PhilJ W

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Just finishing tidying up the patio and a fodder run to do today. Been thinking about what to do with the 'wildlife corner' of the garden as when the old shed is removed it will become exposed. I will be cutting back the brambles but leave a few for the birds and I have an old wooden fence post that I will plant and grow some ivy on it, anything else will have to wait until the shed has gone. There has been several unintentional bombings of the USA including this one:- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash

You got the date wrong, it was February 30th.

Goodnight all.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I thought that after the exertions of the last couple of days I would have lost some weight but no. When I weighed myself this morning it showed that I had put on weight, just over a kilo! This talk of car engines heating food reminded me that in a list of 'add ons' for the Ford model T was an oven that fitted on the exhaust manifold.

That reminds me. My late father was the car parks manager for the London Borough of Havering. One of the multi-storied car parks in Romford had a spiral entrance ramp with the 'up' ramp on the outside and a flat area on each floor with a sharp and sudden transition from the ramp to the floor. One evening rush hour the down ramp got blocked. The cause was a low slung sports car that had only just got through the sharp transition from the ramp to the floor on the way up. With the down ramp being on the inside of the spiral the transition was sharper and the car had ended up see-sawing on the top of the ramp. It was quite a palaver sorting it out. Firstly cars were stopped from going above the incident so that the up ramp could be used by the cars behind the stuck car to get out. Then a Land Rover recovery was sent up to pull the car off and tow it away on its spectacle lift. It certainly cost his insurers a bit of money.

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Spent the afternoon tidying up the patio, rain is predicted for tomorrow so it should get a wash down. Been getting a few things sorted for the 'wildlife' corner of the garden. This is a couple of square metres of the garden hidden by the old shed and a fir tree where I had created a log pile and a few other things to attract insects, reptiles and small mammals though the latter are still rare due to the local cats and foxes. I am pleased to say though that there's quite a few slow worms and grass snakes in evidence in that corner.

Yes I did oversleep this morning, the exertions of Tuesday finally caught up with me. I hand balled over 100 large and heavy ceramic floor tiles back into the storage box. The box survived the move with only a little distortion and nothing was broken. I have always had a manual gearbox car with one exception that was a Suzuki Vitara with the V6 engine, there was no manual option. Not unless it is of the 'burred' variety which comes from the root of the tree. A burr is caused by a parasite that causes the tree to create a 'burr', a large ball at the base of the trunk. The burr is a mass of twigs that grow into each other to form a solid mass which when cut into has the swirled effect that is so desirable. https://graftedwalnuts.co.uk/burr.html As for Rolls-Royce Armoured cars having walnut dashes no they did not neither did many luxury cars until the 1930's when more owners started driving themselves. Before then 'luxury' woods would have been confined to the rear passenger compartment. Walnuts rarely ripen fully in the UK climate, though that may change due to global warming so generally the unripe fruit is picked and pickled. If you've never tried pickled walnuts you should do, they're delicious.

Morning all from Estuary-Land before its too late.

Goodnight all.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. A local museum, Castle Point, has just announced that it is scrapping its 2020 program, no great surprise there as like many preserved railways the volunteers are getting a bit long in the tooth and the risks are to great. It was toad in the hole for dinner tonight. One of these days I'll have a go at one of my mum's specialities, lamb chop toad in the hole.

Social distancing seagull.

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. A small parcel arrived this morning containing a device that propels itself along two parallel strips of metal. A quick check on said strips of metal to check that it does what it says on the tin, it does so all is well. The heavens opened a little while ago but now seems to have stopped but its still too wet to do much in the garden. The new shed won't be arriving for a couple of weeks yet but that does give me a bit more time to empty the old rotten one. Isn't Cap D'Ague the naturist colony?

A few weeks ago I saw listed a MR Sentinel VBT 'Islebrook' for sale at £99.95. I put it on my watch list and then forgot about it. Last week I checked my watch list and it had been sold so before I deleted it I clicked on the similar items and found an identical model at £79.95. The postman delivered it this morning.

This from Farcebook.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Woke up this morning all blocked up with hay fever. OK now though as its now pouring with rain. I do like some Belgian beers but to get the best ones you have to go to Belgium, my favourite is Chimay blonde, they export other varieties of Chimay but not that particular one. That of course is a 'Trappist' brew, the rocket fuel that Flavio mentioned, up to 15% AVB in some cases. There was nothing wrong with Rolls-Royce engines built by Austin as Rolls-Royce made sure that QC was in place. That is why Henry Ford turned down the chance to build Merlins and they were built by Packard instead. After all RR made diesel engines used in trucks and buses and even diesel shunters, though they inherited those when they took over Sentinel. Good old badge engineering+, it was the Vanden Plas Princess 4-litre R which was a tarted up Westminster with a change of engine. Georges Simenon? EDIT Nearly forgot, at the bottom of my garden I have a composter about four feet high. When the lawn was cut last week it was filled with grass cuttings to the brim. I went to check on it yesterday afternoon and on top of the cuttings slow worms had made a nest and it was full of little slow worms so I replaced the lid and left them undisturbed.

Goodnight all.

Sorry no pics. I have a composter bin in my garden, a couple of weeks ago when I cut the lawn I filled it up with grass cuttings. When I went to check it this afternoon I found a nest of slow worms on top of the cuttings with several young. So I replaced the lid and I will check them again over the next few days.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Garden storage box emptied and moved, and refilled. The bag of grout turned out to be solid at the bottom so absolutely useless, but never mind. I also pruned back the California lilac that was overgrowing the box. It was the six cylinder variant of the same engine. I did read somewhere that fitting some with a Rolls-Royce radiator grill and selling it as a 'baby' Rolls-Royce was contemplated but Rolls-Royce lost interest.

That's a series 3 '88'.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Sun is shinning at the moment so I'll have to get out and get the storage box moved. its not very heavy but its big, 3' X 3' X 5' and a bit fragile. The original Land Rover concept was as an agricultural vehicle that could substitute for a tractor if need be. The prototype even had a central steering wheel with that in mind. A similar concept and at the same time resulted in the Unimog. Flavio, regrettably the bakery at my local Tesco's is manned in every sense of the word at the moment. I haven't seen any of the ladies who normally work there for ages and though this sounds unchivalrous I would not describe any of them as young. My remarks though were for Chris F's information as he was asking if they were still making bread pudding.

Goodnight all.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I went to Tess Coe's this afternoon and I asked the bakery if they still did bread pudding. The answer was in the affirmative but they only do a batch when they have sufficient unsold loaves. This was normal practice before the lockdown and still carries on. So its still pot luck as to whether its available when you visit a store. A tank with a copper capped chimney?

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. The sun is shining now but the forecast for the rest of the week after tomorrow is not too good. Still no news of the new shed but tomorrow I will move the storage box, hopefully it will stay in one piece.