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:
