I’ve finished planting out my petit pois pea plants today.

Being slightly short of supplies, I used the old adage “Necessity is the Mother of Invention” and placed the pea trough by a bare bit of the privet hedge. The twiggy branches are all ready there for support (!)

As this was happening I thought about Tancred.

A strange name for a man but Anna Comnene seems to have had a bit of a girly crush there. She writes about Tancred in her Alexiad – her commentary of the Crusades.

Tancred is also the name of the house featured heavily in the Ruth Rendell book, Kissing the Gunner’s Daughter.

Such a brilliant title for a murder mystery.

To Kiss the Gunner’s Daughter was once a Royal Navy punishment. The naughty sailor was tied, belly down, across a cannon and flogged.

Also – the absent father of one of the main characters in the book is a mysterious man whom everyone calls Gunner…because he is an Arsenal supporter.

I think that I have a strange brain. FACT!