Boarding @ Home: Day 78/84: Best Friends Day .. that's the social bubble then?

Are Tom and Jerry best friends? This has been one of the big queries this month in the build up to Best Friends Day in the USA and certainly India as well. The answer according to myriad posts is 'Yes'. The explanation offered is that Tom actually is fond of Jerry as a friend and vice versa. However, to protect Jerry since he is a rodent after all, Tom pretends to hate him and chase him in front of his owner. He does this to ensure that his master is fully aware of the hate he has for Jerry so that he does not replace him with another cat who will probably actually kill or harm Jerry. Answering the query: who are you best friends is potentially embarrassing; using the cartoon analogy is what we pseudo-psychologists call projection. Not long ago there was talk about allowing each family group to identify who they wanted to meet up with/ not simply ZOOM, you can do that with lots and no need to make choices! The notion was called 'social bubbles' but it never took off. Nonetheless it can be salutary to attempt it entre nous, même entre moi! My own short list, beyond of course our own families, came up with almost entirely women; so does Avril's I bet. If you're an 'american' like friend Joe, today is the cue to tell those Best Friends just how much and why you value their friendship. A typical suggestion for honouring longstanding friendship is to reminisce about shared experiences, holidays and fun/ laughter together. I know my problem being strongly subject to onolatry, excessive devotion to things foolish, is that fellow devotees break off as the folly becomes increasingly apparent.

Take Herbert - he ponders aloud are we busy fools at the Battle Trust? Whatever, as one might say, I wont tolerate slubbergullions, gobemouches, the pervicacious, facinorus or even the sequacious. My preference is those who are rhadamanthine with felicificability; and I'm well content in the company of those who are pareidolic. Which implies I wont tolerate slovenly, filthy individuals, the gullible, extremely obstinate, villainous or even the slavishly adherent acolyte. My preference is those who are strict and unswerving in judgement with a capacity for creating happiness; and I'm well content in the company of those who can see images in poorly structured fields like clouds or even tea leaves. That last point reflects my Team Management Index designation as an Assessor/ Developer - thanks Charles M and Dick McCann. That was a magic instrument even if not designed to create friendship circles. Its greatest value to me was always to create understanding of the other types and how to play to the strengths.

Avril's bookstall and garden fence. Not the palindromic picket fence I painted on its south side and for which we now have rollers to hand to lean over and paint the other side for the discerning cattle and sheep to enjoy; or neighbours with binoculars. The ex Gothenburg bar table has done us proud on the sidewalk along with one of many gigantic tapestry bags ordered and delivered when our chief Prestonpans Tapestry Stitcher, Dorie Wilkie, didn't know her radius from her circumference in 2010. A decade later they make excellent weatherproof overnight cover. Not only have some 30/40 books been passed along in exchange for £14+ and 2 jars of Betsy's fine marmalade; twice the family from old Mortimers/ 33 Rectory Lane opposite have added to our diminishing stocks - today it was a generous selection of young peoples books. You can see their 5 bar gate peeking through Avril's newly planted hawthorn hedge in the picture below next the to pinks. The fox gloves above look great in their different hues. But as well as the meagre income stream it's brought the intangibles - all manner of people, in fact almost everyone passing by, feels compelled to talk. We're deploying bibliotherapy during lockdown and it's even possible to elicit praise for our humble ever changing display of flowers. This week has seen the final sticks of rhubarb conquassately yanked from beneath the pear tree; the cornflowers are getting close to bloom and the hollyhocks are in an advanced state of aestivation as are the sweet peas enclosed in their Big Ben. And as Avril dreams along there is even talk of 'next year' delphiniums. We've seen some grand specimens of late. And I mustn't close without mention of the everlasting tasty lettuce; I think it's a relation to perpetual spinach.


Lot to be proud of Lady Lochnaw although always room for improvement and an endless topic of comparative conversation for Bryan in Edmonton who has the most astonishing memory of the layouts here bearing in mind he spent much of his time dozing in The Manor Conservatory! This year Christopher has planted grasses alongside the geraniums in Edmonton; no mention thus far this year of Dusty Millers.... although they're watching a lot of crowdless German football we learn.