Circus, Leeches, and the Legal Fiction of the 2nd Baron Stamp

Hello again! As my recovery progresses, I am dipping a toe back into the waters of blogging. Or perhaps that should be dipping seven tiny toes, as I present you with a bit of this and a bit of that, culled from what I have been reading and doing of late.

Speaking of culling, here’s something you can do with your prunings (beside compost them, chip them into mulch, or pile them up for critter habitat). The bulk of the above arrangement is from a branch of maukoro I recently had to remove. Its Latin name is Carmichaelia odorata – though I haven’t noticed any odours yet – and its English name is New Zealand broom, though it’s no relation to the European broom. Rosemary and lavender prunings add a bit of colour, foliage variety, and vertical interest.

Interesting Times

When one hears of legal fiction, one tends to think of John Grisham – but it turns out that the legal system is also capable of producing fictions, albeit not quite so gripping and bestsellery. For example, in English law, if two people in a family die and you can’t tell who died first, the legal fiction holds that the older died first, thus clarifying lines of inheritance.

This legal fiction is the cause of the record for shortest peerage: Wilfred Stamp, the 2nd Baron Stamp, died in the Blitz alongside his father, the 1st Baron Stamp. Since his father was, obviously, the elder, he was deemed to have died before Wilfred, and thus Wilfred technically became the 2nd Baron Stamp. However, as Wilfred had three daughters but no sons, the barony passed to his younger brother Trevor, who would have inherited it even if Wilfred had died first. The only differences were that Trevor became the 3rd Baron Stamp, not the 2nd, and had to pay two lots of death duties.

Nature’s Freaks, Fascinations, and Fancies

I recently discovered that not only are leeches actually worms, they are in the same class as earthworms. Taxonomic class, that is. I suspect in a classroom the earthworms would be the teacher’s pet, and the leeches would be making frequent trips to the principal’s office.

Leeches aren’t all bad, though: this one’s attacking a slug. Revenge for slugs eating their earthworm cousins, perhaps. Who knows what familial feuds may be running among the slimy denizens of the soil?

And Now For Someone Completely Different

“While some productivity advice focusses on swallowing a frog first thing in the morning, we find the best way to get started is to do something you enjoy – and the research backs this up.”
Bec Evans and Chris Smith, Written: How to Keep Writing and Build a Habit That Lasts

Latest Library Loot

I’ve been reading a lot lately, though mental fatigue often steers me toward gardening books, which have a high proportion of pictures. Less pictorial works I have enjoyed lately include:
Different: Living the Holy Life by Simon Ponsonby – a less theological and more boots-on-the-ground follow-up to his earlier book The Pursuit of the Holy, it’s not a comfortable read, but it is invigorating;
Circus Mania by Douglas McPherson – a look at circuses past and present, including the delightful story of the boy whose parents came with him when he ran away to join the circus; and
Mr Campion and Others by Margery Allingham – a selection of ingenious short stories solved by Albert Campion. I particularly enjoyed the one with the old gent who gets knocked out while watching an “Egyptian” dancer at a music hall, and comes to uttering cryptic phrases.

By My Own Hand Or None

The pattern for this baby jacket comes from an old Patons Woolcraft pattern book. How old it is, I cannot say, but the price (Australian edition) was one shilling and eightpence, and the ladieswear styles definitely suit the WWII rationing physique.

It’s a lovely little pattern, worked from centre front to centre front, using short rows to shape the flare of the body and the swell and cuffs of the sleeves. The original calls for a ribbon fastening – that’s what the eyelets in the collar are for – but there is a wide range of potential unfortunate outcomes involving babies with things tied round their necks, so I added a couple of buttons, and crocheted a couple of loops to hold them (while omitting the picot edging the pattern specifies all around the edges and cuffs).

For Your Consideration

To end with a question – feel free to respond in the comments, by replying to the email if you subscribe in that way, or by using the contact form – would you enjoy seeing further posts of this nature?