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Chutes and Ladders Day
It's been a day with particularly high ups and low downs.
Starting with the bad news, I've found out that the funky looking growth on one of my rosebushes is actually a very bad, very infectious disease that they say is so awful that you not only have to immediately root out and burn//bag with nothing else the bush, but you can't put another one in the ground for at least 2 years.
Although I am at best a neglectful gardener, I started populating that strip of land with imported roses when I moved in over a dozen years ago. They were all David Austen roses with Shakespearean names. (Sweet Juliet has the nicest tea rose scent, while Rosalind has a medieval beauty.) The voles got about half of 'em, but the rest have triumphed over adversity, including the really impressive one that still blooms profusely every spring even though the voles ate 2/3 of its roots and it's only being held upright by the bush behind it.
Three of the plantings are showing the infection; the whole area's going to have to be rooted up. I'm most likely going to simply pave it over at this point; cover it with crushed rock and decorative stones and try roses again elsewhere after the 2-year ban has passed.
(We would discover this just as the area finally goes into summer's killing heat. Just what I wanted to do in 90+ degree heat, rip up long-established plants and jockey large pieces of slate & granite.)
On the upside, I've discovered what to do with my cache of odd coins: give them to this guy to do his thing. I've already ordered a couple of coins from him. I'd like to wear the shilling to Sherlockian events (a shilling is the most-often-mentioned coin in canon) but probably won't dare to as that will probably seem like I've presumptuously invested myself in the BSI. However, I did make sure that I was buying a George shilling so I can wear it to Discworld events, as it is literally "the King's shilling."
My non-painted coin collection includes 6 shillings & sixpence. If I get 5 more shillings (either singly or as two-shilling coins), I can make a necklace worth Watson's monthly army pension. But that is probably way, way, WAAAAAAYYYYY more geeky than necessary.
Starting with the bad news, I've found out that the funky looking growth on one of my rosebushes is actually a very bad, very infectious disease that they say is so awful that you not only have to immediately root out and burn//bag with nothing else the bush, but you can't put another one in the ground for at least 2 years.
Although I am at best a neglectful gardener, I started populating that strip of land with imported roses when I moved in over a dozen years ago. They were all David Austen roses with Shakespearean names. (Sweet Juliet has the nicest tea rose scent, while Rosalind has a medieval beauty.) The voles got about half of 'em, but the rest have triumphed over adversity, including the really impressive one that still blooms profusely every spring even though the voles ate 2/3 of its roots and it's only being held upright by the bush behind it.
Three of the plantings are showing the infection; the whole area's going to have to be rooted up. I'm most likely going to simply pave it over at this point; cover it with crushed rock and decorative stones and try roses again elsewhere after the 2-year ban has passed.
(We would discover this just as the area finally goes into summer's killing heat. Just what I wanted to do in 90+ degree heat, rip up long-established plants and jockey large pieces of slate & granite.)
On the upside, I've discovered what to do with my cache of odd coins: give them to this guy to do his thing. I've already ordered a couple of coins from him. I'd like to wear the shilling to Sherlockian events (a shilling is the most-often-mentioned coin in canon) but probably won't dare to as that will probably seem like I've presumptuously invested myself in the BSI. However, I did make sure that I was buying a George shilling so I can wear it to Discworld events, as it is literally "the King's shilling."
My non-painted coin collection includes 6 shillings & sixpence. If I get 5 more shillings (either singly or as two-shilling coins), I can make a necklace worth Watson's monthly army pension. But that is probably way, way, WAAAAAAYYYYY more geeky than necessary.
no subject
The enamelled coins are lovely - there are a number of people who do that here, and sell at craft fairs (the Irish and Australian coin designs make particularly beautiful jewellery).
I keep finding odd old pre-decimal coins around the house - if I did up any shillings I'll try to remember you (can't guarantee Victoria ones though).
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It does confuse people that the shilling was worth twelve old pence but only 5 new pence. (A the florin/two shillings was technically the first British decimal coin as there were ten to the pound.)
This is one of the (many) things that Connie Willis gets wrong in her wartime books.
no subject
This is one of the (many) things that Connie Willis gets wrong in her wartime books.
I've been sort of avoiding her wartime books even though (American) people say they're thrilling because I've heard so many British people bitching about her total lack of basic historical research.
... well, that and the whole "somehow people of the future have advanced technology but cannot get a message through in any medium even though this audience has phones/answering machines/cell phones/texting/email" that the plots all seem to be based on.