"Special relationship" - down the pan & this and that

The retributions over our decision not to join the US in bombing Syria are in full flow this morning.  The Sun has an obituary on its front page saying that

The "special relationship "Died at home after a sudden illness"  - - -Very tasteful 

While in the Mail  Max Hastings starts his tirade with "A disaster, no its high time Britain stopped being Uncle Sams poodle.  Harking right bask to WWII and every conflict since he stoops to point out either failure or success or in the case of Harold Wilson and Vietnam "non compliance"  

There have already been acidic comments from the other side of "the pond" no doubt we will be whipping boy for a while!  

A One way trip to Mars reality show has drawn over 165k of willing participants.  The idea is to get you to Mars and there you will liver and eventually die.  Non seems more eager than a transsexual taxi driver from Hull, name of Melissa 

She claims to have "always wanted to do something where I would make my mark on this earth" Mmmmm on Mars?   Also she states "On earth I've done enough now, I've completed all my challenges that I had in life"  Anyone who has "completed all their challenges by age 52" must be a little short on imagination i reckon!  Having said that Melissa I to hope you are successful in your bid for the trip and will vote to get you "first in line" 

On a "more serious" note James May, he of Top Gear programme fame has completed a circuit of the Isle of man TT circuit On a meccano motorbike

Worth a read for the entertainment value alone! 

Finally - - - Nearer to home we finally complete the re laying of our pathway stepping stones after our fence build and its a touch of chopping up firewood "for the needy" for me this morning followed by an afternoon of enjoying our gardens new found solitude this afternoon! 

Enjoy the day  

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No to Syria Bombing & Sainsbury does the "bat watch"

An amusing story from the BBC about a road sign in Wales where translation went a little awry.

The "Welsh" bit is obviously meant to mirror the English bit but because the translation request was sent by e mail all they got was an "out of office reply!"

At last the PM has had his knuckles rapped over this effort to Bomb Syria which appears to be brokered by the Americans.  A number of his own party rebelled on the vote and it looks as if we wont be "helping" and the USA may go it alone.  Personally I think its the right path to follow

Coupled with the story above is the one from the Mail about Britain fooling itself about being a great power  The story has some valid points to support the title and I wonder if the rebellion over the Syria bombing is the "foot in the door" to support this article.  The last paragraph of the story has a lot of sense in it
"We were a global power for 250 years, but that period is past. We are not able to police the world . Lets concentrate on our national self interest  - and remember that Britain can be a great country without being a great power".  Wise words? - -  or - - - Folly?  I think the former

A friend sent me an e mail titled "old ads we'll never see again"  Here's one, can you ever believe we thought this to be true!? 

Finally - - - I like to have a look at the weather outside early in the morning before i report it on our site.  This morning I spotted Sainsbury, our Tabby cat on Bat Watch on our neighbours garage roof. 

He's waiting for the bats to fly back into the garage through a small gap by the apex of the roof.  Yesterday he gave us a demonstration of how he gets up there.  The roof is low enough at the garden end for him to just jump up to. He then walks along the guttering and carefully walks up the roof tiles.  
Getting down he will walk along the top of the roof then carefully stretch down and slide until his bottom hits an old TV dish.  He then stretches down once again and slides down, making a jump for it as the roof ends!  

Enjoy the day  

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Snow in a desert! & "Dave leaves the shop!"

I had been over what we call "the tops" which is a stretch of high ground between the valley we live in and Chesterfield the other day.  On my way back I noticed our valley which had a little mist when I left had filled up with the stuff so stopped to get a few pics

This one shows the mist in the valley with the tops of one of the Chatsworth hills poking above it.

This however is not as unusual than the Sky News story about Snow in the Atacama desert

This is the desert in Chile where the "Top Gear" presenters had a hard time and described it as hot and dry and high because altitude sickness is a real danger.  The link has a video which is worth looking at.  Pretty spectacular considering the average rainfall is less than an inch a year!

The Daily Express headlines are doing their normal stuff! One the other day said "Hope for Arthritis cure"  "Broccoli key to beating the disease" .  According to previous headlines arthritis has been beaten a number of times.  Heres a new one though with today's headline, "Drug to reverse memory loss!"  Now I think we could all do with a bit of that! -----

Here's an interesting story about people getting in trouble with the law On holiday
Did you know its illegal to feed the pigeons in Venice!

There are always a number of stories about Brits getting into bother with the local lawmen due to not knowing or being aware of a countries laws.  The story relates a number of facts about various destinations one which is that "It is illegal to take mineral water into Nigeria!?"  Another, you cant wear any kind of camouflage clothing in Barbados! - - -

Following up on my blog bit the other day about "Children not getting enough exercise" Sky News tells us
that video games and TV make children depressed  !!! poor things!!

My set of shifts at the Fun Factory (Matlock Sainsbugs) gave its usual crop of interesting encounters with the great British and sometimes foreign public.  Two to relate though, a fellow in a hurry, aren't most people, rushes up to me wanting some type of "korma paste" .  Entering into the spirit of his "rush" I quickly guide him pu the next isle showing him the product in question.
I then realise he's, "on the phone".  It turns out he doesn't have a shopping list, well not the usual bit of paper, nor the list on the "smartphone"
This bloke is being talked around the shop by a female on the other end of the phone.
Twice more he approaches me, this time still talking on the phone asking for other products, still on the phone. I see him once more rushing up the main isle still gabbling away as he heads for the self scan tills and away, presumably back to the person, still on the end of the phone!

I have just finished explaining to a shopper that the salt is, "in the next isle bottom shelf half way along on the left and turn around to be confronted by a small scruffy girl/lady who looks at me blankly and says "where's lemons?".
Taken aback by the fact she was stood right in front of me when I  turned around I asked her to repeat the request.  "Where's lemons?" she says again as I notice she has a bloke in tow with a trolley who looks decidely "odd".
I'm wondering what kind of lemons she's after and ask if she wants the ones in jars, I'm presuming this because she must have walked past or near to the fresh veg as she came in the shop.  "No" comes the monosyllabic reply from the "dead pan" expressionless face.  I direct her to the Veg section and watch with "furrowed brow" as she shuffles off followed be her odd companion!  - - - rather a strange encounter

A long time ally of my sarcastic wit and often cutting remarks in the shop is "Dave" a colleague whose real name is Vaughen who works the Booze section in the shop.  We have shared many a joke and amusing anecdote over the last few years and I was wondering who might replace him as he left the other day.

This is a pic on the day he was leaving, "Daves on the right" with Craig one of the many managers we have in the shop.  Daves getting married tomorrow!!  a sad loss.  I warned him that his wifes "headaches" might begin about next thursday!!!!!!  bon voyage Dave!

Finally - - - Our garden enclosure project is complete except for a bit of clearing up on the pathway, it really makes a difference to the "feeling" of sitting in your own garden. Here are a couple of  pics, try to spot "our" side of the fence!

Enjoy the day  

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Gardening theme - - The cops and us!

This Gibraltar Spain thing takes another turn and only for the worst as Spanish divers are seen "hoisting their flag on the artificial reef the Gibraltarians are building!

I guess its deadly serious to them but from afar it looks rather a tit for tat game!

The Australian gene pool looks to have been thinned out a little with this story about 2 locals swimming in a croc-infested river

It seems they ignored obviously large signs and local advice against swimming in the river.  I wonder if booze was a feature of their daring do?

Donald Trump declares a New York prosecutor a Total Sleazbag!  The story revolves around good old Donald piling more of other peoples money on top of his already huge mountain of the stuff. He set up a University in 2005, "A phony one" says the "prosecutor", to let students in on the secrets of flogging "real estate"

"Steering them to expensive and useless seminars" trumpets the prosecutor,  "This is a political hack looking to get publicity", retorts Donald.
The "Chuckle factor" for me gets 5 out of 5 though where you read Donald's defence of his "personal involvement" "I was totally involved to a high degree"  Come on Don you are either "totally involved" or you're not - - - -

Gardening spot! 
The cops in Norfolk are having a "high old time" after they discovered a huge cannabis plantation.

Here we see 2 of the likely lads with plants they have gathered obviously to "destroy them" - - - well done chaps.  There was a story not long ago where a number of flower tubs in a Newport  town centre had been planted with Cannabis

They are the bright green plants in this shot.  Strange that when authorities were alerted and went to remove them they had already been "harvested!"

Our own garden is a mixture of triumphs and tragedies at the moment!  I noticed a fish lurking near or behind one of the plants in the pond.  I have named this area "the departure lounge" because once they start to hang around there they normally die soon after.  Sure enough yesterday after work i was greeted by an upside down fish.

We seem to specialise in "odd shaped" goldfish and no we don't use chemicals in the pond.  Not sure what saw it off?

On a lighter note here's a couple of pics with a sunny aspect

The sunflowers and sweet peas still dominate the top flower terrace  

 The bees love the sunflowers although the numerous butterfly's this year like them as well 

 Tom sits on Sally's knee with a kind of quizzical look 

The object of his attention is Sainsbury the Tabby who has graced my knee with his presence, a rare occurrence!  

Finally - - - In my garden path reclamation and fence project I had occasion to contact a couple who were our neighbours at number 3 many years ago.  Lovely people who surprised us with a visit yesterday and we showed them around,  reminiscing about the old days! 

 Here Jim and Ann point out some of "their" old garden features still recognisable while Sally looks on  

This one shows Kate, the present owner of number 3, inviting Anne to have a nostalgic look around her "old house" 

Ah the good old days!

Enjoy the day  

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Swan BBQ at Windsor castle - yummee! & my initiative lets me down

This story makes me laugh Kids not exercising enough . Too often you see the results of this with overweight kids, trolling around behind overweight parents. The story relates that children of Indian origin and ones from Northern Ireland are amongst "the least physically active" - -  -wonder what's going on there.

On the other hand here's a guy you have to admire for his exercising Chen Guanming.

He decided to go to the London Olympics and packed his worldly goods into his rusty old rickshaw and popped off to London.  He's now off to Brazil to attend the 12016 Olympics.  - - - respect!

A "queens swan" has been found barbecued in the grounds of Windsor castle

I'll put my money on it being an immigrant who doesn't quite understand "what's going on with these lovely creatures" I remember seeing a bunch of these "type" of people plundering the trout in the River Derwent opposite our house.  They eventually went away but its a problem which needs addressing! - - -

At work  we often joke that INITIATIVE IS NEVER REWARDED!  Ok the place has to run on a rigid set of rules but I had a sharp reminder, although it was "tongue in cheek" about a notice I had posted in the warehouse.  It asked Colleagues to attach a slip of paper to the rollers they had processed rather than writing on one of the boxes on the roller, so much easier to see which rollers had been processed!
My boss, "let call her TracEy" pointed out the notice should have been, "laminated, stuck on the wall with sticky back plastic AND the paper should not have any filing holes in it!!!" - - - - I am reprimanded!!!!!!!! - - - -

Enjoy the day  

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Dont go on the sunbed son! & time for a fence!

Open mouthed! is the only way I could describe my reaction to this Sky News story teenagers shoot a man "for the fun of it" !!! A 14 and 15 year old as well as a 17 year old were "bored" driving around Duncan , Oklahoma.  They came across a budding baseball star out jogging and gunned him down.  - - -

Here's the victim Chris Lane from Melbourne who was on a baseball scholarship.  RIP

Not being one who, "has to have a tan"

I didn't realise that "sunbeds" were still very popular. This Sky News story relates that skin cancer deaths are 70% higher in men !

The problems at the tsunami hit nuclear plant at Fukushima in Japan don't seem to want to go away with the increased level of concern at water leaking form the redundant plant.  300 tons of radioactive water have leaked into the ocean!

There are some interesting pics in this Mail article on award winning i phone photographs  - - - worth a look

Closer to home - - -I spent yesterday helping out Jenny one of the Peak Organics girls clearing their site at the tops of our terrace house gardens.

I had the task of clearing the ground near to the wall in the pic so that cardboard and then a membrane can be laid to form a pathway.  Sally, on the right is arriving being the Tea lady, a welcome sight.

Here Jenny has laid the cardboard and membrane

It had been scheduled that Vanessa, the other organiser would be measuring up their plot to establish where they think our garden boundary is.  Although she attended later the measuring never got off the ground, obviously a hard day at work for her! 

Finally - - - The fence posts and rails for our garden enclosure programme are being delivered this morning so it will be full steam ahead once they are here. Progress can be tracked to some degree by studying our yard cam on the website!- - Back to the fun factory tomorrow for a series of shifts! 

Enjoy the day  

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Now that's an electricity bill! & our squirrel has "tail" problems!

This video is rather interesting, its a time lapse about cloud formation and the aurora taken up in Scotland

Well worth watching.  This is a youtube video but Sky News have it as well

The swimmer Rebecca Adlington has here Gold Swimming Medals stolen - - -

she then tweets that they have been found! Not a lot of detail in the story but the nasty side of tweeting show up when some "followers" make fun of her loss to begin with!

After the "revelation" that Google services were "down" for a while Amazon USA is the next to report problems on the Internet.  The story does though go on to mention a number of big institutions having problems - - - explanations, if any are pretty shallow!

The best joke at "The Fringe" from Rob Auton

 is featured in this story, very funny so I wont spoil it follow the link.  The 10 funniest jokes are also included!

How big's your Electricity bill? - - - not like this one I bet!

  A family in Essex were presented with this bill which is pretty steep and eventually Npower cut off their supply after non payment.  Reading the full text though it appears bills were not paid for a "number of years" so its hardly surprising.

Finally - - - I noticed a squirrel on the streaming birdfeeder cam this morning and it looked to have lost some fur from its tail.  I wonder if its had a run in with Sainsbury our tabby cat?

It looks decidedly bare for an inch or 2?

Enjoy the day  

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Beast of Trowbridge spotted - again & Napkin growing up

A couple out walking in Wiltshire took this pic of what they claim is the beast of trowbridge

The pic is rather grainy but the animal does have the look of something bigger than a domestic cat! There have been any number of sightings of a "big cat" going back  years, you would have thought by now it would have been tracked down and caught - - -

The economic bubble in India looks set to burst with this report of investors pulling their money out of the country The BBC report mentions that the slow down in growth has led to a run on the rupee against the US dollar.  The Prime Minister of India is trying to allay fears that a repeat of the 1991 financial crisis is not around the corner - - but who knows how true that is?

Quite an amazing story from the BBC is about a man who who fell overboard from a container ship while dumping rubbish in the sea travelling from Hong Kong to Taiwan

After being rescued he vowed to "make more of his life" and true to his word he is now a multi millionaire cider maker.  The question has to be asked though what was he doing throwing rubbish into the sea, there's enough in there already!

Another story from the BBC relates how the Red deer of Rum Island are breeding earlier due to climate change

The TV programme "Autumn Watch" featured the animals and also mentioned that the study of the animals has been going on since 1953.

Closer to home - - -I bought some "sausages", why do I always remember the dog on the TV a few years ago that could make a noise like it said "sausages" whenever I think of the word?  Anyway, on the packet there was a statement that they were "Made with 88% outdoor bred pork"  ?Begs the question, where was the other 12% bred then?

Our friend Lisa has started putting her pet sheep out to pasture and I encounter him by the gate to the field when I go logging.

I have to put his lead on and tie him to the fence to get the Land Rover through the gate or he might run into the farmyard and onto the road nearby.  He's quite tame and always walks up to me when I appear.  Due to his diet he's as lot bigger than his siblings in the field, a far cry from when he was abandoned by his mother!

Finally - - - The garden is doing very well in all this sunshine

and yesterday we harvested a few potatoes from the plastic bags we had grown them in.  It was surprising how dry the peat was even though they had been watered daily.  Sally has made a note to water the one remaining bag more often as a result.

So, a little logging today and then a days work on the Peak Organics project tomorrow will keep me busy.  There's talk of measuring their plot tomorrow which might spark a lively debate about where our garden boundary is supposed to be! - - -

Enjoy the day  

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Why do we need HS2? & Sainsbury has mouse for breakfast!

This Mirror story claims that there is a Great white shark off Cornwall !

The story has this pic and one other showing damage done to smaller sharks being caught off the Cornwall coast!

Google down!  This Sky News story reports that Google are not explaining why their services were down for a total of 4 minutes.  A few pundits are giving their own opinions but no-one is sure - - - apart from Google!

Do we really need to get to Wigan and Leeds faster than we can now? The Mail  has a good article on the building of the HS2 rail link from London with maps showing the proposed routes ending at Leeds and Wigan.  The idea is to take traffic off our congested roads but its doubtful if it will at this point.  Mind you we had the same objections to the building of the M1 back in the 50's and 60's so I guess "nothing changes"

The US government has acknowledged the existence of its Area 51   Its long been associated with extra terrestrials, UFOs and  the Air force's development programmes.  I don't suppose for a minute they will be giving away any further information at the moment.

The logging was a success yesterday although as I'm clearing blackthorn and hawthorn bushes its quite hard going.  The branches of the bushes are so entangled with each other that they down fall over even when they have been chainsawed.

The idea here is to chain saw the small trunks which still stay upright then attach a rope to Boris's towing ball and drag them out onto the clear ground.

Once they are clear you don't get much firewood from them and most of the tree go's on the bonfire but the larger trees are exposed then.  My part in doing this is part of a land management project our friend the landowner has signed up to.

We were successful in beating the forecasted rain yesterday, just!, in getting the last of the post holes for our fence project sorted. We used a cutter/grinder to outline the holes in the concrete walkway at the bottom of the garden steps and will punch them through and excavate once we have the post on Wednesday.

Finally - - - Little Sainsbury our younger cat continues in his attempt to reduce the local rodent population!
He is a very successful hunter and regularly brings in his quarry to show it off.  The other day I noticed a movement on the floor and a shrew was scurrying around!  He still catches shrews but there is something on their skin that stops him eating them!

Here he is earlier this morning having a mouse for breakfast!    We get to clear up after him - - - Mmmmmm

Enjoy the day  

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Didnt Mo Farah do well & More garden pics

Back to the Daily Express front page after a period of not commenting on its headlines.  This morning its "88f Heatwave blast back and it will stay hot in September - - - bring it on!

We watched in eager anticipation as Mo Farah had a go at the 5000 metres in the World Championships   The 2 commentators waxed lyrical about how the other runners were playing into his hands and in the end they were spot on! Amazing athlete!

 Imagine stealing a few coins from a parking meter cos its your job to empty them.  A Sky news story relates how a bloke in the US stole $210k in 30 years James Bagarozzo had $1000s of dollars in

quarters all over his house when he finally caught.  Sounds like a lousy check and balance system they have in Buffalo New York! - - - -

There's a great follow up to the 2 girls arrested arrested in Peru carrying the drugs by the Mail.  It go's into quite a detailed analysis of the drug "problem" and it suggests the Spanish police turn a blind eye?
Its a pity then they cant keep their noses out of this Gibraltar debacle that's developing nicely.

The EU "as usual" is powerless to enforce the "Free movement" EU rule although Spain has long been a follower of only the EU rules it wants to.  Why cant we be like that rather than touching the forelock all the time!

Back home - - We finished preparing all the post holes on our path for the enclosure project and once I have had a go at logging today the intention is to complete the prep down the steps and along the flat area on the pic below, if we can beat the approaching forecasted rain!

Yet again the garden was showing off its colours yesterday in the afternoon sunshine, here's a pic of the sunflowers just starting to bloom, with the sweet peas and a mallow helping the show!

Finally - - - talking of rain i snapped this pic at 0600 this morning - - - talk about red sky in the morning shepherds warning! lovely sky though

Enjoy the day  

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