We are conjured not to release goldfish into rivers because it is either very bad for local ecosystems of indigenous wildlife or fatal for the goldfish, or both. That is why that fish is still in our lives.
When I was a child (of five and six and seven, I suppose) there was a place on the Thames near Pangbourne where someone called Child Beale (who later absent-mindedly drove a Rolls Royce into Caversham Lock, and had to give up driving at the age of about 95), which I don’t think was his real name, kept Shetland ponies, and peacocks, and a vast collection of marble gravestones and other memorials which came from disused graveyards; he had somehow managed to net off a small bit of the Thames as if it were an oxbow lake, and in it there were some massive “goldfish” which he had released there but made sure would go no further by blocking off their exits; one could (if one’s mother happened to know him and go there to discuss various charitable objectives they were both involved in) feed them fish-pellets, as well as taking one’s life in one’s hands and feeding the ponies, who unlike the fish did bite if one was not careful.
These days I am sure someone that age would not be allowed to wander off the the bank of the Thames quite alone to feed the fish, but back then my mother operated on “better drowned than duffers stop if not duffers won’t drown.”
I gather the trust set up there now keeps meerkats. I am sure Mr Beale would approve.
Thank you! I didn’t think I was imagining him, but “Child” is the sort of name someone gets given when young and then known by only if someone knows him; that makes the bloke hard to look up if all you know is the nickname.
Have you ever come across the work of Harriet Mead? She was one of our neighbours when we were renting a while ago. Link to just one of the galleries on her website.
There is something VERY ANNOYING about carefully sewing a 230cm straight seam and finding when you get to the end that the upper thread slipped out of the needle as you started and no actual sewing happened at all.
Thank you. At least it wasn’t one of the ones in the very middle, which involve a LOT of careful cloth-wrangling to fit into the sewing-machine at all.
I have done similar with the bobbin thread many times.
Sigh.
Hold about 4"of the threads in your left hand towards the back of the machine for the first few stitches until uou are sure that everything has ‘engaged’.
I have been busy assembling my Noo Tumbril.
The Gaffer tape & string/leather cord repair to the back wheels worked, but the front one had almost sheared orff, & it wasn’t strong enuff to hold it in an working position. It was actually quite dangerust, as it proved yesterday when it lorst all sense of direction & ran over my foot.
Anyhoo, an friend told me to expect an parcel this afternoon, & the Rolls Royce of Tumbrils was in the box!
It’s made of steel, with replaceable wheels, & looks as though it will hold at least 2 children, should I be mad enuff to try such a thing.
It has an padded ‘pram handle’ too, so I can continue to walk straight.
