I Only Asked for Flowers on My Grave, Not a Whole Tree …

Carrying on from yesterday's post, here's some of the work being done in the old cemetery.
It's all a bit of a mess at the moment, but after a century or more of neglect I'm sure most of us would look a little messy, too.
This bunch of headstones looks slightly startled to see daylight again and a little shy and unsure of being exposed.
I'm not sure why they're clearing it after all this time, but the parts they've completed certainly look a lot better. It did have a certain wild and overgrown charm before, though.

WTF Monday - Ears

If anyone wants to know where they can go dig up some ears, I can help.
I found this in a local cemetery that had been left to grow wild for a hundred and fifty years or so. Now they've started clearing away the trees to reveal lots of spooky debris.

More of that another day.

Meanwhile, Back at the Shoe Tree …

Still frosty and wintry here, dammit. About the only things that seem to be enjoying the cold are the shoe tree and the yarn ball tree.

Still Not Quite Spring

It was bloody cold on Cherry Walk this morning and only the very first few buds had burst. I stood and froze for almost fifteen minutes waiting for a tiny break in the clouds to give me about thirty seconds of sunshine for photography.

Most of the trees are still bare and only the most sheltered ones by St.Peter Mancroft tower are showing any sign of blossoming.

Lots of good buddy action, though. By next Saturday they'll all be over and the weather is set shitty for the week so this is all I'll be able to get this year. Hey ho.

The sun went in again almost as soon as it came out and then it was dark grey clouds and biting wind again. So much for the approach of May.

Still, there's always next year …

Just so we remember: this is how they should have looked three weeks ago (from a couple of years back).
Where do I go to get a refund on a faulty season?

Friday Morning Wood - City Hall

Car Porn Thursday - Going Bonkers With 350 Supercharged Horses

No cameras are allowed on site at Lotus, but with Phil around there's always a way of sneaking something.
This is me on Tuesday morning, having just enjoyed a fabulous session (thanks, Phil) of screaming, bonkers, foot-to-the-floor mayhem driving the awesome new Lotus Exige S around the test track (actually, it was more like hanging on for dear life while whooping ecstatically).
The Exige S is a 350BHP supercharged racing monster that weighs less than I do and is more fun to drive round a racetrack than anything I have done in fifty-four years. Yes, ANYTHING.

First up, we got a safety and track talk from our racing driver and instructor, John (and coffee and bickies). Then, one at a time, we headed out on to the race track with John in the passenger seat (I got to go first, yay) and he taught us the lines, the apex of each corner, the braking points and where to floor the pedal and rip your face off with the acceleration.
"Brake, Brake, Brake! Down into second. Stay to the left … Now hard right. Over the kerb and FULL THROTTLE!"
Yee and a hefty dollop of Haw!

The car is simply beyond amazing. Come off the top hairpin in second and floor it through the esses and the thing just keeps on accelerating like a maniac until at last John tells you to change up to third at over seven thousand revs (and what feels like seven thousand miles per hour). Woohoo! The supercharger means the torque is there at all speeds, with no annoying lag like you get with a turbo. The upshot being that you floor the pedal and scream with joy as the thing instantly leaps into hyperspace … and keeps on accelerating at an unbelievable rate! It is a seriously nutjob experience.

I have no idea how fast I was going each lap at the end of the long straight because taking my eyes off the rapidly approaching braking point to look at the speedo would have been suicidal.
Suffice to say it was faster than I've ever been in a car, by a long, long way.
And then I did it again. And again.

So … that's the rest of my life ruined. I now know I've wasted fifty four years not racing cars and I now know I must spend the rest of my life doing it again and again and again.

Fucking awesome!

Lunch With The Dead

Click on this to blow it up. It's really worth it.
The white cherry in St.Stephen's churchyard is always about a week earlier than the big. blowsy, pink Japanese cherries on Cherry Walk and yesterday lunchtime saw a woman brave (or foolish) enough to shiver through the freezing wind and enjoy a spot of lunch amid the gravestones.
This year's blossom is several weeks late but a really welcome sight nonetheless. The trees in Cherry Walk are still bare nekkid, but maybe if we get a sunny weekend … Watch this space.

Arboricultural Ejaculation

Last week's sticky-bud (here, if you don't recall it), has become this week's sexed up exhibitionist.

Your visual treat for the day: a horse chestnut with a boner. I love horse chestnuts. They have beautiful flowers, amusingly hand-like leaves and they give us conkers (yay). Plus, of course, any excuse to say "æsculus hippocastanum" out loud is to be treasured. Try to slip it into a phone conversation.

WTF Monday - Badger

I've seen my local MP and believe me, I really don't want to "badger" him.

Yesterday Morning

At last a sign that spring is on its way, even if it is two months late. Blue sky (though cold enough for a ground frost), Castle Blancheflower and a veil of beech buds.