Drunken Bunny

Garden 2024, day 0

The attack on the garden has been delayed a few weeks due to a dreadful upper respiratory infection we picked up somewhere (guessing an ill fated trip to the acute care ward the Monday evening just prior). Still phlegmy, it has mostly moved to our lungs so we tried our convalescing muscles out on the hedges, some potted plants, and the last little bit of the wall.

The first bag of mortar was to relearn the motions which took nearly entire 2 hours pot life and incurred about 10% spillage. Called it a day at the end of bag 2 but I will probably have enough to finish everything there on Sunday.

Jackie spent her time tidying the hedges out front and shifting some geraniums around. After mowing the meadow that was once — and shall be again — our lawn (first haircut since October, dontchaknow?), I planted a bunch of wildflower seeds we got during a Gardener’s World subscription and which are use-by-dated this summer. That batch in the window box is:

Sweet William ‘Sooty’
Cornflower ‘The Bride’
Aquilegia ‘Chocolate Soldier’*
Lavatera ‘Twins Hot Pink’*
Silene ‘Starburst’

* Probably put SafeSearch on your search engine for these.

Work: Newly Aquired Triple Quad

Doesn’t really fall into the ‘useful’ category for either the Mass Spec service nor either of the core research groups, but I was gifted a very fine piece of analytical equipment, already had a space for it, and have been recruiting outside users to keep it humming for the year or so it will take for the Head of Facilities to realise it is a drain on resources (thereupon forcing me to charge for use).

I hope to have the first signal next week, relearn the fundamentals the week or two after that, and train my first newbies over the course of June. Exciting and, I hope, eventually satisfying.

Council, Mayor, Police Commish Elections 02 May 2024

Busy ballot this time ’round. Our Council seats in our area are solidly Labour (even more so this year as the Tories implode nationwide) so I added my tick to a solid member of our community, Mohammed Rohim, an Independent and local teacher. He promised to do something about the litter problems in the area so at least I know he has walked down our street at least once.

He came in third but only 19 votes behind the Tory.

Our usual polling place, the Town Hall, is under refurbishment so we voted next door at the Central Library

For Mayor, I just wanted rid of Andy Street and Labour’s Richard Parker had the best shot at it going into Thursday. I wouldn’t have minded the Independent with the human rights credentials (Akhmed Yakoob) or Green Party’s Siobhan Harper-Nunes but, while a LibDem at heart, strategic voting seemed necessary. After a full recount in Coventry:

Yakoob was unfairly characterised as a ‘spoiler’ candidate after Labour shot ITSELF in the foot by criticizing Muslim voters’ disdain for Keir Starmer’s policies on Palestine (and to be fair, the winning margin of 1508 votes was a lot closer than it really needed to be). My only qualm with Yakoob is his focus is primarily on Palestine but the Mayor’s job is the West Midlands (not the West Bank). His opinions, while valid, do not make up a platform for this post (but he’ll be back and better prepared next time, I’m sure).

We both adore the detail in this building from the mosaic flooring to the majolica wall tiles and the stained glass (these two are Shakespeare and Milton)

The Police and Crime Commissioner was the most straightforward choice as it was binary between Tory candidate (name escapes me) and the Labour one (the non-Conservative). This unsurprising result came in while waiting out the Mayor counts…Labour won this post handily the last two elections (and, as mentioned earlier, this year is all Red Flag Flying).

It’s an Andrew Carnegie library built in 1907 and rededicated after refurbishment at its centenary by our MP and first female Speaker of the House of Commons Betty Boothroyd

Three Crowns, Willenhall

Pub #2679:

It was a really nice April day to get out for a run and I followed a bus route into Willenhall then another back out (Bus Route Runs, as previously mentioned). At the turnaround point, I stopped into the Three Crowns for a now infrequent pint.

It is a lovely house and the visit was only soiled by the choice (and volume) of music. There were at least 3 real ales on (I took the first one on the left) and settled into a wee reverie only jarringly disturbed when I realised the autotuned ‘singer’ was covering some Englebert Humperdinck song. I had to get out.

When I left the bus route, I slowed to a walk to take in some of the sights. I have only been to Willenhall once before to visit the Malthouse, now in the same derelict condition as many of the other buildings there, back during the COVID lockdowns.

But, the town is lovely despite the sad state of its industrial architecture.

Remembrances of Things Past

As a teenager — I am not proud of this fact but at least it is now many decades ago — I’m sure I used the argument that a reasonable cure for this syndrome would be to just pop them in your mouth for a bit. Apparently, someone in marketing had a similar idea:

It takes 2 to Tango. Note, despite the outward appearance this is a snack package and not a condom wrapper.

Magritte exhibit at Walsall Manor Hospital

“Ce n’est pas une banque du soutiens-gorge.”

This powerful work of surrealism was not the only art on display, yesterday. There was also this nice sculpture of a nurse by Steve Yeates:

I got your ‘Truth’ right here

Have a nicer weekend than the Defendant in Chief is going to.

Jimi is Two

It’s our Jim’s birthday today. I went searching for a feather and also bought him a new duck to stomp, both seen here in my work locker. Happy birthday, buddy.

19 Corks

In 1973-74, I went to a boarding school in Darwin with a student body made up of about 70% Australian, 30% British, and me. The Aussies were hostile and violent toward the Brits and decided that I was due the same until they found out that I was born in South Georgia where prisoners were sent in the years before the Brits started sending them to Australia. “You’re alright, then. You’re one of us!” one kid told me.

Jackie likes the 19 Crimes brand of wines. Each cork has one of the 19 Crimes that would result in punishment by transportation. Here’s my Trading Cork collection, so far (first 10, I’ll add the others as I accumulate them):