quizzes. For example, what is the meaning of foolscap, as in foolscap paper? Another containing stuff for children. Games they might play and things they might make, with the word 'jolly' appearing lots. 1,192 pages of the stuff. An inexhaustible trove. But one marred by a slight whiff of antisemitism, although not as bad as that in say, the books of John Buchan.

I close with what ought to have been a rather simpler alcoholic puzzle. Coming back from holiday, not having had any Newky Brown for a couple of weeks, thought it tasted a bit odd. Hitherto the stuff had tasted the same for some decades. Stronger hint of toasted malt than there had been. Was it just me or had the recipe changed? So I thought I would send an email to the Newky Brown people and ask them. Start off at the Heineken web site, Heineken having bought this particular bit of national heritage. Finally fight my way through to their Newky Brown web site. But there is no facility to email them or chat. There are a couple of telephone numbers but they look to be intended for trade enquiries rather than punter enquiries. Perhaps I ought to find some beer fiends' chat room. Don't suppose the CAMRA people would help. Not their sort of heritage.