Tom Roper's Weblog

'Most of them do suffocate and strangle the eater'

So says Gerard of mushrooms in his Herbal of 1633, quoted in Alan Davidson's Oxford Companion to Food. In my teenage years, I read and re-read Cambridge public library's copy of John Cage's Silence: Lectures and Writings. Cage mentions mushrooms from time to time. He was a keen mycologist, an interest he thought appropriate as music and mushroom are alphabetical neighbours in dictionaries. And, I thought to myself, mycology is not far away, and fugue is near fungus, and toccata near toadstool.

I wish I knew more about mushrooms. I have always been cautious. Even my mother, well versed in natural history, could be deceived and with her we once picked pounds of what we thought were field mushrooms on Newmarket Heath, only to find when we got them home, thanks to a telephone call from companions in our foray, that they were a species that, while not poisonous, can be indigestible, causing stomach cramps, vomiting and diarrhoea. I have only felt confident in eating unusual species when in the company of Polish friends, taught from birth to recognise and prepare the edible varieties.

Now I find this in the garden. It is rather splendid. I wonder if it is edible? If it is not, I may turn to Lucrezia Borgia's Fun with Fungi and invite my enemies to supper.

Artichokes

Grown from seed last year, nursed through the cold winter, my artichokes are now ready. I take considerable pleasure in their heraldic appearance. I once visited a country house where the outside walls were decorated with carved artichokes; the leaves look well in stone.

I first saw an artichoke eaten in a Norfolk hotel, on the last day of a family holiday. I would have been five or six. My father, whose usual doctor's asceticism was tempered with tendencies to gourmandisme when away from home, ordered artichokes. They came, with great ceremony, melted butter, finger bowls and a receptacle for the discarded leaves. He demonstrated how to eat them, first tearing away the leaves and nibbling the base, then, when the centre was exposed, deftly removing the hairy choke and eating the base.

I shall eat some of these, but leave at least one to flower.

Castrating cats

I was intrigued by an item in the Guardian's Corrections and Clarifications column. While not as funny as the error in a recipe for kale curry (700 litres of stock?) it reminded me of a debate in the veterinary profession when I used to work at the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons

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The correction reads, 'A piece listed the neutering of male cats among procedures that qualified veterinary nurses can do. This was once an article of belief among some vets, but latterly it has been clarified among the practitioners involved that this is outside the nursing role'.

This was contentious back in the mid-nineties. My memory is that it all hinged on whether the cat's scrotum could be considered a body cavity or not, if the testes have descended. Only a veterinary surgeons can carry out an act of veterinary surgery, according to the legislation that governs the profession, and an act of veterinary surgery involves entry into a body cavity. I do not recall that it was ever resolved; it sounds as if it now has, though whether male cats will rejoice at the news is debatable.

One swallow...

From the excellent and addictive Sussex Ornithological Society blog:

Birding between Eastbourne and Seaford today. Highlights were: at least 1 Firecrest at Horseshoe Plantation. Three Swallows in off the sea at Crowlink,... [From Migrants]

Frog Spawn Development

When I was a boy I would often go out and observe frog spawn in ponds, on Coe Fen and further afield. In our garden pond we had newts. Everything is Permuted has some extraordinary pictures: Frog Spawn Development]

frogspawn

Pigeon Post

A racing pigeon has made his home with me; I've christened him Percy.
The Royal Pigeon Racing Association can't help trace his owner as his ring numbers seem to be in a non-standard format. He's very tame and has to be expelled from the house.

Big Garden Birdwatch

We're doing the Big Garden Birdwatch chez Roper
Not very impressive (these figures from observations between 1430 and 1530, in our Seaford back garden)
Blackbirds: 2
Blue tits: 2
Wood pigeons: 2