PS For the sentimentalists...

I have decided on a new (and as they say in PR handouts for new washing powders) 'exciting' photo to grace this blog. But just so you don't feel left out, here is the piccy which graced the old one, taken in my garden last spring and, although I am sitting in the kitchen, not 20ft from where I am now.

And as I have just discovered that I can stick quote marks around, well, quotes, here are two of my favourites:

Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind of reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended with it.

That is by Jonathan Swift. This is by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who responded to an attack on her by Alexander Pope (all 4ft of him):

Satire should, like a polish'd Razor keen, Wound with a Touch, that's scarcely felt or seen.

The verse goes on, the important bit to put Pope (all 4ft of him in his place)

Thine is an Oyster-Knife, that hacks and hews; The Rage, but not the Talent of Abuse.