Early Risers.

[iL Dottore]

7 minutes ago, Stubby47 said:

 

Interesting. Where was the photo taken?

[Happy Hippo]

2 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Interesting. Where was the photo taken?

It's Stu's back garden

[Stubby47]

It's at Polyjoke, west of Crantock, south of the Gannel, south of Newquay.

 

 

West Pentire Peninsula S W Coast Path, Newquay TR8 5SE https://maps.app.goo.gl/yem5dMtpQo65ZTD36

 

Edited July 19, 2020 by Stubby47

[Dave Hunt]

Good morning and a happy 21st to Baz.

 

About 30 years ago a school friend of No. 1 Son joined the police force (before it became a service?) and moved into a flat somewhere in London. The previous occupants had left some plants on the window sills and since they were healthy and looked quite attractive he kept them until one evening when a colleague was visiting and asked whether he thought it wise for a police cadet to be growing cannabis in his flat .

 

Have a good one folks.

 

Dave

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Happy birthday Baz and more of 'em. Weather as Tony reported, the rain seems to be passing us by, but its still very muggy.

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 

Goodness me, we have our very own “narcotics kingpin“  in our midst 

Seriously, I thought that opium poppies wouldn't/couldn’t grow as far north as the UK although they grow wild in many places around the Mediterranean.

 

I’m wondering how the law applies (if it applies) to garden botanicals.  There are many plant species, some quite beautiful to look at, that when processed can provide chemicals that are very toxic, very intoxicating or both.
 

Is there a Botanicals Squad in the local Police (something like the “drugs squad”)? I can well imagine the situation...

Pc Percy Thrower: “ Excuse me sir, but is that your garden?“

Philj W (for it is he): “Yes officer, what’s the problem“

Pc Percy Thrower: “What’s the problem? You do realise that you are growing Monkshood in contravention to the Botanical Act (UK) of 1895”

Philj W: “Really? I thought they were just pretty flowers“
Pc Percy Thrower: “ Just pretty flowers!!!  [aside to other policeman]  Looks like we’ve got a right joker here Constable Titchmarsh”

 

There's plenty of plants that we grow in our gardens that can produce all sorts of drugs. Foxglove for example from which digitalis is produced. Even the apple produces arsenic, in its seeds. There was a case a couple of years ago of a young man who became very ill after chewing on apple pips. Though don't worry if you swallow an apple pip as its designed to go through a mammals digestive system. Rhubarb leaves as well are highly toxic. I have a plant in the garden, I can't remember its name but when cutting it back the other day I got the milky sap on my hands. I knew that I had to wash it off straight away though because otherwise I'd have a nasty rash. As for the poppies, others have called them opium poppies but it might be a name applied to the variety which has pinkish purple flowers instead of the usual red. The eczema on my ankl has gone from being itchy and dry to red, sore and raw. I've applied a hydrochloride dressing which has eased the pain somewhat but not a lot of the G word is going to get done today.

[tigerburnie]

Morning all, Happy Birthday Baz, looks like another fine day up here, after the hectic schedule with daughters family yesterday, a quiet one is planned for today. Rails weren't run upon yesterday as buckets and spades were in evidence, so a large part of the day was spent on Lunan Bay, luckily no old ordnance was dug up on this occasion, but it seems some old stuff linked to RAF Montrose is often found here.

[pH]

40 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

About 30 years ago a school friend of No. 1 Son joined the police force (before it became a service?) and moved into a flat somewhere in London. The previous occupants had left some plants on the window sills and since they were healthy and looked quite attractive he kept them until one evening when a colleague was visiting and asked whether he thought it wise for a police cadet to be growing cannabis in his flat .

A similar thing happened in the Interior of BC. An RCMP visiting another detachment inquired as to why they were growing the odd cannabis plant in the flower beds in front of the office. Their gardener had some ‘splaining to do!

[Gwiwer]

Good morning all. A happy birthday to Baz. <insert number as appropriate> Not Out. 
 

The Pollyjoke poppies are awesome. Every year I see several friend’s photos of them. One year I must pay my respects in person. Only four more until I can potentially retire!  
 

2am. The mistletoe middle toe was throbbing fit to bust and kept me awake. I yielded to the desire and took a couple of Panadeine Forte with a nip of brandy. 
 

I then slept quite soundly until 8am and woke in much less pain. In fact despite being twice its normal size the offending toe is offering only slight discomfort and has reverted to its normal colour. Mobility is still slightly troublesome but I’ve had worse from Alf Rytus and it’s not even approaching the gout pain threshold. 
 

Muddling would have occurred this morning but SWMBO has numerous important tools borrowed for her own project which is some sort of tea-room doll’s house kit. 
 

Instead I have braved the dribble outside and inspected the estate which seems to have enjoyed its overnight drink. 
 

 

[polybear]

3 hours ago, TheQ said:

Sikkens is part of Azko Nobel,  as is International paints,  and Awlgrip. So their varnishes come under any of the names. Sometimes with both on one tin IE "International Paints, Sikkens Cetol Varnish"

It went off the market for a while when the EU regs came in,  but returned with the new formulations and now has a less orange variety

 

 

Now that we're out of the EU can we look forward to dumping all these regs?  What's worse - the old recipes or the increased exposure to "safer" alternatives, along with extra sanding dust etc. going into the air cos' the new cr@p doesn't last five minutes?

 

In other news:

 

Edited July 19, 2020 by polybear

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

.....There's plenty of plants that we grow in our gardens that can produce all sorts of drugs. Foxglove for example from which digitalis is produced. Even the apple produces arsenic, in its seeds....

Indeed, before we got Schotty we underwent a garden inspection. Part of the rehoming process was a house visit by one of the rehoming team to ensure that there was nothing in our garden that dogs would be tempted to eat and which would also make them ill or even kill them.

Sometimes it is easy to conclude that the whole natural world is out to get us, one way or another. And most of the lethality of the natural world is very well hidden. At least in Australia, the local flora and fauna make no secret of their intent to kill you.

 

I find it deliciously ironic, as a convinced and diehard carnivore, that of the most toxic substances in the world, the vast majority are plant alkaloids. Even more wonderfully ironic is that one of the most lethal animals on the planet - the Australian box jellyfish – eats plankton, so basically it is a vegetarian.

 

I really wonder how we have managed, as a species, to survive so far. Our food animals (until domesticated, and probably not even then) - want to kill us; the vegetables we gather - want to kill us; the fruits we pick - want to kill us, the fish we net in the sea – want to kill us and the funghi we forage in the forest REALLY want to kill us. I won’t go into examples of how our various foodstuffs - (domesticated, wild, grown or foraged) can bring about our untimely demise, but it does make for fascinating reading.

 

Buying your food at the supermarket or at the corner shop somehow lacks the excitement and adventure of snatching it from the arms of mother nature. I don’t see, in a generation or two‘s time, people sitting around a campfire telling tales of how their great uncle Florence Locomotive Works took on a jumbo size tin of baked beans armed with nothing but a rusty tin opener (apologies FLM, but you have been telling us about your adventures with beans on toast ).

 

Happy Birthday BaZ

[chrisf]

I hope I'm conscious for long enough to wish Baz a happy birthday ...

[TheQ]

Giant hogweed is a burner of the skin just one of the reasons I have an on going war with it. I'm winning.

 

Decks sanded and to a greater extent than I expected,  in sanding the area around the repairs I found I still had a layer of the previous coating still embedded in the surface of the wood. 

A heavy duty flexidisc flap wheel came into play.. 

Two arm aching hours later the entire deck was cleared unfortunately this has shown up some dark water damaged areas,  oxalic acid has been ordered for deployment next week .

 

A large part of the deck was OK and after a run over with the detail sander,  a white Spirit soaked cloth wipe over and a tack cloth when dry.  Then most of the deck was varnished,   Here is a picture of the stern, as was first thing this morning, before today's work. after 1.5 coats of varnish,  1.5 coats because it got a heavier than recommended sanding between coats

Edited July 19, 2020 by TheQ

[Barry O]

Thanks for the birthday wishes.. enjoying my day so far.. and my nieces daughter produced a baby girl 2 minutes before my birthday.. perfect timing..

 

Chris hope you get better soon

Rick get some frozen peas (in a packet) on the  toe...

 

Flavio.. poppies are seen across the "Flanders Fields" of World War 1 and we see a lot here oop in Yorkshire...

 

Baz

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from a disappointingly drizzly Sidcup.

 

not a proper chance to catch up with the debate on here but my general view is that we should generally avoid painting the past in black and white and that people were just as nuanced, complicated and self contradictory as they are today. The statue controversy, particularly the vilifying of Gladstone, who, I was taught at school, was quite a liberal person ( pun unintentional), reminded me of a news story from a few years ago that irritated me at the time; Sheffield at the moment is a little bit self congratulatory about its statues of Wilberforce. They appear to have forgotten the campaign of a few years back to remove his statue because he was  a sexist. I don’t know what it was that he did or said that was objected to by the campaigners but no doubt it was typical of the time. What made him stand out was his stand for the abolition of slavery. Judging by Sheffield’s smugness, the campaign to remove his statue failed.

[The Lurker]

And happy birthday to Baz

[iL Dottore]

Just now, Barry O said:

....Flavio.. poppies are seen across the "Flanders Fields" of World War 1 and we see a lot here oop in Yorkshire...Baz

The poppies of Flander’s Fields are justifiably, and sadly, well known. But I didn’t think they were opium poppies. I was under the impression that they the Papaver rhoeas as opposed to the Papaver soniferum.

The above is the Poppy I was thinking off

A quick Google of the Internet indicated that growing opium poppies in your own garden is something of a grey area. Most ornamental varieties of the Papaver soniferum barely have any active alkaloid in them, Although I suspect a dedicated Gardner would be able to cultivate them for more alkaloid than is usual.
I think that I will stick to my very hardy roses that I have in my garden (completely neglected, every year they produce a beautiful crop of lovely flowers)

[Coombe Barton]

19 minutes ago, Barry O said:

and my nieces daughter produced a baby girl 2 minutes before my birthday.. perfect timing..

Congrats to great-great uncle Baz

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Happy Birthday Baz, and many more of them.

 

For iD's information our opium poppies in the garden seem to be having a year off - we have one very weedy specimen and that is all and it's got to the seed stage.  I presume the seeds arrived via the stomach of various birds as they sprang up totally unexpected last year (with one or two the year before) but they haven't spread in the way 'normal' red poppies spread.  As 'opium poppies' have been grown commercially in recent years only a few miles from us - as the birds fly - it seems probable that they were the source of the seeds.  As were weren't out and about at the right time of year this year I don't know if any had been grown this year - possibly not as they were grown in fields where rotational cropping is practiced (albeit to a limited extent now that commercial growing of sugar beet is frowned on).  The method of harvest seemed to be different from what we see on our tv screens as the poppies here were cut, like any grain crop, after they had dried out and reportedly the drug base material was extracted from those dead plants by a company which fairly recently introduced the crop commercially to Britain due to difficulties in obtaining steady supplies for drug manufacture for medical use.  As matter of interest, and with no nasty intent, I slit the seed pod of one growing in our garden and out came a dribble of the white liquid, once the seed pod dries out the only contents are seeds. 

 

An early brunch today of just beans on toast as we are having a restaurant meal tonight from our favourite local ('Italian') restaurant - dinner should be ready for collection at 19.00.  i doubt the 'Italian' nature of the food would meet iD's standards but the food  is pretty good, nicely cooked, and sensibly priced for what it is and it will be interesting to see how they do it in takeaway form.

 

Incidentally one mid-year exhibition loss has been the MMDMRC show at Knowl Hill - a very small show by any measure but a friendly gathering and the Maidenhead & Marlow Club always put on a good show with some quality layouts, even in the cramped space of Knowl Hill Village Hall.  An associated past attraction has been Flic's Café, a short walk away and a provider of good breakfasts.   This is what the 'Special Breakfast' looks like as delivered to your table with the option of tomatoes (tinned) instead of baked beans (tinned) and fried bread (instead of toast) on the plate - plus 2 slices of toast and a mug of tea on the side, all for £6.50.  Alas it seems probable that this branch of Flic's has closed for good, hopefully the Maidenhead branch will survive.

 

Have a good day one and all and stay safe (how do you sanitise a takeaway meal? 

 

 

And talking of breakfast this fellow was enjoying some of our raspberries for his this morning -

 

 

[Debs.]

Double congratulations to you Baz; for your Birthday and the 'Birth' day......what wonderful and uplifting news! 

 

[The Stationmaster]

Afternoon Debs - lovely to see you here.

[PhilJ W]

Great to see you back Debs. AWLS INCOMING!

[PhilJ W]

There is also cannabis grown commercially here in Essex (duly licenced of course) the site is secret but I recognised the farm in question. 

[petethemole]

Good afternoon awl, and Happy Birthday to Baz.

 

After a rough night I spent half the morning dozing in front of the PC, despite a long list of small but irritating jobs that need doing.  I've now had more coffee and two rounds of roast beef & horseradish sandwich and am raring to go resigned to getting on with stuff.  Only some tasks will be completed as there's too much to do in one day, but at least I won't get distracted by additional stuff as Mrs mole is off to a friend's for an afternoon playing tunes in the garden.  A pile of cardboard boxes awaits sorting; which do I keep for posting sales, which are good for storing Lego/trains/stuff, which get recycled, which do I keep on hoarding?

 

Nice to see Debs posting.

 

Have a good day, stay elfy.

Pete

[TheQ]

Ben the sleeping collie, has just returned me from a long walk.  

A little windy but otherwise very nice, more butterflies than I'd ever seen before at one time and quite a few dragonflies. Lots of wildflowers around. 

 

Missing from my boat report Was The jib club,  I found it had a glue line failure, I think from when I accidentally stood on it.   So that's been reglued and is clamped up.. 

[petethemole]

10 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

There is also cannabis grown commercially here in Essex (duly licenced of course) the site is secret but I recognised the farm in question. 

 

It's grown 'commercially' round here but you can't see the farms.  Some days you can smell it as you enter the estate.