As a song by Tom Lehrer starts, although I do not intend to emulate his plan for…do you know the song? I’ll tell you at the end so as not to put you off.
I always thought that, strictly speaking, Spring starts on the vernal equinox (March 20th). The Royal Museums at Greenwich tell me otherwise. There are three possible dates: meteorologically March 1st, astronomically the vernal equinox, or phenologically. There’s quite a bit of information on the museum website. I must get to Greenwich one day.
https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/when-does-spring-start
The last date I had to look up, I’m not sure I’ve ever used the word in my life or even know how to pronounce it. It refers to biological indicators such as plants, insects and birds making themselves known, so it can differ every year depending on the weather. To find out more, there was an article published in Nature this January referenced below. Although climate change has led to earlier springs, the risk of late spring frost (LSF) has meant that plants can suffer more damage than previously found. Thank goodness we decided not to plant a vineyard.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-024-02205-w
Stop press: the jigsaw is finished! This is what can happen when you stay at home. On the other hand, not such good news. My proofreading skills are disappearing. We shouldn’t have been practicing our chopstick skills but practising them. Well done JD and anyone else who spotted it, neither autocorrect nor spell check did. So much for AI (or maybe they are sub-AI?).
It’s very tiring having a special birthday year. March was meant to be a quiet month. To a degree it was, as JD was away a lot, but that seemed to mean that when we were together we were even busier Doing Stuff.
We saw February out (and March in) with a family celebration in Bath. As I’d not invited the youngsters to the Garden Museum event in January, we thought a weekend for them would be fun, and close enough to Bath that everyone could wander around the city as they wished. We didn’t quite have all the grandchildren but those that did manage to spare the time, plus some cousins, seemed to really enjoy the place.
We stayed at the Bath Spa Hotel, not to be confused with the Bath Spa (hot waters etc) in the middle of the city. This was a ten-minute walk away, downhill (but uphill on the way back, rats), set in acres of beautiful gardens. On the Saturday night we had a private room and I took along the handheld ‘karaoke’ microphone we were given by Y’s parents when they visited. We had thought the kids would be the ones to enjoy it but it was actually the grown-ups: possibly drink had been taken?
At my January party I was given some temporary flower tattoos: Fleur and her cousin Holly and I applied them to celebrate. They share some resemblance to the wall decorations at Homewood further down. Can I keep the floral theme going for the year?
We went to our new favourite local restaurant, the Lazy Lobster in Castle Cary, plus we tried Horrell and Horrell for Sunday lunch, close to the Haynes Motor Museum (must go back there but not during school holidays, we’ve learnt our lesson). The LL is recommended for sharing plates; it’s best to go with a couple of pals so that you can try lots of dishes. We had the joy of sharing three crab rissoles between four of us: good job we’re mathematicians. H&H is in an old barn, we were warned to dress warmly, but they have recently put glazing along the ‘open’ side so it wasn’t that bad. There’s one long table with everyone together, like a school dorm or suchlike. I made two new friends as the chaps next to me were Formula One fans, so we were able to discuss the start of the new season. At the moment (three races in) the British drivers are doing pretty well although Max is catching up to Lando. Makes a change.
I also decided to be a Lady What Lunches (I do this every couple of months) and met a friend at The Creamery, the new restaurant at Castle Cary station. This has caused quite a stir locally as it belongs to The Newt (the restaurant, not the station. Yet). The Newt was bought by the South African couple Koos Bekker and Karen Roos in 2013 and opened in 2019. They previously built up Babylonstoren in South Africa, a vineyard, hotel and gardens. We didn’t get there on our Clipper trip in 2019. An excuse to return maybe.
Since The Newt, they have been busy buying other places and making major changes to them. The Newt itself is reported to cover 2,000 acres. A new place near Amsterdam has just been added to the list of places they own. Some people are of the opinion that The Newt’s owners are taking over the region and ‘Disney-fying’ it, whilst others (like me, I confess) are just enjoying the spoils.
Prior to being called The Newt, it was Hadspen House, owned by the Hobhouse family for some generations. You might have heard of Penelope Hobhouse, well respected gardener and author, born in 1929. She took on the neglected garden and made it an attraction some years ago. Here’s an interesting look at it all before it became The Newt.
The two photos above were taken five years ago, not long after they opened. I need to go back to see how it’s progressed. I’ll have to start a list of places to visit. Not a bucket list, I don’t like the implication of that.
Culture of a different sort called us a few days later when we went to an IF Opera dinner at Homewood, a hotel between us and Bath. We decided to stay the night as there was a champagne reception, during which we were serenaded by budding opera singers, plus drink with the meal, plus we got chatting and drinking after the dinner with our table companions then went to the bar for a nightcap. This is the Korean baritone Josef Jeongmeen Ahn.
Despite my comments last time about the Wiltshire Music Centre, we decided to give it a second chance and experience Vivaldi by Candlelight presented by the Bristol Ensemble. I’m so glad we did, the venue was much better suited to this and the Ensemble were really good. They obviously go into schools as we were ‘talked through’ the Four Seasons before it was played, and learnt so much more than when you just listen to a piece. (If you’re a musician, I apologise as you probably know all about it before you listen. As mere scientists we need Art to be explained to us. This doesn’t happen very often). If I see that they’re playing anywhere local again I’ll make sure we book.
On 22nd March there was a partial solar eclipse which I tried to experience. I didn’t find the special glasses we had for the total eclipse in 1999 so I couldn’t watch as such. As it was only 30% eclipse where we were, there was no real difference in the light, as you can see from the next two shots. The darker one is actually before the event started, showing how much effect cloud has on us. The next total eclipse in the UK (in Cornwall, Devon etc) will be in 2091 so it’s highly unlikely I will be around to see it. There is a 90% eclipse on August 12 2026 for the UK so that’s in the diary.
Have you come across Piano Day? It is celebrated on the 88th day of the year (reflecting the number of keys on a conventional piano): 29th March (or 28th in a Leap Year). I hadn’t but couldn’t find any celebrations, I just did a bit of extra practice as a token.
We finished March by going to a classical concert in the village of Croscombe. This is a few miles from our house and I had become involved a few years ago when the village shop was bought by the locals to keep it going. I somehow became a member of The Committee, and therefore knew quite a few other people in the audience. The concert itself was given by a couple of professional musicians who live in the village and their pals from around the country. As with the LPO, they had only a couple of rehearsals before the concert itself. I am amazed at the talent that exists and is so often low key.
Although not really part of my birthday celebrations, as I had spare time, I finally decided to get around to the Swedish death sorting. We’ve lived in our house since 1991 and I think we’ve kept on file every invoice for everything we’ve ever bought. Including pieces of timber, nails, skips we’ve hired etc etc. A very satisfying task to go through and throw them away. Or it would be, if Someone didn’t think it worth keeping for historical reasons.
https://www.thespruce.com/i-tried-swedish-death-cleaning-and-it-changed-my-space-8770045
As promised last time, I tried arranging my cocktail bottles in order of emptiness, but found two problems: some bottles were not clear, so it was difficult to judge how much was left in them, and all the different shapes meant a direct comparison was not possible. I hear you shouting at me, telling me to empty each into my measuring jiggers etc then recording it then pouring it back into the bottle THEN lining them up in the correct order. Allowing, of course, for the amount left behind with the double pouring. Dream on.
Our cocktail on March 7th was our first Friday Cocktail Night at home since January. It’s called a Wiffin (after the PG Wodehouse character Ambrose Wiffen in the short story ‘The Passing Of Ambrose’). Somewhere in my books are the complete works of Wodehouse so I must (re) read it. Good stories to brighten up the day. The cocktail consists of gin, brandy, red vermouth and absinthe. I might manage to finish off the absinthe one day but you only need a very little each time.
The title of the Tom Lehrer ditty? Poisoning Pigeons in the Park. I’m sure you knew that. If not, here’s a YouTube link. Be warned though, it is quite an earworm (and might upset the sensitive soul). Below the link you can see an intrepid visitor to our house: Polly and Adie were not on duty that day.
George and John's boating trip no longer 