Early Risers.

[Donw]

Morning all,

 

First some info for DonW - I presume you might be staying at the Caravan Club site on the Marlow Road (assuming you've booked about 6 months in advance, it's busy!!) in which case 'bus would be best as there might be a stop nearby.  If you're not stopping there then there are stops in Henley of course.  There are two Arriva services through Henley to Reading - the 800 and the 850 and you would need to take the 800 - here's the route map, I hope -

 

http://www.arrivabus.co.uk/serviceInformation.aspx?id=12562

 

The linked timetable doesn't show all the stops incidentally.  We are in Plymouth for a Mayoral ceremony in Saltash the previous day (or thereabouts) so might not make it back in time for the ALSRM show but it is usually an excellent show - whatever scale/gauge you model - and well worth a visit.

 

Anyway back to the mundane - off to reading for lunch with friends today although they are having difficulties navigating as their daughter's dog has eaten part of their computer mouse - which is probably nearly as big as the dog as it's one of those rather small breeds with an odd name like schnifter or snouser or suchlike.

 

So in the meanwhlil best of luck for Dom's first day and hoping our 'missing persons' will be back with us as soon as possible.  And the rest of you enjoy yourselves if work and daily orders allow.

 

Thanks Mike it looks to me as though the bus route has changed it used to go along the Henley Road to the lights by the Prince of Wales and down Prospect St. My mother driving a Ford Anglia (the old side valve one) had a collision with the bus and complained the bus hadn't kept to its own side of the road. My father couldn't keep a straight face as the road was not a lot wider than the bus. I did book early at the site knowing it is popular.

 

Could your friends Ddog be a schipperke? or a minature schnnausser

 

Don

[Tony_S]

 

 

Could your friends Ddog be a schipperke? or a minature schnnausser

 

Don

The smaller schnauzers were originally "ratters" like the Yorkshire Terrier so it is quite possible it could have seen off a mouse.

[Adams442T]

Out of curiosity, what do you mean by "drilling"? Is that lifting a section of root and putting a "nick" in it to allow the poison in?

Andy

 

No.  The stems were actually between 25 & 35 mm each, so having cut them off horizontally with loppers I literally drilled each about 75 mm down and poured in the SBK with a funnel.  Then rounded off by tying a plastic bag over the top and leaving it to percolate down.   Did the trick!

 

Though I've spent best part of a year clearing Bindweed from all the beds adjacent to the shelter by hand.  I've also made up a raised tub with lid and tap, which all the roots go into and soak and rot down.   Bindweed (like couch grass roots) are very good at taking nutrients from the soil, and the resultant brew is excellent for feeding plants with.  Makes me feel that all the work was worth it!

[NGT6 1315]

Thanks, Ian and everyone!

 

I was rather relieved to notice that me and my English training mentor seem to have the same idea of how feedback should be provided, in the sense of my being able to accept suggestions. And, equally important, in the sense of my acknowledging that while there's always room for improvement, there have been today, and will most usually be, items which are to be commended. That's a whole world away (at least) from what my English mentor at my previous school achieved with her way of providing feedback!

[New Haven Neil]

Glad to hear that Dominik - some folk have no idea how to mentor.

[southern42]

Been to Conway today so was able to put my riddle in some sort of perspective.

The Goods Crane is just off the path.

Two possibilities:

i) The Goods Yard has been absorbed and all that is left is the Crane.

ii) The Crane has been relocated.

 

If you can see the fence on the right, it is about 20 metres from the regular through track.

 

CraneC.jpg

 

PS: I've included a Jackdaw on top of the crane for your added enjoyment.

 

I've just been deleting all my rubbishy photos from the weekend and came across this one - the crane as seen from a railway carriage.  A tad later and I might have caught the whole thing through the gap in the fence.  I don't recollect seeing it but they say the camera doesn't lie.

 

 

So next time you're travelling by train...watch out for the unexpected.... you never know.

 

Polly

[andyram]

The weather was very mixed today, grey and overcast at the beginning and end with warm sunshine in the middle. A mixed day at work too. The timetables have changed today in order to incorporate Mr Gove's "Daily Phonics Lesson", a half hour period of teaching each day to develop the children's ability to read and spell all the sounds and patterns in our language before the usual hour long English session! Incorporating it into our day has meant changing times of break times, lunch and the daily assembly. No wonder some of the staff looked like they didn't know whether they were coming or going!

 My class seemed to do ok today, handling the activities on the a-e sound with no problem. Sadly some of them hit a wall during the Maths lesson later in the day. Stomach aches, headaches and tears everywhere as they struggled with what seemed a simple notion of finding the missing number in an addition some. How the hell some manage dto come up with 20, 15, 35 as answers to the problem 16 + ____ = 22. To make matters worse my student happily announced how her half of the class had exceeded her expectations when learning about doubles. Thanks, I really needed that!!

 

 At least I managed to enjoy the good weather in the afternoon with a couple of outdoor P.E sessions. I did bottle out of wearing my new blue and orange trainers, adopting the tired old white ones instead!!!

 On more postive notes my ticket for the Rams semi final Play off game has arrived today, and I managed to run the layout again. It was never used during the two week Easter break but, once again, today saw the Jinty on the morning and evening passenger train.

[southern42]

Phonics. Cor.  That takes me back a bit - top infants, every day with flash cards:

ir says 'er', er says 'er', ur says 'er'.

 

Then in the Reader

chuff  huff  puff

So that's why I like trains.

 

Then the Juniors - spelling and mental 'rithmatic - everyday and test every Friday afternoon before the teacher read The Story  (B_O_R_I_N_G    Give me speelin or 'rifmatic any day).

 

Funny how somethings stick in the mind!

 

Good luck with your class, Andy.  Hope they get something out of it, too.

 

Polly

[Tony_S]

The main recollection from my junior school education was "Imagine you are a tree...". 

[Donw]

Well the weather was kind to us today and the base for the garden shed is done. Tommorrow we will be erecting the shed and by the sound of the forecast for thursday we will need to get it weather proof!

Don

[Jock67B]

Late good evening folks, like AndyB, our bindweed comes from elsewhere - the railway embankment at the bottom of our garden! This is only 8ft high and so I live in hope that one of AndyY's weed killer wagon trains will pass by soon. Thought they might have done it before laying the new welded track on the 'up' line! Great to hear it went well Dom, what with your first lesson and 'andyrams' little darlings, I think that my school days in Scotland were much easier on the staff. Apart from requiring fairly high qualifications (minimum degree level at Kilmarnock Academy for secondary studies ie.) - what they had as a great advantage was undoubtedly the discipline! Now I'll probably start another tangential thread, but the standard of output from the Scottish system in those times was demonstrably high. Hope you all have a good night to gather strength for the morrow and it would make my day if George (CathcartCircle) could chip in with good news on the job front. Ian, hope you are dusting off the red carpet for the imminent VIP visit?

Kind regards,

Jock67B.

[trisonic]

Only 7:19 pm here - the night is young - as my old Mum used to say....

 

The main recollection from my junior school education was "Imagine you are a tree...". 

My main recollection is Miss Honey, yum, yum. I must have had raging hormones at a young age....

I remember as if it is yesterday the divine Miss H. on her knees trying to fix my zip fly!

She’d be about 85 by now!

 

The weather was mild and wet today, only a couple of deaths so far today........

 

Best, Pete.

Edited April 29, 2014 by trisonic

[trisonic]

I’ve searched YouTune for video of the Freight train hit and wrecked by the tornado yesterday but can’t find any - but you might get a tingle of schadenfreude from watching this video of a NS crew in the middle of just a small tornado.

 

WARNING: EXCITED EXPLETIVES (and Southern accents)..

 

 

 

Best, Pete.

[Andrew P]

Morning all, not sure if this qualifies as an Earlie Riser post or past bedtime post, or just blodd* silly O'clock post but I couldn't get to sleep so popped in for a quick look around.

 

Morning all.

 

Good night.

 

Whats left of it.

[pH]

I had the a/c on in the car today, for the first time this year.

[edcayton]

The main recollection from my junior school education was "Imagine you are a tree...". 

 

"grow,grow,grow,grow........blossom!"

 

Music and movement in the hall (vests and pants) to the radio. Wonderful.

 

Ed

[pitbull1845]

Morning all,

I'll rise but I refuse to shine. Getting up at this time in order to spend a day spotting in Donnie. Seemed a good idea at one time. Have a good day.

[NGT6 1315]

Morning all. Nice change from having to get up before 5 am indeed! I think I'll get those food purchases out of the way first thing...

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Foggy start so can't see Compo & Clegg. 7^oC at the moment but will warm up and should be a bright and sunny day.

The diet has slipped a bit and I've put on another couple of pounds so more effort & exercise needed. Did someone mention gardening? I seem to have gone deaf!   

Chris taken to work and the only thing I've actually been asked to do is empty the dishwasher so it looks like something railway related is on the cards. Spent some time yesterday getting rid of plastic wheels on rolling stock, changing huge tension lock couplings for the smaller variety and adding weights.  Have now run out of wheels & couplings and it looks like the suppliers have too so I might attempt some more weathering today. However before I do that I really ought to double check that all the stock I've altered is running smoothly.

 

Have a good one,

Bob.

[Tony_S]

Morning all,

Somewhere between misty and foggy here.  

I may do some more model building construction today though I have been tasked with doing some cooking for the weekend as Aditi has invited neighbours for a meal on Saturday.

Otherwise nothing exciting planned for today.

 

Tony 

[DDolfelin]

"How the hell some manage dto come up with 20, 15, 35 as answers to the problem 16 + ____ = 22. "

 

What was the answer then?

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

It is another rather grey morning here - and it was reported on the news that some areas nearby had some quite severe weather overnight.  Fortunately, we escaped anything extreme - although I did get rather wet on my way to the postbox yesterday evening!

 

Phonics - now that's an interesting one.  My god daughter learnt to read using Phonics, and in my humble opinion it doesn't really work that well in English!  There are too many exceptions.

 

I taught Thomas to read English using Ladybird Keywords - (if it was good enough for me and all that!)

 

While doing the flashcards, Thomas would always get stuck on "Who" and usually ended up saying "Woo", or "Whoa" or something similar.  It became a running joke that I would say "Doctor" and he would then get it right!

 

I avoided phonics, partly for the reasons above, but also because the kids learn German using phonics, which are of course completely different.  Learning two languages is confusing enough for him already, without confusing him further!

 

Incidentally, Don has been absent for a couple of days.  Hope he is Ok and it is just his Internet connection.

 

Have a good day everyone...

[Barry O]

Morning from murky Leeds..

 

Ah.memories of primary school..Mrs Dawson with blue rinse hair ..me being a bell for the nativity play (but went down with chicken pox and missed it),times tables and spelling every day and.. Being told by the headmistress that I would go to university when I was 6!!

 

She just happened to be right!

 

What I don't miss is the walk across the yard to the toilets.....

 

 

Have a good day everyone..hope our 'missing' ERs are OK...

[BoD]

Morning all

 

Don't forget that all of your old £50 notes aren't legal tender after today.

[Donw]

Morning all

 

Don't forget that all of your old £50 notes aren't legal tender after today.

Don't you jus wish that was going to be a problem and you had a big stash under the matress or somewhere. Actually I had to take a lot of old £20 notes to the bank as due to dementia MiL had them in all sorts of places.The bank exchanged them.

Don