Disaster

I discovered this morning that the Epsom Waitrose has abolished its fresh cheese counter, thus abolishing my source for Lincolnshire Poacher, which I have been buying from them for maybe five years, having been eating the cheese for a bit longer. See reference 1.

The Waitrose stuff - which they bought in in shrink wrapped one eighth truckles - two vertical and one horizontal cut makes 2^3=8 - or at least that is how it arrived at Epsom - has been reliable. The only moan was that there were times when one thought one was getting more than one's fair share of rind, with the rind of this particular cheese being rather unpleasant on the tongue, and you have to be careful when you cut the rind away from the cheese.

I have bought the stuff from Borough Market but I was not that impressed; a bit too dry and strong. Maybe the Neal's Yard cheese shop would be a better bet? They do the flannel there alright and they do stock cheese in big lumps which is a good sign. Last visit noticed at reference 2, from which it seems that have been Waitrose scares before.

Some compensation in the form of what the market man told me would probably be the last cherries of the season - he having just bought 40 boxes of them. An interesting indication of how much he can sell in a week or so. Hopefully he has somewhere cool to keep them. I settled for a modest two pounds for a fiver, and they have done alright so far, with only one dud in maybe 25 cherries.

Handsome lilac hydrangea - possibly a lace cap - on the way home, opposite the entrance to Stamford Green School, attracting at least two sorts of bees.

Home to read that Osbert Sitwell bought a Modigliani called 'The peasant girl' for £4 just after the first world war. I wonder how much better than inflation he has done if we suppose that the picture would fetch £4m now? It seems that, at the time, Modigliani had not been discovered and he was having trouble selling his paintings. Frustrating now that I am unable to trace the painting, said by google to be in the Tate - who are not owning up to it.

Sitwell also makes the interesting observation that London after the first world war was an exciting place to be, quite unlike London after the second world war which was dull & drab. I suppose the difference being that while the first war killed a lot more Englishmen than the second, the second did a lot more damage to London and more or less finished off the work of the first war in destroying the UK as a world power. There was still money about after the first war while after the second we were broke.

Maybe it made a difference that Sitwell was twenty five years older the second time around; no longer a young bounder and with his glory days long past.

PS: having just stumbled across reference 3, I should report that the Forestry Commission (Alice Holt) have now got back to me. The damage reported is not ash die back (chalara) and is almost certainly the result of some combination of frost, drought and grey squirrels. I had forgotten about the damage that these last can do to trees in the spring: I suppose that they must be sucking the sugary rising sap at a time when there is not much else about to eat. See reference 4.

Reference 1: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=poacher.

Reference 2: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/beamer.html.

Reference 3: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/tree-problem.html.

Reference 4: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/twittering.html.