I could have kicked myself

I mentioned earlier this week how the Old Bat and I lunched at the pub at the Devil's Dyke and I paid £2 to park.  Having expended that large amount of cash (which, incidentally, was donated by the Old Bat as I had no change - but I did pay for lunch) I returned to the Dyke to walk the dog later that afternoon as the ticket was still valid.  It was only on the following day that I removed the ticket from the car - and that is when I could have kicked myself.  It was only then that I noticed the ticket was in two parts with a counterfoil which could be torn off along the perforations.  On the back of the counterfoil it was announced that the cost of the ticket would be reimbursed when spending £10 or more in the pub!

Maybe that will teach me to be more observant in future.  But I doubt it.

~~~~~

When walking in the park one day last week - or maybe it was the week before.  But whenever - I was chatting to a fellow dog-walker who suggested we go to look at "his" Judas tree.  He called it his tree as he had paid for it.  Quite a few people had responded to a plea from the council to cover the cost of new trees they wanted to plant.  I had never before heard of a Judas tree and, although this one is still young and small, was mightily impressed.  It has very attractive, deep pink flowers which come out before the leaves - some of them directly from the trunk of the tree.

Quite how the tree acquired its name is a matter of conjecture.  It is a native of the eastern Mediterranean, so some say the name is a corruption of Judea, where it is found.  Others say that the name was given because it was from one of these trees that Judas Iscariot hanged himself.

Not a variety I had heard of before.  As my old granny would have said, "You learn something new every day, then die and forget the lot".