Early Risers.

[tigerburnie]

Evening(it's getting dark so not spring afternoon now), we've had a nice overcast, cool but dry day, so more pond construction work done, nearly full, tomorrow it's tidy up the edges and searching 'tinternet for some plants as we can't go to the garden centre. I now have muscles aching that I'd forgot I owned, still they said keep fit to fight the beast, don't need a gym round here.

 

[Ozexpatriate]

6 hours ago, 5 C said:

I'm a basket only shopper and as is the norm, deposited my basket at the usual place at the start of the conveyor once unloaded. I began decanting the purchases into my bag as usual until the cashier told me that I couldn't stand and pack there. I was rather non plussed and asked what I was expected to do.

I had a similar moment last week when I put my reusable bags on the conveyor. (Apparently I shouldn't have.) Customers with reusable bags now have to bag their own groceries so that the checkers don't have to touch bags people have brought from home.

 

It seems there are many such changes to our routines. In New Jersey and Oregon, patrons are not permitted to pump their own gas/petrol. Yesterday the Oregon Fire Marshall declared that Oregonians may (essentially meaning must) pump their own gas, in deference to concerns that gas station attendants were unable to maintain a suitable distance. Stations may still employ attendants to disinfect surfaces (pump handle, buttons, etc) but with fewer people driving and no requirement to employ them, I suspect they will be stood down. This change happened with no clear announcement so apparently people were confused when they went to refill their cars. Unless they have driven out of state there are no doubt many Oregonians who have never pumped their own gas/petrol.

[AndyID]

18 minutes ago, tigerburnie said:

Evening(it's getting dark so not spring afternoon now), we've had a nice overcast, cool but dry day, so more pond construction work done, nearly full, tomorrow it's tidy up the edges and searching 'tinternet for some plants as we can't go to the garden centre. I now have muscles aching that I'd forgot I owned, still they said keep fit to fight the beast, don't need a gym round here.

 

 

I trust you have set up a (an?) hippo exclusion zone.

[tigerburnie]

No mud(yet) so should be safe lol

[Barry O]

While I am supposed to stay indoors we had planned a short walk tonight. Cancelled due to teh cold wind and temperatures. Pah!

 

some muddling done.. plenty still to do.

 

While the NHS is doing a great job they seem to have dropped cancer patients like a stone. Not sure that this is a "good" thing.

 

A bottle of Shiraz awaits... TTFN

 

Baz

 

 

[New Haven Neil]

Well, the afternoon turned out to be better than the morning, quite pleasant in the sun, so lots and lots done in the garden rather than a walk, probably was harder work.

 

Patio burner on full pelt burning a huge pile of wood we were given that is no good for the indoors burner, so pleasant to sit by it having a brew in between garden jobs!  More done on the thing in the garage too, some more locos weathering started, first washes and stuff, the Slartybarfasting is drying nicely so more work on that maybe later in the week.

 

This is a quiet place anyway, but the silence today was eerie, the odd lawnmower starting somewhere was an intrusion into the birdsong.

 

Finally,this needs no other comment....yes its real....but tongue in cheek.

 

 

 

[brianusa]

11 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

On 28/03/2020 at 04:22, PhilJ W said:

Breaking news, a cat has been found to have the coronavirus. If it was a dog it would be bad enough but how do you isolate a cat? Best thing would be to distance yourself from any animal.

Apparently, so far, the transmission is both very rare and one-way (human to pet and not the other way around). Furthermore, according to one report I read, the tests were only "mildly positive" (whatever that means...) and the animals asymptomatic.

 

To many, pets are a comfort especially to those alone and elderly.  Sadly, they don't usually last as long as their owners but their presence has great therapeutic value for us all.

     Brian.

[Dave Hunt]

After getting morning muggocoffee at the crack of nine o'clock - my body clock still being fixed in the past and it was Sunday after all - I eventually rose and set about making a large batch of marmalade. While it was heating up I decided to go and get some stuff from the garage and got back to the kitchen just in time to see the pan froth over. Have you ever seen the mess that a large pan of marmalade makes when that happens? Furthermore, have you ever tried to clean everything up afterwards? So that was the morning gone. Still, we now have eight jars of marmalade, some of which is earmarked for friends, but the kitchen still vaguely smells of burnt oranges.

 

Jill and I went for a walk this afternoon but after spending half an hour dodging into gateways and side turnings from the path to avoid getting within six feet of other walkers we turned back for home. To get over the disappointment I then forced myself to spend a couple of hours in the railway room/workshop. Sometimes these things are worth the sacrifice.

 

Tomorrow there's a man coming to power clean the drive and paths then re-sand the paviors at nine o'clock so unlike today I'll have to make sure I'm up by then. It's a hard life at times.

 

Glad to hear that Mrs. GDB is getting better. Good wishes to all of you - stay safe and well.

 

Dave 

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

...yes its real....but tongue in cheek.

 

 

 

 

And very typical of Fraggle Rock Constabulary.  

 

24 minutes ago, brianusa said:

To many, pets are a comfort especially to those alone and elderly

 

We are neither elderly nor alone but wouldn't be without a cat.  

 

It remains cold outside.  Aircraft are still passing overhead but are few in number and not the noisy super-heavies which have a shallower take-off angle so come closer to clipping our roof as they come over.  

 

It is time for the fart-sack.  Goodnight all.  Sleep as well as your circumstances allow.  

 

[Barry O]

Goodnight all!

Baz

[The Lurker]

9 hours ago, bbishop said:

 

Dry cough or wet cough?  Bill

Dry.

 

we have come to the conclusion that she probably has the Coronavirus.

 

she told me she felt very hot through in the night (and it is not one of the night sweats that happen to ladies of her age) and the cough is definitely dry. There has been a mild headache too. 

 

There has has not been a temperature since  the middle of the night.

 

so it seems mild so far but I have told her not to be brave and soldier on, which is known to do (when we first were going out she went to work with a dislocated knee and a severe ear infection)  so I am keeping an eye on her

[Coombe Barton]

Videos, slowly.

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2020/03/29/lost-the-hour/

[newbryford]

After a week of WFH, I will be attending the workplace tomorrow.

One reason will be to drop off some WFH stuff and possibly collect more for WFH.

 

We will be having a small meeting - 3 attendees suitably spaced out (one of which will be in the room next door) and one on a conference call to determine what happens in the next few weeks regarding attendance/phone calls/furloughs etc.

Our main business is via mail order, but some physical presence is required.

 

I have no idea what the outcome may be.

 

Stay safe (and separate) folks.

 

Cheers,

Mick

 

 

 

 

 

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Thankfully the weather stayed dry again today, but it's been a lot colder than of late and like yesterday very blustery. But it wasn't cold enough to require the need of a coat or jumper, shirt sleeves as usual for me. It always makes me smile when my neighbours (both sides) both don hats and coats whilst they put their washing out on the line, where as I'm out there, quite often in my thin shirt and with my sleeves rolled up! Mind you I'm probably doing work that's a bit more physical and thus generating enough body heat to keep me warm. But to be honest, I rarely wear a coat when working in the garden, even when it's cold, I find that I get too warm, but I'll admit to occasionally putting an old jumper on. 

 

This morning I planted a variegated ivy next to the obilisk that the sweet peas will grow up. Hopefully, when this has grown a bit it will provide a bit of all year greenery, it will also give a little more support for the sweet peas. I also planted another variegated ivy next to the small obilisk that the dwarf clematis climbs up for the same reason. A little more general tidying up was done before I cleared away all the accumulated dirt, leaves and stored bricks from the area opposite the cellar window area. I use this area to store items like bricks etc. These are stacked against the gardens retaining wall and are about a foot away the cellar wall, as it is quite sheltered. These have all been nearly stacked near some empty troughs and will remain there until I've finished the pointing. Once that was done I then cleaned the cellar door furniture, as they were showing a few signs of corrosion. 

 

After dinner I fixed everything to a scrap piece of wood and gave everything a coat of satin black paint. I then went to the cellar and then gave both wooden door knobs a coat of varnish before getting changed. After making a mid-afternoon muggertea I sat at the dining room table and made some of the MERG kits that came the other day. 

 

Goodnight all 

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Managed to catch up on Farcebook, the traffic on there has doubled in the last week and it gets noticably slower at certain times of day. I see theres some idiots around, holding parties and even a football match! Now time to catch up on the rest of RMweb, be back later.

[southern42]

A little bit of excitement earlier this evening.

 

A whisper of the ISS passing us sent us upstairs to gaze out the opened bathroom window only to see thick bands of cloud on the horizon in the direction of view.  However, Venus, then the moon were spotted and through the thin cloud in between came the the space station gradually and brightly appearing in a cloudless patch of sky before it was totally blanked out, my wonder at such things restored once more!

 

Night all, nos da, and keep safe.

_____________

Best wishes

Polly

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[J. S. Bach]

Good night owl from the Piedmont.

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

I spent much of yesterday on the phone.  I rang some friends to check that they were OK and some kindly did the same for me.  The friends I rang fall within an accepted definition of ‘elderly’ but I tend to forget that I do too, having proclaimed for years that I am still mis-spending my youth.  Apart from cooking yet another steak and getting the laundry up to date I can’t say that I achieved very much.  For some reason I am even more easily distracted than usual at the moment.  That must change, for my desk is cluttered with project boxes, each containing an incomplete model.  When I get down to it I enjoy m*d*ll*ng but I’m not very good at motivating myself right now.

 

The local bus network in Bedford has been subjected to savage cuts as from today.  Both routes that I use regularly are down to an hourly frequency.  Route 5 is normally every 12 minutes but it has been carrying a lot of fresh air around lately.  When I do the fodder run today I expect that I will use the car, which has not turned a wheel for several days.  I might just check whether the council tip is still open.  If it isn’t, that banjaxes the magazine cull, with hundreds of comics slated for disposal.  The process has revealed that some of those which I thought missing are where they should be while others are AWOL – nothing I did not expect.

 

After the carnage of the week before last there is precious little left in the diary to be cancelled.  Poorly Pal’s 70th birthday bash is one of the latest to bite the dust.  He may have an official birthday when things return to something approaching normal.  Of Sidmouth Folk Festival there is as yet no word but I fear the worst.  It cannot function without the town pubs.  Neither, it must be said, can most of the patrons.  If it does go ahead I must re-think my journey to Sidmouth.  Hitherto I have got on the road before 5 am so as to miss nearly all the rush hours.  The crafty bit was to blag a cuppa off my aunt in Bristol, where I would arrive at about 8 am and stay until the rush hour had subsided.  Since I last inflicted myself on her she has moved into a care home.  She is 96 and has done well to remain independent for so long.  I had hoped to pay her courtesy calls on my way home from the SWAG event at the end of April and when I would have been in Bristol for Pride.  That ruddy virus has much to answer for.  

 

Best wishes to all, provided that they are still in stock at your local supermarket.

 

Chris

 

[roundhouse]

Chris - I know our recycling centre is closed here in our part of Surrey as many are, but I am going to try the recycling bins in a nearby car park or even the ones at a nearby station as we now have rather full bins at home.

 

Morning all. Todays task is to see if a small localish timber merchants is open as their website would suggest that they are. Luckily a friend lives very close and he is going there first. I can go past it on the way to Mums who is running out of potatoes and we managed ot get her a pack on Saturday, so will be a drop off at her front door. My nephews have another five days before they will be deemed safe to not have to keep their distance from Mum but that also means that they cant go out shopping for mum either so they are going to need all the help they can get with food supplies etc. Luckily a neighbour form where Mum used ot live is helping but there are still shortages and they have a large family to feed os with limits on who many of each item that they can buy, thats not keeping Mum and nephews fed . On line deliveries isnt worth trying anymore depsite the PM saying people should be using that in preference ot going out for food.

 

Anyway already been in the shed to refill the water container. A new mini fridge was due yesterday but its now moved ot Tuesday. No rush if theres more urgent supplies to others required.

 

Today I might build the log store out of offcuts from building the shed. A powered saw (I dont fancy using a chain saw) is also due tomorrow that will allow me to cut logs up to 8" thick as my manual saws are not capable of cutting the thick ones but it is good execrise on the smaller logs!

 

Stay safe all.

[Ozexpatriate]

I don't know if this would make the UK news and thought I would share.

 

An Arkansas physician posted a picture on Facebook of his son and himself separated by a glass door. (Working at a hospital he was making sure he remained physically separate from his family.) This got picked up by the national media as an illustration of the "new normal".

 

About a day or so later his home was destroyed by a tornado. Story here.

[TheQ]

Mooring awl inner Temple Hare,  

 

 

Interruption.. Ben the demanding Collie wanted out. 

Cold chilly, no frost,  scattered clouds and overnight the wind has dropped to a light breeze.  I can hear the sea hitting the beach with quite a roar. 

 

In an hour or so I'll be standing in a queue outside TES and Co,  so porridge is currently cooking.. 

 

Once home I'm thinking of putting on the first keel skin,  sanding the inkle loom, followed by a repaint.  Then decant to the MhRC. 

 

Time to eat my porridge.. 

 

 

 

 

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Good  morning to most, good evening to others.

 

Someone in the TV films selection group has a strange mindset.

 

Contagion..all about a virus taking over the world.

 

In which we serve.. stoic british sailors band together to support a dwindling number of survivors

 

Then.."The African Queen"

 

Lummy..how to be cheered up!

Have a cracking day/evening. 

Positive thoughts to all who ail especially Mrs Lurker.

 

Mugatea time

Baz