Pure dead jaggy, but ...

Dear reader, it has been quite a day, one way and another, but let us stop for a moment and peruse the title of this blip, a title which just flipped gently into my head when I looked at the photo, which shows new growth on a wayside gorse bush. The title comes straight from my native city, though it may indeed enjoy wider currency. "Pure" is used as an intensifying adjunct to "dead", which is widely known as meaning "extremely", "very". "Jaggy" requires little explanation, being clearly a characteristic of gorse, though I wonder if "prickly" might be a less local adjective, and the "but" performs the function of an intensifying particle (if you want to move into wonderfully pedantic territory), although it can often appear to be a form of address. There. That was fun...

Actually, this new growth is nothing like as jaggy as it will become when it hardens, and I thought it was rather lovely. We saw it on a walk which we decided to take in the perfect morning sunshine because of the threat of a change later. We took a flask of coffee with us and walked rather further than we tend to if we're out for an afternoon walk, through the farmlands at the south of the peninsula. We met a couple in the garden of a newish house which we watched being built, and had a long chat in which we exchanged names and found much in common with each other - always a pleasure in a relatively restricted environment. The birds sang and the gang of six young bulls about which I've already blipped watched us approach and then - I swear it was for us - galloped across their field, leapt a muddy ditch and completed their circuit in good order. Such show-offs!

The afternoon's planned gardening was interfered with by Dominic Cummings, whose lateness in beginning his prepared statement smacked of either disdain or someone not finishing putting it together. Either way it was a disappointment: not one of his questioners asked the killer question but tended instead to make statements and invite his response. What a travesty all round. 

Perhaps the gorse bush is quite a potent symbol of mood after all.