Early Risers.

[jamie92208]

Beth and I went out for a walk in the sunshine this afternoon  and saw two lots of deer, 13 in total.  Both groups were about 300 yards away across different fields. The chasse had been out this morning but obviously not where those were.  

 

On another note altogether we have been officially counted as inhabitants here. The French Census is taking place so one of our neighbours left us a form and I filled it in online.  All very official.

 

Jamie

[The Stationmaster]

Evening all,

 

Com ndolences to Dave and it's good to hear that Ashers is making good progress.

 

As my friend from the muddy hollow has already reported a good time was had by all at the Pontcanna Scout Hut - always a pleasant little show and with plenty of noice RMweb folk around with whom to spend time chatting cheerfully.  I did get the impression at times that I was attending as a consultant but bribery with a decent cuppatea inevitably works and I'm happy to give freely of what little I know to those with intelligent questions.

 

For thos who have never been it really is a small show (the venue implies that of course) and here is a photo which shows almost the entire length of the main hall in which the show takes place.  There are 'layouts' (sort of large diorama size) on either flank of my viewpoint and in the area that you can see there are another five layouts counting those hidden behind people over on the right - so it definitely isn't a large layout kind of show.  There are two RMweb members in this view on the near right - Rob (NHY581) with the beard and on his left just in the picture BGMan.  A bit more space this year because the area where the chap is sitting on the left is usually home to another layout but unfortunately Dave (Danemouth) had injured his back recently so his layout of the same name was unable to appear in its spot there.

 

 

At the risk of an encounter with the awl here's view of the latest of Rob's layouts although I can't recall the name this one has - they've all have had sheep related names up to now so this is nodoubt Bleat something or other

 

 

Travel to and from went fairly well notwithstanding a somewhat nippy start to the day.  Flooding along the river is well evident from a trip up the branch and no doubt the folk who recently had a house built alongside the Lashbrook at Shiplake are congratulating themselves as it is almost surrounded by floodwater - just as well they put it on stilts.  Somewhat less cheerful I suspect are the people who bought a very large new build which took land from part of a garden near the river at Wargrave.  Although there is no visible flooding adjacent to the original house, which is right on the  river bank. as often used to be the case the end of of what was their garden furthest from the river is well and truly underwater - with the new house sitting in the middle of it.  And the idiots who built didn't leave the area below the main habitation floors empty but walled it in (with horizontal planking), and no doubt told the buyers they  could use it for storage etc.  That area hasn't flooded for quite a few years although it used to flood every year going back a few decades - so somebody has just found out what can happen there.   I wonder if they looked at the next property away from the river alongside the railway and found the fact that it is on brick arches a bit puzzling - no puzzle now although, as usual, it's mainly the garden which is under a foot or so of water with it just lapping up to the steps up to the front door.  In the 1962/63 winter flooding their only way in and out for a month or more was over a temporary plank footbridge from the house steps to their private footpath up the railway embankment to the station.

 

Enjoy the rest of the evening/day.

[New Haven Neil]

Meant to post this earlier- sunrise over Ramsey this morning.

 

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[laurenceb]

Condolences Dave

Night awl

[Gwiwer]

Evening all.  

 

A reasonable cow curry was made from fridge-scrapings and a little experience.  Quite unrelated to which I shall have to take careful note of river levels as Mike states they are rather high not too far upstream from here.  

 

It's off to inspect the eyelids now so I wish you all a warm comfortable night.  

[TheQ]

39 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

Meant to post this earlier- sunrise over Ramsey this morning.

 

Where's Gordon? 

 

Evening awl,  Christmas dinner has been eaten, large amount of food,  small amount of alcohol,  because I was driving.. 

 

After that it was the usual casino evening,  where I tried to lose all the monopoly money on roulette.  I was doing well. Until SWMBO insisted I put it all on 11, which is how many dogs we've had over the years.. 

Next spin.... 11.came up , it took ages to lose all that. 

 

Then back home with a little box of left overs For Ben... 

 

Choccy time, goodnight Awl.. 

 

[leopardml2341]

Goodnight.

[Dave Hunt]

To all you ERs - a sincere thank you for all the messages of condolence and support. It means a lot that you care even though I've never met most of you and it really does help. I hope that you all have a quiet and peaceful night and that all who ail find some comfort, as I am doing.

 

In gratitude.

 

Dave

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Despite the quite invasive nature of Sheila’s operation yesterday, her eye has made a remarkable recovery today, just over 24 hours after surgery. Not only can she see fairly clearly through the eye, she has been able to read subtitles on the TV this evening, without the need to wear glasses, something she hasn’t been able to do for over 20 years! Although she does admit that the area around the eye is still tender and in her words she says “it feels as though she’s been punched in the face”. There's also a small amount of bruising starting to become visible now, but the discomfort that she felt yesterday has gone completely and she hasn’t felt the need for any sort of pain relief. 

 

In between administering the eye drops, I’ve busied myself with the construction of half a dozen MERG kits, namely some more DCC train on track indicators, the plan is to carry on with these again tomorrow, although I may be required to operate the washing machine as well. 

 

Goodnight all 

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Decidedly cold outside with a brilliantly clear sky, frost is settling on the car already. Good thing is thar Arthur Itis doesn't like this weather and is in hiding at the moment.

[AndyID]

About an hour after I took the pic of the deer I was looking out the kitchen window when all the snow slid off the shed's roof. Fortunately no deer were in the vicinity.

[TheSignalEngineer]

17 hours ago, TheQ said:

Both California and Ostend are within 20miles of here.

When I was a teenager I used to travel to school through California on the bus. A friend lived in Hollywood, but that wasn't in California. Neither were in the USA.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[pH]

My brother-in-law used to live in Houston, Texas (he's since moved a few miles outside). At the same time, one of his friends from school and university lived in Houston, Renfrewshire.

[BR60103]

We will not be in Paris tomorrow.  Our friend will not be there either.

 

With little effort, we can be in Paris, Lomdon, Brussels, Zurich and Delhi. Until about 100 years ago we could have gone to Berlin.

 

[AndyID]

41 minutes ago, pH said:

My brother-in-law used to live in Houston, Texas (he's since moved a few miles outside). At the same time, one of his friends from school and university lived in Houston, Renfrewshire.

 

I wonder if The Fox and Hounds has improved at all. The last time I was there it was pretty carpy.

[AndyID]

1 hour ago, BR60103 said:

We will not be in Paris tomorrow.  Our friend will not be there either.

 

With little effort, we can be in Paris, Lomdon, Brussels, Zurich and Delhi. Until about 100 years ago we could have gone to Berlin.

 

 

You can say that again

 

EDIT:

Rats! Your post was showing up twice but it isn't now.

 

Edited January 19, 2020 by AndyID

[AndyID]

My grandparents all lived in Irvine so I spent a lot of time there in my yoof. If you'd told me then I'd be working in the town next to the Irvine in California in a few years I would have accused you of winding me up.

 

(The CA one isn't named after the Ayrshire one)

[pH]

Two of the municipalities around Vancouver are Surrey and Richmond. Surrey is not the most salubrious of places (though there are really nice areas within it). 

 

Surrey jokes:

- living in Richmond means you never have to say you're Surrey.

- How do you address a man from Surrey wearing a three-piece suit? "Will the defendant please rise."

[Ozexpatriate]

2 hours ago, AndyID said:

(The CA one isn't named after the Ayrshire one)

There is, I suspect, a Scots connection nonetheless. 

 

James Irvine (born in County Down, Ireland in 1827) was presumably Scots-Irish.  He left Ireland after the failure of the potato crop in 1845. Profits from his San Francisco-based "Irvine & Company" were used when he became a silent partner in the purchase of Mexican land grants Rancho San Joaquin (1864) and Rancho Lomas de Santiago (1866). 

 

He died in 1886 and was buried in San Francisco. The city of Irvine was named after his son.

[AndyID]

18 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

There is, I suspect, a Scots connection nonetheless. 

 

 

That's hardly surprising. About 90% of the people I meet claim Scottish ancestry

 

Of course the other one is a great many claim to be descendants of someone who came over on the Mayflower which means it must have been bigger than the Titanic.

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all, with condolences to Dave

 

I managed to write off six handkerchiefs yesterday.  It's quite easy: you put them on to boil and then forget them.  That it reduces the volume of ironing is of  little comfort.  Apart from that, the lurgi seems to be under control and there has been a refreshing absence of coughing fits at crucial moments such as halfway through a concert.  Experience tells me that viruses can make their presence felt when least expected and from that point of view, but no other, I'm glad to have been spared the 300 mile round trip to Cardiff yesterday.  Late lunch was chicken chasseur and very nice it was too.  Today I have a slab of steak in prospect but there are jobs to be done before I even think about it.

 

In the week ahead, one of the members of Area Group is kindy running an overflow session for those who were unable to join him at the pre-C*****mas meeting .  There is a LGBT meeting at the methodist church and a trip to Southampton in prospect over the weekend, lurgi permitting.  Not rushing about quite so much will not hurt.  An important job will be to find the Debenhams voucher that came in the post the other day.  I assume that Debenhams sell handkerchiefs and that they still have a presence in this town.   Nowadays one can be certain of nothing.

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

[roundhouse]

Good morning and condolences Dave.

 

Its fffffreezing out there with a heavy frost . The grass was crunching when I went to the shed for an hour this morning. Another route set up on the PC for the new layout. Still trying to get my head around the automation in JMRI.

 

Back indoors and a cup of tea made for both her who is wrapped up in bed - I may well go back and join her for a while.