Question of the Day - 18 October 2023

We never need a reminder that we miss Jessica; practically every day we work on QoD, her influence shines dazzlingly through.

But since you ask, we caught up with her and her life is essentially the same as it was the last time we answered a question about the former QoDmother. She's still living in pastoral England a couple of hours west of London, caring for her aging mother, the 100-acre family estate, and her beloved orange tabby Pookie.

"Firstly, thank you for all the kind words in QoDs and associated comments I've received since my departure. I'm amazed and flattered that anyone even remembers me!" she said, launching into an extensive description of her existence, some of which we touched on in a 2018 QoD about Antiques Alley downtown. So we'll skip the part about Jessica's vintage-furniture and housewares business and get right to the idyllic content.

"I grew up in a beautiful spot in southwest England called the Cotswolds, one of the more picturesque and sought-after locations in the UK. We live in the Golden Valley, so-named by Queen Victoria when she passed through on a train and admired a gorgeous sunset after a particularly long and dreary journey. Princess Anne is a close neighbor (her ex-husband used to give my father riding lessons) and King Charles and Camilla lived nearby until he ascended the throne (his local estate still supplies expensive supermarket outlets with overpriced organic produce). Supermodel Kate Moss lives in the area and David and Victoria Beckham have a house not far from us; the artist Damien Hirst's studio is right at the bottom of the hill we live on. And Pete Townshend of the Who is also a new neighbor. His wife, apparently, has set up a recording studio, complete with the console Pete used to create "Won't Get Fooled Again," the "Tommy" soundtrack, etc., in the former office building of the local Stroud newspaper. (Rock on!)

Obviously, the pace and style of life here couldn't be further removed from Las Vegas. If someone's buying a new car in these parts, a not-uncommon consideration is, How many sheep can I fit in the back? My mum once managed to get a donkey into her Land Rover. 

"On a large area of common land nearby, local farmers have the ancient right to graze their cattle May-November, so one of the biggest traffic hazards hereabouts is cows in the road. (As it happens, only yesterday, I was driving across the Common when a woman who clearly wasn't local tried to shoo a cow and her calf out of the way. A cow will move in its own sweet time and you definitely don't approach, with hostility, a mother with a young calf. Oh, how all of us patiently waiting drivers laughed at the spectacle, particularly when the cow turned round at a leisurely pace to confront the enraged driver – I don't think I've ever seen anyone in flip-flops move so fast!) 

"We live in such a remote spot that I have to get in the car to take out the trash. Water and electricity are piped in, but oil and gas have to be delivered and all of the homes around here are on septic tanks. The nearest supermarket's about five miles away and "neighbors" comprise anyone within a half-mile radius. 

"My parents used to train racehorses among other things, hence we own about 100 acres of pasture and woodland, the management of which is almost a full-time job in itself. There's always a wall or fence or stile that needs fixing or a fallen tree to remove. The woods are interesting, as we have records stretching back to 1142, when there must have been a lot of English oak, as they were home to 2,000 pigs and pigs do love acorns.

"By the time I moved home, we were down to one lone retired racehorse, officially named King of the Blues, but generally known as Norman, and his companion, an adorable miniature Shetland pony named Dangermouse (after a popular UK cartoon character), whose back is level with the top of my thigh! I have help on weekday mornings, but afternoons, weekends, and holidays, the equine care is down to me. Back in my QoD days, I never would have predicted that I'd be filling hay nets and shovelling horse manure! 

"In my "spare" time I tend our garden, which at about an acre is more than enough for one person to look after. I'm blessed with green fingers (as we say in the UK) and I've done a lot of clearing and planting and a bit of landscaping and I grow fruit, vegetables, and all my own herbs. I love just popping out the front door to pick a sprig of rosemary or thyme, grab a few bay leaves or some chives to chop. I've been known to make my own pickles and chutneys and I love experimenting with hot-sauce recipes using home-grown chiles.  

"Just before Christmas 2019, I was hit by a van as I crossed the road after a visit to the hairdresser. The impact sent me up in the air before being ricocheted into the path of an oncoming bus. I was very lucky not to be run over twice! I was left with a lacerated face and neck, head injuries, a broken left ankle, and a very badly broken right shoulder. I was in a sling 24/7 for three months and after a further eight months of intense physio and the subsequent passage of time, I'm almost as good as new. (Eventually, I received some compensation for the accident from the other party's insurer, but I don't recommend it as a money-making proposition.)

"All things considered, Mum's doing okay, with good and bad days, and we celebrated her 90th in July with a lunch party in the garden. I do my best to keep her life interesting and amusing and cook what I hope is a gastropub-caliber meal every lunchtime, with a full-on Sunday roast most weekends. All our meat comes from a family butcher who sells only locally sourced, free-range, organic fare. (A little-known fact is that if he hadn't become a professional gambler and publisher, Anthony Curtis once confided that he might have opted to be a butcher. Anthony does love meat!) 

"Earlier this year, I qualified as a Citizen Scientist for the local Wildlife Trust, a welcome diversion. I thought I knew quite a lot about the English countryside, but who knew how many different types of buttercup and dandelion there are? And don't even get me started on grasses! Now that I'm qualified, I team up with other volunteers and we 'habitat map' local landholdings (including our own) and nature reserves, chronicling the type of terrain and all the plant species, whilst noting any interesting wildlife from sightings or tracks. We have a beautiful herd of roe deer, appropriately enough, in our woods, along with foxes, badgers, muntjacs, squirrels, hedgehogs, dormice, and myriad species of bird, bee, bat, bug, and butterfly). It's part of a wider, long-running, conservation effort to monitor where everything's at right now and how things change over time. I've met some interesting like-minded people and learned so much, although I'm still a novice at the bottom of a very steep learning curve.

"Finally, Pookie is quite the character, more like a dog than a cat in some respects, and my most-cherished companion. He's the best souvenir of my time in Sin City. He loves living in the English countryside and we go for at least one long walk a day (our longest to date being about a two-mile round trip). People ask me if he's on a leash. Of course not! He just comes when I call his name and follows me wherever I go. He pranks me on a daily basis, much to his amusement (he fluffs out his tail and prances sideways like a sidewinder when he knows he's done something funny) and loves playing hide and seek. He's great with Mum and spends every evening on her lap, and has turned out to be an excellent mouser. He's the only cat I know who uses a tablecloth and he likes to wrap up his food bowl like a turban so flies can't get at his leftovers. Smart weird animal!

"So that, in a very large nutshell, is what I've been up to since I quit being the QoDmother back in 2016. You did ask!"

Thank you, Jessica, for this breath of bucolic air and chronicle of countrified culture and customs. Best to your mum and the Pookster and we hope to see you soon. 

                                        a sample of Jessica's horticultural efforts

                                                     Golden Valley sunset

                                                              bovine safari

                                                  the view from the house 

                                     another stressful day in the life of the Pookster