Early Risers.

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. I really must get on with the young mans layout, its been in limbo for a few weeks now, either too hot or too wet. Must get on now, still the crossword and sudoku to do.

[Ozexpatriate]

9 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

couple of gulls that took her ice cream

Seaside rats with wings.

[BoD]

10 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

We had a nice lunch out. We did hear about the dodge the weather holiday our friends had in Wales. Best story though was the Beaumaris incident.  Our friend was mugged by a couple of gulls that took her ice cream . 

Tony

 

 

 

The same happened to Valerie in St. Ives. This one just flew in and just took it out of her hand.  I felt the tip of it’s wing across my face. She got quite a shock and for a few seconds looked as though she didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. In the end she decided to be mad as it had taken her ten minutes to decide which flavour she wanted.

[Ozexpatriate]

1 minute ago, BoD said:

She got quite a shock and for a few seconds looked as though she didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry.

Up quite close, the larger species can be quite frightening. They do have sharp beaks and claws and move very fast.

[Tony_S]

2 minutes ago, BoD said:

 

 

The same happened to Valerie in St. Ives. This one just flew in and just took it out of her hand.  I felt the tip of it’s wing across my face. She got quite a shock and for a few seconds looked as though she didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. In the end she decided to be mad as it had taken her ten minutes to decide which flavour she wanted.

Liz said she was convinced the gulls were working as a team, one hit her head and the other one snatched the ice cream. She too had been looking forward to it after spending ages (according to her husband) choosing a flavour. 

Tony

[Ian Abel]

Captain Jemma posing with her ship after finishing her last leg with Compass/Delta Connection in Seattle this morning...

 

 

Off to Atlanta for Delta training in two weeks.

 

 

[AndyID]

33 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Seaside rats with wings.

 

Not just the seaside either. There are plenty of the bar stewards here too. They commute between the landfill and the lake. The eagles hang out at the landfill too but they don't go after the gulls. The eagles seem to prefer carrion and fish.

[JohnDMJ]

 

50 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Seaside rats with wings.

 

Down here, the gulls are the problem nearer the sea but where I choose to have my lunch most days is plagued with threatening crows; they menace bully you into giving food (I usually jerk my foot in their direction and they retreat for a short while!) but others think 'how cute' and encourage them! Only makes them more tame and venture closer. NO!!!!!

 

[Ozexpatriate]

6 minutes ago, JohnDMJ said:

... threatening crows; they menace bully you into giving food (I usually jerk my foot in their direction and they retreat for a short while!) but others think 'how cute' and encourage them! 

Many species have learned grift.

 

According to TV programmes I have watched, the Barbary apes on Gibraltar are notorious beggars and thieves and quite ingenious.

 

Wikipedia says this:

Quote

The macaques' contact with large numbers of tourists was causing the integrity of their social groups to break down, as they began to become dependent on humans. This induced the monkeys to forage in the town, resulting in damage to buildings, clothing, and vehicles. Close contact with humans has also led to the macaques learning how to open pockets and unzip handbags and rucksacks in order to steal food from humans. For these reasons, deliberately feeding the macaques in Gibraltar is now an offence punishable by law. Anyone caught feeding the monkeys is liable to be fined up to £4,000.

 

Edited August 1, 2019 by Ozexpatriate

[Tony_S]

7 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Many species have learned grift.

 

According to TV programmes I have watched, the Barbary apes on Gibraltar are notorious beggars and thieves and quite ingenious.

 

Wikipedia says this:

 

We were advised not to eat near them, not to have any loose shiny jewellery and not to tease them. Of course some people ignore these suggestions. The mummy monkeys are very protective of their babies but people still try to get “cute” photos. 

[45156]

Evening All

 

Generic greetings are on offer, as usual, as are apologies for absence.  Just been too much happening of late to stay catched up - just succeeded and able to post while 30747 listens to The Archers.

 

First off, been following events in Whaley Bridge and my heart goes out to the people who have been evacuated, with no knowledge of when (or whether) they can return - 6500 is a whole lot of people to rehome at one fell swoop.

 

Now then to the trivial - last week, the blind in the bathroom fell down, and as we were planning to replace it anyway, I just went to Wilkos which is where we got the old one.  So it should then be simple to replace just the roller part, and the end caps.  Simple?  No!!  They've changed the brackets, end caps, diameter of the roller - everything.  So it was a back to square one, taking down the brackets, then finding that even the spacing of the holes in the bracket have changed.  A hopefully ten minute job became two hours, and the final insult was when I pulled it, it fell down again, as the new bracket had a retaining pin which had not engaged properly - hey ho.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

 

ps when we were in Sidmouth a couple of weeks ago before it was taken over this week by the strange people (Chrisf excepted), and 30747 was walking along eating a lovely ham roll, and it was snatched from behind her by a sh1tehawk which then flew off in front - and it never touched her at all during the two seconds that it took

Edited August 1, 2019 by 45156

[BoD]

Just checking the final cricket score.

England had Australia 122 for 8 and let the escape to 284.

Useless or what?

 

 

 

No sandpaper was harmed in the making of this post.

[Tony_S]

The most common gull in the Benfleet area is the black headed gull. They are small and generally seem not to be aggressive. The larger gulls that inhabit the Pitsea area have been well fed on the tip. This is due to close as a land fill site. There is a large population of foxes there too.  

[BoD]

4 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

The most common gull in the Benfleet area is the black headed gull. They are small and generally seem not to be aggressive.

 

Some gulls are and some gulls aren’t.*

If you really want to experience aggressive gulls/terns go to the Farne Islands, off the Northumbrian coast, during the breeding season.  It’s a beautiful place and it really is a fantastic experience.

 

 

*I feel a 70’s song coming on.

 

[tigerburnie]

Evening all, been train spotting again and got the Aberdonian on it's return journey through the station area I am modelling, I will be needing an A1 and one with sound, sooooooooooooooooo………………………………………………….

 

[PeterBB]

Hi Guys,

Congratulations and commiserations as needed.  A lot has been going on- and - hopefully when I get the chance and available time will relate will try to relate …  apart from DR at the next village it is a whole month since even seeing a model railway or train of any description.

 

I have however seen a rusting signal in a village off the A303 not far from Stonehenge resulting from a missed turning so it was worthwhile.

 

Best wishes to John and Sandy

[New Haven Neil]

Ah rusting!  My garage is now drying out, but some rusting of items that were submerged is apparent!  Motorbike bits, not the trains that are 4 feet above 'sea' level.

[southern42]

3 hours ago, Tony_S said:

We had a nice lunch out. We did hear about the dodge the weather holiday our friends had in Wales. Best story though was the Beaumaris incident.  Our friend was mugged by a couple of gulls that took her ice cream . 

Since returning home I have been sitting on the sofa watching the test match.

Tony

 

 

Yep.  those gulls have it off to a T.  I had an ice cream nicked on the riverside at Conwy a few years ago.  Came up over the shoulder from behind me...     

 

Now would I?  I guess not...  

[TheQ]

4 hours ago, southern42 said:

 

Link to the painting.  http://www.bangorcivicsociety.org.uk/pages/hisso/pa0.htm

The giveaway was the sailor standing in front of the sail to the right of the mast.  This indicates that the aft sails are held out to starboard while the foresails are to port.  Compare this to the other yacht which has all sail to port.  The yachts are most likely going with the tide.  It would take the power and speed of steam to do well against it, especially in that wind.  Interesting that the left hand sailboat is towing its tender - quite common round here but also risky!  Something we chose not to do!  We have seen yachts and their tenders part company or, worse, get caught round lobster pot lines.  All in a day's sail...

 

 

Sorry I don't see that at all,  I see on the twin masted boat,  a flying jib set on the bowsprit,  a gaff rigged foremain out to port,  and an aftmain luggsail set to port. The wind is from the stern quarter starboard, as indicated by the steam ships smoke and the position of the other boats sails.  That would mean the wind on the twin masted freighter being unsuitable for goose winging.. 

[TheQ]

Evening awl up. Very late for me, 

Yesterday WE discovered The Brick was not working,  that's a 2TB USB drive attached to the router.  I diagnosed an ex PSU,  ordered,  so it was waiting for me when I get home. While the PC accessed it imeadiately on power up . The Android tablets refused to do so. After much messing around a specific network browser  was found to do do the job, where file managers wouldn't.. 

 

SWMBO happy now she can access her picture for painting tomorrow.

 

Time to attempt  sleep. 

 

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Consider yourself lucky if the gulls only grab your ice cream

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-49070562

 

[Coombe Barton]

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2019/08/01/sandys-treatment-day-226/

With explanations of antlers

Edited August 1, 2019 by Coombe Barton

[Ozexpatriate]

8 hours ago, southern42 said:

In the hallway outside Bangor Uni's Archives is a painting looking towards the beach with yachts and steamboats at the end of the 19th century.  The wind seemed to be blowing from the right hand side (westerly) but one set of sails always looked odd!  Until, that is, the penny dropped.  ...

 

1 hour ago, TheQ said:

Sorry I don't see that at all,  ....

I'm wondering if the artist was perhaps not a sailor and had little technical understand of boat handling and just stuck various different vessels in his painting to make the foreground more interesting?  Or even perhaps the addition of the boats was a suggestion by his patron/commissioner?

[Dave Hunt]

4 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Our friend was mugged by a couple of gulls that took her ice cream . 

 

 

Last year SWMBO was mugged in St. Helier by two gulls that stole half her pastie then proceeded to have a battle royal between themselves on the table where we were sitting . After the mayhem had died down and the perpetrators departed a chap nearby drew out attention to a notice taped to his table warning of just such occurrences.

 

Had a very pleasant day at our friends' place sitting in the very extensive garden eating and drinking while the grandkids tired themselves out. They all slept on the way home and two of them then went straight to bed without wanting any supper. I just hope this doesn't presage us being woken at the crack of sparrow fa*t with demands for breakfast etc. 

 

Night night all.

 

Dave

[AndyID]

2 hours ago, tigerburnie said:

Evening all, been train spotting again and got the Aberdonian on it's return journey through the station area I am modelling, I will be needing an A1 and one with sound, sooooooooooooooooo………………………………………………….

 

 

I took a liberty...