Early Risers.

[polybear]

Bear here.....

A morning of yet more pondering - involving bits of wood, clamps, rulers, sticky tape, angle gauge, square, plumb bob, pencil......more pondering, staring, sitting, adjusting, pondering.......

....and I've decided that spindles are a much, much safer option than going for glass panels.

 

It's apparent that the old spindles must've been on the p1ss - but in all the years Bear has lived here I've never thought "they're on the bluddy p*ss" and been, well pi**ed off by them.  Glass panels (cos' they're much wider than a spindle) have far more scope for looking, well, you've got it.....

 

Right, time to start searching the 'bay for suitable spindle contenders - metal ones this time.

 

In other news.....

New Goober Brush delivered as promised - sadly the driver was one of those incapable of understanding the door sign saying "Please Ring The Bell"; I must screw the bluddy door knocker down so it can't be used - and maybe change the sign to "Please Ring the F. Bell".

 

Bear gone

[southern42]

So, continuing my wandering....

One of several old trees inside and outside the churchyard.

 

 

A little closer...

 

And the view from under its boughs.out to the CLOSED (see link below) footbridge over the River Conwy. (tower off centre right).

I walked the bridge a few times before it was closed. Lovely, especially to stop halfway and just watch the river flowing past. I hope they decide to keep it. Mind you, despite notices, some folk are still using it, crossing over the stile barrier...<<er...hum>>

Footbridge - pictures and article: https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/public-can-say-wobbly-snowdonia-26775385

 

Then it was a walk out onto the main road, east out of town for a short way, past two more bridges.

Here is the first one from roadside. On the right is the garden centre with superb cafe and friendly staff. The tramway below, and the tram, suffered storm damage, some years ago, and became unusable.

 

From the top of the bridge.  On the middle right, the road leads to the church from where I had just come. This looks north towards Betws-y-coed Station and Llandudno.

 

The other side of the bridge faces the way I was going - towards Blaenau Ffestiniog on the right off picture.

Beautiful now that the new leaves are sprouting.

 

Out onto the main road (A5) and lots of this stuff around. Another pollen generating hay fever hazard?

 

And on the other side of the fence, signs of tree felling...

 

And a bit more

 

Nearing the second bridge [which carries the A5 right (east) towards Llangollen; turn left (north) for Llanrwst and Llandudno] is what looks like a farmer's crossing (centre picture).

 

And onto the second bridge, looking back towards Betws-y-coed enchanted by plenty of trees in early leaf.

 

And, lastly, after a torrent of motor scooters heading towards town, some more pollen generators, on the other side of the bridge looking south towards Blaenau Ffestiniog.

 

 

[BoD]

Belated birthday wishes to @Dave Hunt

 

I do hope my tardiness hasn’t turned him into a Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells.

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. The arthritis has returned so more Nurofen has been taken. A bit of eyelid inspection calls.

[monkeysarefun]

 

Not sure what is going on at US Newsweek website  at the moment other than maybe @polybear has got a job there because  they suddenly seem obsessed with snake stories from Australia, eg:

 

https://www.newsweek.com/woman-venomous-snake-door-australia-1796221

 

https://www.newsweek.com/woman-finds-deadly-snake-feet-car-unexpected-hitchhiker-1786748

 

https://www.newsweek.com/man-finds-highly-venomous-snake-hiding-beer-crate-1795494

 

https://www.newsweek.com/deadly-snake-caught-hiding-woman-bed-sneaky-1793937

 

https://www.newsweek.com/horror-mom-finds-snake-hiding-child-toys-surprise-1793665

 

https://www.newsweek.com/deadly-snake-found-gas-station-store-fridge-australia-1793070

 

https://www.newsweek.com/venomous-snake-found-family-couch-deadly-1786344

 

https://www.newsweek.com/video-deadly-snake-flattens-sneak-home-1786296

 

https://www.newsweek.com/woman-shocked-discovering-green-snake-wrapped-around-bike-1792486

 

 

I mean  it's not even snake season, they must be trawling snake catcher Facebook pages  or something because none of these stories ever make the news here,

 

Hmm, unless we are deliberately being kept in the dark about how many bloody snakes there actually are here. 

[Hroth]

45 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

Hmm, unless we are deliberately being kept in the dark about how many bloody snakes there actually are here. 

 

Like Mr Spock said "Its worse than that, there's MORE Jim!"

 

[Hroth]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

New Goober Brush delivered as promised - sadly the driver was one of those incapable of understanding the door sign saying "Please Ring The Bell"; I must screw the bluddy door knocker down so it can't be used - and maybe change the sign to "Please Ring the F. Bell".

 

They'll still continue to knock on the door with their knuckles, or with your parcel...

[grandadbob]

Snorkers tonight,  good oh!  😁

Edited April 26, 2023 by grandadbob

[New Haven Neil]

6 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Not certain if this would apply to across the water but certainly it applies here that is use it or lose it. You start the work in one financial year so that you can say that its coming out of that years budget but finish it in the next one. Sounds like someone - highways? got some dollars burning a hole in there pocket.

 

This is a serious issue for Mrs NHN's work - they ordered some new fire tenders (fancy Osh-Kosh jobs for the airport) last year, they take around 18 months to deliver once ordered, so the money has to be ring-fenced from the budget.  Except 'Finance' don't seem to be able to appreciate this, and keep trying to take the money back.  Then they do the same for the new ambulances. Repeat regularly for any specialised equipment that has to be ordered many months in advance. Again and again the same arguments, often it is found they have actually taken the money from Fleet Service's budget without saying they have done so to anyone and the cupboard is bare suddenly without apparent reason - then it really hits the fan.  Of course the poor finance person that has to come to their monthly meetings is NEVER the one that authorised the snatch-back, just some  poor minion sent to take the flak.

[Winslow Boy]

6 hours ago, PeterBB said:

Wish they would use some of that 'excess' on properly filling-in potholes instead of the 'put something in it today and a couple of days later its been knocked out'.

 

Sorry that comes undering the heading of - do more but with less.

 

We used to surmise that once everything else has been allocated a budget ie. Education,  cleansing, social services, housing, etc, etc, etc then whatevers left we'll give to parks.

[Ian Abel]

HUMP day...

Yesterday repeat of Monday, many workers sorting the landscaping and rebuilding the egress window well. All done and dusted now and looks very nice, though did manage to use up a LOT of tokens!

 

No activity at the racoon trap - pest control guy said it could be several days...

 

Today, Whitney already picked up early by Brendan, back from a quick trip. 

The lady/company that does moving of "stuff" for us, will be over this afternoon, to take all the "keepers" the Mrs has identified, to the storage location.

Nothing else planned.

Work slowly rolling along.

 

For those that were touting their daffs, what seems to have been months ago;

Ours finally appeared! I know it's just a small collection, but with the climate here ANYTHING that survives a winter/snow cover that we've had, is pretty much a miracle!

 

1c and sunny first thing, 13c the forecast high, no precip in the forecast.

 

Onward

 

[TheQ]

Mention of ChrisF reminds me, a recent wander round Poundland, revealed a selection of coloured stripe items that matched the famous boots. I suspect he would have ventured in to see..

 

Mooring Awl,

4 hours sleep. Short awake, 3.5 hours sleep. Good.

 

Going to the MRC, a distance of about 3 miles involved two sets of roadworks, one is at a pair of mini round abouts in Stalham which is causing chaos.

 

Ben the can we go out now Collie, took me on patrol, he took his current favourite toy with him, so he didn't do what he should, he'll want out again later. He'll be able to do that, as I'll be digging a bit more in the pampas grass area.

That will be followed by workshop time, I've a picture from the radar museum that needs plastic instead of the broken glass.

 

The lesser spotted bin lorry has just bin. So I'll go park the bin back in place shortly.

 

Time to finish this muggacoffee.

 

The above was written some hours ago, and I thought I'd posted it but I can't find it so any way.

 

3 barrows of soil moved,

1 barrow of rocks moved,

1 barrow of pampas grass moved.

 

Had an idea on making the folding chair on the hallway wall look better, modified it, it does.

 

Walked Ben, right ankle started playing up en route, pain spread to calf on return. Still hurts now some hours later.

 

Spent afternoon on sofa, sorting second mobile phone, putting in the unlock code worked first time, that was the easy bit.

Then registered the SIM for SWMBO , put the phone number  I'll use on that phone, and that phones number on the phone I'll use.

Found there was a couple of thousand photos on it, after running a duplicates removal app, that was reduced to 1177. They were all transferred to the NAS drive and at some point they will be sent to SWMBOs brother.

After that it was delete, weird and wonderful apps we have no need for, then update all the apps that needed it (19  of them). It took some time to get the phone to recognise it now belonged to SWMBO..

 

 

 

Edited April 26, 2023 by TheQ

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, Ian Abel said:

No activity at the racoon trap - pest control guy said it could be several days...

 

I read somewhere they are really intelligent creatures (raccoons , not the pest control guy)

[Ozexpatriate]

12 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

But the big problem with antibiotics is their misuse and abuse - by the food industry (putting antibiotics into animal feed rather than provide better animal husbandry [cheaper, see]) and moronic patients (and sometimes lazy doctors) who insist on getting antibiotics for viral infections (or, worse, being available OTC for self prescribing [funnily enough, countries where you can get Abx OTC are also countries that have high rates of Abx resistance, Who’d have thought it…])

I agree wholeheartedly that this is a serious problem - particularly in the insidious form of prophylactic livestock dosing.

 

A more serious problem is not having effective antibiotics for emerging resistant strains - including for people who have not been over prescribed and developed a personal resistance - simply because of the business operating conditions of pharmaceutical corporations.

[Ozexpatriate]

11 hours ago, Grizz said:

Just 8 weeks until the longest day, but it still doesn’t feel particularly warm in the Deep South yet.

Today is forecast to be the first day >70°F / >21°C in six months (actually 187 days). And Friday is forecast to be 30°C! 

 

It is nice that it is here at last.

[DaveF]

Most of the jobs I mentioned this morning have been done, so various seedlings are now in pots, the dahlias and begonias planted (all in clay pots which I prefer) and the Christmas cacti are in the greenhouse.  I keep them on the lower level of the staging so they do not get burnt in the sun and keep them slightly moist in hot weather.  Some will need repotting.  I still do not like the texture of the peat free compost but so far with fingers crossed the plants I potted up last week are growing.  It doesn't seem to suit seeds/seedlings so I am having a long thnk about John Innes No. 1.

 

A little bit of modelling got done involving bits of foam with very fine gravel stuck on it.  I'm less sure about the idea of relaxing - I did sit down for 15 minutes while I had coffee and for 10 minutes with a cup of tea - though that was interrupted by a phone call and a small worried child who rang the door bell, he had a football in his hands and wanted to know if it was mine.  He then carried on up the road asking at each house,  I assume he must have found it on the road.  As we are all retired apart from the young couple with a baby I don't think it belongs to any of us.

 

For lunch I had fish but not salmon - fish in breadcrumbs cooked from frozen which made a pleasant change with the usual new potatoes.

 

In the afternoon I had a walk along the promenade which was very quiet, possibly because the wind was cold.  I have also been to see the friends who returned from visiting their daughter and her family in Hong Kong this morning, they said all was well with the house when they got back, so I've done a good job.  They enjoyed their trip.

 

The other day I mentioned the pedometer on my phone, I've not been doing very much this week, or at least I don't think so.  It tells me I walked 3.22 miles on Monday, 3.68 miles on Tuesday and 2.35 miles so far today.  Last week I apparently walked 22.5 miles.  I wonder how accurate it really is - I will admit that when I do a walk over a known distance it is about right, but it tells me I'm doing more overall than I thought.

 

Edit - I did the kitchen cupboard - I seem to have seven saucepans, all in good condition, six large baking trays, four small baking trays and so on - much of it came from Mum's so some has now gone into storage in the garage just in case I need them so I can actually get at things again now.

 

David

 

 

Edited April 26, 2023 by DaveF

[The White Rabbit]

2 hours ago, grandadbob said:

Snorkers tonight, good oh!  😁

 

Ping!

 

I sometimes grumble about our kitchen but it doesn't move about, nor do I have to provide meals for the RNVR's finest. Though I did do fish earlier and had some salad.

 

The garden is becoming more colourful, with the first of this year's Welsh Poppies blooming two days ago. Also the wallflowers are coming into bloom. It's the first year I've tried them, so will see how they go. The antirrhinum seedlings are doing well and will need planting asap. I would have done it last weekend but there was a risk of frost Monday & Tuesday nights (and it's borderline brass monkeys tonight). The wild garlic round here is also starting to bloom (the white flowers in one of Polly's pictures). It carpets the copse floor and stream banks on one of the walks I do on better days. I did see the plant with yellow flowers recently in our local stream where it's a bit of a wetland, don't know what they are called.

 

The blackbird has been seen more frequently lately, usually hunting for grubs and suchlike, I think his mate's got a brood on the go nearby. To paraphrase Paul Hogan, speaking of a character in Crocodile Dundee, "Crikey, every time I see him, he's got food in his beak". The sparrows are more visible too, using the birdbaths. In between the blackbird. I have varying sizes of bowls to suit the different birds (and even one for the insects), the different species have their own favourites. Not quite segregated bathing but enough to notice their preferences. 

[New Haven Neil]

We have graduated bird baths too, from the Wren to the Blackbird they choose as you would expect - then 'Fat Pidg' crashes in from his roost on the garage roof, knocks bowls flying, sits in one wherever he lands.  he's not very good at flying, due to being rather overweight, I don't know who feeds him, he's a big lad.  Flying from the garage to pond edge seems to be about as far as he can fly in one go!

[Coombe Barton]

... how about a cuteness overload? But do feel a little guilty about having lamb chops tonight ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2023/04/26/yet-another-day-mostly-going-up-ireland-wild/

[Winslow Boy]

Yep plenty of wild garlic in flower along with the odd caltha pulstrasis - yellow flower. We even have blue and white Spanish bluebells. Plus anemone nervosa and primula vulgaris but they don't seem to last very long.

[polybear]

4 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

Not sure what is going on at US Newsweek website  at the moment other than maybe @polybear has got a job there because  they suddenly seem obsessed with snake stories from Australia, eg:

 

https://www.newsweek.com/woman-venomous-snake-door-australia-1796221

 

https://www.newsweek.com/woman-finds-deadly-snake-feet-car-unexpected-hitchhiker-1786748

 

https://www.newsweek.com/man-finds-highly-venomous-snake-hiding-beer-crate-1795494

 

https://www.newsweek.com/deadly-snake-caught-hiding-woman-bed-sneaky-1793937

 

https://www.newsweek.com/horror-mom-finds-snake-hiding-child-toys-surprise-1793665

 

https://www.newsweek.com/deadly-snake-found-gas-station-store-fridge-australia-1793070

 

https://www.newsweek.com/venomous-snake-found-family-couch-deadly-1786344

 

https://www.newsweek.com/video-deadly-snake-flattens-sneak-home-1786296

 

https://www.newsweek.com/woman-shocked-discovering-green-snake-wrapped-around-bike-1792486

 

 

I mean  it's not even snake season, they must be trawling snake catcher Facebook pages  or something because none of these stories ever make the news here,

 

Hmm, unless we are deliberately being kept in the dark about how many bloody snakes there actually are here. 

 

"It is not uncommon for snakes to slither into residential properties, especially during the summer, which is typically when snakes are most active. Snakes may enter houses while looking for shelter or prey".

 

Well I know of at least one Bear that has no intention of being Sammy Snake's din dins, thanks very much.

 

Maybe the NHS Bosses should email those articles to all Docs & Nurses to persuade them it's not all roses down under after all......

 

3 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

They'll still continue to knock on the door with their knuckles, or with your parcel...

 

Remember that Amazon Parcel that was delivered to Bear Towers yesterday (or was it Monday?) - right Village, wrong everything else.....

Well it must contain a Boomerang cos the bluddy thing has reappeared again - with the good 'ol Amazon Driver doin' a Mo Farah and leggin' it quick this time.  It shows signs of having been opened and re-sealed again so I reckon someone else has had it since and binned it back to them; it's now sat in the hallway and they can come get it if they want it.  T0ssers.

 

In other news....

Bear now has a cunning plan for the spindles - with two options available:

• The first has the more interesting spindle shapes and painted in the favoured colour.....BUT the spindles (and end fittings) are hollow square steel tube - which seems to be very common now (I'd prefer solid really).
• The second supplier's spindles are just a plain design in black, but are a solid bar.  Oh yes, and a third of a Deltic more expensive.  I could of course save quite a lot by buying 12.5mm steel bar from a steel stockist - but then I'd need to prep, prime then apply two coats of paint to 10.5m of bar plus 24 end fittings.  Can Bear be ar5ed?  Answers on a post card....

Ponder mode re-engaged.  Turdycurses.

Oh yes, and I was rather taken aback when postage for the first order was quoted at twenty four quid....I was even more taken aback when another supplier wants forty quid....

 

Bear gone.

[polybear]

 

Oh yes, and Bear has decided that a visit from King Charlie would be a rather fine idea....this one ideally:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-65396837

 

There's a very high chance he might not leave unscathed, however.....

[Hroth]

10 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Oh yes, and Bear has decided that a visit from King Charlie would be a rather fine idea....this one ideally:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-65396837

 

There's a very high chance he might not leave unscathed, however.....

 

He's all yours!  I'm not fond of Galaxy chocolate or Celebrations. Particularly not Bounty....

 

[polybear]

In other news.....

Whilst Bear was being grilled by the Surgery Pharmacist on Monday for any evidence of misdemeanours (I think I blagged it) I asked for a repeat for Big Pink Pills (actually they seem to be white at the moment); exactly three hours later I got a text message from the Village Boots Chemist to say they were available for collection.  Can't complain at that.  Actually both the Doc & Chemist are rather good when it comes to on-line prescription requests anyway, though 3 hours must be a record.  Big Tick awarded.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. @DaveF I used to make my own potting compost. I had a large ash tree in my garden that used to shed twigs, these were put through the shredder a couple of times so that the largest piece was no more than quarter of an inch and placed in a rubble bag with the moss dug out of the paths and patio, placed in a warm dry place for a couple of years. This breaks down into a peat like substance that most plants love. Seems I have done everything I intended to do so now to tackle Farcebook.

Edited April 26, 2023 by PhilJ W