The radio playing 'God Bless the Prince of Wales' before the seven am news broadcast. I didn't know they still did this . A charming, if archaic. constitutional touch. It's a song that's only trotted out , briefly , once a year :https://youtu.be/u7-7raW374g?t=10 I wonder how many listeners know what it is .
Over breakfast 'The Font' reads an article about two British men found dead in a burnt out rental car in Malmo. The presumption - although it isn't stated - is they were either drug or arms dealers. We learn that the gun murder rate in Stockholm is now 30x that of London on a per capita basis. Svenska Dagbladet goes on to inform us that Sweden now has Europes 2nd highest gun crime death rate after Albania.
For us a day with nothing to do. No deliveries, no visitors.
The garden in a local castle is open to the public. In a gap in the rain we head off to see how the flower beds are holding up under the cold and unusually wet weather.
The gardeners are growing gooseberries in a huge fruit cage. Angus thinks they are bitter things that no amount of sugar can sweeten. It goes without saying 'The Font' likes them. 'The Font' also adores Lingonberries which can best be described as tasting like Camay. Thankfully, Lingonberries don't seem to grow in the UK and remain pretty much a Swedish delicacy.
On our way home the clouds become heavier. The horizon turns dark grey then black. We opt to go to the 5 star hotel down the road for a coffee. The outside patio, usually teaming with visiting golfers, is empty. This is not altogether surprising. Within minutes the rain arrives.
The hotel was originally owned by a company from Braselton, Georgia. They've now moved on and sold the property to a French firm. The hotel has an atrium the size of Kansas. Half of it is used to serve breakfast. The other half sits forlorn and empty bearing testimony to an overly optimistic forecast for tourism that failed to materialise. https://www.chateauelan.com/ Heating an atrium like this in a Scottish winter costs more than the GDP of many small African states. The Atlanta based architects didn't seem to understand the local climate.
11 comments:
The analysis of Germany's status with regard to Russia is very interesting as are many of the comments. Thanks for posting the link.
But today is not the Prince of Wales' birthday. It's the Queen's
The article on Germany and Europe is alarming. The assertion that in future the USA, irrespective of who is president, will be less inclined to arm Europe, seems highly probable. As for the rest of the analysis, that's perhaps beyond my pay grade.
For now, I'll settle for wondering about the cost of a coffee in the empty 5 star hotel. Less than 2% of Angus's personal GDP, I hope!
Cheers, Gail.
Potty - Thank you for explaining this mornings radio music !
Ruth - The rticle is interesting but seems to ignore the fact that Germany has an election in 2025 and until then is unlikely to do anything.
My grandmother made a wonderful gooseberry pie - when she could find gooseberries. A fond memory of childhood.
I'm glad you posted the article about bee populations and whether they are declining or not. I choose to believe we have to do everything possible to keep bees healthy. In my opinion, spraying neonicotinoid pesticides all over our produce is devastating for bees. Even though this recent study seemed to indicate that bee colony numbers are improving, the flaws in the study were pretty clear. I will continue to worry about the plight of bees.
Just to be completely superficial, the gardens at the castle are beautiful
The blue delphiniums make my heart sing.
Those gooseberries are BEAUTIFUL !
Good gooseberries can't be beaten (by anything) there are lots of less than good ones. The garden is beautiful (delphs - wow), and who would have thought (or believe) that statistic about gun crime in Sweden of all places!
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