Ever heard of Peak Organics?

Ok pics I like pics so lets start off with the BBC's news in pictures article the "theme" is "Urban life" so its a fairly mundane set of pics but I do like the first one which reminds me of crossing the road in Hong Kong!

Another feel good pic is here in the Mails announcing of the latest royal birth

The young bloke helping post the notice of the Royal birth comes from a slum dwelling in Calcutta.  His parents who still live there are so proud of their son!  rightly so!!!!

Its a bit of a "tome" but worth a read about how "China" is coping with its world dominance on manufacturing with an article from the BBC on China's slowdown and the global glut   its an in depth analysis of what's going on in the country and a reflection on how the USA and Japan coped with their dominance of manufacturing!

PEAK ORGANICS!  2 lunatic ladies who are attempting, nay! will!, turn an overgrown patch of land at the back our terrace gardens into an "Organic Garden "  One of the ladies, Jenny, used to be our next door neighbour years ago and then moved into the next terrace along the road.
Her and a friend have purchased the land at the top of out terrace gardens and will turn it into an ORGANIC GARDEN!  I have volunteered, ok even after 30 years in the Army with the rule that "you must never volunteer" I have offered to give a little of my time to their project.
The original idea of partitioning the land was space to build a house so an ORGANIC GARDEN is more than welcome.
One offshoot of the project is that our boundary might not be in the "correct place!".  It looks as if its a little "encroaching" but I'm sure we can work something out!
One of the mini projects is to construct a "bread oven"  I'm not quite sure how this fits in with an ORGANIC GARDEN but it sounds like a good idea.

Here's the base and there's a group of people from the Derbyshire adult education project coming Thursday and Friday to put the oven on top of the base
Today Jenny and I cleared a path up to the site of the oven - - - if the effort of the job is an indication of what's needed to complete the whole project its going to be, as the Beatles song says "A Long And Winding Road!

The results however, I'm sure will be rewarding!

Enjoy the day  

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This and that & Some great garden pics!

A good belly laugh is in order when you read about the church's attempt to shut down Wonga.com by expanding "credit unions".  It turns out "the church" is one of Wonga's "Investors".  The even more stupid idea is does the "Church" think that credit unions are not going to screw the poor unfortunates who default on pay day loans?

A rather worrying story about a Squirrel is infected with the plague" ok its in the USA but there must be 100's of thousands of the critters and its obviously going to spread like wildfire!!

Car hackers!  well most cars nowadays are just computers with wheels! it turns out that cars could be controlled by "other people" with the appropriate technology.  I wonder when the first accident is going to happen when the drivers defence is "I was hacked!"

Its only 3 days ago that I hacked down a couple of plants that had fallen into the pond.  I was surprised yesterday to see what I thought were the "green shoots of recovery" and dismissed the growth as maybe a "death throw" of the plants. I looked this afternoon and incredibly! the hacked down plants have started to grow!

The Arum Lilly stubs are reaching for the sky

While the bullrush stalks are also on the move

We spotted this wonderful "Elephant hawk moth Caterpillar" in the garden this afternoon. It was in a rather exposed position so once I had snapped the pic I moved it.

The sweet peas are looking quite good at the moment

While the Dahlias are being mobbed by the bees

We always try to encourage the Nasturtiums to cover the ground in order to keep down the weeds and they are just beginning to be effective

Finally - - - a funny pic from the sky cam which has a partial view of the birdfeeders since I re-positioned them.

The squirrel hangs by his tail and feet to the top bar and must have just taken a peanut from the round feeder before rolling back up onto the bar!
Enjoy the day  

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Did someone have a baby then? & Garden fayre beats pond repair

At last the Royal baby was born and the proud parents are now all over the newspapers showing off their charge.  Of course now its a guessing game of what the new prince is going to be called here's a list of the latest odds  There is however one Russian who is not happy and predicts the baby will "suck Russia's blood" - - - a daunting prospect for him.  Living in the past or what!

Here's a happy ending story, for a change, where pulling together, or more to the point pushing helped a woman who slipped and fell down the gap between the train and platform in Japan.  Due to the design of the train guards and commuters worked together to push the train away from the platform, making the gap larger so that the woman could be rescued.

A great story from the BBC about how to get to Mars and back a well put together story lots of graphics and comments about the various challenges.  It will happen one day I guess but I really have to ask - - - Why?

Between the frequent rain showers thunder and lightening we ventured into the garden yesterday a number of times.  Having initially written off the thought of rescuing the "huge" pond plant that had fallen off its ledge into the pond I relented.  After cutting off all the foliage I dragged it from the pond and managed to get it out of the basket it sat in.
I then remembered we didn't pull it completely out in March to cut off the excess roots which had formed the previous year. That probably was a reason it flopped into the pond!
I eventually got it out of the basket and trimmed it down in size by about a third before returning it to the basket and then the pond.

So here it is back in the pond.  There are 2 plants in the basket the lilly is on the left and a bullrush on the right.

I had strict instructions to save all the lilly blooms and here they are.

Sally's efforts in the garden yesterday were directed towards her sweet pea towers, she had a merry time clipping off the blooms in an effort to encourage more to grow, here's the result of one excursion between the showers.

Hunting out a few young courgettes for dinner she came across the large one which had escaped her previous forays

Finally - - - Its back on the shifts tomorrow at the "Salt Mine" I wonder what changes have taken place in my 2 week absence!  - - - hey ho!
Enjoy the day  

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Rain at last but all is not well in our pond!

The heatwave is well and truly over for the time being with a thunderstorm starting around 05:15 this morning.

We were concerned about a Golden Orfe we have in the pond as it had been floating on its side in amongst the lilly pads for a few days.  Its done this before in previous years so we didn't think much about it.  Yesterday I couldn't see it at all and eventually found it tucked behind one of the pond plants.  It was still moving but a couple of hours later it was dead so we pulled it out

 Its almost a foot long and we got it from a friend whose pond population was growing too large.  Ah well there we go.

During a lull in the rain earlier I went out to feed the fish and found that the plant the Orfe had been hiding behind had fallen into the pond.  I must have moved the container when I was pulling out the dead Orfe and it fell off the ledge in the thunderstorm. I'll have to cut most of it down to allow the container to stand up again

This is what it should look like!

I had one final stint up at our logging site yesterday as the predicted rain means I wont be able to get at it until the ground dry's out again.

I will work my way down this group of trees for the rest of the season and will need to get more waterproofing onto the pile of wood in the foreground.

Enjoy the day  

Follow this link to see  our weather website
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Wine as an investment? - - 20 20 Hindsight says No!

William Hague's a bit of a wine Connoisseur says the story at the end of that link.  Taking time off from ministerial duties to select wines for official functions.  I like any old wine really, preferably a dry white but can glug down most reds at any time.

Having been made redundant in 2008, paid off the mortgage and banked the rest I started looking round for somewhere to invest it.   We had topped up the ISA's but the interest rates looked a bit dismal.  The banks savings rates were no better. I then received a cold call from European Fine Wines  After doing a bit of research on the net I bought a number of cases and these were delivered to a bonded warehouse at Burton Upon Trent.

For two and a half years the wine grew in value and I would receive regular "Portfolio valuation reports" Towards the back end of 2010 these stopped arriving.  I eventually got hold of, "my broker" and was told this was because the market had "suffered a downturn"  A state unhappily that endures to today!

The constant sales phone calls continued however and eventually I fell out with European Fine Wines and threw in my lot with Encarta Fine Wines 
The approach of this company was almost the same but I did have a contact who seemed to know what he was talking about.  He however came to grief and was killed in a road accident in Bordeaux while buying wine for the company.  I was informed of this by the unlikely sounding name of a guy calling himself Louis Laronte (Mmmmmm).  He managed to contain his grief though and turned the call into a sales call!!!

I had been considering withdrawing from this little adventure for some time and the call from good old "Louis" was the catalyst!  I put up my wine for sale to both companies and Encarta provided the best prices. The return would represent nearly a 25% loss on the initial investment!  I arranged to transfer the wine to their account at the warehouse and this was completed on the 13th of June.  It wasn't until the 9th of July that I got the cash!!!

So! Wine as an investment?  20 20 hindsight says No!  I'm sure there are lots of people who have made money on wine investment but I don't count myself amongst them!  The only wine I shall be buying in future will come from the supermarket shelf!

A little bit of drama the other day down at Sainsbugs where I work.  I had popped in to shop and was shown an internal window between the shop and the cafe that had started to crack.

It was thought the heat had something to do with it and the crack got larger and larger.  The shop manager took action by poking it out and the whole pane 3ft by 8ft crashed into bits like a vehicle windscreen.

We had a cloudy day for the whole of yesterday and there has been some very fine rain falling this morning so it looks as if the "heatwave" is on its way out.
Enjoy the day  

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More about our heatwave! & Who's beer is it anyway?

Its official we are having a heatwave!  Cue the rain!  Lots of interesting information in this BBC story titled Heatwave continues  Friday apparently was the hottest day of the year up to 30c in some parts.  My "fan aspirated" weather machine recorded 30.7c at 1800hrs although its affected by its location under a car port roof.  I'm trying out various shading options to get a true shade reading. 
The pundits are still talking about the hot weather breaking around Thursday next week which is handy as its the day I start my shifts at the Salt Mine again!    There's talk of "violent thunderstorms" so make sure your drain tops are clear so the water has somewhere to run off!

The Tour de France is drawing to a close with, fingers crossed, a second year when a Brit is going to win with Chistopher Froome leading his rivals by over 5 minutes.  There's only one real stage left, which is today then the Champs Elysees "parade" on Sunday. Quite a good story about doping  on the tour is done by the BBC.  Fingers have already been pointed at Froome and his times on two climbs compared to the many cheats who have won them before! - - - only time will tell. 

Superfast hand driers have the same impact on your eardrum as a road drill says the story from the Mail a couple of days ago.  Its backed up by evidence from "researchers" that people with hearing aids maybe "particularly affected"  At work we have the Dyson Blade fast driers and although I wear 2 aids I have never found the drier noise too loud.  As usual the comments underneath the story are worth a look at!

How Australian is Fosters lager?  asks this story with a load of facts about different beers from the regular TV commercials.  There are a few revelations to be had in the text but I think its a case of, "if you show/tell people often enough they'll come to believe whatever you want" especially if its on TV.  It turns out Fosters isn't popular in Australia, and Carling is Canadian!   - - - worth a read

Finally - - We have a number of Lavender plants in both the front and back gardens and this year they seem to be enjoying the hot weather with a spectacular show of colour.

 The look of the bare stalks in winter made me think they had given up and died!

The plants in the back garden don't look as colourful but they are competing with everything else.
Enjoy the day  

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Its National dragonfly week & A spate of brush fires in the hot weather

I didn't realise it was National Dragonfly week

The link to the BBC Nature article has some nice pics the one above is credited to Tricia Gibson. 

The hot weather continues and this Sky News story relates that A & E admissions are increasing  with over a 100 deaths related to the heat.  While this story is about Britains highest beach has a number of pics showing sun worshippers at Gaddings Dam which is 780ft ASL.  I don't know about the highest beach but it looks like one of the smallest from the satellite photo on the story.  Once again some of the comments on the story are gems!

Just a little late in spotting this balloon on the webcam this morning

We haven't seen as many balloons this year as in previous ones.  I guess some of the well publicised crashes are putting people off 

I at last managed to spend some time putting our webpage background and header pic into Summer mode yesterday click on the link to take a look.

The previous day I completed the task of turning the recently felled trees into firewood except for the particularly knotted pieces which i might have a go at this morning.  Some parts of the trunk with tremendously hard knot shapes need to be cut time and time again to reduce them to firewood size

The stash on the hard topped track is now as tall as me and well covered  

 While down at the felling site the pile is growing.  I might move it up to the track and start a new stash or just cover it up where it lies at the moment for the winter. 

Finally - - I see that the hot weather has now been responsible for a number of grass fires according to this BBC story, i guess it was inevitable and i don't suppose we will have heard the last of this type of thing before the weather is due to break next Thursday.  I'll leave burning my brashings at the logging site until the weather cools and we've had a bit of rain. 

Enjoy the day  

Follow this link to see  our weather website
Or this one just to see  the streaming birdfeeder cam

Ark Royal in a scrap yard & Deaths in the water

Great pictures to be had looking at HMS Ark Royal in a Turkish scrapyard  The story relates how its going to become tin cans and razor blades.  Apparently the name HMS Ark Royal Dates back to the first ship of that name in 1587 which helped Walter Raleigh repel the Spanish Armada.  The replacement for the Navy will be called HMS Prince of Wales. Lets hope that one doesn't follow its predecessors fate back in December 1941.

The RAC is proposing  Graduated driving licences in an effort to stop the rising toll of young driver deaths.  A number of other countries use the system and it looks like a good idea.  One of the upsides is a reduction in insurance premiums for younger drivers, I think that would be popular!

We see it almost every summer unless the weather intervenes.  The lure of a tempting cooling swim in what looks like warm water ending in tragedy.  2 blokes drown at a Norfolk beauty spot in this Sky News story while a single person apparently falls in to the water in Wales  but is thankfully rescued.

Strange noises in her head alerted a young woman from Derby that something was not right and on investigation it tuned out to be flesh eating maggots!  She had been on holiday in Peru and remembers waling through a swarm of "screwworm fly's", one must have popped in her ear and managed to lay its eggs!  worth a read - - -

Finally - - - Another glorious days weather yesterday allowed an early start up at the logging area. I finally managed to saw the last bits of tree trunk into cheeses and split them all in preparation for finishing them off today.  Once that's done i might take a day or 2 off!!

Enjoy the day  

Follow this link to see  our weather website
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Hot logging

I spent some time up at our logging site yesterday but the heat in the end stopped me after about 3 hours.  I had gone up there around 0830 and it was already very warm.  

After some time taking bits off the end of the trunk of this tree I cut it in half and used Boris to drag the pieces to the bottom of the slope

Hopefully today i should be able to reduce one of the pieces to firewood before it gets too hot 

This pic shows the trunk at the top of the slope.  You can just make out a couple of buildings top right in the pic.  This is the farm of our friends neighbour. Tragically last week he took his own life. I dont know the full details so will not speculate here.  I saw him only 3 weeks ago rounding up his sheep with his young son sat on the front of a quad bike - - sad  RIP.

In the garden things are still looking good although the foxgloves have had their time now and will be cut down soon

Here Sally waters the beds late afternoon

And a frog sits in the shade on a lilly pad.

Finally  - - - a tongue in cheek report from Sky News about Beavers building a dam in Russia 

An earlier man made dam was washed away and officialdom didnt rebuild it but now the beavers are constructing one.  Officialdom though might remove it because it doesnt meet current building regulations!!!!!  - - - -

Enjoy the day  

Follow this link to see  our weather website
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Wot! no hosepipe ban? & A cow drops in!

The good weather here in UK is set to last for at least another week say the weathermen, that prediction could also be the kiss of death for the good weather though!  What amazes me about this wonderful weather is the fact no "official spokesperson" has even mentioned a hosepipe ban.  In previous years we only have to have a few days without rain and the newspapers are headlining "Hosepipe ban across southern England".

Having just filled up the peanut feeder one of our resident squirrels is having a feed hanging upside down from the top rail while a pigeon watches from the sidelines

The squirrel then frightens the pigeon away to get at the food on the tray

There's a bit of a strange story from the BBC about a man dies from injuries received when a cow fell on him  It appears the cow which had been grazing on a hillside stepped on and fell through a roof.  The man sleeping in the room below died later in hospital.  The story relates that this is the third such incident in 3 years!

Another tragedy on the Brecon Beacons is reported by Sky News about 2 TA soldiers training on the SAS selection course route around Pen-y-Fan.  There have been a number of deaths associated with this area and the SAS in the past.  Most notably was the death of Captain Mike Kealy who distinguished himself as the officer in charge of the defence of Mirbat in the Oman war of the 1970s.  He left then returned to the regiment and to prove his fitness, as was the normal procedure, went on the final day of "test week" only to die of exposure on the Pen-y-fan range.  I guess the latest deaths will not be the last - - -

Finally - - - here's a tale that made me smile, the Public Health minister Anna Soubry wants the guilt lanes in shops and supermarkets scrapped.  These are the tempting displays of stuff just near to the checkout where either the shopper sneaks a choccy bar into the basket or the "pester power" of the little "Angels" comes into play.  I remember once seeing one little "Angel" whining for a birthday cake which the mother was saying she couldn't have because her birthday was 3 months away.  10 out of 10 for the "Angel's" tactics though who caused such a scene the parent gave in and bought one!  It appears that "no!" doesn't work any longer!  - -

Enjoy the day  

Follow this link to see  our weather website
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Ooops on the website name & a comical day at the Salt Mine!

I wondered why our website failed to respond when i switched on my desktop?  It didnt take long though to realise what the problem was.  I had a Free account with Dyndns which for the uninitiated turns your ip address into a website name .  One of the rules for the free account is you have to login at least once a month or they "cut you off".  Seems i forgot! 
So there we are OUR new name is http://hakuraman.doomdns.com 

I picked up on this story about a Drone landing on a US aircraft carrier I always imagine a drone to be quite small and in fact remember back in the 70's when the Brit Army were testing them they were only model aircraft size.  This US one is massive and weighs 20 tons!  Impressive video

Here's another of those Trusting person attacked by wild animal stories some "celeb" was in a compound with a handler and was told this rescued cheetah would lick water off his hand.  As he bent down to scoop up some water it jumped on his back  Safely rescued by the handler it was then, and only then they told him its dangerous to bend down in front of a cheetah! - - - No! dummy, its not safe to pretend wild animals are tame!

Finally - - - We continue with our fantastic weather here in the UK and I can only think "we are going to pay dearly soon for it!"  This made for an interesting, challenging and in the end comical day down at the Salt Mine which masquerades under the name of Sainsbury's Matlock.
I had not long ago actually gone in on one of my holiday days, Doh!  My only excuse was that as I only work part time and wasn't actually "going on holiday" days off don't really mean a great deal.
There I was then contemplating a hectic day when "ping" a reminder popped up on my phone "Days off tomorrow" In checked my Outlook Diary and sure enough "3 days off" ahead of me.
It was then with an unusually sprightly spring in my step I stepped up to the clocking in machine 3 minutes early as usual and electronically announced my arrival.

It was a hot morning in the shop as they don't seem to ratchet up the air conditioning until the customers arrive.  Everyone realised quite early it was going to be a "challenging day".  Lots of folk in for the "BBQ shop!"  As the crowds got bigger the "frenzy began".  First the shoppers start dashing about thinking they are going to miss out.  One offshoot of this is "they become blind!".  Cant see anything! cant find anything! Solution? find a member of staff.

Twice I was assailed by customers in a state of panic asking for an item that was on plain view and right in front of them! amusing!  Then "the panic spread" the management, hey no names here just generally the management pick up on the panic!  They rush past and have barely time to enquire, "everything OK!" its a statement rather than a question and my standard reply is always the same, "Fantastic!" as they disappear into the crowd.

The bread rolls/cobs/bread cakes/balm cakes in the locals vernacular are  disappearing almost faster than i can put them on the shelf except 2 types in particular, i spot they have today's date on and this is why the shoppers are ignoring them because of the sheer numbers of alternatives. I muse that there will be a scrum when as is the procedure at 1300 they will be "REDUCED"  This normally ensures they will be sold.
I have a brief respite for 20 minutes as its my turn on Saturday's to empty the cardboard bailing machine and deposit it outside in the yard.  It entails tying up a few strings opening the metal hopper door dumping the blob onto a pallet, resetting the strings and then getting the blob out of the way.  Finished with this task i return to the "battlefield" to complete the reductions!

I'm still being assailed for all angles by goggle eyed shoppers and the odd manager when I at last remove the rolls with today 's date on and dump them with their bright yellow "REDUCED" labels on our "Special Offers Rack"  Sure enough the rolls left on the shelf now start to go!
A vision in some pretty colour appears at my shoulder, "lets call her TracEy" and announces that "Matt'l go mad " if he sees we are reducing rolls" on such a busy day.  I don't even protest, just point out that "they are on the report"   No reaction from the vision in the pretty colour as she is already peeling off the labels i have just stuck on.
I spend the next 20 minutes peeling them off the offending rolls and putting them back on the shelf, they remain there as the keen eyed shoppers see not only today's date but the residue of the REDUCED label.
I finally complete all the reductions and rush to top up the shelves with the fast disappearing bread before my shift ends.
4 minutes to go as I glide down the isle pushing the bread stack before me like a battering ram.  As I reach for the first loaf, I hear a voice in the distance.  It is the "Vision" again, "Mike I need you to do a bail" I check my watch and announce that "I cant complete a bail in 4 minutes" The vision says "I'll get someone to help you!"  I decline the offer pop the bread on the shelf thinking its more important than getting rid of a blob of cardboard and make a B line for the clocking out machine.
I always make a point of not leaving the shop floor until the last minute of my shift and as i punch in my number note i have given the company 2 minutes of MY time.  With the 3 minutes i clocked in early that morning it makes  5. I wonder if they'll pay me.  DOH!
Dave the cleaner ribs me for clocking out late, we have this game to ensure we clock out on time.  As I walk across the sun baked car park, I watch as more customers hurry towards the shop door and am glad that i now have 3 days off!  The day had started well and ended well what more could you ask for - - - -

Enjoy the day  

Follow this link to see  our weather website
Or this one just to see  the streaming birdfeeder cam

Konrad Kellen a great listener & more wood for the stash!

The story of a gypsy/traveller resettlement programme drags on locally some months after it hit the local papers headlines.  They were originally on the Bakewell showground but then were offered various locations which for one reason or another they deemed unsuitable.  The last we heard they were to be shunted off further down the valley at Holmesfield but this story in the Matlock Mercury indicates they are to be allowed to camp on land at Rowsley.  The odd thing is they have "dropped their request for electricity to be provided"  - - - cant quite figure out what that's all about?

Konrad Kellen was a great listener, Konrad who! I mused?  a fascinating story about a man, so the story go's who could have shortened the Vietnam war  Interesting tale though and maybe we could all learn a bit by listening rather than talking - - - I know I could!

Our weather still confuses us by being hot and sunny when for the last few years we have had some rather dreary summers. The current warm sunny spell is set to last another 10 days if you believe the weatherman's predictions! We were discussing it with a neighbour and agreed it might break just in time for the beginning of the kids long school holidays!  - - - great joy.

The project to turn the scrub land at the top of our garden took another leap forward yesterday.  There had been some renovation work going on to a building's roof which borders the south west part of the land which was finished yesterday.  I was closing our various greenhouse and shed doors around 2100 and heard a strimmer, thankfully not the noisy screaming type!  As I reached the top of our garden I noticed the current owner of the land busily working away obviously having waited until the heat of the day subsided before taking on the task.  Maybe the transfer day of the land is not far away!

It'll be another stint at the logging again today before preparing for a set of shifts again at the local Sainsbugs Supermarket starting tomorrow.  I managed to drop the second of the 2 trees which were close together yesterday.

  It looked like it might kick back onto the the stump due to the shape of the ground it was falling on so it was a case of having a clear escape route once it started to go.  I'll be lopping off the limbs today before tackling the trunk on my next week off.

The stash on the hard topped track is nearly 5 feet high now so we reckon it has about 12 cubic yards of wood in it just now.  Still plenty of room left!

Enjoy the day  

Follow this link to see  our weather website
Or this one just to see  our live birdfeeder webcam

A fan aspirated weather machine!

Being interested in the weather years ago I bought one of the many "weather stations" available online.  It has a anemometer and rain gauge sensor which feed data into a transmitter which also houses the temperature sensor.
This transmits the data to a display unit which then transfers it to the pic on our website.  Its meant to have a wireless range of 100 metres but its never been that good! The display unit will not sense the transmissions sometimes which accounts for the only thing showing on the site is the barometer which is housed in the display.
With the good weather we have been having the temperature reading have been way high because the transmitter is under Boris the Defenders plastic carport roof.
I look each day at this weather site in Greece amongst other and noticed the weather station was "Fan Aspirated" in an effort to avoid strange temp readings.
This gave me the idea to fit a fan to mine and i bought a solar fan on the net.

The fans about 2 inches in diameter and is temporarily attached and blowing directly into the vent of the temp sensor.  It seems to work as its within 1 or 2 degrees of another sensor i have in the shade

The solar panel sits on the roof, there's a bit of dew on it this morning - - - I wonder if its waterproof - time will tell.

I finally finished of the tree I felled a couple of weeks ago.

Here are the last of the trunk "cheeses" being split yesterday

The one on the skyline will be next.

Enjoy the day  

Follow this link to see  our weather website
Or this one just to see  our live birdfeeder webcam

Who won Wimbledon then? & 2 squirrels raiding the feeders

A nice early start today as its going to be "another hot one!"  The weather has been exceptionally good the last few days and in our usual tradition we trundled a TV into the garden to watch the Wimbledon Mens Final.
The effort was worth it as the weather was hot and sunny and Finally after 77 years another Brit has won the Wimbledon Mens Trophy.  Just about every newspaper has Andy Murray grinning out holding the trophy!

Our screen gate was finally painted with the preservative yesterday, it seemed to be drying as I brushed  it on .  I'm not a great fan off this type of stuff but the wood is untreated so it needs it.  When I ordered the fencing  the colour was "green" but its a far cry from the colour on the door!

Here I am putting the finishing touches to the job

Tom does a bit of supervising, he's not too keen on the heat but always follows us out into the garden

I picked up on this story the other day about The Loch Ness "Monster"  its from Fox News and an Italian Geologist is claiming that a lot of the sightings could be related to earthquake activity rather than any "monster" activity.  The tourist board people are not going to like that.  On our trip back from the ice climbing in early March we stopped at a cafe to take some pics of the lake.  Within a few minutes a couple of coaches turned up full of Americans and they boarded launches to take them out onto the lake with Cameras at the ready!

A real "monster" story from Sky News though happened off Bondi Beach in Australia the other day, a surfer Knocked unconscious off his board by a huge whale.  The whales are seen quite often around the Sydney area at this time as they migrate but this one looks to have been rather interested in Bondi  - - Good video  to watch.

I mentioned the weather being good the last few days here are a few pics taken in the garden yesterday.

 A nice clear view of the hills across the other side of the Derwent Valley 

 A nicely trimmed box hedge sweeping down to the bridge over the pond.  We are trying to similarly cultivate the newly planted hedge on the left so are leaving it to grow a little.  

On the left the Alliums look to be at their best and the fox gloves are looking good , of which we have never planted one, they just self seed and we let them get on with it.  

Even our biggest fish (about a foot long) was enjoying the sun yesterday! 

Finally - - - I had refilled the (Recently Repositioned!) feeders this morning and just settled down to blog when I noticed a squirrel looking at the tray for food.  As I watched another one appeared, I have never seen 2 feeding before! 

 The obvious one on the tray appears to be looking at the camera but the other is is sat on the edge of the pergola above a feeder we normally reserve for the robins in winter you can make it out directly above the peanut feeder.  Its easier to see if you click on the pic to enlarge it.  

Enjoy the day  

Follow this link to see  our weather website

Or this one just to see  our live birdfeeder webcam

Its a swallow - no its not! & Ok! about the birdfeeder cam

You know what its like you see these magnificent birds swooping around the sky or racing over the surface of the river catching the bugs in the air.  Someone says, "oh look swallows", invariably some clever dick will say, "no they're not" unless you take an interest in the birds it can be difficult to tell them apart until you have the knowledge. So here it is from the BBC How to tell the difference between swallows swifts and martins There are some interesting videos on the article - - - worth a look

The early morning mist is just clearing form our valley and i managed to snap a pic of it a few minutes ago

It can sometimes fill the valley to the roof top levels and looks very eerie hiding the valley floor detail. 

Our pond plants have grown wonderfully since we cut them back in March.  Then they looked like this 

 Today we have a fine show of lilies and the other plants are enormous.  The next show will be the bullrushes on the far right. 

A tragic story with a happy ending - - for a change.  A pair of twins in china were reunited after being parted for 41 years by chance a friend of one of the twins saw the other twin in a city 200km from the first one.  Now there were 1.34 billion people in China in 2011 but the first twin travelled to the city of 4 million people and was reunited with his twin.  They were put up for adoption soon after birth because of the parents poverty.  The story doesn't end there though, once reunited they tracked down their estranged mother as well!  

A near tragic tale is covered by Sky News, teen mauled while trying to kiss captive lion  Being a wrinkly and having seen this type of thing before I cannot imagine why anyone would want to kiss a caged lion!  Wild animals will never be anything other than wild. Even domestic animals can give you a reminder where they came from!  Try giving a cat a pill it doesn't want!   

The logging is going apace and its a "splitting the cheeses" operation just now on the final piece of the trunk of the big tree I dropped.  Its probably the most strenuous bit of the work as it entails chainsawing about a foot off the end of the trunk and smashing it into firewood

Here's one with the 8 pound "maul" leaning up against it.  The "maul" is a kind of blunt axe which due to its weight splits the wood where an axe would just bury itself in the top of the wood (shades of Charles Bronson splitting the wood in the movie "The Magnificent Seven")  The first split can take anything up to 8 or 10 blows, after that unless there are large knots its just a case of hitting it in the correct place.  

I'll be cracking a few this morning before Sally joins me to transport some of the firewood up to our stash on the hard top track, such a nice day for it! 

Yesterday I visited my old Army friend "Bulmer" in Hereford to chat over some points for my book.  The journey down and back was the usual Friday  mess of traffic jams and senseless roadworks with miles of traffic cones and not a worker in sight.  We had a good couple of sessions though with a visit to a local pub where a lot of the "old timers" meet up for coffee on a Friday. 

I saw a number of blokes from my era and, as you do, we chatted on as if we see each other every day.   One guy was showing a pic around that i sent him on an e mail ages ago, he's the one on the left in the pic below

We were in the Oman at the end of what was described back in the UK newspapers as "The Secret War".  This is 1976 and we were really just doing civil aid stuff before the real government sponsored organisations got going.  This old boy had burned his hand and spread tomato puree on it!  The guy on the right is one of a number of Fijians who were in the regiment at the time.  Ah the good old days! lol 

Our "screen" at the bottom of the garden is now complete with the door hanging having gone well.  It is rather nice to sit in there without the huge expanse around us as we had before

There's a brass plate on the door with the message, "Time spent in this garden is not deducted from your life!"  The idea is to continue the screen up the garden although another project needs to be completed first, details anon - - - 

Finally - - - There has been a groundswell, well half a dozen comments about the birdfeeder webcam view.  Yes everyone can see the squirrel on the top rail and the birds as well.  It appears though that others like the view down the garden and across the valley with the odd view of "us" wandering aimlessly around the garden.  I shall remedy that this afternoon and hopefully give everyone an even better view!