Don't run its bad for your teeth! & Heron watch draws a blank

As early as April next year the unemployed will have to "follow the rules" says this Sky News story to claim their dole money.

The chancellor, George Osborne is determined to stamp out the "something for nothing" culture, so he says.  His idea is that claimants will either have to take on some kind of community work or report daily to the job centre. The penalty for not reporting will be a 4 week period of no benefits, a second offence will incur a 3 month no benefit period.
The US has had a similar programme running so lets hope it works here.
The only time I have been near the "dole money" hand out was when I was made redundant in 2002.  I had worked every day since 1961 and paid into our wonderful system.  Having filled out a multitude of forms it was declared that I would receive the generous amount of £15 every 2 weeks.
This was due to my 30 years in the Army and the fact I was drawing my Army pension. Thankfully by the time I would have received the generous "hand out" I had my old job back again!
I just hope the Chancellor gets onto the people drawing benefits and working at the same time!!!!

"Missed a medal by the skin of his teeth" may not be too far from the truth according to this BBC story.  It details that a fifth of the athletes attending clinics during the 2012 Olympics

had some kind of tooth erosion or gum disease.  Diet and too much training cause stress to the immune system in athletes.  An amazing 76% of 302 athletes treated during the games had gum disease!  So remember! don't run its bad for your teeth!  

The defence secretary "Philip Hammond" got more than he bargained for at the Tory party conference the other day according to this sky news story  

2 ex Royal Fusiliers officers stood up and one gave Hammond a tongue lashing about cuts in the Regiments numbers.  Pot shots about soldiers having been "betrayed"  were trooped out before the 2 were escorted from the conference hall.  Only too often there are cries of betrayal and soldiers being let down by the government.  In my view I'm afraid its all part and parcel of being in the forces.  

Nearer to home - - - Early yesterday a shadowy camouflaged figure took up his post in the garden in an attempt to scare off the Heron that is set on plundering the fish from our pond.  

This was the view from my Observation Post where I could see "Henry" the plastic Heron standing at the North end of the pond.  Although I sat there for an hour and saw an endless flock birds visiting the birdfeeders just behind me no real Herons appeared.  Maybe the fright it got the previous morning was enough to dissuade it from visiting or it may have spotted the nets we put over the pond! 

I'm off tomorrow across to Wales to overnight then have a final walk up Crib Goch and on to the top of Snowden early Wednesday morning. 

Here's a pic I took back in June from Snowden's summit looking down and across to Crib Goch with its Knife Edge walk, I dont expect the weather will be as nice as this but who knows.  

Enjoy the day  

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

Plastic Herons don't frighten off real ones from a pond & the Mont Blanc Jewels

All to often we are told To lose a few pounds but here's a story from the mail that looks at things in a different light.  For the over 50's piling on the weight is dangerous it says but keeping your weight "stable" is the key to living longer.  I always remember being told I was "at risk" because I was 2 pounds over my BMI limit at one "well man clinic".  2 Weeks later having lost the 2 pounds i was declared "fit and well"! Mmmmmm

A man finds a box of jewels while climbing on Mont Blanc

The sky news story tells of 2 Air India planes having crashed into the mountain, one in 1950 and another in 1966.  The jewels apparently worth £207k were found while the man was climbing one of the mountains glaciers.  The story alsoc relates that a bag of diplomatic mail was found in 2012 and claimed by the Indian government. 

The UK's Ash Tree's look set for a spot of bother form an imported pest 

The BBC tells us this is an "Emerald Ash Borer" and its set to cause a few problems.  Strange that in its original environment it doesn't kill the trees but since it appeared inrthe US in 2002 its devastated the Ash trees its come into contact with.  I remember back in the 70's we had our Elm trees all but wiped out by Dutch Elm Disease not a pretty site to see these huge trees withering away. 

Nearer to home, I spent some time yesterday getting rid of the branches not used for firewood up at our logging site 

The trees I'm clearing at the moment are tall gangly things and a lot was going on the branch heaps.  It had got so tall I was having problems throwing more on top so it had to go. 

So with the heap from the last pic on the right almost gone i set fire to the larger original heap as well.  

Autumn is showing its colours quite well now in the valley and heres a pic of the changing colours emerging 

We had noticed our fish keeping to the deep part of our pond and this is something they don't normally do until the depths of winter.  A neighbour said he had seen a heron sitting on the pergola just above the pond and that explained the problem.  

Answer?  get a plastic heron! 

I looked on the internet before buying "Henry the Heron" and there seemed to be more "For" than "Against" the fact that a plastic heron will stop real ones from plundering a pond of its fish.  

I was up at the top of the garden inside the greenhouse opening up a bag of birdfood yesterday and as I stepped back out into the garden a huge Heron flew gracefully up from the pond and off down the valley!  

So! being now firmly in the camp of "A plastic Heron will not keep real ones away from your pond" we set about putting a net over the areas of the pond most likely at risk.  

"Henry" looks on as the job is complete. 

Tom thinks all the effort is just too much and decides its time for a sleep! 

The Heron normally comes around the pond near to 0800 so I'm off to sit by it and try to scare the living daylights out of it.  

Enjoy the day  

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Or this one just to see  the streaming birdfeeder cam

Asda shoots itself in the foot & settling into Autumn.

Could anyone at Asda have been so stupid to have agreed that a Mental patient halloween costume was a good move

Well - - - yes because the people at Tesco introduced a Psycho Ward costume.  Methinks it must have been a veeeery slow day in the research and development department again.  Whats wrong with the "normal" Halloween bits and bobs?

The 2 drug smugglers "cant do right for doing wrong"

 First one then both of them plead guilty to avoid a trial and harsh sentence.  Now the authorities in Peru are accusing them of lying in their first statements and want to go back to stage one and want the names of the "other gang members" .  Hey ho, message is don't do it in the first place?

Living on a desert island has its appeal as this story BBC story relates

Its Christmas island part of Australia, in the Indian Ocean!  We and the US tried to blow it to bits in the bad old days of nuclear bomb testing but it managed to survive.  The story relates a number of people living there and what with all the mayhem goping on in the "civilized world" I must admit it has its merits!

Nearer to home its time for a bit of logging if the weather holds today.

Right now its looking a little cloudy but the forecast is saying it will be ok.  In the pic above our many headed sunflower, 30 at the last count is grimly hanging on as Autumn digs in.

These 2 Jackdaws are determined to get a couple of peanuts, strange that they dont go for the sunflower feeder seeds.

I posted a pic the other day with a goldfinch or 2 but was sent this in an e mail form my old mate Bulmer in Hereford showing 4 of them having a good old feed

Enjoy the day  

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Update your icons & challenging times in the shop

We've been to the moon and mars and we have a couple of spacecraft that are out of our galaxy.  We do however also find time to discover things in our own backyard we didnt know were there?
Its a tailorbird

The BBC story relates that this bird has been discovered not deep in some remote jungle but in the capital city Phnom Penh!  - - - methinks there might be a bit of an underlying message here!

In this story from the Beeb It asks "Is time for a new wheelchair icon?"

Its a story from America about a group of designers who want to "update" all manner of symbols. Ok do it but changing the symbol of a woman in a skirt representing a woman's toilet because "I don't wear skirts anymore"  - - - Come on!

An Old Volvo that's done more than 3 million miles  Sky news story

Mind you that's American miles, arn't they shorter?  Not bad for a 1966 model though
On the other side of the coin though should old people drive? BBC story, I'm sure most drivers have been stuck behind older drivers who are driving incredibly slowly? although far to often you see the "younger element" whizzing along far to quickly at times.  I'm surprised to hear though that an older driver only has to say they are fit to continue driving after they reach 70 - - -

Another bird story here from the BBC makes me wonder a little.  60 years research

it would seem and obviously lots of £s into the bargain has lead scientists to state that "shier birds were found to be more likely to stay in the same flock while bolder birds were more gregarious"  Ok there must be more to it than that statement but isn't that rather obvious and "normal"

Down at the fun factory (Sainsbugs Matlock) things have been rather amusing at times.  I was on my knees stacking a lower shelf when an elderly lady approached and peering at me over here glasses said "Oil?" "Engine or cooking" I shot back with a smile!
Another elderly customer asked "Where's your paste? it was all I could do to hold back the obvious repost, "wallpaper or sandwich?", as i pointed to the shelf next to his left shoulder!
A lady, using the term guardedly! approached and was obviously irritated that all the "in store bakery shelves were devoid of produce".  I knew they were as a colleague, "Lets call him Dash around Dave" was all alone in the bakery that morning.  Why he was alone remains a mystery as I couldn't be bothered to follow up on such an error in the organisation.  Gesticulating maddeningly at the bare shelves she berated me about wanting "Any of these!"
Attracting the attention of Dave, he enquired of me, gesticulating (also!) at the cooling rows of loaves, "Large or small?" Fast becoming agitated myself at the ridiculous situation I was in of, "talking but not actually communicating" I relayed the request only to receive "Which one?" from the customer.  I turned away at this point and counted to 5 on my fingers before turning back to face her, wanting to seriously tell her where I would like to poke her loaf! If she ever got to choosing one!  At this juncture Dave appeared and carried on the conversation as I slunk back to my duties in the main bread isle.  He was later to relate how "B rude she was!" hey ho all in a days work.
I met the new "Fresh" manager colleague "lets call him John" yesterday.  A likeable chap, young, fresh faced and eager!  I don't envy his job in the run up to Christmas which will this year be more manic than usual, our store is becoming ever busier, the list of items customers can pre order is larger and we have no where to store them, and I'm almost certain he will be too big for the "Turkey costume" worn so elegantly by his predecessor!

Finally - - - The Tesco supermouse story is widely reported, this one from the "Independent"

 Health inspectors found this and other "rodent corpses" in the Covent Garden store where it appears this had been a problem since March 2012 - - - Mmmmmm

Enjoy the day  

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Or this one just to see  the streaming birdfeeder cam

Honesty really pays! & The gold finches are back

One of those stories that "refreshes" rather than reinforces your faith in your fellow man!  Sky News carries the story of a homeless man who found a backpack Containing $42000 and handed it into the police.

Glen James is the man and a fund to help him has raised more than £110,000 Power to your elbow Glen! we could do with a few more like you!!!!!!

Benefit fraudsters should be locked up!

Rant!!!!! A great story from the BBC about the new attempts to reel in the fraudsters.  Its a drum I like to bang because when I made redundant in 2008 having worked every single day since joining the army on the 17th January 1961 I was offered £15 a fortnight!!!!  I would shop anyone  I suspected!!!!!!!!! rant over!

We noticed late afternoon that we have a group of Goldfinches feeding on the niger seed feeder!! we haven't seen them since the early part of the year

The feeder on the left has 2 Goldfinches on it I filled it up for the first time this year after they left. Hopefully we will see more of the delightful birds in winter

Enjoy the day  

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Crocodiles in the high street! & clearing and planting Organics

Some amazing pics from Sky News about Acapulco

With flood waters inundating the city some crocodiles managed to be wandering around the streets - - scary stuff

Talking of scary, it appears that mice infected with a parasite can lose the innate fear of cats.

Even when the infection is over it is reported they still do not fear cats.  I think our little tabby, Sainsbury would have a field day!!!

I mentioned a "silly bike or what" a few blogs ago and its surfaced again!

Not much like a bike - - - Really! This model though broke the world speed record at 83.13mph!

Another day at Peak Organics on Tuesday.  I started where I left off in clearing the footpath route

All the stuff on the left of the pic has to go and it proved to be hard work.  It took me all morning to get even half way to the white door!
In the afternoon it was a more gentle pursuit when I joined Vanessa to do the first planting!

Here we have planted 2 different kinds of winter lettuce, I never knew you could get winter lettuce! Some chard with its purple/red stalks and Vanessa is just planting the last of a batch of Elephant garlic! It will be interesting to see how it all gets on in the winter!

Enjoy the day  

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Costa Concordia upright & Sharon on her way home

It was rather a fascinating video to watch on the internet yesterday as the Costa Concordia was pulled back upright in the water.  Pic from Sky news story

Most people will have heard of the disaster in 2012 and the enormous effort to recover the ship.  Now that its upright I understand it will stay there until spring 2014 until it has been refloated and then it will be towede away for scrapping

Disaster texts sent to your mobile This Mail online story has a dramatic pic to it

It looks to be one of our attempts to destroy some pacific ocean atoll back in the bad old days of nuclear bomb testing.  The idea though of text warnings for floods etc sounds to be a reasonable idea and its being tested in a couple of areas in the UK.  Stand by for any number of claims for PTSD as a result!!!

This Mail online story is rather amusing but has a "big brother is watching you" slant to it. We have all been coerced into having a fleet of coloured bins in which to deposit various articles of rubbish by our local councils.  So some people will naturally ignore the "instructions" about what go's into wehich bin.  The story relates that "offending" parties will be "red carded"

and their bins will not be emptied until the "unsuitable" articles are removed.  Mmmmmm  !!!!

I mentioned seeing lots of butterfly's in our garden this siummer and this BBC nature article seems to support our findings.

I hadn't realised that a "big butterfly count" had been organised and the results are quite encouraging.  The weather this summer had a lot to do with the increase in numbers although experts mention loss of habitat as a contributing factor to dwindling numbers

Our friend Sharon from Canada left the area yesterday with only a "days shopping in London!" to go before returning across the pond.  One amusing anecdote is worth relating to express how her obvious intelligence is sometimes masked by her "dizziness".
We were taking pics with our iphones and I was trumpeting about how good the camera was on the handset.  "The flash pics are useless she remarked" and took a pic to demonstrate.  Yes the resulting pic was just grey with an obvious blob of light from the flash.  It didn't take her long however to realise that she had left the transparent protective covering on the that side of the phone when she bought it.  To be fair though she has only had the phone "3 years!" - - - so endearing!

Right then another day on the Peak organics project for me although the Autumnal weather might come along and spoil the party! Only 1 more day before i go back to a series of shifts at the fun factory - - - deep joy!

Enjoy the day  

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Or this one just to see  the streaming birdfeeder cam

Jeremy Clarkson an MP?! & Red sky in the morning!

I dont think i have ever worried about what colour has gone with what else when considering what to wear!  Ok, it shows sometines lol.  The story from the BBC about are there really "rules" to what to wear is rather amusing.

Rule number 2 states "Men shouldn't wear white socks".  Oh dear! that's me right down the bottom of the "fashion list!"  I always wear white socks to work, my idea is that if I didn't wear them then they would never be worn, hope that lets me off then!

Sky News carry a story suggesting that Jeremy Clarkson might become an MP

I don't suppose one more loony in parliament will make any difference!!!!!

The weather looks certain to break very soon! I say this because the Tour of Britain has started up in Scotland.  There are only 8 stages with the finish in London next Sunday.  I hope they packed their rain wear!

One of our winter projects is to have the bathroom upgraded and yesterday we visited the showroom to choose the items.  You know what its like! the lady is looking at colours and what fits where, the man is looking at "the cost" nothing else!  The choosing went - - - well and afterwards we stopped off at a pub for lunch.  I noticed as we left that there was something strange up on the roof.

Not sure what it was all about but its at The Anchor near Tideswell?!

Looking forward to a rainy day I snapped the typical "red sky in the morning shepherds warning" Eastern sky earlier

Soon after the sky clouded over and we have had the odd spot of rain with promise of more to come.

I have mentioned quite a bit earlier in the year that our bird feeders had not been visited by many birds.  My theory was that the very cold winter had killed off many birds.  I'm still not sure if that was correct but the great summer we have just had certainly let the bird numbers increase and we have seen lots visitors.

The pigeons regularly try to get at the daily Robin mix before anything else.

This morning a Robin managed to get his ration as well

Enjoy the day  

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

5p for a plastic bag & this n that

The North East was hit by what appears to be the first of the Autumn/Winter storms 

 The story talks of  70mph winds and up to two and half inches of rain.  Sounds like summer is definitely over!

Its soon going to cost you 5p if you have to use one of the supermarkets own plastic bags 

Wales and Northern Ireland already have this charge and England and Scotland look set to introduce it.  You have to admit the number of discarded plastic bags is alarming so I guess its not a bad idea.  Just one thing though will the supermarkets be doing anything with all our 5p's or is it just more profit for them?

A flying frog!  this shot from a space rocket launch catches the amphibian in a mid launch frame

I wonder if it survived the flight!

In the garden I managed to put the finishing touches to our new bit of land by building a low stone wall

 We are in a bit of a quandary as to what to actually do with it.  When we were just using it a fence ran from the tree towards the camera and we just stored all kinds of stuff behind it.  No doubt over the winter we will get some inspiration!

Our friend from Canada, Sharon is over on a visit with her son Kyle and yesterday they spent the afternoon with us.  She used to live 2 doors away in the next terrace and had kept a car in a garage.  The idea was to keep it insure so her NCD would build up.  It now appears the paperwork required is getting difficult so she decided to scrap it.
After breaking the key in the padlock to the garage door we ended up hacksawing it off.  2 scrap men had been organised to take the old car away and after some pushing and manoeuvring it was loaded up and away it went.
The garage had quite a bit of "stuff" in and Sharon recovered a couple of boxes of vinyl records and other odds and ends but all the other gear is being left to me to get rid of.
That task done we all sat around in the garden and although the weather wasn't great the BBQ was fired up.

With the sun making a brief appearance Sharon is trying out one of her hanging chairs recovered from the garage, She's talking of taking them back to Canada, I hope she doesn't!
We later sat in doors, "chewing the fat" and looking through the record collection, a fair amount of alcohol was consumed.  Almost like the old days!!

Enjoy the day  

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Another miracle cure & I think it might be me?

Sifting through the front pages of the UK newspapers this morning, one of my favourites for castigation has yet another statement bordering on a miracle cure to beat a health problem. "Drug to beat Alzheimers" shouts the headline.  Go to their website and even in the health section there's no sign of the story? Mmmmmm

A great story from sky reports Injured grizzly mauls hunter

Its a simple story really, "Hunter shoots grizzly", Grizzly gets a little tetchy at this and "attacks hunter"  sounds fair to me!

Another hunter story although this time a hunter of sound

This guy, Chris Watson is the one who works on all the David Attenborough natural history epics.  I hadn't realised he started out in a "pop group" before training to be a wildlife field recordist .

Careers advice is failing in schools says this BBC story.  I find this a little disturbing in as much you would have though by now that preparing youngsters for careers would be a a simple procedure.  Harking back to my own schools career advice in the very late 50's.  On telling the teacher I was joining the Army the advice I got was "you'll regret that!"

Here I am a couple of years later in the Kyrenia Pass in Cyprus as a young Artillery Paratrooper.  Regret it? not a bit!

Having done my last shift at the Fun Factory, Matlock Sainsbugs yesterday I'm looking forward to a week off! During the early part of the shift the customers were "very challenging" and I got to thinking "it might be me!".  A couple of people seemed incapable of explaining what they wanted.

First challenge - - -  a man approached with a frown on his face asking for, in a halting manner, "BBQ Sauce".  I ran through the script of repeating what he wanted, getting the signal back from him and then directing him to the far end of the shop, finishing off with,  "would you like me to take you", negative grunt reply and off he went.
Some minutes later I heard a voice, "No its not there".  Turning around the same man approached and knowing full well the BBQ sauce was there we then had a very odd conversation.  He seemed unable to get the words out and made unintelligible noises at which point I explained if he couldn't describe what he wanted I couldn't help him.  After a further five minutes it turns out he wants one of those marinade in a bag packets.  I take him to them this time and even though there are any number on offer he still leaves without buying one!!!

Second challenge.  A lady approaches and asks for,  "some of those square things for making sandwiches", wanting to say "bread" I manage not to but give her a quizzical look at which her partner joins in and they both attempt sign language by making square signs in the air with their hands!  It takes another 30 seconds for me to get to the root of the problem when I realise they mean the Warburtons "Thins" which in fact are not "square" but "oblong"  - - - "Is it me?!"

Finally - - - Our weather has been reminding us that we are "a green a pleasant land" only because it rains so much! Having said that I think we could stand any amount of rain now until winter comes after such a lovely summer.  Our friend Sharon from Canada gets ever closer to visiting, no doubt she will have a tale or two to tell!

Enjoy the day  

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