Early Risers.

[southern42]

3 hours ago, TheQ said:

Insoles for my rigger boots,

 

I took my insoles* OUT of my work playing tr**ns boots**, the other day. In the warmer weather, the feet were getting a bit warm... and squashed up!

*Sheepskin, just right for the winter months.

** Dunlop

 

' morning all from red dragon land.

Sunny with a thin layer of cloud. 

Not much on the agenda, today, other than a toot on the flute and guiding Henry and a duster around the place. It will keep me busy enough.

 

Toot on the flute is currently taking a small forward step  All the components of the new piece of music are coming together.  Yesterday, I spent much time online looking into the structure of it and the way it should be played. Not too unexpected, but there did seem various interpretations of it.

Some points that I picked up:

The refrain which begins the music, is only used in the first half.

Then, it seems, another section takes over as a refrain.

Increasing (doubling)* the speed is essential at certain times or for certain sections.

*Doubling the speed can occur more than once, meaning that the line(s) are repeated twice, four, eight times.., in turn, to fill the length of the original line or section(s).

The ideal for learning is to play in three speeds. I generally find, as I get more familiar with something, I speed up anyway, so the initial doubling is usually not out of reach. If I can double again, I know I can play it!!! 

 

A thought has just occurred to me. I could double the speed of my other two songs. Hmmm! Interesting....! <<We'll see...>>

 

Mugadecaf time.

Take care, Be good. One small step....

Polly

 

Edited May 20, 2023 by southern42
typohdear....!

[Hroth]

18 hours ago, polybear said:

Bear would very much like to hear fellow ER'ers book reviews....pretty please.....

 

Hardbound with dust jacket, 560 gloss pages.

 

Size: Portrait format 11.5" x 10" (29.2 x 25.4 for the Cm-ists) and "My God its HEAVY". Too heavy for the kitchen scales and I couldn't be bothered lugging it upstairs for the bathroom scales...

 

Its divided into parts, like Ancient Gaul.

 

Part the first: An introductive essay running to 48 pages or so with illustrations.

 

Sections for geographic parts of England:

 

North West

North East

East Midlands

West Midlands

East England

South and South East

London

South West

 

followed by an Index, footnotes, bibliography, credits and acknowledgments.

 

Individual photos are half and quarter page in size, some are full page, all well captioned and dated.  The ones I know about are accurate.  As noted elsewhere, most are townscapes though some of those are of railway interest. The photos themselves are clear and well printed.

 

I've not read the introduction (there's lots of words in it) and I've only looked through the North West section in any detail.  The contents look to be good source material for Pre-grouping and early Grouping townscapes.

 

Mine was well worth the £8.70 inc delivery that I paid!

 

[Hroth]

2 hours ago, 45568 said:

When you are concentrating hard on getting the photo subject just right, your faithful dog photobombs you!

Cheers from Oz,

Peter C.

 

Fixed it!

 

 

Its what your preferred photo-editing software was designed for!

 

In the days before digital, things were more difficult.  I once took a few photos of a landscape while on holiday and only discovered that a donkey in the foreground was of an "over-amorous" disposition when the prints came back from the photo processors....

 

 

 

[Erichill16]

Early Afternoon,

Been AWOL for most of the week, blame  work and the dark one.

Fortunately some of the problems have been resolved or at least kicked into the long grass for now.

My team won last night and a trip to London beckons but alas not to a Brains Trust Convention. I am actually considering the trip as, being a very bad loser,  I can’t  stand the thought of being beaten by the De-da’s from down the A61. It would be nephews first visit the Wembley and possibly Mums last opportunity so I really aught to made the effort. Its certainly going to be tricky logistically speaking with mum living in Newark.

Better get going, the garden needs attention.

Sorry Rick @Gwiwer, belated birthday wishes. 

[PupCam]

Morning All!

 

5 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Good moaning from a cloudy Charente.   Yesterday was sunny and warm and the pool got to 23.   Nearly ready for me to brave it.   The car did achieve what i expected.

 

 

Monty is close behind you but not quite there yet.     With a bit of luck he'll get there!

 

4 hours ago, polybear said:

He should've got life.

 

There must be a definition of life other than the obvious one.   I am forever irritated when some scrote is sentenced to "Life" and this is then followed with "a minimum term of 12* years".       NO!       Save "Life" for life and make it fit in with the biological definition - it's called deterrent.    Very often such individuals cannot be rehabilitated (and many wouldn't deserve it anyway) and the only remorse they show is that which can contribute to "getting them off early".

 

*  Insert any chosen value here - personally I would always insert 150 years

 

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

A few things come immediately to mind - which, given the Bear’s age, are definitely possible Dx. They are:

• Postural hypotension
• Hypoglycaemia
• Electrolyte imbalance

Of the three, postural hypotension seems to be the most likely: repeated bending down and straightening up (or extended bending over then rapidly straightening up) will cause a temporary drop in BP leading to reduced cerebral perfusion leading to dizziness.

 

I don't expend effort when bending over or bending down these days  although the standing up / sitting down BP tests generally show little difference.   Come to think of it I try very hard not to expend effort in any form these days 😂

 

2 hours ago, DaveF said:

.......  As well as out of period things I always notice that the reenactors are much "bigger" than most people in WW2 which destroys the effect. 

 

And much older!

 

In Other News

 

Effort was expended in lugging the telescope out into the garden again last night.  I've not had much time to assess any results I may have achieved other than to see if I managed to get any shots of the ISS passing over.   It's currently in a phase of numerous passes over Puppershire during the hours of darkness and of course it appeared right on cue around 10:30 last night with a maximum elevation of 88 degrees.    It passed straight down the  centre of the back garden and over the house.   Manually tracking such a relatively fast moving target is tricky on an equatorial mount and I was amazed that I managed to get a "bright blob" in any of the frames at all.    I had to do two tracks; one on the approach followed by a Meridian flip (where the telescope direction is reversed) followed by a second track as it receded.    This frame is from the second track.  Clearly grossly over exposed (well, it was a complete guess) and ill focused (no time to fiddle about or even check ...)  I like to think that this processed image does at least show that the object does have some shape/structure to it.  Some of the other images show a similar shape although you wouldn't want to bet your life on what it was if asked!

 

Anyway, it's due over again in a similar position around 10:00pm BST tonight so I might have another go.

 

 

 

TTFNQ

 

 

Edited May 20, 2023 by PupCam

[southern42]

2 hours ago, southern42 said:

The ideal for learning is to play in three speeds. I generally find, as I get more familiar with something, I speed up anyway, so the initial doubling is usually not out of reach. If I can double again, I know I can play it!!! 

 

A thought has just occurred to me. I could double the speed of my other two songs. Hmmm! Interesting....! <<We'll see...>>

 

No sooner thought than done - on the shorter song, anyway.

Mixed feelings but I can do it, even with the twiddly bits.

Another challenge now - make it sound better!

 

Edited May 20, 2023 by southern42
pressed the submit button before I finished the post

[polybear]

39 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

Hardbound with dust jacket, 560 gloss pages.

 

Size: Portrait format 11.5" x 10" (29.2 x 25.4 for the Cm-ists) and "My God its HEAVY". Too heavy for the kitchen scales and I couldn't be bothered lugging it upstairs for the bathroom scales...

 

Its divided into parts, like Ancient Gaul.

 

Part the first: An introductive essay running to 48 pages or so with illustrations.

 

Sections for geographic parts of England:

 

North West

North East

East Midlands

West Midlands

East England

South and South East

London

South West

 

followed by an Index, footnotes, bibliography, credits and acknowledgments.

 

Individual photos are half and quarter page in size, some are full page, all well captioned and dated.  The ones I know about are accurate.  As noted elsewhere, most are townscapes though some of those are of railway interest. The photos themselves are clear and well printed.

 

I've not read the introduction (there's lots of words in it) and I've only looked through the North West section in any detail.  The contents look to be good source material for Pre-grouping and early Grouping townscapes.

 

Mine was well worth the £8.70 inc delivery that I paid!

 

 

Many thanks @Hroth - Bear feels a spend approaching....

 

In other news......

Danglin' done.  Tick.  Din dins scoffed.  Tick.

Now to MIUABGA - which may well include cutting the (very small) front lawn; the b@ll ache of actually shiftin' the stuff to do the job takes longer than it does to do it 😒

Whilst the dizziness has stayed bvggered off, I do still feel slightly "out of it" today.  Weird.

BG

[45568]

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

 

Fixed it!

 

 

Its what your preferred photo-editing software was designed for!

 

In the days before digital, things were more difficult.  I once took a few photos of a landscape while on holiday and only discovered that a donkey in the foreground was of an "over-amorous" disposition when the prints came back from the photo processors....

 

 

 

Thanks, but I love my Dog!!!!!

[southern42]

@Gwiwer Belated Birthday Greetings, Rick.

[The White Rabbit]

Afternoon all,

 

I can sympathise with @45568, I've had similar experiences, varying from insects crawling across the lens or desk to (when photographing landscapes) farm animals engaging in certain acts you hope your toddlers don't notice. There's rarely a good time to have 'that chat' but in front of other families on a crowded steam train ... d'ya mind if we put that off to another time? 

 

I suspect 'the sap' is rising in various birds at the moment, there's been plenty of song lately, particularly of the territorial variety. A couple of times during the last week, I have been woken by the blackbird creating at ugh o'clock, protesting at an intrusion by a rival or one of next door's cats prowling round. It's been noisy today, the fine sunny weather has been good for the plants and creatures, everything's growing like Topsy. 

 

The birdbaths have been topped up several times a day lately. The sparrows obviously read my last 'memoirs of a bath attendant' post as since then they have started using the larger baths and in groups rather than singly in the smaller baths. They have also been competing with the bluetits for the peanuts. Two goldfinch have also been spotted. 

 

The flowers have burst into life this week. The Welsh Poppies are providing a riot of colour and we've had the first blooms from 'Stinky Bob' and the lupins. The aliums have bloomed this week. Some, anyway. Only a quarter of the bulbs I put in have put anything above ground, though the ones which have germinated have been very popular with insects. The bluebells are still in full swing in these latitudes; we also have some whitebells in our garden. I like the combination, though would happily swop some whitebells for more bluebells. Probably as we have too many white flowers in the back garden, I'd like to have more of different colours. But better more white flowers than patches of earth or no flowers at all. 

 

 

Four snaps from recent wanderings, showing some hawthorn, yarrow, lambs and why they can gain a pound a day at this time of year: 

 

 

[TheQ]

Afternoon Awl,

The earliest flowering of our bluebells are beging to look a bit fried, whilst the latest are just coming out.

 

Much jungle clearance around the fig tree ... Much more Todo.

 

SSD fitted to laptop, windows booted up went into full installation routine, but didn't ask for it's licence key.

It did ask for email passwords and ballsed that one up. I've had to change my Google email password, and it refused to take the BT one. Only when it was fully up and running and I went into manual email set up would it accept the BT email.

I then had the fight with hp instant ink. They wanted full registration and a contract. I've found a way round. 

After that i tried to get the specific Toshiba drivers, it took a long time before their site would even accept that this model existed.. then it says there are no specific drivers for this model. Which I don't believe. It doesn't help that it looks like Toshiba have handed over their laptop division to a group called dynabook., This laptop being before then dynabook aren't interested..

 

It's gone into full blown update mode at the moment so I've left it to it.

 

[polybear]

Bear here....

2.5 hours working in the front garden - lawn cut, path cleared of weeds and numerous areas of flower bed tidied; just scratched the surface of what needs doing, however - but it looks vastly improved over what it was.  I would've worked longer but there's something in the front garden that seems to cause snotti'ooteritis when I'm gardening for any period of time.  It's quite possible that may be TMI, however....

 

In other news....

It seems there is to be a Harry Potter TV Series in 2025/26 - though it'll be on a streaming service called "Max" so I'm guessing that means you'll have to fork out tokens to watch it/subscribe.  Turdycurses.

 

BG

[45156]

Afternoon All,

 

Friends came round at short notice today, just as we were about to start the carpet shampooing.  So we didn't get started until after twelve - then it was dinner, and load the car for tomorrow - unlike when we stood the A6 when we had five boxes of bric a brac and four of railway books we've no books, so we can actually get everything into the car without putting the seats down!.

 

Now going upstairs for a rest.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

Edited May 20, 2023 by 45156

[AndyID]

10 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

A quick search suggests that POTS*-only households are down to single digit percentages in the US. My landline is fibre to the house with a converter box provided by a local telephone company, to which my traditional telephone is connected. It is separate from my cable (television and internet). I could pay a lot less to consolidate it all.

 

* Plain Old Telephone System (analog twisted pair)

 

My mobile** reception is so bad at home that I only use WiFi calling when I use the mobile phone at home.

 

** Haven't upgraded from my old 4G-LTE telephone

 

Yes, analog twisted-pair has all but disappeared in the US but a great many people still like to have wireless home phones with answering machines, even if the connection is VOIP. I suspect many of them are like us and refuse to have an expletive mobile/cell-phone implant.

😁

[DaveF]

This morning I said I was not going to the Battery war event today.  About five minutes after I posted that I changed my mind as I realised I needed an item from a shop and at the moment the nearest shop is further than a comfortable walking distance, so I needed the car.  However just doing that would not get the car warmed up so I decided to go to the beach and see if I could park.  I found a space about 50 yards from the event so I had a brief walk around and took a few photos.  I notice that this year it is billed as "Blyth Battery goes to war weekend" not just WW2, so I presume that explains the Land Rovers. 

 

I had a pleasant walk round and took some photos.  I'll put some of them in this post and some more either later today in another post or tomorrow.  I think some of the reenactors could lose a bit of weight to look more realistic.  There was one in Home Guard uniform who looked remarkably like "Captain Mainwaring" in Dad's Army, but I didn't manage to get a photo.    The photos are not captioned as I was not always sure exactly what the things were, I am sure many of you will know morw than me.  As usual there were also people dressed as Americans, Germans, French and Italians.

 

I was back home quite quickly and then had coffee and looked at my photos as I planned. At noon I heard a series of explosions and the sound of rifle and machine gun fire along with a deeper and slightly slower gun firing in the distance as the battle commenced.  The usual scenario is that the Germans are trying to invade from the beach and have to be beaten back.  They always lose.

 

While having lunch I had a text from friends nearby who had gone out and left their bathroom window open to let a wasp escape asking me to see if had got out and then close the window.  Afterwards I cleaned the car windows and checked the levels and then potted up the tomato plant and moved things round in the greenhouse.  I also took the tulips out of the tubs and pots - this peat free compost makes removing them much easier, it has a much lighter texture.

 

When I went in I noticed seven sparrows and a young starling all trying to bathe in the bird bath at the same time.  After all that activity (!) I sat down and read the paper and a magazine until cup of tea time.  The rest of the day should be a little bit of TV and a read of a book.

 

Now some photos.  It was quite misty because of a sea fret which was helpful as much of the background was obscured.  All the photos were taken on the Links just behind the promenade and beach.

 

 

 

 

 

Above: the Germans - they are all English dressed up.

 

 

More later

 

David

Edited May 20, 2023 by DaveF

[AndyID]

6 hours ago, BSW01 said:

Good morning everyone 

 

A bright sunny start to the day here in England’s northwest corner, the current temperature is 10C but it’s expected to reach 29C later this afternoon. We will shortly be setting off to collect Ava and then we’ll all go to the Trafford Centre, Ava wants to visit Waterstones, so I’ll have a look whilst we’re there. We’ll also go for a drink and a slice whilst we’re there, after all, it would be rude not to! After dinner, the plan is for Ava and I to make some flapjacks. 
 

Back later.
 

Brian

 

29C does seem a bit toasty. Maybe 19C ?

[southern42]

The sight of a deep red colour across the garden tempted me out with my new camera aka 'phone into Pollenland earlier this afternoon.

 

 

All three flowerheads still in good shape although the stems seem to be struggling to stand up still - probably due to lack of sufficient rainfall.

 

The bluebells now have a droopy head.

 

And the hawthorn is filling out wonderfully.

 

The iris is yet to blossom forth.

 

Time for a mugadecaf again.

Polly

 

Edited May 20, 2023 by southern42
droopy - not roopy!

[polybear]

59 minutes ago, DaveF said:

 

 

 

The bike closer to the camera most definitely isn't WW2 era - 1970's (or possibly even 80's? at a guess) - CCM or Bombardier British Army Bike at a guess.

 

Edited May 20, 2023 by polybear

[Coombe Barton]

Many years ago I heard a broadcast about a BBC announcer not wanting to cock up pronouncing Rimsky-Korsakov, so he practiced and practiced and eventually got it right. Come the broadcast he got the name right but announced the piece as “The Bum of the Flightle Bee”
 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2023/05/20/up-a-bit-the-progress-looks-unstable/

[Ozexpatriate]

29 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

“The Bum of the Flightle Bee”

The ghost of Rev. Spooner lives yet.

[Winslow Boy]

9 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

(My emphasis) - see below

Wishful thinking WB, but no.

A few things come immediately to mind - which, given the Bear’s age, are definitely possible Dx. They are:

• Postural hypotension
• Hypoglycaemia
• Electrolyte imbalance

Of the three, postural hypotension seems to be the most likely: repeated bending down and straightening up (or extended bending over then rapidly straightening up) will cause a temporary drop in BP leading to reduced cerebral perfusion leading to dizziness. Hypoglycaemia is possible, but would depend on the Bear’s pre-gardening blood glucose levels and Bear would have to have been really sweating like a pig to have excreted in his sweat enough electrolytes to cause an imbalance.

 

There ARE other reasons for such dizziness (and for postural hypotension for that matter) some quite serious indeed.

 

If it happens again, you (Bear) should get it checked out. Better safe than sorry!.

 

p.s. CAKE is NOT an acceptable or recognised treatment for hypoglycaemia; a glucose syrup can be administered by mouth or glucose can be administered intravenously (furthermore, just in case you’re wondering, there’s no such thing as intravenous cake either)

Sorry Bear I was keeping it light-hearted but the departments consultant bobbed in, after doing a round on the golf course and insisted on giving you a diagnosis  

[Ozexpatriate]

6 hours ago, PupCam said:

Manually tracking such a relatively fast moving target is tricky on an equatorial mount and I was amazed that I managed to get a "bright blob" in any of the frames at all. 

I have a hard enough time tracking the ISS with binoculars let alone a telescope. While its apparent speed is not 'meteoric' it does move fast.

 

With a telescope by the time I'm all set up with the moon, it has moved.

[Ozexpatriate]

Today is supposed to be cooler than yesterday, heading for a high of 27°C.  This morning however feels much warmer than yesterday and is (approaching noon) already 24°C.  It's much nicer than it was a week ago, but still very dry. 

 

Today should be the ninth consecutive day over 80°F / 26°C, which I believe is a record for May and very unusual at this time of year.

 

Portland's biggest outdoor festival (The Rose Festival) begins next weekend. The Rose Festival is inevitably dreary and wet - parades get rained on and the midway attractions turn the waterfront park into mud. It will be interesting to see if that is the case this year.

 

Here sun is shining. The tennis in Roma is rained out (again, as it has for days making it very hard to catch a match live) and the PGA Championship golf tournament in upstate New York is being played in drenched, sodden conditions which are not conducive to great golf. My irrigation system is now on for the season, but the garden could use some rain.

[New Haven Neil]

Morn...oh not again.  One of those days.

 

Woke up knackered, spent all day knackered, you know the rest.  Not had the best of days! I just need more time to recover from the mini tornados I think, my energy levels really are poor.  

 

Mrs NHN has been in full whirling dervish mode, she had me buy her one of those fancy car polishing machines, all wiggly motion (the polisher) and pads. The camper van is now looking very shiny indeed, unlike my car. Harrumph.

 

I did potter on cleaning the BMW bike though, to show a bit of willing, which is hers anyway. I do the bikes, she does the cars.  Allegedly. 

 

Archery tomorrow, we're going to the 'alternative' shoot, as the usual place has been half destroyed by a discharge of sewage - we suspect the brewery have emptied their septic tank into one of the streams.  Minging.  The alternative course is much harder from a physical negotiation point of view, given the age and physical state of some of us it may not be a full course shoot.

[PhilJ W]

Belated afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Like NHN I've spent the whole day knackered so nothing has been done, except watch TV or more accurately fall asleep while doing so. Dinner is therefore going to be a couple of slices of quiche heated in the microwave.