Fights on Everest & Still no birds at the feeders?

I note this morning that the Daily Express has a headline of, "7 Golden rules to live longer".  If  you look at the Story behind it there's nothing new in the "7 Golden rules" that we haven't heard before from the various agencies who make it their job to nanny us along!  A lot of whats said is pretty "common sense" but i guess we all wander from the paths of righteousness now and again? 

I'm sure we are all aware of the dangers of climbing Everest and have followed the odd story where climbers attempts have ended in tragedy of one form or another.  It now however appears a new danger has emerged in the form of a fight at 25,000 feet  The Sky news story go's on to describe in detail the altercation between climbers and sherpa's and its repercussions down at base camp later. 
No doubt the "Police Probe" allegedly taking place will give more details. 

The promised rain for yesterday failed to appear so as planned i managed to get a load of wood for our winter store which is nearly full

 I think another good load should fill the store.  We will be bringing down more though and probably storing it at the front of Boris's car port.

With the good weather we have been having I have once again faltered on writing "my book".  It hasn't been the labour of love i thought it would be however i have yet to reach the more "interesting" part of my Army career.  I'm hoping that when i do it will be a little easier to maintain the discipline of  keeping at it!

I only have another months worth of pictures to take for my next time lapse project.  The recent pics are at last showing some signs of the spring that is most definitely with us.  This pic shows the leaves on the nearby trees coming into view now. 

Finally - - - I'm still perplexed as to why we haven't had the usual heavy use of the bird feeders for a couple of months now.  We were sat in the garden yesterday pondering the likely reasons.  Fewer birds due to the cold winter is one angle.  There are more cats around than last year which could also come into the mix.  We wondered if the birds feel exposed coming down to the feeders so i filled an old one with sunflower seeds and put it high up in our apple tree which was a position we used years ago.  I think it might take a couple of days for the birds to realise its there but we shall see. - - -

Enjoy the day

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Human rights! & dull weather weekend

I see there's a bit of a todo about the RAF flying armed drones from UK bases to be used in Afghanistan.  A guy called Chris Nineham who is the "vice chairman of the stop the war coalition" gets his say in the story carried by sky news.  He calls the war a, "Deeply unpopular war on terror" and also, " They're using them to fight wars behind our backs".  Lets hope he gets some comfort to realise they're actually protecting not only our own soldiers out there but all of us back here.  Join the real world Chris!

One of our learned judges has upheld the "Human Rights" of a drug dealer by letting him stay in the UK.  All this though on top of the fact of the dealer fathering 2 children with 2 different women neither of which he has any contact with now.  He's been here since the year 2000 illegally and no doubt enjoyed our benefit system while hes been busy drug dealing.  Methinks Judge Jonathon Perkins has lost his marbles!

The weather forecast earlier in the week about a cold snap has manifested itself as a windy cloudy weekend.  There was a slight frost yesterday but nothing this morning thankfully all our new plants survived the plummeting temp. So, this morning's task is to go up to the logging area to bring back more wood, and then its going to be a spot of gardening this afternoon before the predicted rain! 
We have a hawthorn tree at the top of the garden and noticed the other day that the leaves have at last appeared, our ageing apple tree alongside looks to be a few days behind it.

  I snapped this pic against a clear blue sky while we were sitting in the sunshine yesterday. 

Finally - - - Our next door neighbour, he of the garden, bought a van not long ago to replace his ageing Safira, and it does look rather smart.  I had tried to sell him Phil2 using the list of "new parts" fitted as bait but to no avail.  Part of my sales patter was "You dont want to be replacing one problem vehicle with another", suggesting that Phil2 wouldn't be a problem.  It looks as if he might have just done that because it failed to start yesterday, sounding as if the battery was on the way out.  Hey ho - - -

Enjoy the day

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Dont chop down your ivy! & Beiber in the news again!

Once more the Daily Express has a headline of "staggering news"  "House prices to rise £10,000" "Biggest increase for 3 years" .  Its all based on "confidence in the housing market" and the fact that the "Average house price" is £225,601 I wonder which bit is worth the £601!

There's a good scary story attached to this Link about a brother and sister who go Marlin fishing off St Lucia and the boat sinks.  Worth a read and hats off to their "never give up attitude" 

Mr Beiber is in the news again.  This time he's in Sweden and the police have found Cannabis and a stun gun on his tour bus - - hey ho publicity - - - nothing like it to prop up a flagging career!

Sky news has a follow up to the Boston Bombing which starts by suggesting the brothers had Times Square lined up for a bomb at some time in the future.  It then devotes a lot of time to an "impassioned plea" from the parents of the brothers, who don't live in the US about how its all a conspiracy and that the pair had nothing to do with the bombing.  The father is about to go to the US for the funeral of the one that was killed. The mother of the pair isn't sure if she'll go because she was allegedly picked up for shoplifting in the US last summer and is concerned she might be arrested. - - - - -

I never knew that Bee's went anywhere near ivy but this Story is urging people not to chop it down. The Bee's rely on its late flowering blooms to provide much needed pollen in Autumn to help build up a store of food for the winter. 

Our garden is on a pollen high at the moment with the spring flowers and blossom working hard for the Bee's.

The miniature cherry tree with the white blossom will be moved to another spot once the blossom has finished in our never ending gardening programme.  Lets hope its survives the move!

Another gardeners tale is in this Story  about the stink bugs which afflict the US and Canada.  The bugs apparently arrived there from "Asia", doesn't everything? between the late 1990's and 2003 and not having any predators it is thriving and can be devastating to many crops.  Now comes the difficult decision, a wasp from Asia will keep numbers down if its introduced but what might it also get up to that might not be helpful!

Finally - - - Clearing up some old e mails i came across, once more, a few pictures sent by a friend, "Ginny" who was my partner on the Ben Nevis ice climbing trip in early March this year.  We were motoring up to Fort William on the A82 when I noticed a great photo opportunity as we passed Loch Tula.  The sun was out the water very still and the mountains were reflected in the water.  Great pic Ginny! especially through the window of a moving car!

Enjoy the day

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Napkin the lamb? & Fizzy drinks are bad for you!

The Daily Express has a good headline today, "Diabetes risk in daily fizzy drinks" with a byline of "Just one can raise chance of the killer condition by 22%" This however could be linked to their headline a few days ago that there's a "Simple test for diabetes" "Thousands of lives could be saves by test"
Seriously though the story is all over the news after "research" in America has revealed that daily sugary fizzy drinks can lead to type 2 diabetes in later life. 

I have mentioned my/our logging activity a number of times in the past but here's a story from that area to make a few, at least g, "Awwwwww".  Our friends Lisa & Jim who own the land on which we get our winter firewood were checking on part of their land when they noticed this pathetic little bundle on the grass. 
On looking at the bundle it turned out to be an emaciated lamb obviously abandoned by the ewe.  They do that if they don't have milk apparently.  The farmer was around and they made him aware of the lambs plight and he said he would put it out of its misery!  No no! declared Lisa and she scooped it up to take it back to their farm. 
Sally received a call later from Lisa declaring that "I'm a Mummy" which unless the "second coming!" had happened, would be a physical impossibility!  The lamb, after initially looking like it might "shuffle off" has responded to Lisa's TLC and is doing well. 

   Here is Napkin! (don't ask!) in "His" pink bed, i think there might be gender issues later!  He has a bottle protruding from the soft toy, Shaun the sheep, hanging from the radiator.  By the way the furry thing in the other bed is their cat which seems unconcerned by the "intruder".  More about Napkin in future blogs!

My number 1 daughter, Caroline has announced she has joined the 21st century by owning a Smartphone - - - the learning curve might be a bumpy road though!

Finally - - - Sainsbury the Tabby seems hell bent on wiping out the local Rabbit population by bringing in his second rabbit of the week this morning.  Turn away if you are squeamish Now! he eats the head, somehow, and leaves the rest for us to clear away.  Within 10 minutes of leaving his latest one he returned with a mouse which he has also abandoned and it is waiting to be disposed of as I type. 

Here is the top hunter!  He doesn't get on with any of the local cats though and will come shooting through the cat flap and hide around your feet with one grey tabby in particular in pursuit, luckily it doesn't come in!

Enjoy the day

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Phil2 leaves us "reluctantly" & There's a pink glow in the sky!

I have'nt blogged for a few days due to preparations to sell on Phil2 the Freelander since we put him up for sale on "Autotrader online" .  I returned form work on Sunday after Sally had taken a call and arranged for a lady to come and look at Phil2. 
The kitchen had 5 people in it and as the lady described her brood later, "none of them are small".  Anyway we looked around Phil2 took him for a test drive to Bakewell and back and the deal was done, Sold! 
We had agreed we could deliver Phil2 on Monday and i jumped into him at 0645 to go to work, "he wouldn't start!" Instant panic followed by some pushing and shoving to get him out of the way of Boris the Defender so i could get to work, 4 minutes late" 
Luckily we are on good terms with our local garage and after Sally went over with the tale of woe they sent a bloke across to look.  He used the central locking bodger to lock and unlock Phil turned the key and "hey presto" he started.  For some reason the "immobiliser" didn't trip off when i opened him and that was the reason he didn't start. Instant relief all round and Phil2 was duly delivered and £s exchanged!  I just need to get "Cyril" my Combo van back on the road and we shall be "Status Quo"

I see the Daily Express are in normal form with a headline the other day of "Simple Test For Diabetes"  "Thousands of lives could be saved" and one today of "Blood Pressure Breakthrough" New operation replaces need for daily drugs" 

Thankfully the 2nd "Boston Bomber" has been captured and "our" marathon went off without incident.  An old work mate, Tracy,  from the Remploy days was on it i wonder how she went on? Back to the Boston bomber thing though, apparently a group of people with a label of The internet detectives  conducted their own, high profile online investigation which lead to an individual being wrongly targeted and an apology was issued.  This "error" coming as it did in "Digital Stalking Awareness Week!" made the Awareness story all the more palpable!

Finally - - - Fresh from our triumph at selling Phil2 we settled done in the evening to watch a bit of TV when I noticed there seemed to be a pink glow!  Checking the alcohol content of the wine we were consuming i decided it wasn't responsible!  Looking outside though the sun had long sunk below the Western rim of our valley and a huge cloud formation passing overhead was bathed in its "pink" light
I popped out to take some pics of this phenomenon and here they are

This one shows the cloud formation, looking NW,  it was a bit like a storm front but without the rain  

This one, looking South, shows the pink tinge to the whole atmosphere reflecting off the clouds 

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A challenge or an opportunity? & Whats a humanist?

It looks as if one of the people responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings has been killed and the other, his brother is still on the run.  Interesting that its a couple of brothers maybe some deep seated hatred of USA although it seems to b a mystery to the family of the brothers?  lets hope the other brother is "brought to justice soon!"

The Daily Express as usual was reporting that there was a, "simple test for diabetes" with a by line of Thousands of lives could be saved by test! We'll all be living to 200 years old soon!

I stumbled over the next nugget here's a claim to be able to build super powered batteries using "3D Electrodes".  Its an interesting read but aren't "all" electrodes 3D?????

I receive alerts from the local cops, mainly about the theft of Land Rover Defender doors and bonnets!!!  but one the other day alerted me that it was, "Stalking awareness week!"  Joking apart i guess there's a lot of this "Digital stalking" with unwanted texts and phone calls not nice if you're on the receiving end!

What is Humanist? I never knew until i read a bit more than the article on this link.  I did a little research and found this link, interesting concept, i might join!

Sally had a little wander by the river bank today and the wild Garlic (Ransoms) is really getting its act together since the warm weather finally made an appearance!

It won't be long until the lovely white flowers appear.

 

 

Finally - - - For a while now I have been wondering about changing my job at the Salt Mine (local Sainsbugs) I do a 6 shift pattern over 7 days and then have 7 days off.  Fine if it wasn't so physical and lets face it I'm no spring chicken!!!! 

 

I noticed this morning that there's a 2 day shift and late evening shift job going in the Bakery (I'm attached to it by doing the bought in bread) I talked to my Boss, "lets call her TracEy" and she seemed quite happy to let me swap.  The evening shift she explained is on a Saturday 1800 until 2200.  I didn't catch on when she said she "couldn't get anyone to do Saturday night".  Not being a "Spring Chicken" I'm hardly likely to want to go down the club/disco (do they still have disco's lol) so it suits.

 

I talked to Sally about it and couldn't quite understand her horrified look until she caught on that the job i was suggesting was for "ME" not "HER".  So having her "Authorised" the idea i will float it with the Boss, "lets call her TracEy" tomorrow.  I'm still wondering if its a "Challenge or Opportunity" maybe that'll come later!!!!!!!!!!

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Boston - London & the garden

The ugly face of terrorism either home grown or foreign has been firmly in the news over the last couple of days with the Boston Marathon bombing taking centre stage.  If you dig in the news items a bit you can always find an atrocity normally masquerading as a "strike for freedom" somewhere in the world.  I'm confused though as to why the bomber/s waited until 2 hours after the elite runners had completed the course?  Time will no doubt tell us.

In London preparations are complete for Margaret Thatchers funeral today, with supporters and opposers to the expense trumpeting their own stories of why and why it shouldn't be taking place.  I gather she didn't want a big funeral so am perplexed at the lavish send off.  "Out of touch with her public" says one story, "She made Britain great again" says another.  Put yourself in one or the other camp and lets get on with it!

Closer to home - I was just sitting down to blog when the now familiar "clonk" of the kitchen unit plinth being removed by the paws of "master hunter" Sainsbury the tabby cat was heard. On hands and knees and gently removing the cat by the rear end i noticed the humane mouse trap had been sprung.  Sure enough a large pair of eyes behind long whiskers confirmed my suspicions and it was duly freed under the garden shed. 

The garden has at last put on its spring mantle and produced an array of colour with Sally here enjoying the sunshine and daffodils.





The new pond filter arrived and has been installed cunningly hidden in the bamboo on the left of the picture so clear water is expected once again in the pond. 

 

Yesterday was a very windy day and as I prepared to go logging a particularly strong gust caught the washing pole and the pic below was the result. 

 The pole is still attached to the bit in the ground but with one of the arms also askew it looks like its time for a new one.  I dared to venture a suggestion that to hang the sheets "over" the line rather than "billow" peg them might have caused considerably less "drag" but this was roundly rebuffed by Sally!

 

After logging it was such a nice afternoon we fired up the barbie and enjoyed the sunshine

If the self timer had been a little longer it would have included the whole of Tom who was making for the spare seat!

 

Finally - - -  A little logging to do today its then over to Chesterfield to buy the new washing pole!  A lazy afternoon "doing the book" is in order before its back to the Salt Mine tomorrow for a series of shifts! 

 

Enjoy the day

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Tornadoes in USA & Swallows are here!

Quite a blustery morning here but with an 11.9c temperature at 0600 I don't suppose we are getting it too bad! Its Tornado season in the USA and the Telegraph carries an interesting story of one professional storm chaser with a vehicle looking like something out of a movie.

We sat in the garden yesterday in the early morning sunshine having a cup of tea.  One topic of conversation was the fact we had not seen any Swifts Martins or Swallows this year.  Right on cue though a swallow made a pass just to the north of the garden obviously looking for food.  Lets hope the bugs get the message with the warm weather we are having!

I noticed on the front page of one paper yesterday a picture of a number of pink sheep.  Searching for follow up i picked up this story in the Daily Mail  It was someones idea to dye some sheep pink in a New Zealand nature park.  The stunt was connected to "breast cancer awareness week" but the public liked them so much they are staying pink for the time being.  An Interesting fact though is revealed that sheep are almost colour blind so they wont mind!  How do they know sheep are colour blind?

I changed the background and banner pics on our weather website yesterday from its winter to spring mantle.  While searching for relevant pics in our archive I was startled to see a marked difference in the garden pics of March 2012 to 2013

    Here's a pic of the garden 31/3/2013 showing snow on the roof 's of the structures in the foreground and very little colour in the garden.  Note in particular the absence of any colour behind the greenhouse on the right

Heres a pic of the garden 30/3/2012 taken from "snow covered roof on the left of the upper pic" The daffodils are out in force (which is just behind the greenhouse) as is the white blossom on the miniature cherry tree(centre right).  The tree (hawthorn) above the trellis, top left clearly has new leaves on it while even now (14 April) they are nowhere to be seen yet. 

Our fish pond is well and truly "alive" now and we noted a slight green Algae bloom the other day.  I set to in an attempt to change the UV bulb in the filter box.  The idea of the UV light is to make the Algae stick together which then helps the filter foams collect it rather than returning it to the pond because they are too small individually to be caught by the foam. 
It soon became apparent why we were having the power outages in February caused by the UV system.  The ageing filter had been leaking water into the UV light compartment and shorting out the power. 
Looking on the internet it turns out that a new UV unit is almost as expensive as buying a new filter box.  We decided therefore to "upgrade" our filter system and buy one of these pressurised "easy clean" systems.  It should arrive soon and will be pressed into service immediately!

Finally - - - Its that time of year again to stock up the woodshed, and weather permitting today we will add another load once we have cut it, up at our logging site in the local hills. 

Enjoy the day

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Beiber fans are fakes & shoppers are confused?

I see that the Canadian singer Bieber is once again grasping for publicity, well theres no such thing as bad publicity is there! the story the BBC are carrying indicate that 50% of his "Twitter fans" are fakes because he has more than Lady Gaga.  Amazing what you can do with a few figures in a survey!

The death of Margaret Thatcher has spawned a  hate song that looks to be a chart hit if the BBC will play it!  Strange how the BBC can be the arbiter of what we can listen to when we pay their way, well some of us do!  We have had this kind of thing before and they always end up looking foolish so why don't they just play it.  Free speech and all that! I wonder if there'll be protesters at her funeral????????

My "favourite" paper once again has a cracker of a headline today for us "Back pain cured by a single injection" followed by "breakthrough treatment to bring relief to millions".  Reading the text behind the headline it talks of,  "bone marrow injections into the spine" and mentions the treatment "may be effective in certain patients!"  

A lengthy story on Sky news drones on about shoppers being confused by supermarkets packaging "own brand" items in similar or same shape containers and "almost" copying pictures and text on "branded" products.  Shoppers are said to be "annoyed" or felt they had been "mislead" after "mistakenly" buying an own brand instead of a branded product.  Maybe they should look at what they are buying in the first place, still it provided the "consumer group" responsible for the report with something to do!

Dont text while driving seems to be the thrust of This story by sky news about the death of a person who died after crashing their car while texting.  The threat of a fine and points on the licence seem to be non effective in the race to "stay in touch".  I remember a few years ago being amused while walking around Hong Kong because it looked as if "everyone" was staring at their mobile phones.  We are almost there! 

The bit of land at the top of the gardens to our terrace of houses looks as if it might have changed hands once again.  At one time each house had a very long garden but a developer who owned all the houses, chopped them off half way in the hope of building another house.  He however fell foul of the planning laws and in the end sold the land.

Our next door neighbour John "he of the garden tip" was taken to task about where he had placed a fence at the top of his patch as well as where his dog had been "doing her thing".  The "owner" of the land has said he will erect a fence across a bit of Johns garden because "I know where the boundary's supposed to be from the deeds".  In reality this is bullshit because there are no measurements on the deeds just a line on a piece of paper.  However proving it could prove expensive so i suggested John line his fence up with ours as he's nothing to lose really. 

Good news for John though in the last week he's had a new Central heating boiler fitted and bought a van to replace his "over 200,000 mile" ageing and sometimes sick Safira! times must be good.  The jungle drums indicate he might be moving in July - - -.  

Just checked our Euro millions ticket and  - - not won again, Sally has however just pointed out that the ticket is for TONIGHTS draw!    - - - Its my age!

Enjoy the day

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Toms midnight clash of the titans & green shoots of spring at last

Much to my surprise one morning, Sally told me of being woken in the night by what was obviously cats fighting downstairs.  She had heard this racket and got out of bed to see Sainsbury the tabby by the bedroom door with eyes like saucers, hes not a fighter by any means!
On turning the downstairs light on she heard the cat flap bang as what we suspect was the "interloper" making its escape.  Tom was obviously agitated and soon followed it out but cam in not long after.  Toms getting a bit old for fighting but what can you do? 

I see a teacher is behind a campaign to hold street parties over the death of Margaret Thatcher - - - Ah free speech is a wonderful thing  - hey?

There have been a number of stories about boats and other things being washed up on the coast of the USA from the 2011 Japanese Tsunami.  An amazing story though recounts how a fish, presumably washed "on board" one of the ships at the time was still "alive" when the vessel was inspected on the Washington coastline not long ago.

North Korea has been in the news recently with lots of "sabre rattling" going on which has been taken seriously by the USA and Russia!   The story however reports a number of "incidents" which make you wonder how much support Kim-Yong-Un really has!

Back home it appears some of our Country pubs don't want walkers with muddy boots darkening their doors.  We used to frequent a local pub (The 3 Stags) where walkers would come in with plastic bags on their boots while other would take them off outside rather than "dirty the carpets".  It all shows lack of foresight i think in the eyes of the pub landlords/managers as to who the customers base really are!

The pub mentioned above has changed hands with alarming regularity in the last 10 years and all the incumbents have failed.  While still open, for now,  the huge "For Sale" sign above the gable end does not inspire anyone as to the quality of its "gastro pub" menu. 

I heard the other day that "it is rumoured" another of our past "locals" "The Church" with its "never run a pub before" couple have handed in their notice.  Their attempt at making it a gastro enterprise just hacked off the locals and they lefty in their droves. 

On the other hand our favourite lunch spot, "The Grouse" at Froggatt has not changed its menu since we have been going there in 16 years.  It has a healthy "specials" board and is well patronised.  Whats that old saying "If its not broken  - don't fix it"  alas some people subscribe to the twisted logic of, "If its not broken - fix it until it is!"

Finally - - - We can see "the green shoots of spring" in our seed trays shivering away in the greenhouse.  In desperation not long ago and with the snow still around we filled up the pots and trays in the greenhouse in the forlorn hope that "spring was just around the corner".
Here's a pic of our first "seedlings"  Sally checks them everyday so if these are (now) only 2 days old we might be in for some very big courgettes!

Enjoy the day

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Psssst! Wanna buy some Nutella? & Maggie shuffles off

Thieves in Germany stole 5.5 tonnes of Nutella from a parked lorry trailer and police say a similar theft of energy drinks had been stolen from the same location earlier.  Put those 2 together and you would be "going" fast!

The express came out with a headline that "Statins save your life" I seem to remember not long ago "one" newspaper saying they were bad for you - - hey ho.

Judges, yes the people with silly wigs and stuff come in for some Stick in a Telegraph article.  Some of the revelations are pretty startling though when you think these people are directing juries on how they should deliver a verdict on some of their "clients".  Some of the "comments" below the story are priceless though!

I see Maggie Thatcher has shuffled off, like her or hate her she certainly made a difference to our country! - - - me? firmly in the like camp. 

We have had enough of the snow around here and hope its well and truly finished with us until December!  An interesting story though with a pic or two of a couple of pub landlords trapped in their premises makes interesting reading. Sally had lunch with her sister the other day and they had found a small country pub with 10ft drifts still nearby. 

The chilly weather however is set to be with us for another couple of weeks according to the Telegraph story where there are pics of new born lambs with what appear to be jackets on!

I have a day off today before one final shift of my pattern tomorrow.  We are venturing to the wilds of Chesterfield for a little retail therapy before going up to our logging area at a friends farm to try and kick start our logging season!

Finally  - - - I received a few pics from Ginny my "Ice Climbing" partner of the beginning of March the other day.  So here's one of me, with Adam in attendance, learning to arrest a headlong slide down the snow on a mountainside in Glencoe before being let loose on Ben Nevis the following day!

Enjoy the day

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Ooops missed the bin man again & dont look if you dont like spiders

I've mentioned before that we have a glittering array of rubbish bins provided graciously by our council who are no doubt getting Euro points or fulfilling some mandarins box ticking exercises somewhere in the euro zone.
 
Bins for this and bins for that, the confusion (what can you expect at your age!) made me set up an "alert" on my diary to tell me which coloured bin we should be put out and when.  It will however probably come as no surprise that this morning with Tom curled up on my knee and me looking for "blog inspiration" The bin lorry with its flashing lights filled the view from the front window! 

Bugger! missed it again i mused and half arose wondering if i could beat the lorries progress and get the bin down the 2 steps and out to the "designated spot on the edge of your property" as prescribed in Local directive 2, subsection 3, paragraph 2b.  No! i decided and made a note to add the story to the blog.  Lorry still there though  - - - maybe they are taking a break - - - I bet they move off as i get to the door i thought, dumping Tom on the chair as i make a move for the door.

Wrong wrong wrong! is the look Tom gives me as the lorry glides noisily to its next stop along the road and Tom curls up again on my knee!

All this recycling is for nought though according to the Daily Mail this morning who's headline screams "Recycling The Great Con Trick" The detail of the story reveals how our sorted rubbish is being shipped abroad, sometimes as far as China to be put into landfills. - - - All the fault of our politicians - - - - naughty politicians!

Stop! No! Good Boy! What a clever boy! dragged me from the arms of Morpheus last night!  It soon became clear that Sainsbury the Tabby and "Ace Hunter" had yet again dragged in some poor unfortunate creature.  Sally was "The voice" and as I descended the stairs I discerned, clutched to her, it has to be said, "Ample boosooom" a baby rabbit. 

The "Good Boy" reference in the para above is a throw back to not wanting to admonish Sainsbury for "anything" due to the loss of his dear little sister after her being hit by a car.  Sainsbury seems to be well aware of the label of "precious little man" and plays along 100%!

The poor creature was set free at the top of the garden by Sally at 2230, dressed in her PJ's only to be discovered by me under the dining table this morning dead as a door nail!

The mention of China earlier made me remember a story i saw in the Telegraph about Chinese children having to scale ladders up a cliff to get to and from school.  Worth a read unless you belong to the Health and Safety Executive!   

Finally - - - a new species of Tarantula has been discovered in Sri Lanka in the story for some bizarre reason the size of it is likened to "the size of a human face".  This is just to make it a more creepy story i guess -  worth a look just for the pics!

Finally - Finally I joked about a hosepipe ban not long ago amid the downpours and blizzards, the Express carried a headline the other day after some kind of warning of a ban from the water companies "Outrage at new alert"  Outrage? No! - - -  Inevitable? Of course!

Enjoy the day

Follow this link to see our weather website

Or this one just to see the live birdfeeder webcam

Towering inferno in Chechnya is gods will! & The boss ticks all the boxes

There's a number of pics resembling the film Towering Inferno in a story on Sky News but the remark by the Chechen President that it was "Gods Will" seems a bit cock eyed!

The Daily Express carries a front page headline that claims a"Cure For High Blood Pressure, Five Easy Steps That Can Beat The Killer"  I guess then the cure they reported in Dec 2012 has tarnished a little!

A rather creepy little story about a Saudi Criminal who is about to be paralysed surgically is covered by Sky News.  The man stabbed "a friend" and paralysed him a number of years ago.  It seems that Sharia Law allows for "an eye for an eye" punishment unless the victim accepts a "Blood Money" demand!

Credit card fraud has taken a new twist in a story on BBC News The story reports that almost any machine where you poke in your credit card is now open to skimming devices.  Parking ticket machines, Pay at the pump petrol stations and rail ticket machines are just a few of the new ways of attacking your plastic. - - - worth a read! 

Back at the Fun Factory (Matlock sainsbugs) its been a busy old time keeping up with the returning shoppers as the weather gets a little better.
One bit of news for my boss, "Lets call her TracEy" she had her annual brow beating session with the store boss, "Lets call him Michael".  He's a bit of a "go getter" and not for nothing does he have "the devils" number, 666 on his car registration!  Anyway it appears TracEy ticked all the boxes and will not be banished to the far flung reaches of the store at Pistol Creaks or some other "punishment posting!" So unless she burns down the store we are likely to have her as Bakery boss for another 12 months.  Better the devil and all that. lol!

Finally - - - It was quite sunny yesterday so we did a little clearing up work in the garden.  I had wondered for a long time how i was going to dispose of my much used (a long time ago) and loved windsurfer.  "Lets make it a garden feature" i suggested to Sally.  Anything to avoid throwing it away in the back of my mind.
So here it is, now mounted behind the tiny greenhouse that has the birdfeeder webcam in it. 

All you can see is a pointed white thing, pity the colours don't show!  We are going to wind up our neighbour John, he of the "tip" to the left of our garden if he ever notices it!

Enjoy the day

Follow this link to see our weather website

Or this one just to see the live birdfeeder webcam

End in sight for coldweather & a Weighty problem for Samoans

I didnt touch a PC until around 1930 yesterday! The withdrawal symptoms started around mid-day!

 I was making the usual hasty exit from my previous batch of shifts down at the Fun Factory when my boss, "Lets call her TracEy" sidles up and asks me to work Tuesday rather than start my shift pattern on Thursday.  About to say "No" she hangs out the carrot of "You can swap it for Saturday".  No brainer!

So i worked yesterday, we are still suffering form the "bread overload" of Easter weekend so there was a lot of "overs" bread from previous deliveries to contend with.  I can see heads rolling further up the Sainsbugs chain of command as we finish up almost giving away "Taste the difference" hot cross buns because some "Manderin" flooded the whole country with them! 

Anyway - - -we have good news on the weather front with an apparent warm period on the horizon according to a number of reports.  I noticed that my weather machine recorded +9.9c yesterday afternoon even though we have a frost this morning and its +0.9c just now.

We are used to hearing about wildfires in Australia this time of year but there's an interesting story carried by the BBC about wildfires near the Scottish town of Fort William.  Its day 5 of a battle with heathland fires and one family at least had a nasty scare as the fires approached their house.  Worth a read and some scary pics. 

On an amusing note there's a test to see what Class you come from, also by the Beeb.  No personal info just a few boxes to tick - - - try it

I read the other day that airlines were thinking of charging for tickets by a persons "weight".  Well it looks to be already up and running for one Samoan Airline  "The price" is per Kilo and Its a hit with some people with kids.  Some other, larger Samoans, will not be so happy!

Finally - - We have noticed that a visitor to our birdfeeder is now a bit of a "regular".  A nice looking thrush has for a while been sitting on the perch below the feeders and having a go in at the fat balls in particular.  We have the feeder webcam running on the web server machine most of the time since noticing an absence of birds some time ago.

Last night about 1930 we noticed the bird and i thought it would be nice to get a still pic and post it on the blog.  A reader from Hereford had spotted the bird and e mailed me a "print screen" pic at the moment i sat down to copy it.  So thanks to "Bulmer" of Hereford and here's a copy of his pic.

Enjoy the day

Follow this link to see our weather website

Or this one just to see the live birdfeeder webcam

Dead fleas in Germany & the pond plants get cut down to size

I spotted this little Gem on the BBC news site a story bout 300 fleas from a Flea Circus all die because of the cold!

It was cold yesterday even with the sunshine we experienced in the garden.  Once a year we cut down the plants in the pond of which we have a number contained in 2 large plastic baskets.  We disturbed but hopefully didn't kill any of the mature or young frogs who were diving for cover as we pulled out the first one seen in this pic

Here Sally cuts away the growth outside the (green) basket.  The amount of extra growth can be seen discarded in the box on the bridge.  The idea is just to stop the plants taking over.

The second one just had a haircut as the underwater bits didn't look too bad and the water was Freezing on the hands.  It all looks a bit extreme at first but the new shoots always win the day.

It was a nice sunny day, Iff not a little cold out of the sunshine.  You can just make out "Tom" the cat as a black splodge sitting on the left hand chair (middle bottom of the pic). 

  Our other cat "Sainsbury" was having none of it, preferring to lie on a cushion on a bedroom windowsill while I clean the window!

Flushed with our success in the pond department we brave the elements to sit in the sunshine and have a glass of wine.  "Tom" has the warmest seat! 

The weather features again in a Mauritius story  carried by the BBC.  11 people die in severe flooding as a result of a few hours rain, blamed on climate change. 

Finally - - - our next door neighbour "John" he of the garden stories featured in the blog!  has posted on his facebook page that his car has broken down again!  I popped a note on his door telling him he can buy my Freelander! 

Enjoy the day

Follow this link to see our weather website

Or this one just to see the live birdfeeder webcam