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Hmmm…

HottyTottyGirl picked Julian Sands in the Dead Pool, the actor who went missing on a hike in January.

His remains have now been found. He vanished on the 13th of January. She picked him a week later, on the 20th. I’m inclined to call that a Rule 0 violation.

But wait.

She argues that she has picked him in every Dead Pool ever since. I checked and she has.

Considering there was an excellent chance his body would never be found – or, if found, it was likely to cause Rule 0 issues – I call that an admirable commitment to a pick. Bordering on foolhardy.

HottyTottyGirl is no stranger to anomalous Dead Pools, of course. You might remember Round 161, where she picked “the Pope” and then had to clarify because there were two of the bastards alive at that point and one of them croaked. Uncle Al probably feels robbed there, as he carefully enumerated his pope one pick later.

Then there was Round 160, where Jerry Lee Lewis was declared dead, then declared alive, and then declared dead again. Our girl nipped in at Stage Two.

Still, I have a warm spot for eccentricity. They can’t time a six month old death with any accuracy. I choose to believe Julian Sands had ten days frolicking in the January sunshine on the slopes of Mt Baldy and declare it a win.

It is much too late for a Dead Pool today – so listen up, all you slebs. You have a week to croak and take yourselves out of the Pool.

Have a good weekend!

p.s. I’m astonished to learn thefritz’s sister is a forensic pathologist. That was my dream job, once.

June 30, 2023 — 6:36 pm
Comments: 16

Cousin Spotty!

My cousin sent me this picture. She took it in a museum in Barbados. We are, in fact, related to Alexander Spotswood, a thing we keenly remember because our grandfather – an amateur painter with more enthusiasm than talent – made a copy of this portrait.

It hung in our grandparents’ house. We called him Cousin Spotty.

Wikipedia do say:

Alexander Spotswood (12 December 1676 – 7 June 1740) was a British Army officer, explorer and lieutenant governor of Colonial Virginia; he is regarded as one of the most significant historical figures in British North American colonial history.

Oh, I see. The “most significant historical figures” part is a good indication Cousin Spotty was some kind of distant cousin. My grandfather, bless him, was a terrible clout chaser.

I’ll have to ask my cousin. Some years ago, her daughter did the deep dive necessary to join the DAR.

I’d join myself, but it’s not exactly a prestige organization in Jollye Olde.

June 29, 2023 — 6:49 pm
Comments: 9

Naughty girl

I thought I’d lost my last hen today. She vanished for hours. Then we heard a soft clucking behind the sofa…

I’m sure she laid an egg back there, but it’s one of those hidden places that has become a maze of unnavigable junk. We’ll find it when it gets smashed some day, I suppose.

Have you spotted what is interesting about this photo? I caught her nictitating membrane halfway across her eye.

It’s easy to see in chickens. They do a sort of double-blink, where their inner eyelid comes across right before their outer eyelids close.

That’s a drowsy chicken. Alert chickens don’t blink.

June 28, 2023 — 7:02 pm
Comments: 4

The most English thing ever

Growing flowers in wellington boots. Spotted at a village fete over the weekend.

Not much else of interest. Oh, except I met the sister of the cow I met last year at this show. My friend from last year is almost all growed up and ready to be a milk cow.

p.s. my village won the boules contest last night. w00t!

p.p.s. going to go sit in the garden and wait for Chicken Bed Time.

June 27, 2023 — 8:24 pm
Comments: 5

“Balls!” cried the queen

“If I had two I’d be king!”

I don’t really know what that means. I used to work with a man who shouted it from time to time.

Anyway, it’s not balls, it’s boules. There’s a match tonight between us and the next village over. Time was, villages would beat each other up for being foreigners. I guess this is an improvement.

Me, I’m not into team sports. I’m only going for the beer.

June 26, 2023 — 6:30 pm
Comments: 9

Ohmygosh, I haven’t posted, have I?

We went to a party tonight. We had a very nice time on a very nice Summer’s night, but I meant to post before we left.

Oh, well. Have a look at this kitty. This is not my kitty, but it looks so much like my kitty that I stopped and did a double take when spotted it just outside my office door this afternoon.

All black and whites kind of look alike, but you know your own when you see it. Especially as mine is super fat. This is as close as it would let me come.

Have a good weekend!

June 23, 2023 — 8:09 pm
Comments: 11

This was unexpected

I forgot about this – I ran across this pic flicking through my photos just now. I took it on my birthday this year, when we dined at my favorite fish and chips restaurant.

You might wonder what an altarpiece is doing in a fish and chips shop. I did, so I asked. The owner saw a crew demolishing a church and spotted it. He asked for it, they gave it to him. Cornwall, I think it was.

I believe it’s granite, late 19th C. It props up a bookshelf now; probably some kind of sacrilege.

Speaking of sacrilege – I’m about to make a quiche Lorraine from scratch for the first time. Thoughts and prayers, please.

June 22, 2023 — 6:27 pm
Comments: 9

Happy Solstice!

We did not dance naked and saggy-titted around Stonehenge this morning, but I do believe we will sit in the garden this evening and drink wine in observance.

When I were a lass, every year I was hauled off by my grandmother and auntie to the rhododendron festival. Lordy, that was boring for a twelve-year old, but the two of them would stare in astonishment at one identical pink flower after another.

I came to the conclusion that nature, for old people, is a kind of hallucinogenic.

And here we are. The sun is shining, the temperature is just right, and all I ever want to do is be out in the garden pulling weeds or cutting back hedges or just staring at pink flowers with my mouth open.

I am old and tripping on nature.

June 21, 2023 — 5:54 pm
Comments: 9

Yes, it was

Spotted on a Sussex road. It was the color of Pepto-Bismol.

June 20, 2023 — 6:59 pm
Comments: 11

Party like it’s 1311…

Hawkhurst fete last Saturday. It was started by this guy, Edward II, in 1311, who gave the land to the Abbots of Battle for a yearly fair. Same field. So that’s cool.

Have I ever described what the typical village fete is like? They’re of a pattern.

You take a cricket ground or other communal field and all around the edges are tents selling stuff. Food (cupcakes, fudge, honey, burgers), crafts, tat, art. Local charities. Fairground games.

In the middle is a display area, usually roped off with bales of hay to sit on. The entertainments vary depending on the size of the site. Hawks or horses or antique tractors. A brass band.

The little village ones usually have a fun dog show, with categories like The Waggiest Tail and the Fastest Sausage Eater.

Hawkhurst fete is on the small side, but it forever has a warm spot in my heart. In 2021, it was the first local fete to get permission after the long months of lockdown. I couldn’t believe it – people were hugging and shaking hands and not masking and standing close to each other. It was like a dream.

I have to tell you, it got really weird here. Man, I wish I’d kept a diary.

June 19, 2023 — 7:20 pm
Comments: 13