Monday April 04, 2005

Holyport and two millenium sundials

Did a walk from Holyport Saturday. A lovely day I even ventured out in my summer shorts. The walk started on the green where a millenium sundial has been installed. If you look carefully you can see what time we started from the shadow of the man's bat on the dial. The walk took us away from the village and soon we passed a flooded ditch. My eagle eyed wife spotted this snake swimming in the ditch. It was either an adder or a grass snake, I think it is too small for an eel.

Meanwhile things went badly wrong for the walk. Despite following the instructions we knew we were not where we should be. A quick chat with a friendly local and we were back on track. The book we were using was the one that caused us trouble last week . We have no excuse this week as we have a good map of the area. Next time we do a walk from this book I will dry run it first I think.

On returning to the green we saw another millenium sundial on the side of a house. The words on this sundial mean "Make haste slowly; don't be impetuous." A lesson there for us today perhaps. We popped into the pub on the green called "the George" where I had a passable baguette with ham and tomato. My wife's coffee came in the smallest tea style cup imaginable ! They could have given her a refill. I fear I won't be adding them to my recommended pubs in the Good pub guide

Back home I did some summer preparation work in the garden. The terracotta pots were taken out of the shed, filled with compost and the overwintered geraniums put in. I reuse last years compost but put some liquid feed in the water. Same for the fuschias. It is still too early to put them outside. The banana was pruned and the old brown leaves removed. I have put my seeds for chilli and basil in the propagator. In the garden itself I started giving daffodills that have flowered a feed to boost their energy supplies in their bulbs. ( Apr 04 2005, 04:00:22 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [0]

Bharain GP

A more interesting race I think on Sunday caused by attrition and some good overtaking. Alonso sealed his second win of the season in style while Ferrari's gamble of using the 2005 car failed to bear fruit. A lot of drivers had the chance of stepping on the podium but in the end Mclaren took third with Trulli in a Toyota again an impressive second. DC did well to claim a point overtaking a struggling Rubens on the last lap. Schumi senior fell off the road after his first mechanical failure for three and a half years. An amazing record.

Teams who did well.

Toyota with a second and fourth did very well. Gasgoigne has the team working well around him. Lets hope for Toyota's sake he does not get poached by another team.

Mclaren did ok with Kimi getting a well deserved third. De Rosa standing in for the monster (what injury was that again?) had a 'busy' race relearning his racecraft to claim fifth. The car is clearly fast but needs to do better during qualifying.

Renault can be pleased with Alonso's performance but Fisi's qualifying position and his engine failure will not help them win the constructors crown.

Teams that did badly.

Ferrari made a big mistake bringing the new car to a race where attrition would have helped them get some points if they used last years car. At least Barricello finished.

BAR who's fortunes have turned turtle could have got points from both drivers except failures let them down. Button who lost places after trying to overtake Fisi was recovering well and was managing his brakes but retired after clutch failure. Sato's brakes burned out.

William's who had both drivers in the points lost one to engine failure and Webber just ended up going backwards loosing his first podium.

Other stuff.

Ferrari had the black nose jobs for the pope and Trulli being Italian had a mention for him on his helmet. De La Rosa showed how test drivers can loose their racecraft keeping us constantly amused in his overtaking. In three weeks time we are back to Europe with Imola. A lot of testing and hard work before then. A last interesting last point. Finishing well clearly sets you up for the next race. If you fail to finish or are near the end of the pack you end up going out on a green track for qualifying at the next GP which at a race like this one is tantamount to disaster. One funny final story. Heidfeld was interviewed after his race was cut short. "No champagne this race" the interviewer said to him( he was on the podium last time). "No champagne in Bharain here anytime", Nick accurately replied...