A country pub in Chenies

One of my typical suburban shots, the BP garage in Camberley

It's fashionable these days for people to walk into a restaurant, order lunch, and then when the food is delivered, they all whip out their phones and take pictures.

I am determined to be fashionable at least once in my life. This was my lunch today.

I grew it.

Well, not the olives for the olive oil, or the grapes for the balsamic vinegar, I didn't grow them.

Or the sea salt, okay I didn't grow that!

Sigh, no, I didn't grow the fork or the bowl either. Whaddya mean, I didn't grow much?



No, I did not grow the rattan! Gosh, you're a tough crowd.

A very lovely lunch indeed.
I've never seen black tomatoes before. But then I don't look at tomatoes very often. Do they taste different, like different color peppers taste? Hrm. You call the peppers capsicums, right?

We call peppers, er, peppers. We only call them bell peppers or capiscums when we're talking to Americans because they have weird names for things.

The black tomatoes are actually a deep shade of purple - this variety is called 'Indgo Rose' because when they're ripe there's a pink streak (or more) running down the skin from the stalk. And as you can see, on the inside the flesh is pink rather than red. I didn't think they had a particularly distinctive flavour but more sweet than sharp anyway. I think that they're best grown for their appearance - psychologically food starts to appeal to the taste buds when we look at it and they did look rather good - just not good enough to eat on their own.

The gold tomatoes are good though - very juicy and sweet. I could and did eat those straight off the vine by the stalk load.

Okay, if we are going to argue semantics here (just kidding)...Capsicum is the correct name because it is the biological name as they belong to the genus Capsicum. Peppers, bell peppers, chillies etc are common names. Australians use the (correct) term capsicum. America and UK tend to use the term bell pepper.

Prague Castle and St Vitus Cathedral from the Old Town Hall Tower.

Howie, you take fantastic photos!

Thank you, I am always my own worst critic so good to hear some are not too bad

Crossing the M25 in Hertfordshire

This 'pot' is a saggar. They come in many shapes and sizes and are used in kilns to protect ceramic ware from the flames and flying debris (things explode in kilns). They are also used in the creation of decorative pieces because they alter the kiln conditions and can change the chemical effects of the materials used to glaze pots.

When England's potteries were working at breakneck speed during the Industrial Revolution, making saggars was a skilled and specialist job; this one, like most, is made from fireclay which was beaten flat, cut to size using a frame, then wrapped round a block to get the final shape of the walls. The frame was made by an apprentice and the bottom sheet of clay was made by an even younger assistant starting out in the trade.

That young assistant's job title was "Saggar Maker's Bottom Knocker" - long regarded as the weirdest job title ever to feature on the old TV programme "What's My Line?". I didn't think it was that weird but I grew up living next door to someone who worked in the carpet factory as a 'weaver's bodger' so weirdness is as weirdness does!

Cape Reinga Lighthouse at the top of the North Island.

A typical village green in Hertfordshire

I came across these signs (there are three) on the Cranleigh monument, most probably Victorian, and the precursor of the national ones some decades later.



They were made for the opening of the road, and the other two have distances to Windsor and Brighton as it was the royal route to the seaside.

Satguru - that reminds me of an old joke my grandfather used to tell. (He was a true Cockney, born within the sound of Bow Bells).

It was a joke about a bus driver who kept dropping his H's as he called out the various stops along the route. Eventually he was corrected by a snooty passenger, who asked "Haven't you dropped something, driver?", to which the driver replied "Never mind, I'll pick it when we get to H'ockley".

Luca out for a walk on a pleasant enough spring day

I hope the cows know how to read......

I'm amazed there's a joke about Ockley, it's gone before you have time to look!

Autumn's coming to Kingsbury

Another view over the roof tops of Prague from the Old Town Hall Tower.

I knew I should not have been so eager to post a photo today as I now have some photos of Timaru's most famous mother and child.....

One of the last remaining working farms in London near me, although now it's only for horses. The one for pigs in Mill Hill closed in the 90s, and the dairy farm in Finchley is now a farm shop for about the last ten years.

Here is Timaru's most famous new mother and child resting at Caroline Bay. It is rare for an elephant seal to give birth on mainland New Zealand but this seal did. The pup was born during the evening of Thursday 24 September so less than 24 hours old in this photo.

Aww, that's lovely, Howie. Well, it's an elephant seal and lovely is as lovely does but I expect the baby thinks it's mum is great and she looks quite pleased with herself.

This clematis is called "New Love" which seems rather appropriate!