Russell and Carol - hayle and hearty

I'm interested in Cornish pronunciation, as well as that of the connected Celtic nations. Simple things like Celtic Keltic or Seltic to more complicated ones like Lanhydrock or Godolphin. So I was interested in the item in today's WMN living Cornwall which mentioned I don't necessarily consider myself as pure Cornish, though my Rawe surname goes back at least to the 12th century (Radulphus, introduced by the Norman Vikings, shortened to Raw by the Cornish and to Ralph by the English).

Well, the allotment didn't look very prepossessing...   even in the long view  so we decided to cover a quarter of it in a large pile of manure and ask Simon to come play in it with us....

After being number 43 on the waiting list - for 40 plots! - luck struck and we were allocated an allotment :)

So now the frantic planning begins!

While Simes was here, we introduced him to Formula which Shaun had introduced us to at Christmas - though Jed started it all! - we loved it so much we decided we needed a copy!

Two more interesting letters today from:

The ricin plot continues to thicken slowly from

So, the News of the World phone hacking saga drags on.... and then reading about Andy Gray being a sexist pillock you come across:

As part of the comment on the cot death storyline in Eastenders Giles Fraser had an article in The Guardian with a very interesting quote

For there is no version of "it is going to be all right" that can work in circumstances such as these - nothing religious, no homespun wisdom about time being a great healer, no kindly meant distraction. Few people have the confidence to walk empty-handed into the pain of another and be prepared to do nothing other than accompany them in their grief.

Having been castigated for failing to uphold the right to peaceful protest at the G20 demonstrations, it seems the Met has learnt nothing, except that if you arrest people and take them to the police station there's a lot of paperwork and solicitors, whereas if you simply kettle people in a small area on a bridge you don't have to bother with any due process of law, provision of basic facilities, paperwork or bothersome solicitors and legal rights.

But then presumably the kettled protesters were particularly virulent and violent - the authors of this letter are

Rhodes professor of imperial history, Kings College London
Reader in international relations, University of Cambridge
Professor of history and public policy, University of Cambridge

How's that? Not violent protesters?  Surely the Met didn't make a mistake? Surely they ensured full compliance with the law

Letters: No explanation was offered for what amounted to mass internment, in very dangerous circumstances, of a crowd of demonstrators

The floods in mid-Cornwall on Wednesday have caused a lot of pain to a lot of people but I was struck by this very beautiful picture or the car park at Respryn from NTDevonCornwall

Then there's a rather different picture....