Monday, December 20, 2010
Icy results
One result is that I have now been around the all weather path around Epsom Common twice in 6 days, having not been around it for perhaps six months. Got slightly lost on one of the two occasions. The good news is that the snow effectively blankets the operations of the chain saw bandits and I did not notice the corpses of any trees, other than those which had expired of natural causes. On which subject, we learn from one of the common trusties, that the current hate is something called Turkey Oaks which are doing in the English Oaks. First thought was why not? If the Turkey Oak is stronger than the English one, why not let natural selection do its stuff? One might have thought that chain saw bandits, when in their environmental clothes, should be up for a bit of natural selection. But Mr G. tells me that the Turkey Oak was once widely planted for the speed of its growing but the timber is not good for much and the tree hosts a variety of wasp which does in the acorns of other varieties of oak, including ours. Cunning chaps these natural selectors. Second thought was that perhaps we should put up some defence of the English Oak. Third thought was not. Epsom Common is not a plantation, there for its timber product. It is, or at least it should be, the nearest thing to a bit of untouched and untouchable woodland that can be managed inside the M25. Turkey Oaks look OK & grow fast and that is enough for me.
I wonder if this wasp is what accounts for the large numbers of very ill acorns one sees about the place during the summer? See August 24, 2008.
The other result is that I have now been in Epsom Waitrose twice in two days, the first of the two being that mentioned yesterday. Several men in Waitrose, apart from myself, were looking a touch uncomfortable. Only there to carry the shopping home as the wife didn't like to take the big beamer to Sainsbury's. Some of them tried to pass the time by taking an interest in what the wife was up to but that generally seemed to end in tears. I settled for a discussion about milk consumption with an Irish lady who was buying 8 litres of the stuff together with 3 pints cartons of yoghourt. She did not know that you could freeze the stuff but she did explain that she and her hubby we very keen on custard and milky drinks - so they would get through the 8 litres before the sell by date. Hubby, so she told me, would be able to carry the milk home as he was on his first ever visit to Waitrose. Not visible, so perhaps he was away eyeing up the fancy booze in a hopeful way.
Continuing the bardic binge, took in a television version of Macbeth the other night. Or at least the second half thereof, being so carried away by discussion at TB that I did not notice the time. This version had Patrick Stewart in the lead and was I think a lightly adapted version of a production which was well received when it was on the stage a few years ago. Now some people will love the show because it has a starship commander in the lead role. Some other people will hate the show for the same reason. I thought it was OK. Stewart, despite being a bit old for an early medieval warrior king, turned in a decent performance. You could, for a start, hear his lines. I liked the setting, which I thought caught well the edgy atmosphere which must have reigned in the castle of a king starting to wobble on his perch a bit. His wife was OK too. The only catch was that an awful lot of lines include swords and daggers, which don't work too well when you are togged up like an SAS person and clutching the latest in machine pistols. But failed for once when I went for a replay by Amazon. Their DVD librarian knew nothing of this Macbeth although he (or she) could offer a dozen others.
# posted by Jim @ 6:03 AM 
