Early Risers.

[Winslow Boy]

1 minute ago, BSW01 said:

Good evening everyone 

 

Well, we had a great day at Tatton Park Flower Show, the weather was a lot cooler than yesterday, a mere 22C this afternoon. By the the amount of plants we came home with, we are certainly doing are bit for the economy! I’ll be busy over the next the weekend, getting that lot planted. 

 

Goodnight all. 

 

I did think of you.

 

Did they do the 'cloakroom' thing, where you leave your purchases, so you go and buy some more?

[BSW01]

Just now, Winslow Boy said:

 

I did think of you.

 

Did they do the 'cloakroom' thing, where you leave your purchases, so you go and buy some more?

Yes, they certainly did, we took advantage of it too! 

[Tony_S]

4 minutes ago, BSW01 said:

y the the amount of plants we came home with, we are certainly doing are bit for the economy! I’ll be busy over the next the weekend, getting that lot planted. 

 

We are going to Anglesey Abbey tomorrow to have a day out with my cousin from Solihull. We were going to Waddesdon as it is about half way but it is shut tomorrow.  They don’t seem to mind driving a bit further. When we met friends at Anglesey Abbey a few weeks ago Aditi noticed a garden centre. She said we can pop in so she can get a few items. She wants some stuff called bio-char. I suspect there is a lot of similar stuff available on grassland at present. The videos from Dartford with flames down to the A2 road looked nasty. I suspect that was the burning smell I noticed this morning rather than anything on this side of the Thames. Whatever rain fell last night was full of something. My car was a dirty grey this morning. Not Saharan sand this time. 
I discovered what was making my car battery run down. There was an interior light on over a rear passenger door. It must have got knocked when we unloaded the car after returning from our holidays. At least I discovered it before ordering replacement battery. 
Tony

[andyram]

Evening all. I hope you have survived the heat. I have not had chance to catch up on the last couple of days of posts so offer generic good wishes. 
 

Today has been one to forget. It begin bang on midnight, just as was trying to settle down to sleep, when the phone rang bringing an intruder alarm alert from the shop. A rather speedy drive up to Matlock Bath found the shop secure and the perpetrator to be a rather large moth! A slower drive back, with car windows open,  was refreshing before rolling into bed shortly after 1.30am.

 

Wednesday may be a shop closed day, but I had agreed to complete a TTI turn on the Great Central. The hot weather meant a diesel only service and I arrived in plenty of time for the 10.15am departure. Three return trips behind D123 beckoned. Sadly not. Just five minutes before departure the train was cancelled and the loco taken off the train to run down to Quorn and rescue the Class 25 which had failed on the 9.25am departure. This took some time so I had a lengthy spell sat on the platform at Loughborough before my next train, the timetabled 12.00, departed half an hour late and was operated by the DMU. The run to Leicester was undertaken with no passengers. A rapid return trip saw us ready to depart on time for our 2pm run. But a late running dining train, hauled by the Class 37, left us stood at Rothley for half an hour so we were back to being late for the rest of the day.

 

If those events were frustrating, I have heard tonight that my Dad has tested positive for Covid. That is a worry in itself, but also comes just two days before  he was due to cover for me in the shop whilst we went away on holiday. Decision now is lose the holiday or close the shop. Of course Dad’s health is more important so I have everything crossed that he will have a mild case.

 

It really has been one of those days.

 

Stay safe.

 

Andy

Edited July 20, 2022 by andyram

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

It fainted in the heat....

Or in shock at copping a bit of proper summer.

 

I forgot about powerline fires, they are a cause here too. Trees falling on lines, cars hitting poles... I think the Victorian fires a few years ago were caused in some way by a transmission line but @gwiwer would be better informed than me about that.

[simontaylor484]

@Tony_S It's amazing how something so small can drain a battery down especially when it will have had plenty of charge from your road trip.

 

I have read reports of good results achieved with biochar for both ornamental and vegtable growing

[PhilJ W]

19 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

 My car was a dirty grey this morning. Not Saharan sand this time. 

Quite likely ash from the fires at Wennington. My car was also covered in a grey ash that was lighter than its colour of charcoal grey. We have just had a short sharp shower that cleared the air for a while but now its turning muggy.

[Ozexpatriate]

2 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Here, if it starts in a remote area it'll be due to a lightning strike and if in a populated area, arson or. a welding accident or controlled burn gone feral.

Ignition sources for forest wildfires here are usually dry lightning or out of control, controlled burns, though sometimes electrical transmission lines dropped by failing suspension hooks. Occasionally you get idiots shooting at Tannerite or lads throwing cherry bombs from forest paths. A small one was created by a beaver chewing through an electrical utility pole.

 

Grass fires are often caused by internal combustion engines - hot tail pipes, mowing rock strike accidents etc. Occasionally a derailed oil train.

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

Mind Blown 

 

I wonder what these Tartarians make of Norman Cathedrals and Castles what lifeforms built them?

 

Everyone is entitled to their beliefs and all that but they are still bat sh1t crazy

 

 

Don't get me started on Tartorian beliefs I'll bore the pants off you because its been a bit of a hobby of mine over the last couple of months..

 

But basically to believe in the Tartoria conspiracy means that you have to  to be able to believe that the Georgians, the Tudors  the Medievalists if thats a term, in fact every person who ever   lived in London from teh time of Roman settlement  went about their day  either not noticing, or not mentioning the Houses Of Parliament, Big Ben,  Tower Bridge, St Pancras and Kings Cross stations, The Natural History Museum, the Royal Albert Hall.

.

Pepys never mentioned them, J.W. Turner never painted them.... 

 

Then suddenly in the Victorian era the Victorians realised they could use these mysterious buildings for stations, banks, and so on and so repurposed them then claimed they had actually built them.

 

 

Imagine living inside  that kind of mind.

 

But anyway, I need to give it away its taking up too much of my time.  Now what were those Nephilists @ozexpatriate mentioned I wonder...?

Edited July 20, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, PeterBB said:

But the flip[pant has brought out why the additional costs seem to be so high ... in other words some of us have leant something tonight.

 

Yep I was in Camp Il Dotore  regarding buyers premiums but now I see why they are there. I'm going to chalk it up  as a positive learning experience!

[Dave John]

Buildings ? I thought they Tartorians just invented a sauce to go with fish ...... 

[Ozexpatriate]

32 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

to believe in the Tartoria conspiracy means that you have to  to be able to believe that the Georgians, the Tudors  the Medievalists if thats a term, in fact every person who ever   lived in London from teh time of Roman settlement  went about their day  either not noticing, or not mentioning the Houses Of Parliament, Big Ben,  Tower Bridge, St Pancras and Kings Cross station, The Natural History Museum or the Royal Albert Hall. 

A simple "Somebody Else's Problem" field generator should do the trick.

 

Quote

The Somebody Else' Problem field is much simpler and more effective, and what is more can be run for over a hundred years on a single torch battery. This is because it relies on people's natural predisposition not to see anything they don't want to, weren't expecting, or can't explain.

Douglas Adams: "Life, the universe and everything". 

 

32 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

Then suddenly in the Victorian era the Victorians realised they could use these mysterious buildings

Battery ran down on the S.E.P. field generator?

 

Either that or an Obliviate charm.

 

Edited July 20, 2022 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

22 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

Now what were those Nephilists @ozexpatriate mentioned I wonder...?

Only mentioned the Nephilim under the notion expressed in Ecclesiastes 1:9, "there is nothing new under the sun".

 

It seems to me that most conspiracies are based on a garbled mis- (or re-) interpretation of some preexisting idea (farfetched or not) present in some form. It is how those afflicted find them credible when critical thinking fails.

[Ozexpatriate]

3 hours ago, PeterBB said:

Reading aboout fans ... in previous years SWMBO would have fans going for long periods of time ... we have not yet used a fan inspite of the high temperatures but we did close windows and curtains opening at night and while the Rxxxxx Rxxm was 35oC plus downstiarswas cool.

Before I moved into my current air-conditioned home, I lived in an un-airconditioned, upstairs apartment (with a vaulted/cathedral ceiling in the kitchen/living/dining room) for 14 years. Every year there were many days above 32°C / 90°F and usually a handful above 38°C / 100°F. The vaulted ceiling was a massive heat trap in summer.

 

Once the day starts warming up, closing windows is essential. So is closing curtains when and wherever there is direct sunshine. Once closed up, fans do nothing to reduce the temperature*, but an oscillating fan can make otherwise warm still air a little more pleasant.

 

* Unless an evaporative cooler is used, and they will increase humidity.

 

Where fans can help, is while ambient air is cooler than the inside**, being positioned in open windows to direct cross-ventilation. In my apartment I used 20" box fans directing cooler outside air into my bedroom. A high air-flow 20" fan was situated in the hall to pull air from the bedroom, and another box fan exhausted air out the front sliding glass door to the verandah. Depending on temperature differentials, and inside volume, this can (temporarily) shift temperatures by several degrees.

 

** Early morning and late evening, usually well after sunset.

 

Edited July 21, 2022 by Ozexpatriate

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[iL Dottore]

Good morning all,

 

Returning, briefly, to conspiracy theories. What amuses me is how they can believe that a government (or a shadowy cabal behind the government) can organise such a sophisticated, widespread and long-lasting cover-up of the “truth“.  A “cover up“ which would dwarf in extent and complexity the various government responses to Covid (and we all know how flawlessly that took place across the world).

 

Psychologically, it’s a bit difficult to fathom the mentality of conspiracy theorists: is it denial – because they are unable or unwilling to deal with the facts; or is it because believing that they have “the truth“, and the rest of the sheeple don’t, makes them feel special and boosts their self esteem?

 

Technologically, yesterday was a very bad day: my almost brand-new business laptop started to get very hot, refused to charge and finally shut down with 0% battery. And despite being plugged in now refuses to turn on. I am hoping that it is just the power adapter that has failed otherwise it will be an expensive repair or replacement (what is even more frustrating is it is one of the new generation laptops that has a built in, unremovable, battery – so you can’t even swap out batteries). A trip to the local electronics store for a replacement power adapter is on the cards for first thing this morning. Fortunately, whatever the outcome of acquiring a new power adapter, I can use my old business computer, which I had repurposed as a gaming/workshop machine - although this will mean reinstalling some software and I won’t have the same functionality for certain things as with the newer laptop.

 

Also on the technological front, I recently purchased a solar powered yukimi-dōrō Japanese lantern for the garden. Made from resin, it is a lot more intricate than anything I could make myself by casting concrete. However, although it worked during the thunderstorm last night, the light is relatively dim and the duration of the light is not very long. Research on the Internet, suggests that replacing the rechargeable battery with something with a greater mAh rating will give me a longer illumination time and given that the circuit boards for these solar power lanterns are quite simple, it would be easy matter to change one or two components to give a brighter light. Or so I am led to believe. Whether or not the components needed would be as readily available in Switzerland as in the UK or the US remains to be seen. The other annoyance with the lantern is that it is now bleached white from being a few days in the Sun. That, at least, is an easy fix: a can of stone effect dark grey spray paint will sort that problem out.

 

In all, a not incredibly “fun” day ahead. 

[Barry O]

Ey up!

 

Chuckinitdarn. 

 

Nuff  said!

 

Stay safe!

 

@andyram  take the holiday.. you need it. Hope your dad is OK.

 

Baz

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

Good morning all,

 

 

 

Also on the technological front, I recently purchased a solar powered yukimi-dōrō Japanese lantern for the garden. Made from resin, it is a lot more intricate than anything I could make myself by casting concrete. However, although it worked during the thunderstorm last night, the light is relatively dim and the duration of the light is not very long. Research on the Internet, suggests that replacing the rechargeable battery with something with a greater mAh rating will give me a longer illumination time and given that the circuit boards for these solar power lanterns are quite simple, it would be easy matter to change one or two components to give a brighter light. Or so I am led to believe. Whether or not the components needed would be as readily available in Switzerland as in the UK or the US remains to be seen. The other annoyance with the lantern is that it is now bleached white from being a few days in the Sun. That, at least, is an easy fix: a can of stone effect dark grey spray paint will sort that problem out.

 

In all, a not incredibly “fun” day ahead. 

Try RS components I suspect that they exist in Switzerland.  They either sell direct to any0ne or have a retail arm. In France it's RS particulars.

 

 

Anyway good moaning from a cooling Charente. Rain is forecast later so hopefully  the wildfires south of us will be contained.  Here it means that weeds will be cut later.  Yesterday I had a good afternoon  with Andy watching trains.  Not a lot of other wisdom to impart.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

Edited July 21, 2022 by jamie92208

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl,

4 hours sleep, short break 3 hours sleep.. i needed that.

 

Ben the I want out Collie tried a new tactic today, first he was active from around 04:00 wanting out , eventually I did and wandered around the garden with him... Then we came in I have breakfast and got ready for work... and he wanted out again...

Dull, overcast, quite windy, feels cool..

 

Yesterday was not good, I was so tired I was making mistakes and having to redo work, it got so bad i felt like packing up and walking out..

This second system is way behind schedule, luckily it's a not  yet in service system.. so no one is jumping up and down wanting it back..

 

Hmm, Musk announces Tesla are buying  bitcoin, bit coin value goes up, Tesla sells bitcoin then announces they've sold 75% of their holding.

Musk buys a lot of shares in Twatter, announces he's going to buy it.. Shares value  goes up, sells shares, says he's not going to buy it.. 

Anyone notice a pattern here?

 

There were many fires in Norfolk over the last couple of days, the number of houses lost into double figures. They were so short of fire engines they took three out of the fire museum.. also engines came from as far afield as Merseyside and Tyne and Wear.

 

this ones the nearest to me, I passed within a mile this morning

 

Spring watch might be a bit different next year...

That's where they filmed this year..

 

18C out there at the moment, so far we've had just a few spots of precipitation and that's it.

 

just finishing last nights overnight calibration run, before more catching up to do.

 

Time to, prepare the next page of the spreadsheet.

[polybear]

8 hours ago, andyram said:

Today has been one to forget. It begin bang on midnight, just as was trying to settle down to sleep, when the phone rang bringing an intruder alarm alert from the shop. A rather speedy drive up to Matlock Bath found the shop secure and the perpetrator to be a rather large moth!

 

I'm guessing the Moth triggered a PIR; it may be worth swapping the PIR's for Dual Tech PIR's (it's just a straight swap) as they have both IR and Microwave sensors built-in and can be configured such that both sensors have to be triggered simultaneously to result in an alarm trigger.  Much less prone to false alarms.

 

8 hours ago, andyram said:

If those events were frustrating, I have heard tonight that my Dad has tested positive for Covid. That is a worry in itself, but also comes just two days before  he was due to cover for me in the shop whilst we went away on holiday. Decision now is lose the holiday or close the shop. 

 

SBT's inbound; go for the holiday, unless it can be easily postponed without big ££ loss for a few weeks.

 

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

(what is even more frustrating is it is one of the new generation laptops that has a built in, unremovable, battery – so you can’t even swap out batteries).

 

That practice should be made illegal - batteries in laptops and mobile phones should be swappable at home by even the most inbred user without difficulty.  Chucking phones etc. cos' the battery has died is just nuts.

 

20 minutes ago, TheQ said:

Hmm, Musk announces Tesla are buying  bitcoin, bit coin value goes up, Tesla sells bitcoin then announces they've sold 75% of their holding.

Musk buys a lot of shares in Twatter, announces he's going to buy it.. Shares value  goes up, sells shares, says he's not going to buy it.. 

Anyone notice a pattern here?

 

I'm sure the Twitter Lawyers will have....

 

Bear here.....

Danish Oil coat No. 2 was applied last night; today's first task is to apply coat number 3 (hopefully the last coat) using a nylon pan scrubber cos' it's reputed to make the finish nice n' smooth.  That's the plan, anyway.

After that I think I'll remove the front garden gate and fire up the arc welder - the extraction of the latter from the shed may be "interesting" as it's buried.....

Bear gone.....

 

edit:  Oh yes, Bear's news of the day.....

Apparently low fat milk has increased in price by 26.3%, yet spirits have decreased in price by 0.4%.  So if you fancy Penderyn on yer cornflakes.....

Edited July 21, 2022 by polybear

[AndrewC]

10 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

Mormonism now that is another rabbit hole to fall into but seeing as we don't do religion I will leave it there

My ex is Mormon. I'll say nothing else to avoid the wrath of the mods. Very strange people. 

 

Moaning all from the boring borough. Looks like the bin strike has been extended for another couple of weeks. We'll be making a tip visit with all the recycling in the near future. Sadly the nearby large recycling bins were removed after they became general fly tipping magnets. There are smaller ones at the Morrisons but they tend to fill within 12 seconds of being emptied. 

 

Tony has got me seriously thinking about looking into the practicality of installing Solar. With longer term climate change moving away from gas and increased electric use, it makes sense to make my own and eventually go to a house wide 2 way heat pump / climate control. 

I was hoping to make it to DEMU this weekend but queuing at the recycling centre seems like so much more enjoyment. Pah!

 

Little else of note. Iced latte time. For me it is TGIT. Enjoy the day

[The Lurker]

8 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Don't get me started on Tartorian beliefs I'll bore the pants off you because its been a bit of a hobby of mine over the last couple of months..

 

But basically to believe in the Tartoria conspiracy means that you have to  to be able to believe that the Georgians, the Tudors  the Medievalists if thats a term, in fact every person who ever   lived in London from teh time of Roman settlement  went about their day  either not noticing, or not mentioning the Houses Of Parliament, Big Ben,  Tower Bridge, St Pancras and Kings Cross stations, The Natural History Museum, the Royal Albert Hall.

.

Pepys never mentioned them, J.W. Turner never painted them.... 

 

Then suddenly in the Victorian era the Victorians realised they could use these mysterious buildings for stations, banks, and so on and so repurposed them then claimed they had actually built them.

 

 

Imagine living inside  that kind of mind.

 

But anyway, I need to give it away its taking up too much of my time.  Now what were those Nephilists @ozexpatriate mentioned I wonder...?

I am intrigued that the Great Fire didn't destroy some of those buildings. but then none of those buildings except Tower Bridge are actually in the City of London. Or is St Paul's on the list? (and there are descriptions of the pre-fire St Paul's)

[simontaylor484]

7 minutes ago, The Lurker said:

I am intrigued that the Great Fire didn't destroy some of those buildings. but then none of those buildings except Tower Bridge are actually in the City of London. Or is St Paul's on the list? (and there are descriptions of the pre-fire St Paul's)

Scary thought what if the loon balls were right.

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, AndrewC said:

Tony has got me seriously thinking about looking into the practicality of installing Solar. With longer term climate change moving away from gas and increased electric use, it makes sense to make my own and eventually go to a house wide 2 way heat pump / climate control. 

The cottage we stayed in recently had a heat pump. I could see Aditi thinking about where one would fit on our house. Vaillant make a hybrid system that can be used in conjunction with our gas boiler, but where we were staying there was no gas! There were a number of electric heaters in cupboards though for those who stayed there in winter. 
Tony