Rather chilly with sunny intervals, not much wind. A very light shower in the morning.
Cowslips in flower here & there. This I think is rather early. Bluebells also beginning, a few almost in full bloom. This undoubtedly is unusually early. Wild cherries in full bloom. Sycamore leaves opening. Apple blossom almost about to open. Another thrush sitting [on] eggs in the hedge. Found a blackbird’s nest with eggs. These are the only nests I have found hitherto.
The pond up by the church has become so stagnant that it no longer has duckweed, only the scummy green stuff. Nevertheless there are still a few newts in it.
Summer time began today, M’s morning yield consequently small, but picked up in the evening.
Ten eggs (price of eggs sold yesterday 1/9 a score).
Search the Orwell Diaries
Subscribe to the Orwell Diaries (RSS)Pages
Blogroll
- 1940 Chronicle
- A. M. Heath
- Airminded 1940
- Algemeen Dagblad
- BBC – Orwell Archive
- BBC – Paul Mason’s Blog
- BBC News
- BBC Radio 4 iPM
- BBC Radio 4 PM
- BBC Radio 4 Today
- BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour
- Blackwell
- Boston Globe
- CBC Radio
- Corriere Della Sera
- Daily Telegraph
- Daily Telegraph – 101 Most Useful Websites
- Daily Telegraph – Allan Massie
- Der Mundo – this blog translated
- Google Map
- Henry David Thoreau’s Journal
- Image Gallery
- L’Express
- LA Times
- Le Figaro
- Le Monde
- Machado de Assis
- Media Standards Trust
- MSN UK
- MST – Martin Moore Blog
- New York Times – Noam Cohen
- NPR
- Online Colleges and Universities – 30 Finest Creative Writing Blogs of 2009
- Online Schools – 100 Best Blogs
- Orwell's Hop-Picking diary blog
- Penguin
- Political Quarterly
- PRI’s The World
- Prospect – First Drafts
- Reuters
- Samuel Pepys
- Sunday Times Top 100 Blogs
- The Bookseller
- The Guardian
- The Guardian – D. J. Taylor
- The Observer
- The Orwell Prize
- The Road to Wigan Pier diary
- The Times – People
- Time
- Top 100 Creative Writing Blogs
- Twitter – The Orwell Prize (official)
- Weekly Newsletter
- Wordpress Showcase
- WW2: A Civilian in the Second World War
- YouTube Channel
Archive
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- August 1938
- July 1938
Orwell Diaries 1938-1942 
I, too, am always looking for the opportunity to use the word “hitherto” in a sentence.
So he’s selling them! This changes everything!! Here was I thinking of eggs boiled, fried, poached, scrambled and omeletted, even cracked raw into a glass of milk, and Eileen making the toast … and he’s selling them down at the market!! And not exactly for a king’s ransom either – less than a penny each. Today’s 10 eggs will get him ninepence. I’m shocked. But why should I be? Being a novelist doesn’t make you a millionaire either, and he has run a store before…
Shades of Manor Farm isf you ask me. I wonder if M’s milk, in whatever quantities she can produce, is also going into a pail for the villagers to buy.
But a penny bought much more 70 years ago, didn’t it?
Um, not sure about your arithmetic there. 1/9 is 21 pence, so it’s more than a penny an egg, not less.
This is gripping stuff.
In 1939 I was fifteen. A bunch of us kids spent one day digging, cutting the tops off and sacking carrots for the local Chinese market gardeners. We were paid five cents a sack. I made one dollar that day by sacking twenty such bags. That bought a large Pepsi because it was ‘Twice as much for a nickle too, Pepsi Cola’s good for you’ Or so the commercial rhyme said.
George~~
Why/How did Muriel surmise the beginning of summer? And, as a follow-up, if I may: Why did this cause her to ration her secretions of proteins, fats, lactose, and various vitamins and minerals?
[interlude]
If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed, now…..
[/interlude]
[In reality, logic infers that he is referring to Daylight Saving Time (or your variant thereof).]
I’d rather imagine Muriel with a lipstick, marking the days off on her wall calendar until the Blair’s return from distant lands and wondering who Eric is with now while dabbing a tear from her eye with a lace hankie.
Sorry; arithmetic never was my strong point despite having been raised in the (what seems now an eccentric) pre-decimal currency era. So yes George should get slightly more than 10d for his 10 eggs today, not 9d as I calculated last night. Point is, eggs were not priced on a per-unit basis but a per-‘score basis’ (even more eccentric than selling ’em by the dozen as today). Point is, the pricing system reflects an abundance of eggs. Presumably this is a wholesale price.