Boadicea's Chariot

I just found this comment on the BBC Olympics website.

“I think we should start a new campaign called ‘Hug an Aussie’. After their dire performance to date – finishing second to the Poms – they don’t even have cricket to fall back on. Go on, find your nearest Antipodean cousin, give them a big hug and tell them not to worry as it’s the taking part that matters. They will thank you for it.”

Consider yourselves hugged.

What you need is a business where your customers prepay for your services by buying tokens. Print a load of tokens with all the right pictures on so that people will never use them. In Harry Enfields words…. “loadsa money”

Good one, innit?   🙂

The damn BBC commentators at the Olympics, (are we allowed to write that word?) are murdering the lass’s name each time they try to say it. Is it to much to ask that people who work for our flagship broadcaster pronounce people’s names properly? It’s Jessica. Ennis. You illiterate oafs.

On the other hand, I have just finished watching the BBC Shakespeare series, ‘The Hollow Crown, and, you know what? That was worth the licence fee for this year. The series covers the four plays from Richard II to Henry V and it is superb – I cannot recommend it highly enough. The production, locations and cast make Shakespeare highly ‘accessible’ without any need to dumb down the language or make any other alterations to allow people to ‘relate’ to it.

I do urge you to get hold of it – all four parts can be downloaded if you don’t have access to BBC iPlayer 🙂

I realise that this book has been around for some time now, but I’ve only just discovered it.  It’s Virgin Earth by Philippa Gregory and it should appeal to historians who enjoy gardening and gardeners who like a bit of history.  So I thought quite a few Charioteers might enjoy it, if they don’t already know it.

The book is based on the life of John Tradescant the Younger and is set during the English Civil War. [ There is an earlier volume based on the life of John Tradescant the Elder, entitled Earthly Joys.]  Part of the action is set in Virginia round the new colony of Jamestown, detailing the initial friendship and subsequent animosity between the English settlers and the native Powhatan Indians, the tribe to which Pocahontas belonged.  The Indians cannot believe how much territory the settlers are claiming, driving them ever farther inland.  But tobacco is a lucrative crop and more and more land is granted to new settlers.

In England Charles I is making more and more of a mess of trying to rule his subjects.  He gives his word and then immediately reneges on it. He has a shrewish French wife, which doesn’t help.  Tradescant, as royal gardener has the opportunity to see the king and queen at close quarters.  Of course Oliver Cromwell doesn’t emerge with flying colours either and neither does the turncoat General Monk.

There is no S&M, not much sex at all really, so no comparison with “Fifty Shades of Grey”, but I enjoyed reading it and the idea that so many of our plants, now taken for granted, came across the Atlantic packed in barrels and sprayed with sea water is quite amazing.

Chairs have been much on my mind the last few days. With more living space we’ve had to buy extra furniture – and I’ve been looking for new seating. I found just the thing – a huge round almost two seater. I’m not sure that Bearsy likes it – but I do!

I wanted to set a competition with a subject that anyone could find in their own home – and I remembered this painting. It’s always amazed me that a picture of an uncomfortable chair can be ‘worth’ a fortune.

So the competition this time is a photo of a chair – as artistically arranged as you can make it!

The deadline is  12.00 midnight UK time Saturday 18th of August.