Lenten Ladies: Radio Edition

We've got a combo this week:

1.     2.
1. Because big poofy dresses are fun, and historical accuracy is irrelevant on my lunch hour.

2. Sophie and Daisy from Think The Unthinkable – did you know, I've been listening to this show almost as long as I've been listening to Radio 4, and it wasn't until looking it up to find the characters' last names that I learned Daisy is not in fact played by Miranda Hart. Something new every day! I know I need to watch The IT Crowd, I know it is an unconscionable crime that I have not, I know, but whenever I see anything about The IT Crowd it just reminds me of Think The Unthinkable (even though they are not actually that similar) and I get annoyed because I have a different frame of reference from everyone else. So: if you like The IT Crowd you may like Think The Unthinkable and may want to give it a try; the link lasts till Thursday and is unfortunately the last in the current series, which is not the last series but Radio 4 Extra doesn't run series marathons the way Radio 7 used to so who knows when it'll be up again.
I swear they ran I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue for a YEAR when I started listening, and old News Quizzes, and more Just a Minute than you could shake a stick at and Sunday mornings are apparently prime time for run-on sentences ...

Lenten Ladies are going to go on a Hiatus of Necessity next week – I will pick up the last two weeks' worth in mid-April or so.

OHYAY: Between the Hut and the Depot Falls the Shadow

Cape Evans had been cut off from Hut Point and points south since the sea ice had gone out in February. It was still HQ, though, and after all the business with the ship bringing supplies and taking people home, the remainder of the crew were settling in for another winter. There was assorted housekeeping to be done – the fresh mules from India (Titus' suggestion) were housed in the stables where the ponies had been, the pendulum* moved from its outbuilding to Ponting's deserted darkroom, and so on – and then the remaining scientists fell into the regular rhythm of work. Part of this was taking meteorological data, as the official meteorologist had departed, but the wind gauge on the roof of the hut, which had been dubbed the 'blizzometer,' kept getting clogged with snow and had to be cleaned out regularly in order to take readings.
*This was for some sort of gravity measurement .. I learned what it was and then promptly forgot how it worked but I know the answer can be found in Scott's Last Expedition Vol. II with the rest of the scientific essays, so I will go back and learn it properly someday.

Frank Debenham (remember him?) had only been back at base for a few weeks. He'd been on an expedition of his own with the other geologist, Griff Taylor; Terra Nova had picked them up from where they were and dropped him off at Cape Evans after a lengthy delay due to wind and pack ice (Griff she took back north when she left for good). ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO YESTERDAY it was his job to clean out the blizzometer ... on the roof of the hut in 71mph winds. He recorded in his journal that day that he thought the Polar Party were waiting at Hut Point for the bay to freeze over, and that this rough weather was going to postpone that yet further.

But the Polar Party were nowhere near Hut Point. They were still holed up in their tent eleven (or 12.7) miles from One Ton Depot, where they'd pitched it on the 19th, pinned there by foul weather and running out of fuel and food. Scott's diary has a week's gap between the last two entries, but he wrote a pile of mostly undated letters to family, friends, and the expedition's representatives back in England, and Bill and Birdie wrote their last letters as well.

( Letters and Extracts )

If all this has not been too much, or if you just happen to like melancholy acoustic guitar, a fellow named Jake Wilson* has recorded an album themed on the Polar Party. I have listened, and it is quite good! If you wish to do likewise, you can find the whole thing streaming here.
*No idea if he's a relation; it is a very common name ...