A beautiful and eloquent passage

It cannot be said that Mr. Chitterwick really enjoyed his visit to Ashton-under-Lyne. To some individuals Ashton-under-Lyne may represent everything that is gayest, most beautiful and most desirable in the human cosmogony; and who shall say that they are wrong? These things are a matter of comparison, and one whose outlook had hitherto been limited to Sheffield might well think all this and more of Ashton. But if there are such persons, Mr. Chitterwick very soon discovered that he was not one of them. To him Ashton-under-Lyne explained in three minutes more of our prevailing industrial discontent than he had been able to understand from other sources in thirty years.

— Anthony Berkeley, The Piccadilly Murder

Awaiting fresh produce season with bated breath

I've been having a pretty nice time at work (personality issues aside), because there's less to do in summer but not NOTHING, so I get to spend a lot of my time on my long term graphic design projects (making advertising materials for our chapter and its various volunteer groups and services) but there's still things to give some structure to my time. There's a couple of projects for the city government going on and I've been accepting some donations; I've been soliciting, comparing and summarizing offers of copy machine contracts; and I've compiled a scavenger hunt and prepared the paperwork for a collection of teenaged summer workers whom I will be helping to supervise for a few weeks in June. It is hotter there every day though: it is air conditioned, nominally, but the building is fronted with massive plate glass windows facing east. I expect the month left between now and my vacation to be hot enough to require me to retreat entirely from my desk, the hottest spot until early afternoon, at some point.

We have been getting through our spring cleaning little by little and all the rooms have been done now, though it took so long the first ones are ready for vacuuming again while the curtains we washed aren't ironed and hung yet. One pair need to be hemmed. We found a big shoebox of MIL'S jewelry, never actually sorted through after her death in 2019, and in it we found a bunch of furniture keys that we need to try in all the old furniture. Also a silver cigarette case that belonged to Wax's maternal grandfather and his father, which I can use as a sewing kit! Wax already had a sewing kit in a cigarette case that belonged to a paternal ancestor. I've put needles and thread in it already, but I need to collect some safety pins and obtain a pair of embroidery scissors small enough to fit inside it. There was also jewelry in there, but that has to wait for a family reunion.