pumpkinstrokemarrow

But I also record a mild annoyance with the food packaging industry. Tins of tuna fish come about half full, so despite the fact that the tin does give gross and net weights, one still has the illusion of buying a lot more tuna fish than one actually is, to the point where it would not be too difficult for one person to down an entire tin, wrapped in white bread and cucumber, in one sitting. Not to mention the waste of tin can. As far as I can make out all the suppliers of tuna fish play the same game so no-one is winning. And as far as I can remember, the tins are less full than they were when I was a child. The packers still played the game, but not quite so hard. One more of the wonders of the workings of the free market.

The next matter of record is the two sea marks we went to see during our stay on the Isle of Wight (see September 2nd 2010).

The first sea mark was the former church of St. Helen at St. Helens. We have been there before, but I had completely forgotten that just before it fell into Bembridge Harbour in 1703, it was decided to convert the tower into a sea mark. So we now have a tall brick wall, painted white, and pointing out to sea.

The plaque on the mark also told us that the stones from other parts of the church were picked up by passing naval ships, the crews of which used them to scrub the decks, the stones becoming known as holystones. I remember that they appear in Hornblower books (a gift from a Canadian aunt. Long gone but this particular edition of three (MHR, SoTL & FC) fetches a fancy price in book fairs); not sure if they made it to the films and television series of same. For some reason, I remember that I always read them as 'holly' rather than 'holy', wondering the while what they had to do with holly. More evocative, this mark was more or less the place from which Admiral Nelson embarked for the Battle of Trafalgar in September 1805. Presumably something to do with victualling: I think that the island was an important source of vittals at the time. Did Lady H. have a discrete love-nest tucked into the downs somewhere?

The second sea mark was that on Ashey Down. On this particular day it was rainy so it was another opportunity for me to wear my stockman's coat (see January 11th) while walking with the cows which were grazing on the down. A first. As it happened, an interesting mixture of cows, mainly the black and white sort, some with horns and some quite young, but with a few of the long orange haired, long horned jobs from up north thrown in. We also thought that one of them was a bull. It was certainly of bull size & shape and we thought it imprudent to get close enough to be sure. As it happened, none of the beasts took any interest in us while we strolled up to the mark and down again. Unlike some other beast days when the beasts take it in their heads to follow one about. I have heard that this can sometimes be quite a pain if one is trying to mend a fence or a hedge or something. Lady cows just as curious as lady humans.

PS: be entertained by the post for July 18th at http://kerrysblahblahblog.blogspot.com/. But the fun seems to be missing from the site for the outfit concerned - http://www.fredmeyer.com/Pages/default.aspx.