The Fallen Giant

The Fallen Giant, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Here is the fallen tree, showing the size of its girth next to Mum. Apparently the beeches up there are between 150-200 years old, making them older than the Republic of Italy! We walked over Brincombe Hill to view the two fallen trees this morning before doing some shopping for the day ahead. And how delicious?

Lunch was local veined Cheddar on a poppyseed loaf, to be followed for dinner by fish pie, with smoked haddock, prawns and bolied eggs in a white sauce accompanied by mashed potato and broad beans, from Mum's allotment! Yum, yum. A special treat for me, as Mum knows that the only fish I eat at home are fish figers on the occasions when Fred is not at home. Fish pie used to be a favourite of mine in the 1970's in Beaconsfield when due to the costs of feeding a growing family with four children, we had to forego cod for coley. The fishmonger on Crewkerne High Street had fresh cod for sale and I was quite shocked to hear that this was over eleven pounds a kilo, when in the 70's it was already expensive at about a pound a pound, so maybe I shouldn't have been too suprised. At least in those days the cod were a decent size but it seems they have been so overfished that all the big ones have been caught.

I suppose I ought to mention that the horses didn't quite run the way I expected, with Hardy Eustace just being run out of third place in the Champion Hurdle in the last stride, where the big disappointment was the showing of the very strong favourite Detroit City, who was just not having his day. New Alco ended up being favourite in his race but made no show (well, actually, according to the results, he came in 6th, just out of the placings, his chance of doing better having been ruinbed by the quickening ground) in a race won by his 50-1 stable companion Joe's Edge in a very exciting three-way photo-finish. Finally, I thought I had a small bet on Le Duc at 9-1 in the fifth race. He came 3rd, so when I went to look at how much my internet betting account was credited, it showed NO BET. It seemed as if I had forgotten to click on the CONFIRM button before going down town to watch the race at the bookies. Oh well, I might have won three pounds if I had been lucky!