Noticing a lot of roses up about - for example in the front garden of one of the newer houses on the left when coming into West Ewell from Chessington - thought we had better go to Hampton Court to catch the roses there. They were indeed in very fine fettle and I particularly liked one of the species roses, of which they had several, maybe three feet high and spreading, with a lot of pink and white flowers something less than two inches across. There were also some very good, florid & floppy floribundas, perhaps a little past their best, but they must have been spiffing a few days ago.
Onto the formal gardens beyond the first checkpoint, where the beds were all up and running for the forthcoming flower show: the gardeners had put on their consistently good show. Nice variety of design with some bright and formal, others more subdued and with a sort of studied informality. Informality peaking beyond the second checkpoint in the small knot garden of which BH did not approve. Contrary, I rather liked it. We wondered how many of the plants were bought in from the Netherlands; I dare say in the olden days they used to grow their own but I would be surprised if the accountants would wear that these days. There was also quite a herd of volunteer gardeners dead-heading the roses, something else which would not have happened in the olden days: a job for the apprentices (the lack of which is held by the Guardian to account to our poor performance relative to the Germans).
Back home to an interesting article in NYRB about guns in the US. Point 1: a great many people own guns in the US and most of them are normal. It is probably unhelpful for liberal papers to talk about them all of them, without much distinction, as gun nuts. They need to show a bit of respect and to engage, not confront. Point 2: a great many guns are already in circulation and driving their number down is going to be a long haul. Point 3: all the blather about assault rifles is a bit off target. The great majority of guns in the US are handguns, the ownership of which has recently been confirmed to be a constitutional right. This is not going to change any time soon. Point 4: the great majority of gun deaths are in rough inner city suburbs, many of them involving black people. Numbers pushed up by poverty in general and by the illegality of recreational drugs in particular. And this is not going to change any time soon either. But there are some things that one can do at the margin, for example tightening up the checks on people buying guns. A bit of education about responsible gun ownership. All a bit depressing really; they have got themselves into a bad hole without a ladder in sight.
Onto to the dead flies, not seen for some months, maybe not since the post of 21st September 2012 in the other place. Making chicken soup as usual, from the remains of a coppice reared and beetle fed chicken from Waitrose. About half way through the proceedings added a couple of ounces of red lentils to the stock. Probably been in the jar for a while and no idea no which of the big three they came from - but at least that jar is now empty. Simmer stock for a while then move onto the white cabbage, the soft noodles, the chicken and the mushrooms. Serve and notice a modest number of dead flies floating on the surface, luckily not so many as to put us off our strokes.
I have tried raising this with customer service points at least twice without getting any response beyond the 'thank you so much for your enquiry, your views are really important to us and we will get back to you just as soon as we can' sort of thing. Nothing helpful or honest, like 'yes you are going to get bugs in grains and pulses if you store them too long. Nothing much to be done about it other than turn them over. Quite harmless when cooked'. Don't think I can be bothered to try them again.
Foyles used to carry books about this sort of thing but no longer, so maybe I shall just have to wait until I bump into a food storage specialist. . Or maybe I will have to work on Google: there is, for example, a good if unsuccessful effort at http://www.daff.qld.gov.au/26_5990.htm.
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