WTF-Beta

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/18tnXYfQyZ/

Probably birds if no sign of mammals. They like seeds. Though the photo looks like the flower heads have been chomped.
Chipmunks?

We had some Kelly's Cornish last weekend which guests brought. Vegetarian, no additives I believe.
https://www.kellysofcornwall.co.uk/at-the-parlour/
Everybody liked it a lot. Very creamy and satisfying

Three days of near 30c and I'm mostly just sprawled on a sofa watching daytime tv

I think a little venison goes a long way

Does my head in🤪 whereas the study sketch he drew in preparation is amazing

It is quite warm, but hey, it is our May Bank Holiday.

28c in the living room (and garage) which are on the south side of our house.

22c in the sitting room where I am with piano on the NW corner.

Unbearable outside in the sun at 4pm when I went out to lock the gates.

No sellotape but I like the softer toned pianos and slightly faster tempo

Dont like the last arpeggio being differently major when it is left effectively minor by Chopin? But who am I to doubt either of the masters.

Sellotape...

Nope, just printed the pdf. Could you recommend/link your favourite YouTube version for me to listen?
Off to find some sellotape...

This one ?

Of its period, and size notwithstanding will make somebody happy.

@axtremus
You want pedals?

https://www.zinio.com/gb/article/country-life/may-20-2026-i702234/country-house-treasures-a65

Play a bit of Fats Waller in the morning

Just been reading about this evocative painting

I reckon its worth visiting Hampton Uni (Va) to see it

It's one way of drawing a line of some sort after Hamas murdered 3 Brits and 11 Americans along with another 1300.
We can't punish everyone who participated, but the leaders of such a massacre ought not escape.

What now? I can't imagine anything good happening soon.

Fab present. Happy birthday

I read the Israelis finally got the remaining terrorist leader who planned and executed the 7th Oct 2023 massacres:
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/gaza-mosques-announce-death-hamas-military-leader-after-israeli-targeting-claim-2026-05-16/

Maybe the location? Or the layout? Certainly the ballroom might be perfect for a piano.

If you get the magazine 'Country Life' in the States, the latest has a property section of places for sale in Cornwall/Devon/ Somerset/Dorset.

Simply spectacular homes, ignore the cost 🤪.

This one caught my eye, the house, the location, land and views:
https://bluebookagency.com/properties/redlap-house-2/

And it's on the market with its 'gatehouse':
https://www.onthemarket.com/details/14609813/

Wtg Waxwings are winter visitors but I still have to see them.

Your gnomes look right at home

Thanks for posting this WTG.

Whitby, Jarrow(Bede etc) are local history to me so very interesting.
Speaking the poem I struggle to find the rhyme though.

Can you imagine how she felt reading it online in her office, the excitement!
I've held older Egyptian writing on papyrus and it's difficult, even strange, imagining the writer and how it survived over 2000 years. Even turning the pages of an illustrated bible from 1400 gives a reflective feeling similar to looking up at the stars.

I find our history fascinating, the bloody struggle that was life for the vast majority, and the need for meaning, for god.

In the UK Christianity was a cult the Romans initially brought, but the Saxons effectively removed it from the East (& most) of Britain.

This poem dates from the beginnings of the celtic form of Christianity that came via Ireland/Scotland with Aiden of Iona, who settled in Lindesfarne (Holy Island) in the early 600's and spread the word southwards, founding notable abbeys at Tyneside Jarrow, Monkwearmouth, Durham, Hartlepool, Whitby, and York.
York became the Northern centre that Canterbury was in the South.
This was only a few years after Augustine (I think from the Roman Gregorian? form) settled in Canterbury circa 600. There's still a bit of the very old Canterbury church, a wall, to be seen. There's a very old oak stave wall at Greenstead too, from 900AD, oldest wooden building in Europe and a very attractive church.

However to see one of the very first, still mostly original, most complete, stone churches extant from this great missionary era, visit Escomb near to Durham.
Not much to it but has a great feel. Shows the simple room/building built for worship back then, built 670AD.

But I digress

We are now the elder generation of our families though we have couple of older cousins and I have an older sister.
It is a milestone

Our friends like us hopefully have a decade or two

A lovely book containing amusing and thoughtful poems that will delight any gardener.

If you can find it! I've failed to find another copy to buy worldwide...
My 50p thrift shop copy looked near mint in its dust jacket, but on opening the book the 1994 spine binding is terrible quality. Cracked, repaired, come away from the hard cover again, a page loose. Close it and it looks fine again