Early Risers.

[Debs.]

Oh dear. I don't know what has happened but that doesn't sound good.

If thoughts are needed then they have mine too.

 

........and now, only these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

[laurenceb]

Evening.

 

Looks like we are 'in for it' wind wise - no trees near our cars or van, but lots near the (bike and train) garage. Oh well, here's hoping.  Last big storm here was about 11 years ago, 100mph at sea level and 114 on the hill, next door's roof tiles blew off and one went through the wing of my car.  A bigger bit oc concrete capping came off our roof and missed SWMBO's car by 18.83mm (allegedly), or was it 16.5?  Close, anyway.

 

Lawrence, glad you enjoyed the little rock, please come again!  It's a nice place, and very varied.  Ian and Penny weren't on the same tour, were they?

Will definitely do so. Not that I am aware of. Got to sort me pics and see if any are worth sharing. And hopefuly it wont be raining in Ramsey next time!

Edited October 15, 2017 by laurenceb

[laurenceb]

Thought are with Debs and Passepartout

[BoD]

........and now, only these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

[andyram]

Evening all. Best wishes to you all, especially those who need them. Sadly it has been a bit of a skim read through the last few pages this evening. 

 

Last night I went to bed early and did not wake until 10.10am - the advantage of having the house to myself for the evening.  Sadly the stomach bug continues to linger. It affected me this morning and has reappeared again this evening. In-between I risked the trip to Pride Park for the big match. The Rams, rather fortunate, 2-0 win against Forest made the trip worthwhile although I can't say I felt my best throughout due to the cold symptoms returning. Oh well - only five days to go until the half term break!

 

Regards

 

Andy

[Horsetan]

The story gets fishier...

A couple of paragraphs from Wikipedia's Article on Michael Fish:

 

Fish said in a BBC interview that there was actually no woman caller who phoned in to the BBC regarding the storm (although over the years many have claimed to be the woman caller). It was in fact a white lie he made up himself, as another staff member at the BBC told him his mother in Wales was going to Florida and mentioned she had heard there was a storm coming, so he thought it would be a good opening line to start the forecast with, and said "Earlier on today, apparently, a woman rang the BBC..."

 

...In later years, Fish claimed that he had been referring to that year's Atlantic Hurricane Floyd affecting the Florida Keys at the time, in a link to a news story in the BBC One O'Clock News that preceded the weather bulletin. But he did not mention Florida in his forecast, which was made amid widespread worries about a coming storm: that morning, the Surrey Mirror had warned of "furious gales", so both his caller and his viewers likely believed he was referring to Britain. Fish did go on to warn of high winds for the UK, although the storm that actually occurred was far stronger than he had predicted (albeit, technically not a hurricane).

Not sure I trust Wikipedia on this one

[Barry O]

Ivan, trusting wicketopeadia is not always a good idea.

 

Night to most, morning to others, afternoon to the remainder!

 

Baz

 

Remember the positive thoughts for Debs and John

[andyram]

Just a quick check back in to add to the Michael Fish comments. Whenever I see that clip it brings back very interesting memories. He said that there was no Hurricane coming! It duly arrived! We were holidaying in Whitby that week. I remember lying in bed, in our static caravan, listening to the wind howling and making the chains holding the van down creak - the walls were shaking too. When we awoke in the morning, we looked out the window to see various touring caravans and mobile homes lying on their side. The camping field was like a war zone with debris strewn everywhere. The campers had been sleeping on the floor of the clubhouse over night.

 

It was a very different holiday!

[PhilJ W]

Thoughts are with Debs and John, goodnight all.

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all and thoughts & best wishes are with Debs and John

[BSW01]

Evening all

 

Today's been another one of unusually warm and sunny weather, so I took full advantage and went out and cut the grass, which I'm hoping will be for the last time this year. Then I polished the brass furniture on the front door. Once I'd finished both of these tasks it was time for a bit of dinner.

 

Once I'd finished my dinner, I went down to the cellar and continued to work on Max's train layout. The tunnel portal I was building yesterday was dry, so I temporarily fitted it to the board, so that I could run a couple of coaches through it to test that there was enough clearance, so once it that was confirmed, I then fitted the tunnel lining.

 

Given the chances of strong winds tomorrow, I may well put off my run to the tip until afterwards, I'll see what the weather is like when I get up in the morning.

 

Thoughts with Deb's and John.

 

Goodnight all

[BR60103]

We are overnighting in "upstate new york". On our way in to the campground we started to hear thunerstorm warnings. Problem is they refer to all sorts of places we've never heard of and can't find fast enough on the map. I managed to hook the motor home up to the required connexions, then we had quite a rainstorm. Still getting a bit of a buffet from the wind. The morning work will be filling th plumbing with antifreeze.

We tried a different route out of Jersey City this morning and ran into more road works -- construction at the ramp* right where we needed to exit, and no time to decide whether we could take the bit of ramp that existed at the end of the construction. The new route was probably no better than the old and added about $10.00 in tolls.

* slip road for the Brits.

[pH]

Today was forecast to be the last dry day for the next eight days, so we went for a stroll round a small local lake this afternoon. There are good trails through the forest round the lakeshore.

 

At one point the route crosses the lake on a floating bridge - made of concrete pontoons:

 

 

The sun was making interesting patterns on the water in the shallows of the lake:

 

 

The area was logged many years ago. Some of the the stumps of those large logged trees have become 'nurse stumps', where newer trees have grown on top of the stumps, with their roots stretching down to the ground on the outside of the stump:

 

 

A few trees have "witches' brooms" on them. These are caused by a fungus interfering with normal growth. Apparently, the fungus spreads by firing a spore into the bark of adjacent trees:

 

 

The trees are just starting to turn. The first ones to go are vine maples, the leaves of some of which go a deep red:

 

[BR60103]

Certain recent events brought this to mind.

Do any of you recall a comedy sketch called "Crossing the Border"? The premise is a fellow crossing the Irish border by changing his accent to match the border guard he's dealing with. I have my father's record on a 78 at home.

I don't know Irish accents enough to really appreciate it.

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

It is a very foggy morning in this part of the world.  However, it may be sunny later on.  We had a very sunny day on Saturday, but the fog didn't lift at home yesterday.

 

Thinking of Debs and Passepartout.

 

Apart from that, there isn't an awful lot to report, so I guess it is time for a coffee and then I had better make a start.

 

Have a good day everyone...

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all amd warm thoughts to Debs and Passepartout

 

After much dithering I decided not to bother with Apple Day yesterday.  Instead I got on with the laundry and some research for a friend.  The prospect of fixing the garden is still daunting but the kind and unexpected gift of some snowdrop and crocus bulbs on Saturday may act as a spur later this week.  I ate some of the butternut squash soup as an aperitif to the not very conventional Sunday lunch of stir fried veg with king prawns and kung po sauce followed by butterscotch instant whip.  Gourmet?  Moi?

 

In the week ahead I hope to visit the Body Shop.  No, not a car accident this time but some toiletries for a friend’s Christmas present.  The AGM of the Bedford branch of the LCGB is on Tuesday night and on Wednesday the quarterly Area Group lunch takes place in Harpenden.  I think that’s everything apart from routine fodder runs.  In theory it leaves time for other things.

 

My memories of the Great Storm are nowhere near as vivid as Rick’s.  I woke to discover that commuting to Kensington was a no-no thanks to many trees falling upon OLE.  A week later I took the train to Chichester for a gig and marvelled at the complete absence of glass in the many greenhouses near Arundel.

 

Best wishes and felicitations to all in distress and recovery. 

 

Chris

[Barry O]

Hey up!

Her indoors had a coughing fit in the night. She is now asleep....me? Well I am wide awake.

 

Owning up time. I got mildly involved in the Peco track thread. I hate people who knock something they haven't physically scene. I was once told by a senior scientist that my calculations saying we could fire 6 independently sighted shells in 1 minute from the as yet inbuilt Challenger 2 tank were theoretically incorrect. In the trial we managed 8 rounds in 48 seconds...which was right on with my own calculations using ŕesults from a number of trials...nuff said.

 

Enjoy your time on planet Earth and lots more positive waves and thoughts to Debs and John.

 

Baz

Edited October 16, 2017 by Barry O

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Warm, not windy and drizzly here at present.

I will pop round to the vets to discuss Robbie's follow up appointment.

He is still falling over but he has started eating properly again. His new medication is in capsule form. Hiding it in tuna ensures it gets swallowed.

 

Tony

[jamie92208]

Morning all from a slightly cloudy, but at the moment windless village.

 

First of all thought and prayers to Debs and Passepartout.

 

Yesterday I managed quite a bit, I managed to get the three cars of my first EMU into topcoat. In between times I also assembled a Midland 5 plank wagon and then spent time researching the detailing needed on the front of the EMU's. Our daughter in law Hollie arrived for dinner, minus husband Paul, who had to do some short notice work.

 

Beth has now set off for her Monday morning McD's breakfast at Asda and I have the house to myself. Hopefully in between a few domestic chores I will manage some modelling. Unfortunately no one seems to sell a ready made casting for Midland EMU jumper sockets so it looks as if I will have to design and build a dozen of them.

 

Baz, I have been lurking on the Peco thread, I must be short of something to do. Never in the field of railway modelling has so much froth been generated over a set of points. It almost parallels the '800' class thread in terms of speculation and hypotheticals. At least one of those threads should have some first hand evidence today.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

Edited October 16, 2017 by jamie92208

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

 

Like everyone else here thoughts are most definitely with Debs and John.

 

Yesterday started out as another lazy one with a lot of sitting around. I then started on the Terrier and it took me an hour to get the smokebox door off. Why do they make it so difficult? Managed to do it with only very slight damage to both of us. (Me and the door) Decided to have a break after that as the next step is making a hole in the bulkhead at the rear of the smokebox and that is fraught with danger. (again to both of us)

Next task as the the sun had re-appeared was cutting the grass. My "lawn" only takes about 20 minutes.

It was then time for rugby and watched Saracens slaughter Northampton.

Today I will try to pluck up the courage to re-visit the Terrier.

Have a good one,

Bob.

[AndyB]

Thoughts are with Debs and John. 

 

Morning all and at present is is overcast and tranquil.  

 

Thankfully my lack of knowledge about many things means I can drift along in a state of blissful ignorance; this includes the intricacies of Peco track work and points and the dyspepsia it may cause. On the whole I'd advocate blissful ignorance.

I do rather wonder if, when the managers of toy train companies walk round the design office and say, "Bert, you're new here. I've got this great assignment for you - you get to design the new whojemaflip-gizzmo; just make sure it's both prototypical and works at the modelling scale so we don't get a lot of disappointed customers." if there isn't a collective sigh of relief and tittering from everyone else in the office. 

 

Today's job is a favourite - looking after a poorly little person who seems to have been wiped out by a bug. 

Also got to look at the fire control system for some large fireworks. There's NOTAM like the present.  

[45156]

Morning All

 

At last I've managed to get back on here after some even busier than usual days.  Many pages missed, due to that.  Sorry............

 

So, here goes with what I hope won't be a load of boring twaddle. 

 

Firstly, I have been over on FB (thanks Barry) and it does appear that things are not brilliant for Debs and John, and I just hope that things get better there, and am crossing everything that I have for a positive outcome.  As a lot of water has passed under the ERs bridge for lots of us, I can only really offer the usual multi-purpose greetings.

 

And from 45156 towers, trip to Scotland was punctuated by cockwobleness all round.  Drive North was in heavy rain all the way, with HGVs pounding along, despite the weather, in fog, spray, and wind.  Many Chelsea Tractors whose drivers still believed that the gadgets fitted to their vehicles were a useful substitute for driving skills. 

 

My memory of the storm of 1987 are still viivid.  We were living in Surrey, and I was in Scotland on a combined business/pleasure trip, and we were stopping in a cottage in East Scotland for a week.  On the Friday morning, we woke quite early, and for some reason switched on the TV early on, to find the broadcasts coming from a temporary studio.  As the day progressed, the facts were getting clearer, and we tried phoning various neighbours and friends in the locality to find out what damage had been caused to our home, and on the end, got somebody who was able to get round to see what was what..  So we decided to get home ASAP.   Left on the Saturday morning early, and started to head South.  As we got onto the A1, we started to pass convoys of trucks from the various power companies, North East, Yorkshire, etc, all with cable drums, poles, and all the other paraphernalia, and also, BT convoys.  It really looked like Thunderbirds were go that morning.  Got home to no damage, not even the fence which my neighbour laughed about, and which were a bit floppy.  Mine stayed, his in concrete supports, and were rigid, went the way of all good things.

 

Back later (hopefully).

Regards to All

Stewart

[Gwiwer]

Morning all. D and J remain uppermost in my thoughts closely followed by those under the influence of what the Office of Seaweed-Feeling calls Ex-Ophelia. Reports already in from the west of Cornwall suggest cars have been blown from their parking spots and there is some disruption to getting anywhere. Seas reported as "effin' huge".

 

The Amber Warning area has been extended to include western areas of Wales which I take to include Dd Towers. Winds forecast to top 80mph so if the power goes down I hope the sheep-treadmill generates a few volts.

 

Warm, dead calm and with intermittent large grey clouds here.

 

The plumber is awaited though based on past performance it will be a vain wait. Nothing is emerging from the kitchen hot tap which means supplies need to be ferried from the bathroom. Niece called at 1.45am to ask what she should do; she was being kept awake by her partner's snoring. I might have suggested his position was altered by pulling the handle in front of his bottom. One way or the other it should stop the snoring!!!

 

Have the best day you can manage. And stay safe if Ex-Ophelia comes your way.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. All quiet here on the weather front and even the sun is shining. I too have been on Facebook this morning but gave up because of the adverts most if not all are totally irrelevent but one I did like was for toilet paper with a pouting Donald Trump on every sheet, don't go looking for it though, its sold out. Thats it for now, be back later.

[Simon G]

Morning all,

It is dark here this morning, with a very peculiar type of daylight. As to the rest of the weather, it is the calm before the storm, as there is little wind at present. At least what rain there is doesn't appear to be coming through the roof, and there is still no word from the roofer.

 

I might get a little more track laid today, which would nearly complete the track work. The next job is then to build the control panel and wire it all up.