Early Risers.

[New Haven Neil]

Morning, a disappointing 11c here but dry, breezy to windy.

 

As we turned into the village last night we came across a bloke tending to an old boy lying in the gutter, police van just pulling up too.  Hard to work out what was going on at first, there was a car at an angle on the pavement a few yards away.  Turned out the old boy was driving and possibly suffered an MI, crashed the car gently, the other bloke was a passenger in the car.  The driver had got out and staggered until falling.  Helped the bobby direct traffic until the ambulance arrived as it was right on a blind corner drivers always take too fast and it was rush hour  minute.  Old boy seemed to be recovering a bit as they loaded him up, hope he's OK.

 

Today will see me keeping a low profile as Mrs NHN is working from home.  Quite interrupts my day, it's going to be hell when she retires!

 

@BSW01 there are lots of hardy fuchsias here, many roads are lined with them as hedging, so you may have a hardy variety.  They make a fantastic display in late summer, but some of them are trimmed (roadside hedges are looked after here) too early and the flowers are lost a bit.

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

Which is which?

🤣

(At this point Puppers gives up all hope......)

 

 

I wonder if the security barriers would be triggered if you walked out without paying for them....

Incidentally, does Lego cost obscene amounts as it does in the UK?  It's a pile of plastic, after all.

 

Bear here....

Let's see now - oh yes, danglin'.....

After that (and din dins) I may well get around to finally attacking the Pyracanthus at the bottom of the garden - the Green Bin needs jumping in first though to make a bit more room; the green bin men arrive tomorrow and Bear's out to get his money's worth.

BG

 

I'm assuming my dear Bear that that your pyracantha has flowered? That's the white/cream coloured WARNING WARNING TECHNICAL TERM BEING USED panicles of flowers. Pause to allow Bear to Google panicles. Once flowers have finished yourll also get berries which birds like.

[DaveF]

 

A fairly early start today in terms of being awake, then some tentative movements to investigate the back pain as it hadn't hurt during the night.  Moving about showed it was not bad so I got up, showered, breakfasted and cleaned the kitchen all as usual.

 

It is still a bit sore if I stand up straight but the other pains seem to be the usual ones, just a bit more than normal and not needing pain killers for now.  I have to be a bit careful as I cannot take aspirin or Ibuprofen on a regular basis and paracetamol does not always work so tend to "manage" as much as possible.

 

I've caughty up with e mails etc and am now thinking about the rest of the day.  Possibly some gentle gardening but kneeling not bending or stretching, a bit of reading, a walk at some point.  I know the back will improve the more I keep gently moving.

 

David

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Good morning everyone, it’s another sunny start to the day here in England’s northwest corner, currently 11C with no discernible wind. Today I’ll make a start on sanding back the walls of the workshop and if/where necessary applying filler. I’m hoping to be able to make a start on re-painting the workshop towards the end of the week. 

 

@New Haven Neil, the fuchsias I mentioned yesterday are hardy, but 4 cut right down and moved late last year and as they’d shown no sign of growth until now, I didn’t think they’d survived the move. The other one is in a large pot and again it was cut right down late last year, I didn’t think it had survived the -10C we had last winter, but thankfully they all have. 
 

Back later. 
 

Brian

[Tony_S]

7 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

WARNING WARNING TECHNICAL TERM BEING USED panicles of flowers.

I hope Bear doesn’t jump in the bin after the pyracantha prunings have been put in. 

[skipepsi]

2 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I hope Bear doesn’t jump in the bin after the pyracantha prunings have been put in. 

From experience long handled loppers and motorcycle gauntlets are safe working gear. Cutting the branches into short lengths also helps get the maximum amount of plant matter in the bin, a two-foot-long branch constitutes an offensive weapon. The berries are poisonous to dogs.

[southern42]

7 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

7 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

12 hours ago, southern42 said:

No fancy telescope, just my new pre-owned iPhone through the dining room window.

A bit blurry but here is the Moon and Venus. A few minutes later and they were covered in cloud which is deep purple right across the sky, now the sun has gone down.

Expand  

 

 

No that is all wrong. I took the exact same picture last night and you can clearly see Venus is ABOVE the  moon!

 

 

Love it :D

 😁

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. I have noticed that when I have left the fan heater on making the temperature in the bedroom 24-25 degrees Arthur Itis doesn't show. I put the heater on and warmed up the bedroom last night and I haven't had to take any pills today. It costs about 25p a day to use the heater, about the same as a couple of Nurofen.

[New Haven Neil]

Bear has white panicles, well, yeah he would, he's a Polar Bear.  Oh sorry, PANicles......😆😇

[iL Dottore]

早起き派への「注意」(Dear Early Risers),

 

2週間ちょっと後に ilDottore が日本から投稿される予定です。

 

それで、

• シロクマ、
• 猿は楽しいですよ
• パプカム
• ザQ
• ウィンスロー・ボーイ
• 白いうさぎ

そして残りの皆さんは日本語を磨かなければなりません！

Just Sayin'

😁

医者

 

Hayaoki-ha e no `chūi'

2-shūkan chotto ato ni iL Dottore ga Nihon kara tōkō sa reru yoteidesu.

Sorede,

• shirokuma,
• saru wa tanoshīdesu yo
• papukamu
• za Q
• u~insurō bōi
• Shiroi usagi

soshite nokori no minasan wa nihongo o migakanakereba narimasen!

 

Isha

Edited May 24, 2023 by iL Dottore

[Hroth]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

the Green Bin needs jumping in first though to make a bit more room; the green bin men arrive tomorrow and Bear's out to get his money's worth.

 

Take care that you don't wedge the stuff in the bottom of the bin so tightly that it won't come out, despite the binmens shaking mechanism!

 

[The White Rabbit]

15 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

There was a Foster's "How to Speak Australian" commercial years ago (plenty on YouTube, but not the one I want) where there is a big steak on a grill with the voiceover:

 

"Steak!"

 

Followed by a sprig of parsley dropped on it, with the voiceover:

 

"Salad!"

 

I'm wondering if that is the one?

 

Very probably a screengrab from that, it was a picture of a steak with a small sprig of parsley on top. 

 

12 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Parsley is for the guinea-pigs.  

 

I'll have the rest!  

 

Turdycurses, must message Andy to change my username to the White Guinea Pig.... 

 

8 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Don't I know it. It's a meat pie desert around here....

 

I've had a go at making my own meat pies, broadly similar principles to the quiche recipe discussed earlier. Either using a flattish roasting tin or the 'terrine' tin (more brick shaped). 

 

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Now I may be treading on very thin ice with this jjb1970, but in the absence of decent pies - have you considered baking your own? ...

 

Ah, beaten to it. One piece of trivia, 'some say' that having cold hands when you do the mixing for the pastry helps. I don't want to be the cause of an increase in frostbite cases - especially in Singapore or Australia - but the theory is that this reduces any increase in temperature of the pastry while mixing and is supposed to make a difference. I admit it could be an old wives tale but offer the thought for what it's worth. 

 

7 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

Rat au van cuisine? 

 

 

[jjb1970]

I should think about the home made option for pies. Luckily M&S import British pork pies so we can enjoy good pork pies out here.

[jamie92208]

I took Archie out on his patrol before breakfast this morning.  He seems to be enjoying his stay with us.

Here's the rapidly maturing barley.

And what I think are the young sunflowers.

The pale green wheat.

It's guess the crop on tis one but from the spacings I would guess maize for cattle feed.  No irrigation round here as we are at the highest point in Charente Maritime.

The right hand edge of this field is the former metre gauge line from The Danglies (St Jean D'Angely to St Saviol.

Then we come to the most important crop of all.  Pappa Claude's vineyard.   He produces rotgut rose that needs flavouring with pamplemouse (pomegranate) .   He's in his 80's and turns up at meals with a gallon container of the stuff plus a bottle of pamplemouse syrup..

Jamie

 

[The Lurker]

I thought pamplemousse was grapefruit? O level French was a long time ago. Pomegranate is grenade or grenadine.

 

When I was a child, the vicar's wife was French. If we went round the vicarage after the service (and they seemed to ask various people round every now and then), she served us grenadine cordial, which I liked. It was the only time I ever had it until I was of cocktail drinking age!

[Tony_S]

Quote

 

Jamie’s photo reminded me of when we used to take Robbie across some nearby fields. At this time of the year we had to be careful as the seeds from the grass that looks like barley sometimes got stuck between his toes. He had very hairy feet so removing a seed wasn’t easy as it clearly hurt him, especially when they had got stuck in his slightly webbed foot area. The vet gave us some hibiscrub to put in his feet to stop him licking them after removal of grass seed.  Dogs dislike the taste. Except of course for my dog! It was easier to go to the park when the grass seeds were about on the nearby fields. 

 

Edited May 24, 2023 by Tony_S

[Tony_S]

3 minutes ago, The Lurker said:

If we went round the vicarage after the service (and they seemed to ask various people round every now and then), she served us grenadine cordial, which I liked.

The first time my nephew had a lot of his friends from sixth form round while his parents were out for the evening, they didn’t wreck the house but someone did drop a whole bottle of Grenadine onto a very pale green carpet. 

[polybear]

4 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

I'm assuming my dear Bear that that your pyracantha has flowered? That's the white/cream coloured WARNING WARNING TECHNICAL TERM BEING USED panicles of flowers. Pause to allow Bear to Google panicles. Once flowers have finished yourll also get berries which birds like.

 

Does it make a difference - and are these the same birds that cr@p all over the Bearmobile?

It's green and wood colour and I know the name of it as well, which is pretty good going for Bear.  No white flowery bits though.....

Edited May 24, 2023 by polybear

[Hroth]

25 minutes ago, The Lurker said:

Pomegranate is grenade

 

Because it looks like one!

 

Pomegranate

 

18th Century Grenade

(The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch for secular use...)

 

[polybear]

Bear here.....

Danglin' done - the doorframe white bits are now finished.  That's a Tick.

There was a significant Turdycurses** moment during proceedings, however - which could've be a lot, LOT worse....

I managed to kick the 2.5L tin of oil-based white satin paint over.....expensive paint....

Fortunately there was only about 20% left in the tin, so it didn't come cascading out as quick as it could've done - but it still did.  I managed to stand the tin upright pretty quick, then rip the newspaper up that was covering the (very good) bedroom carpet - the vast majority of the spillage went on the (scrap) carpet on the landing, so I cut away the messed up bit and that's now in the bin; there was a couple of very minor marks on the bedroom carpet and door bar but these were easily removed completely using some white spirit on a rag.  It was a close call though.

Right, garden time....

BG

[TheQ]

Afternoon Awl,

There are two ways to the bank from here both involve road works.

 

one, on the way  there , there was about 400 yards of road coned off with traffic lights..

Where were the men?... About 100 yards before the coned off area digging a hole in the vergel!!.

 

The other was in effin clown town where there are again working on the verges but inside the coned off area... Trouble was, so was the bin lorry collecting bins....

 

Between the two was a visit to the bank, two people in front of me in the queue and....

The computers crash....

 

On eventual return, work was commenced on the low raised bed for the comfrey...

Much digging, several large stones and lumps of concrete dug out, 5 slabs sunk in for edging and...

SWMBO comes home...

 

Instead of one long low raised bed, there will be three wells!!!

The centre one being the real well , the ones each side will be dummies planted up with flowers and herbs.

 

As for the original well, some measuring was done, it's 4 ft in diameter, and currently 8 ft deep. I suspect it was deeper in use, at the moment there's only 4ft of water in there.

The top 18 inches is a square , with angle iron stretching across, that then supports the concrete well cap. When it's time to remove the cap I'll cut the concrete in line with the angle iron, and hope to remove piece by piece.

No doubt some will be dropped, but even if I don't, a sump pump will be dropped in to lower the water level so some excavation can take place also half way down is some strange metal work that will be removed, I suspect it was for the the water supply pump, as this place got mains electricity long before mains water.

When the concrete is removed a new traditional well top will be built.

 

Ben was taken for his long patrol where he met his girl friend Ruby.. trouble was Ruby was without owner so we walked back to Ruby's house, with Ben and Ruby  chasing each other.. grateful owner inside, Ruby must have jumped out one of the bungalows windows.

Returning to his walk very hot and steamy out of the wind down by the marshes.

 

 

 

[Tony_S]

37 minutes ago, polybear said:

and are these the same birds that cr@p all over the Bearmobile?

It's green and wood colour and I know the name of it as well,

I thought it was Mickey?

[jamie92208]

I've just found all my old school reports as I have to write about when I was 12 for my French class.  One report when I was 11, in the row for French, has the laconic comment, "He was with us physically" I was 20th out of 20 in the class.  By my O level year I did at least have a comment about my work.  " He has tried well in oral work but his prose and translations have continued to show weakness in basic grammar". I was consistent though I was 24th out of 24.

 

Jamie

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. The arthritis came back about lunchtime so Nurofen was taken and now its gone. I was thinking about going to Tess Coes but I have enough supplies in so thats for tomorrow now.

[iL Dottore]

For those of you whose Japanese is a bit shaky:

 

シロクマ shirokuma (polybear),

猿は楽しいですよ saru wa tanoshīdesu yo (monkeys are fun)

パプカム papukamu (pupcam)

ザQ za Q (the Q)

ウィンスロー・ボーイ u~insurō bōi (Winslow Boy)

白いうさぎ Shiroi usagi (White Rabbit)

 

The above contains all 4 character types used in modern Japanese.

1. マ  Katakana
2. 猿  Kanji
3. は  Hiragana
4. papukamu rōmaji

I can read Katakana and Hiragana. Fortunately Kanji (which some estimates put at > 50,000 characters) is often written with a hiragana "explanation" above the Kanji characters, like so

Cheers

 

Flavio