A tarragon hunt

 

I have only been using the new iMac for emails and watching films in the evening, but much has happened in the week since I last posted.

All the Ash trees out at the workshop are dying. I wonder if the one above will survive another winter. I still miss the great Elms which used to luxuriate in the middle of fields not that long ago. Strange to think that Elm was the prime material for floorboards when Georgian Bath was built. Floorboards 20 inches wide were common, but now irreplaceable.

I was overjoyed when Jacob Rees-Mogg publicly stated that the Party shot itself in the foot by introducing voter photographic ID, believing that the disaffected youth would be the ones most likely to be turned away from the polling stations, whereas the true-blue Tory elderly are usually the section of the electorate without photographic evidence of themselves on anything other than bus passes, and are likely to have misplaced their passports. All of his fellow MPs have been lying about the motive as usual, despite there having been just one case of fraud in the last election, so it is refreshing to hear an admission like this from a high-ranker for a change.

A family of robins have fledged from a precarious nest over my head in the workshop and the place seems a bit empty without them. At least the weather has improved so that I can work outside again. It has been cold and wet since last Autumn.

I am soon to be working for a famous pop star on a shell canopy (if you know what that is) over the front door of his Jacobean (in parts) house. I have always wanted to make one from scratch, but have never been asked.

Today I will head out into the wonderful sunshine on the hunt for fresh tarragon. I need it for a roast chicken but there seems to have been a shortage recently. I don't think it is a seasonal thing, because it is grown all over the place. I will forget Waitrose - which is falling apart anyway - and head for M&S, which is having a bit of a revival - in the food department, anyway.