First crop of the season

First crop of the season from the allotment today - nine sugar snap peas, with the promise of many more from the masses of flowers. A perfect accompaniment to our evening meal.

 It never ceases to amaze me how quickly things can grow.

Ferns at Wisley

Today I took advantage of the last day of half term to visit RHS Wisley with T.

Lots of ferns to see, with the stands of Osmunda regalis being a particular highlight.

Osmunda regalis

Onoclea sensibilis is planted in many areas and clearly thrives in those locations.

And both Matteuccia struthiopteris  and Apslenium scolopendium are profuse.

Also nice to see ferns establishing in nooks and crannies, not just where they've been planted!

Sadly no time to see the tree ferns in the glass house today. By the time we'd gone round the children's trail (happily, for once, I'd remembered a clipboard for T), stopped in the cafe (well, we were just going past ...) and been to see the vegetable garden in pursuit of completing Eye-Spy Wisley it was time to come away. 

Looking forward to seeing the new visitor centre open and all the car park works being finished, too!

Books I read in 2018

(Most of) the books I read in 2018

I started 2018 with the aim to read 65 books and made it over the line in the last few days (final total 66). Most are in the picture above, although a few were borrowed and some are currently lent to others.

My favourite from the year was undoubtedly Press and Siever's Earth - an introductory text in Geology. I've also enjoyed beginning to read through Le Carre's spy novels as well as continuing to work my way through the Ngaio Marsh novels and Simenon's Maigret series.

As always, I hope to post more to this blog this year. I've said that before, but I have resolved (not so much as a new year's resolution - I had this in mind before) to get back to bryophytes and pteridophytes, so perhaps I'll post some pictures of slightly obscure green things here over the coming weeks.

Threat to theatre lighting

Long ago I used to be involved in technical aspects of theatre, including stage management, lighting and sound. If you happen to be reading this, please may I encourage you to consider signing this petition? In short, proposed new environmental regulations threaten theatres by effectively banning theatre lighting! Given the tiny proportion of energy usage that theatre lighting comprises, I really think an exception could be made.

 See the petition (and more detailed background) here: https://www.change.org/p/energy4europe-keep-stage-lighting-exempt-from-proposed-legislation-changes-savestagelighting

At the start of 2017 I made a resolution improve on last year's 53 books, setting the target at 65. For most of the year I seemed to be ahead of target, but the last few months have been quite tough for a number of reasons and I really didn't think I'd make it. However, a late sprint during the Christmas holidays has seen me cross the line.

As last year, here are some highlights:

Most interesting: John Wright A Natural History of the Hedgerow (Profile Books 2016)
I had never really stopped to think about how hedgerows were constructed and was surprised to discover that there is such variety in methods and to understand how a hedge is laid by partially cutting through the stems and pushing the young plants over. I think a good non-fiction book is one that opens my eyes to see the world in a new, more detailed way. A little while ago I read Blockley's Bridges (OUP 2010) and that had the same effect - I can't now pass a bridge without trying to work out how it works and why that design was chosen for the situation.

Saddest to finish: Herbert Uncommon Law
A colleague had lent (and eventually gave me) this wonderful compendium of stories highlighting the absurdity of the law. I read one story (there are 66) each day whilst eating lunch at work and they were such a joy.

Most thrilling: Graves  I, Claudius (Penguin)
I read quite a lot of thrillers, but I found re-reading this very sleep-depriving because I just couldn't put it down. Whilst Robert Harris's Cicero trilogy are also very gripping there's something about Graves's writing that makes it even more compelling.

Most heavy going: Hofstadter Goedel, Escher, Bach and eternal golden braid (Basic Books, 1999)
I have to admit that I really found this hard and nearly abandoned it several times. I'm not sure I really got to grips with the incompleteness theorem but I enjoyed the parallels with Escher and Bach and it has inspired me to study The Art of Fugue. I've been lucky enough to receive both a recording (the Radio 3 building a library recommendation to add to the two I have already - one orchestral, one organ) and a score for Christmas, so that's definitely a project for 2018.


My target for 2018 is going to stick at 65, but I want to read two quite hefty volumes in amongst that. The first is Press and Siever's Earth - a book I used to dip into when I was a sixth former, but have never read cover to cover. I was so pleased to find this on Amazon for a not too eye-watering price as I thought it was out-of-print and difficult to obtain. When I started teaching back at my old school I was devastated that the librarian had weeded it out whilst I was up at Oxford and have been looking for it ever since. The second is Eliel's magisterial Stereochemistry of Organic Compounds. This was one that I used to borrow from the Hooke library in Oxford and again dip into. It was also the volume that finally exasperated me with Blackwell's in Oxford, their "expert" telling me the book didn't exist and was therefore unobtainable, not 20 minutes after I'd returned my library copy! Eliel's prose style is beautifully readable but it's not really a book that you can keep on a bedside table!

Timelapse of Dippy's departure and the new arrival

NHM installation - BBC News

Steam day

Today I took T to the Malden and District Society of Model Engineers' steam day. An excellent afternoon out and well worth the queuing for the train rides.

Here's a video that gives a flavour of what it's like

I thoroughly recommend it!