RIP, Barbara Taylor Bradford, glamorous to the end.
It's a "snippets post" again today, dear reader...
Bastard weed trees news: Thanks to the banal "outrage on social media" about the vandals who chopped down a tree that was seen in a film, its saplings are being distributed across the country for charity. If any of them gets planted in or near someone's garden, they'll regret it. We spend months every year digging the clag and seedlings those weeds leave behind from our pots!
- I'm a Gnu no more: One of Britain's most recognisable brands, Typhoo Tea has gone into administration after 121 years.
Royal memorabilia news: Bits of old curtain material from Windsor Castle have been used to cover footstools, that are up for auction for the King's Foundation charity.
- Longevity news: RIP Liverpudlian John Tinniswood, who was the world's oldest man at 112 - born in the same year as the sinking of the Titanic!
- Desecration of Medieval history news: Both Smithfield meat market in Farringdon (established in at least 1174) and Billingsgate fish market (founded in Tudor times, and relocated to Canary Wharf in 1982) are being closed down for good by the City of London Corporation. All in the name of "progress" [= "money"]. Tragic.
- Monumental news: The refurbishment work on the magnificent Gothic cathedral Notre-Dame de Paris has been completed, five years after the fire that destroyed huge parts of the building, and it will re-open to the public on 8th December. At least the French care about history.
- And finally - Gnome rave news: A garden gnome made of Ecstasy (MDMA) was discovered in a drugs raid in the Netherlands. As the article says: "Possibly the only lawn ornament in the world that’ll make you hug strangers". Madam Arcati's "Donny" is on a high as we speak!
And the weather? Finally quite mild after the wintry storms of late.
Speaking of gnomes:
Finding ecstasy with a garden gnome. Who’d-a thunk it! What a shame about those Medieval markets. I see Smithfield will be part of the relocated London Museum. But Billingsgate will be simply more expensive real estate. I hope Typhoo survives.
ReplyDeleteThe Museum of London's only taken a small part of the Smithfields site that was already largely derelict, not the bulk of that grand Victorian architectural gem - the fate of which will be, much like Covent Garden, a dreadful mess of pointless tourist-trap shops and crappy "art", no doubt. Jx
DeleteI prefer Yorkshire tea, served in a 'brown betty' teapot. eeee shall I be Mam? As for Barbara Taylor Bradford that painting above the fireplace speaks volumes, you can take the girl out of Leeds, but you can't take the Leeds out of the girl.
ReplyDeleteI thought you might have something to say about her domestic - ahem - "taste", Mitzi! She was Yorkshire's answer to Barbara Cartland in many respects... Jx
DeleteWell that explains Donny's odd behaviour and all of the rave music late at night in the garden.
ReplyDeleteHa!! Jx
DeleteI was sad to read about Billingsgate and Smithfield. I worked near the old Billingsgate site, and my dad swore it smelt of fish for years after it was relocated! I also remember Leadenhall Market before it was turned into just another shopping mall - there use to be a shop that specialised in Champagne - and I remember pheasants being strung up outside another - and there was fruit and veg. All gone now.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, maybe those trees are best left with me in the countryside - they probably need space to do their thing!
Sx
Old Billingsgate is now some kind of poncy "events venue", I believe - fishy smell or no fishy smell. That's where that bloke went loopy and stabbed two people before running up to the bridge, wasn't it?
DeleteLeadenhall's almost as tacky as Covent Garden, Spitalfields or Borough Market these days. It, like all such markets/shopping centres, now mainly consists of food and drink outlets. Jx
Europe( that's probably too broad a statement!) ...let me be more specific... really good markets can, I think, still be found in some places. Certainly France, Italy Holland leave the land of Aus for dead!
ReplyDeleteOh, there are a few street markets (and even a few indoor ones) dotted around the capital that are still authentic, but the big chain supermarkets are undermining them right, left and centre. Unfortunately. Jx
DeleteA chap in Portobello Road sold the best chickens, fresh-killed and, if you were a friendly regular, he had a selection of herbs. (Several kinds[wink!wink!])
ReplyDeleteAh, Portobello Road before the gentrification of Notting Hill..! Jx
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