Here's one of the new hellebores I picked up at Waitrose on Friday. I potted it up and put it on the front porch...
...and here's the other one, out in the back garden. It's good to have a couple of new plants in this otherwise frozen season. They bloom in winter (they're sometimes known as a "Christmas rose") so they're perfectly happy out there right now. Apparently in the wild they can self-pollinate, a sensible adaptation for a plant that blooms when there may not be many insects around. (Bees and flies also pollinate them, though.)
Dave and I had a guest over for lunch yesterday -- one of Dave's former students, Josh, who was visiting London. Dave taught him as a high school student in Michigan back in the mid-aughts, and now he's married with a PhD and teaching anthropology at a university in Connecticut. Dave made cottage pie and I made a pumpkin pie (I KNOW! ME!) and we caught up on all the news about his family.
I made the pie because we had a can of pumpkin sitting in the pantry that we bought not last year but the year before, and never used. I figured I'd get that thing out of there. It also allows us to use the last of the Reddi-Whip from Thanksgiving. Clearing out the fridge!
On Friday and Saturday nights we binge-watched "Mr. Bates vs The Post Office" on ITV, a miniseries based on the real-life (and apparently ongoing) battle between the UK's national Post Office and hundreds of small-town postmasters who were held financially and criminally liable for accounting errors triggered by faults in the postal computer system. (Blogger Mr. Pudding wrote about it here.)
The scandal was unfolding during our time here in the UK but I don't remember reading about it in the news at all. Maybe I just never read the stories, or maybe it didn't get much coverage, but in any case the dramatization is excellent and it's a truly astonishing story.
24 comments:
Christmas roses is a strange name for us to call them and we probably use the name winter roses. I really like hellebores and we had many at one of the houses we lived in.
A can of pumpkin Steve? Really.
Yes, YP did write about the scandal of Mr Bates. I didn't realise it was a tv series. Yes, of course it was. He watched it. I'm going to search now to see if I can see it here free.
I haven't watched " Mr. Bates" as the whole thing makes me so angry and sad for the people involved. As you say, it is still ongoing, and many of the people involved still haven't been reimbursed or pardoned so many years later.... that is the ones who didn't commit suicide or have since died!! An appalling story. As for the woman who was in charge at the time.....she has been honoured ( CBE) for services to the post office. ( or something like that!)
I wrote about it years ago and although the tv programme has raised awareness it is sad that it takes a tv drama to do so. Some newspapers lobbied Parliament for action, also years ago, and some MPs stood up to an empty House to draw attention to the scandal and it always got swept under the carpet. Vennells was a wicked, stupid woman and a former priest to boot just to rub salt in the wounds. She does not have a compassionate bone in her body, nor sense of fairness nor common sense to queston that surely all these post masters could not all be thieves. Fujitsu were awarded an extension to the contract during all this too.
I'll have to look and see if it is available over on this side of the pond.
Over here we never heard of the postals candal, but I may have to Google it to see what the kerfuffle was all about.
The PO scandal was truly an outrage on honest people who did nothing wrong and had their good names destroyed, some jailed, because the ptb refused to believe their expensive computer system was wrongly configured. The media colluded in the injustice by failing to investigate and cover it. Many people have still not been made whole.
I didn't realize you could have flowering plants growing in the freezing weather. You must be warmer than I imagined there. We have lovely snow here.
After the one and only day that it snowed here a few years ago the growth and blooms in my small garden were amazing that year, I always wondered if it had something to do with the snow.
Your hellebores are gorgeous. I am glad you saved them from their lonely existence.
I'm so proud of you for making a pumpkin pie, Steve! How was it?
Mmmm...pumpkin pie. That sounds really good. And hellebores are pretty. I have a gardening book written by Monty Don and he says there's no bore like a hellebore bore! I take it they're not his favorite.
I’d never heard about that postal scandal. Pumpkin pie. You put me to shame. Then again making a pot of coffee would put me to shame. That new hellebore makes quite a statement.
Congrats on the pumpkin pie. That sounds good right about now. I always liked pumpkin pie for breakfast.
I love the flowers.
I do like the hellebores but not sure if they would grown down here. would definitely be a winter annual if they do.
How funny Steve. I had a dream last night and there were hellebores in it. I'm not sure how they figured to the plot line, but they were definitely in there, and I woke up thinking about them.
You baked a pie! Will wonders never cease.
I've been hearing a lot about Mr. Bates. I didn't realize it was a series. I thought it was a movie. In reading about it, I saw that Mr. Bates ran a post office outside Llandudno (John Grey's corner of the world.) In any case, the television series has done a big service in bringing the scandal to a wider audience. Everyone is talking about it and that simple fact alone has led to more wrongfully accused stepping forward to appeal their cases. Imagine suffering under the shame for all those years, and now finally, seeing the shame put squarely where it belongs.
Those pots needed those Hellebores, so I'm glad you brought them home! I noticed in passing the other day that there was a bloom on my Camellia bush. Even though they always bloom in the winter, ours has struggled since a particularly cold spell we had two (?) years ago. It probably doesn't help that it's 36 years old! I need to go out and see if there are any other blooms on it.
Your Hellebores are beautiful. I grow them in Massachusetts too and have a small garden filled with white and rose flowering plants. They stay green year around and survive snow. Wonderful plants. Cottage pie followed by pumpkin pie for desert sounds delicious.
It's always a treat when former students come back for a visit.
It sounds like a wonderful evening -- so nice to see an old student for Dave. And well done on the pumpkin! The hellebores are just beautiful.
That was an outrageous story about the postmasters! I would spend much of my time watching fuming. I do enough of that as it is. What a yummy dinner! I love pumpkin pie although pecan is my favorite.
That front stoop hellebore is gorgeous! I don't usually care for white (or cream) flowers, but that's just so elegant.
Funny thing. I had a dream last night, and somehow, hellebores fit into that dream. I woke up with them on my mind.
I thought that Mr. Bates was a movie. I didn't realize it was a series. I am glad that it is getting so much publicity though, and garnering public outrage. Imagine the shame of being accused of something like that, and having no recourse for years and years. And now that the story has hit the mainstream, and is being discussed everywhere, these poor people can finally raise their heads and say, "Yes. I was caught up in that..." and finally get the sympathy and recompense they deserve. People went to their graves with their names uncleared.
Hellebore sounds as if it's something created by Satan and kicked out of Hades for being too pretty. I've never heard of the postal service scandal. Sounds terrible.
Love,
Janie
I love Hellebores and every year I tell myself I will get some but I never do.
I love cottage pie too and haven't made one in a very long time. Maybe next winter.
The post office should be investigated, all those people should be cleared. That is just a terrible story. Did you make the pumpkin pie crust yourself, with your own hands?
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