It's A Rose

Not A Lesser Stinkwort
I believe Shakespeare said that "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet", which was contradicted quite powerfully by Anne (in "Anne of Green Gables") who asserted that it certainly wouldn't smell as sweet if it had been named the Lesser Stinkwort.
     Quite right!
     Of course, this being BOOJUM! logic and commonsense are both rara avis around here, so we shall move on to muck around with language.  Art?

Another rose

     Yes what ho, John Leguizamo!  That sprinkler bit at the business end of a watering-can is called a "rose".  Now you knows*.
     Nor is that all.  I present this picture of a tea rose -

For straining tea.
Obviously.

     I did think we had one in the kitchen but couldn't find it, so you'll just have to make do with this picture instead.  Art?

Tea strainers.  In a row.

     Close enough, I think you'll admit, and finally because I had the idea -

Rows.

     Yes, that last one was a bit painful, wasn't it?
     I can hear you querying where Conrad is going with this.  "What is the white-haired duffer warbling on about now?"
     Not taking up the issue with my snowy locks, I shall continue.  May I?  May I really?  Thank you ever so much!
     I did refer in today's afternoon post to Minden Day, and because I overlook nothing in my desperate attempts to increase blog traffic, here's the link:

http://comsatangel2002.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/back-on-schedule.html

     This is probably very meta, or something.  Anyway, I mentioned eating roses on Minden Day, a tradition within certain regiments of the British Army.  This goes back to the Battle Of Minden, in 1759, when the British, and German allies, gave a French army what is known in tactical terms as "a right shoeing".  The British troops had plucked local roses and added them to their uniforms, because they - well, it certainly wasn't because they were drab and dull.  Art?

A right lot of peacock dandies!

     So the tradition has been established that for an officer's first Minden Day he needs to eat a rose**.
     It could be worse, it could have been something involving the Welsh Guards, in which case you'd need to eat a leek.

If Elon Musk Didn't Exist -
I keep saying this.  You'd have to invent him.  I remember a criticism of a Robert Heinlein short story about an inventor named Dean inventing a drive which he called the Dean Drive, which was used for interplanetary travel.  I think it was Chip Delaney doing the criticism, which implied that private space travel - ha! - how ridiculous!
     Well, jump forward 60 years and here's Elon Musk, who owns Space-X, inventing rockets that are re-usable.  Art?

Falcon 9 heading home

     You can check this out on the Beeb website.  It's short but very cool and technically impressive; a rocket returns from delivering a satellite payload, manouvering down to a perfect touchdown on a platform in the middle of the ocean.  Did I say "impressive"?  I actually meant "awesome".
     The idea, in case you wonder, is that the rocket can be re-used after refuelling and refurbishing, a process far cheaper than building a new one from scratch.
     Oh, that knocking you can hear?  That's the 22nd Century asking to come in.

The Simple Pleasures
One thing Conrad enjoys is sitting outside and reading whilst sipping a cup of tea.  This is because i) It's free and ii)  Vitamin D is good for you. Sadly at times - in fact a lot of the time - our island weather means that it's extremely bad for your health to sit outside.  Not so this weekend!  Allow me to grace your screens with a snowy-haired man with feline companion:

If a single pen is mightier than the sword, how much better are four?

     Allow me to also render a vista of the back garden with wicker impedimenta:

     And solar-powered lights.  Don't forget them.  They work, too.  Art?

Barely detectable but there.

A Comment!
And one that is repeatable.  Degsy, with experience in the field, posted a reply to Conrad's whiffling on about Electro Magnetic Pulse.  I can't copy and paste so I'll just have to type it out***.
     "When some of the early MIG jets were captured by the West and taken apart, much derision was made of the valves and other "primitive" parts within compared to the transistors and other "cutting edge" technology in Western jets.  Later it was realised that all those primitive parts were far more robust, not just for the harsh Siberian winter weather, but also EMPs.  So there you are.  Old ain't necessarily bad."
     I remember much the same being quoted in the mid-70's when a Sinister pilot defected with his Foxbat and landed in Japan.  
     And I thoroughly concur with Degsy's last four words.

MIG Welding (Metal Inert Gas)

     Come on, Art, you'd done so well up until now -

(Conrad puts Tazer away)

*  Yes, this is ungrammatical - but it rhymes.
** Conrad used to drink rose petal tea; eating the petals wouldn't have been a stretch.
*** No, this is NOT simply to up the word count. Honestly!