Hroth

I refer you to the comments about Welsh singing in this Flanders and Swann song...

I can sympathise, but to raise the stakes a tad, not only were our bedrooms initially unheated (not even a storage heater, gas or electric fire) they also had louvered windows, fitted by the bas*ard previous owner. The wind blew in, the wind blew out.... As a temporary measure, "glazing film" was stretched over them, which at least tempered the icy draught, but did little to make the rooms warmer! Thankfully, along with the CH, conventional windows were fitted in time for the next winter.

Its a pity that Lidl don't apparently have an IoM presence. Their "craft" item cycle regularly has wall-mounted display cabinets at reasonable prices.

Well, she must be a retirement candidate, even if there might be no enforced retirement age.

And you do get the Hornby Santa Express! What strikes me are: The woeful lack of curtains in domestic interiors. The number of people who've had falls indoors. A street Santa and above ground fire hydrant, which are US affectations. And I think there's at least one Noch/Preiser kinky couple, plus the woman in the bath. It only splits in two for storage. Given the size of the build thats inadequate for safe keeping after Christmas. Think I'll give it a miss!

My mothers hobby was viewing houses for sale. In those far off days, you could just pop into an estate agents and get a key to view an empty property on your own, without supervision. The house they had during my early years had gas central heating, with what seemed a huge boiler in the kitchen. My mother used it for raising dough, airing stuff, and the cat slept on it. One day, in the early 70s, my mother came back from viewing a house that she was very enthusiastic about. That weekend, we were all dragged about this house, and the Monday following, our house was up for sale and the new house bought. Instead of gas central heating, it had storage heaters that were woefully ineffective. I remember ice forming inside our bedroom windows, gas fires that had to go on in the winter evenings because the storage heaters were at their last gasp of heat, and huddling up in thick jerseys and blankets to keep warm. By the next winter we had gas central heating!

I was browsing early music performances on utoob and came across this collection of snippets from David Munrows "Early Music Instruments" series from 1976. I thought @southern42 might be amused! More snippets from the series: https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLv8IDw-oVSdATBkyLqOGB5kxxtZtvNS88

Sumer is icumin in - The Hilliard Ensemble a.o.

Ouch!

Japanese Boy - Aneka

Who would possibly do that? Unless it was something to do with food.....

I note that Bangor was due to be "decommissioned" next year. Perhaps that will be accellerated... And the Navy shrinks again.

Thanks for the dissertation on the concept of Shrodingers Dead Sheep, but it should have been directed at @MartinRS who introduced the subject! I just supplied a postulated safe drinking distance...

Is that Schrodingers cat in the box? Sorry..... Nice Castle! Now you need to name it after a GWR loco...

The 5th catalogue is fascinating to browse through. I got the R.PC primary set for Christmas that year, with the Steeple Cab loco (non-working pantograph) and two green shorty coaches.

My Great Aunt lived on a road that formed part of the route Ginger Macains horses took for exercise on the beach at Birkdale. They would often leave deposits that she collected to mulch her rhubarb with. It was really good rhubarb and I like to think that Red Rum made an occasional contribution to its excellence! We always consumed the rhubarb with custard too...

Back to normal British winter weather. Grey, dank and cold, a few grudging degrees above freezing. Although I am glad the snow and ice has gone!

There was a phase when "halogen" ovens were being offered as the next big thing in cooking technology. About the same form factor as current air fryers, but rather power hungry....

But they do walk on tiptoe! As for Schrodingers Dead Sheep, apparently its ok if its more than 10ft upstream. Not that I'd want to risk it....

An interesting interpretation of L`homme arme, but the posted recording was naff, with terrible sound distortion. And a modern trumpet and piccolo amongst more appropriate "early" instruments? The balancing must have been almost impossible, they should have been baffled or even isolated, as the hammered dulcimer and drum were.

Not so much depressing as insanity laid bare.

Definitely dodgy! What we know as pennies were originally copper, but were later minted using a more bronzelike alloy to reduce wear. I've a very worn and virtually worthless late 18th century "cartwheel" copper penny. According to wikipedia, bronze pennies were minted from 1860.

Its always worth running over your post-decimalisation "coppers" with a SeaSearcher, when you have jars of "saved" coins! Silver coins: 1920 - 1946 50% silver, pre-1920, 100% silver! 1920: to help pay for WW1 1946: to help pay for WW2

Didn't want to say "like", too ruddy cold for me!

Here's some of my untutored thoughts about coins, and their value to collectors. It all depends... Its like property, but instead of "location" its Condition, Condition, Condition. Coins with precious metal content have a certain residual value. Gold coins of whatever age are worth at least their weight in 22ct gold because thats what they are. Equally Silver coins 1920 to pre-1947 are worth approximately half their weight in sterling silver, because the silver content was reduced to 50% Silver coins pre 1920 are worth approximately their weight in sterling silver because they're more or less pure silver. Then it becomes a balancing act of condition and rarity. In general, coppers are worth as much as collectors will pay for them. But, if for example, you have an Edward VIII coin of any face value, they're worth much more due to their incredible rarity. Anything older then late 19th Century, or unusualness, like Maundy Money, might be worth asking a specialist about, especially if in good condition.