Despite the poor summer weather this year we have several ripe figs.
Certainly not as many as many as usual but what we have are delicious.
Still on the subject.I don't read fiction stories very often. I much prefer to read fact and learn from my reading. Sue reads 'factual' novels about Royalty and the famous, a friend gave her a book about John Tradescant the Plantsman of Tradescantia and Virginia Creeper fame.
Why don't you read it she said, it's about a real person and these authors have been to University they study and research the subject and the novels are as near to fact as you can get, they become famous for their writing.
OK we were on holiday so I read it, soon JT was portrayed as some sort of buffoon, which I don't think he would have been. Then he returned to England from Virginia in the Spring and in his garden the Cherry, Plum and Fig Trees were in Blossom in the fruit garden.
Oh yes? No one has ever seen a Fig tree in blossom not even Jesus (check the Bible). Any book about a great Plantsman should be better researched than that. Surely they could get proof read by someone who knows a little about the subject.
The author might as well then told me that JT returned to Virginia on a Boing 747 in the 17th Century that would be just as non-factual.
I then moved on to another book. Sue had read it and told me that the main character was a lady who produced Sun Dials. The Author used a few terms that she had fished out to make it plausible.
So, well into the story the character made a Sun Dial for the Local Police Station Wall and delivered it to a Female Detective Sargent's home. They went outside to look at it. "It was 3 Feet by 4 Feet by 2 Inches thick Solid Grey Stone". How the Dickens did she get that there I thought.
Later the Female Detective was delivering the Sun Dial to the 'Nick' she stopped off in a Cafe and the Sun Dial attracted some attention, "she wished she had wrapped it".
I should think a Female walking down the road with a 4 Foot by 3 Foot by 2 inches thick slab of stone would have attracted a bit of attention.
I had been chatting earlier to an English guy who was a Builder and part time Lecturer on the subject.
I asked him 'any idea what a slab of stone that size would weigh'?
'Yes' he said 'that is twice the size of a 3 by 2 Paving Slab and there are 16 of those to the Ton.'
So we have these Ladies walking down the street, single handedly carrying, popping into a Cafe with a slab of stone 4 Foot by 3 Foot by 2 Inches thick that weighs at least two and a half Hundredweight!
Cover price of the book £8.99, to have your intelligence insulted. Again surely the lovey dovey folk who helped with the book that get a mention in front pages should have used their grey matter and picked that one up.
Why would a local 'Nick' need a Sun Dial that big?
