Early Risers.

[rockershovel]

Foxes seem active in the gardens today.. 

[monkeysarefun]

29 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

There's so little passenger traffic at the moment that the freight carriers have the skies to themselves. I was quite surprised to actually see a contrail yesterday. It looked like a 747 - probably freight heading for SEA/TAC.

 

 

Here too, this was 9am this morning - usually the  peak time for commuter and regional flights especially..

 

 

 

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, J. S. Bach said:

April 22, 2020, 12:01 pm
Arrived at Post Office
CHESTER, SC 29706

April 21, 2020, 12:18 am
Departed USPS Facility
REDDING, CA 96002

Assuming all times are local, it took a day plus 8 hours, 43 minutes to get from Redding to Chester. A minimum of five of those hours would be needed for flying, and assuming the 'plane went to Charlotte, another hour on the road.

 

That's pretty impressive. The USPS is capable of amazing things. Long may it do so.

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all, on St George’s Day in case you had not noticed

 

There are a very few musicians who have only to play a couple of notes and be identified at once.  One such is Will Pound, a young harmonica player from the West Midlands.  To my surprise and delight he rounded off the Today programme yesterday, in blistering style.  You have probably guessed that our paths have crossed a few times.  One day, should we all live so long, musicians will have the opportunity to play in venues before a live audience.  Will Pound is at the upper end of my ‘must see’ list and I commend him to the house!

 

There were still some empty shelves in Tesco yesterday.  The only one which affected me was the one which should have contained foam bath but as yet the absence of that commodity causes little inconvenience.  For some reason there were two queues when I arrived.  The member of staff keeping order did not know why so I joined the one which was moving!  Later I found a placard which proclaimed that at certain times vulnerable persons had priority.  I assume that includes me.

 

Around noon yesterday the doorbell rang.  I opened the door to find the postlady on the pavement, a plastic envelope on the doormat and the familiar style of cardboard envelope used by Cygnet Magazines which some postal workers can force through my letterbox and others can’t.  The postlady and I yelled pleasantries at each other, as you do when social distancing is in force.  Both items had taken longer to reach me than other recipients but I am relieved that they arrived safely.  I will never understand why some items of mail habitually reach me up to a week later than they should.  This time, I admit, that ruddy virus may have played a part but it also happens when plagues have not descended on the land.  On the bright side, I had plenty to read.  The ironing will take its turn.

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

[jamie92208]

Morning all.  The doves are up and cooing but apart from their sounds the village and housecare still peaceful, though as I wrote a car went past. There are certainly no contrails but we still get a bit of aircraft noise.  The French Air Force  basic training establishment is at Cognac, not far from us.  Normally it's small prop driven trainers but we also get fast jets now and again. Two came over very low yesterday   they must have been weaving aroubd the wind turbines a couple of miles away.  

 

The workshop area lights are now working but I couldn't get another fitting to come to life.  Working above the suspended cieling was rather warm.  I did find that the wire feeding the offending fitting has volts going in at one end but they get lost along the way.  I presume that some rodent is responsible as it's a run of cable that's not in conduit. 

 

Today will involve shopping and I have been told that a big DIY store is open at Ruffec next to the trainspotting branch of Leclerc's.  Some sort of combined operation seems likely to get some lighting cable and the rest of the shopping.  I already have a good length of flexible metal conduit.  Sounds good to me.   

 

In other things I made some good muddlung progress and a generally good day was had.

 

Regards to all and stay safe.

 

Jamie

[Barry O]

Ey up!

 

Thanks for the reminder Chris, of all the 4 countries 8n Great Britain we celebrate our patron saint the least.

"Cry 'God for Harry,England and St George' "...seems Shakespeare was a fan of St George.

 

Her indoors is putting on her anti virus clothes to go shopping. She doesnlike going, but, bless her she goes to morreasons once a week to make sure we have supplies for next week.

 

Our local traffic police are noticeable by their absence. No doubt when someone is flattened by one of the minority sppeding motorist they may re-appear.

 

Mugatea drunk so time to get on with the rest of the day!

I hope you all have a good day this Thursday...doesn't time fly in Lockdown???

 

Positive thoughts to all ERs particularly our infrequent visitors.

 

Baz

[TheQ]

Mooring awl,  Inner Temple Hare, 

4 hours plus  about 2 hours sleep but solid each time. 

 

Ben the alarm clock Collie was on time,  it's cool,  cloudless and sunny out there.

 

As the air temperature is expected to be 17 C at the maximum for us today,  I'll try to finish the garage roof Ivy clearance.  The easterly wind has eased , before its switch to the north,  either way is just a short distance to the sea. 

 

Some thought is being given to porridge flavouring,  I'm tempted to try Tristan Jones's burgoo,  which IRRC was layers of bacon and porridge, but not probably today. 

 

I see the Bo'ness  children's fair is now scheduled for the end of August,  traditionally it's around the end of school Term in June.  Although the original fair was in July from 1779 for miners celebrating the end of  being "bound" to mines.  

It's a big thing for the town,  the Fair Queen gets a huge construction over the road outside her home,  the Handmaidens, age last year of primary school, have a construction covering the front of their house, built by family and friends. My great niece was a handmaiden last year.  Each year a different theme is chosen.  https://www.thefairday.com/

 

Time I think to make the porridge.. 

 

 

 

Edited April 23, 2020 by TheQ

[Ozexpatriate]

36 minutes ago, Barry O said:

"Cry 'God for Harry,England and St George' "...seems Shakespeare was a fan of St George.

Or at least put nice jingoistic, nationalistic language in the mouth of 'his' Henry V to please audiences in the later days of ER-I.

 

According to his critics Shakespeare's Henry V equivocates on war, starting with the heroic "Once more unto the breach" (Act III, Scene I) , resulting in parley in Scene II, then, still before Harfleur (Act III Scene III), where he threatens the inhabitants of Harfleur with the tragedy of war:

Quote

And the flesh'd soldier, rough and hard of heart, 

 In liberty of bloody hand shall range 

 With conscience wide as hell, mowing like grass 

 Your fresh-fair virgins and your flowering infants.

...

What is't to me, when you yourselves are cause,

 If your pure maidens fall into the hand 

 Of hot and forcing violation? 

 What rein can hold licentious wickedness 

 When down the hill he holds his fierce career?

But glorifies war in the St. Crispin's day speech.

 

Apparently Shakespeare mentions St. George 18 times - 16 in the histories. A couple of years ago an article (thanks Google) highlighted this reference in a comedy:

Quote

He's there in the early, and relatively obsure, Love's Labour's Lost, when the noble lord Berowne heckles a play that's being put on for the Princess of France, saying that one of the actors, Holofernes the schoolmaster, has a face like "Saint George's half-cheek in a brooch". Ouch.

 

 

Edited April 23, 2020 by Ozexpatriate

[roundhouse]

Good morning and another nice one aswell.

 

Number 45 is back on the news stating all the non social distancing armed protestors are doing a good job - wierd country at times but there may be fewer of his supporters in November if they end up with Darwin awards. Its the fall out of spreading the virus to others thats not so good.

 

The garden railway halt building and fence that had been in place for over 20 years has just been partially repainted and platform fencing repaired but was knocked over the very night that it was put back in place, presumably by the foxes. The fencing is now in pieces so will require attention today. The building is a much tougher and will go back in place once the last wall is repainted.

 

We now have three cats and three foxes visiting our garden each evening. My other half loves animals especially the cats but the downside is the poop etc they deposit in the freshly dug borders that I look after.

 

More beer due for delivery in the nxt day or so - we wont be going thirsty but are craving a decent freshly pulled pint in a pub. I may build another out building this time with a proper bar if this lockdown is going to last a good part of the rest of the year- shed number 4

[leopardml2341]

Morning all, sad to report very broken sleep last night.

 

Anyhow, that's now history. Time to approach the day.

 

Have to go to 'proper' office today primarily to print some docs, one of which is 200+ sides; I don't know about others but I do not like, nay find it almost impossible, reviewing large docs on a pc screen.

Currently drinking tea, watching Doggo curled up in his bed and obviously dreaming and just about to check in on prospects for weather.

 

Stay safe, stay well and make the best of the day.

 

As an aside, I wonder how many Irish folk will be celebrating St.George's Day and if it's more than the number of Manchester United fans who actually live in Manchester ( I understand that to be some sort of irony; I don't understand the concept of football)

Edited April 23, 2020 by leopardml2341

[jamie92208]

Back again, how could I forget. 40 years ago our eldestcarrived in this world at 03.10 hrs.  It had been a bit if a traumatic affaircending up with an emergency  Caesarean but both he and his mother ended up safe and well.  I gad to be at work at 09.00 as I was due to give evidence in court.  The case was going to be put off till the afternoon.  I wentca bit ballistic as I wanted to visit Beth. Eventually  the Ch Insp who was prosecuting agreed, under a lot of pressure from me, to apply for an adjournment.   He explained the circumstances to the lady chairman of the bench who couldn't have been more charming and the case was adjourned  forca few weeks.  Off I went to the hospital.  Happy days.

 

Jamie

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Sunshine and blue skies here and another fine warm day forecast with temperatures up to 23°C.

Not a very good night's sleep for me either as I woke up about every hour and a half with much aching and paining all over. The Hip seems to be the worst this morning, Will go for another walk but not looking forward to it so may start deploying painkillers. I've been trying to avoid them but there's a time when toughing it out becomes stupid.

After that it's Shed time again. Track in goods yard now finished and I've made a start on the engine shed area. I've decided against a turntable as, to my eyes, it will just look too bulky on the layout.

First lot of three bin lorries have been and landfill waste has gone.  Glass,plastics and cans left to go and also garden waste. We share the latter with our friends next door although since I've had the garden relaid we don't use it much. I think Russ must put dead bodies in it judging by the weight when I wheeled it out last night!

Although we are in regular touch with the grandkids we are really missing their physical presence and the way things are going it could be longer than we originally thought before we can get together again.  We're also fairly certain that our Golden Anniversary Party in July will not now go ahead.

We were going on a cruise in June but rearranged it for September. That now seems to have been a mistake and will have to be looked at again.  Never mind, it's not the end of the world and we are still all in good health which is more than can be said for many poor souls.

Have a good one,

Bob.

Edited April 23, 2020 by grandadbob
missing words

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Well is was quite dull as I was eating breakfast, but the sun is now starting to shine and it looks like it could be a lovely day here in the northwest of England. I’ll shortly be setting off to complete a Trafford Centre Grand Prix, but as I will only be visiting one shop that shouldn’t take long. I’ll probably spend more time in the queue waiting to get in! Then I will detour via the butchers to get the weekly meat rations and hopefully a pastie for dinner. Once home and the shopping has been packed away, I’ll finish making the fruit tea loaf that was started last night, the fruit, sugar etc have been soaking overnight and the final addition of flour will be done before it goes into the oven. After that there isn’t a great deal planned, but that could well change. 

 

Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later 

[Kingzance]

Good morning all,

 

Hazy sunshine across my little corner of the world and there is only a light breeze so the haze will remain. Although there are far fewer contrails, the lower atmosphere remains quite thick with dust and other pollutants, their source being something of a mystery to me given we are using vehicle at a quarter of our pre-WuFlu rate. This smog is producing colourful sunrises and sunsets but is hindering viewing of low lying stars and galaxies. I have been given a challenge to photograph the Andromeda galaxy and I am struggling at present.

 

Yesterday went much as I expected. I did take a short trip to a nearby wooded area famed for its bluebells and found three or four good pics out of the 135 I took, these have been subsequently posted on a relevant thread. No steam engines were spotted running along parallel bits of metal were seen at the time. Grass was cut so local blackbirds, robins and wrens were able to get fodder for their nests more easily. I also read through the details and thoughts concerning a certain virtual meeting not taking place somewhere other than Taunton on Sunday - a good cause and an entertaining read for those with a spare few minutes.

 

And so for today. I shall need to avoid the whirling dervish that is SWMBO on her weekly cleaning blitz but she does that before our post arrives so I shan’t be escaping to the internal equivalent of GDB’s cave. Further work on fettling a couple of syphons and a bloater may be substituted or I may just observe social distancing around the village. It is our Camera Club’s AGM this evening and this will of course be a post The Clap virtual event. The club is in a good position in that it is reasonably well funded and has a good committee who are all willing to serve a further year. I will miss the tea and biscuits usually served on such occasions but maybe a virtual hobnob (other biscuits are available) may find its way into my hand / mouth?

 

Stay safe everyone and give it a good Baz-ing.

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

  He explained the circumstances to the lady chairman of the bench who couldn't have been more charming and the case was adjourned  forca few weeks. 

What Jamie has failed to mention, is at the rescheduled trial, that charming lady chairman of the bench, was equally charming as she ordered the defendant to receive 100 lashes after being found guilty of wearing a loud check shirt.

[Happy Hippo]

A small padded envelope has arrived.  I think (know) it contains a sound decoder.

 

I have decided that today I will spend part of my work time on hobby related matters, such as eating savoury snacks, cake, ice cream and fresh fruit washed down with cider, wine and cups of tea (not necessarily in any particular order), rather than bathing in the dust bowl at the bottom of the hippodrome's grounds.

[newbryford]

30 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

What Jamie has failed to mention, is at the rescheduled trial, that charming lady chairman of the bench, was equally charming as she ordered the defendant to receive 100 lashes after being found guilty of wearing a loud check shirt.

 

Reminds me of the Not The 9 O'Clock News "Constable Savage" sketch....

(Coughing without due care and attention is relevant today...………..)

 

Note: This is from 1980...…...

 

 

 

[Happy Hippo]

A senior moment has just occured!

 

I was expecting a sound decoder that required hard wiring into the loco.

 

The decoder arrived with an 8 pin plug attached.

 

Mental turmoil then occured as I  then decided I would need to source an 8 pin socket and wire it into the loco before I could pin the decoder into place.

 

Where do I get one?

 

Hang on a minute Brains!

 

Yes gentle reader, then the penny dropped:  Cut off the 8 pin plug and hard wire onto loco as orignally intended.

 

Doh!

[Coombe Barton]

7 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Do you know the carrier? USPS, UPS or FedEx? Or other?

What about SpaceX?

[grandadbob]

Well I managed a half hour stroll earlier and painkiller helped but that was still enough for now.

Coffee time now and then I will be visiting El Sheddo and melting some solder.

[AndrewC]

Greetings all from the boring borough. Not a fork of a lot happening here. SWMBO is bored. Well, she wants to be working in the garden but over exerted herself the other day and is too sore to do anything strenuous. I spent some modelling tokens for the first time in nearly a year. 

 

For my next trick I shall be banging my head against the wall trying to recoup some of the money invested in travel over the coming months. Eurostar being tw@s and only offering vouchers unless the actual service is cancelled. They won't let you know that until 24 hours before departure, so little hope of a refund. Thalys, is better but their website and app can't handle it so I have to call a human in Belgium to negotiate a refund. Captain obvious has our pre-paid hotel bookings but is only offering unconditional cancellation and refunds up to April 30. If I go via the normal cancellation route there is a fee that comes off so I'm hoping they will update things soon. Frustrating to say the least. 

 

coffee time, enjoy the day. 

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from Sidcup where the sun is shining and the birds are singing in the trees. I can actually see a plane (plus contrail) going over at the moment; a rarity these days.

 

I am surprised that Ian is getting visits from both foxes and cats regularly - we have found that as the numberof cats has increased the number of foxes has decreased. One year they denned under our decking which was smelly to say the least and as Younger Lurker was a toddler, not something we were too pleased about. I did see one the other morning and it does appear they have tried to dig a hole under the fence to next doors but given up. Certainly the one I saw leapt over the fence when I opened the kitchen window to prevent it marking its territory any more solidly.

 

Work carries on. The daily catch up calls get shorter as everyone has less to say. 

 

Have a good day all

[Simon G]

Morning from sunny Cumbria.

 

Radio Cumbria amused me this morning when in the travel reports they announced that there would be no trains this weekend on the West Coast Main Line and the Waverley Line north of Carlisle.  Anyone waiting for a Waverley Line train from Carlisle to Edinburgh is going to have a long wait!

 

Hedge trimming has been started this morning.  My intention is to try to do it little but more often this year.  So far so good, as most of the trimmings are small and will just rot down without me having to collect them and put them in the compost bin.

 

Coffee now being consumed, the bread maker is issuing forth a delicious smell, so I am happy for now.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. FYI St. George was Turkish and probably hadn't even heard of England if indeed it had existed in his time. GDB, I found that using a stick helped my hip problem being able to take the weight off of the hip. Even better is the walker as it has a seat so that I can take a rest whenever I like, and it keeps you fit IMHO. Now to do battle with Farcebook, be back later.

Edited April 23, 2020 by PhilJ W
grammer

[Tony_S]

5 hours ago, Barry O said:

 

Thanks for the reminder Chris, of all the 4 countries 8n Great Britain we celebrate our patron saint the least.

Has Rutland declared independence again? Great Britain has three countries. Never sure why the Olympic team is TeamGB rather than TeamUK.