How "Smart" is your phone? & birdfeeder pics and the 5p loaf

Here's a great little article to make you realise How Smart your Smartphone is  Gone are the days when a mobile phone was as big as a shoebox and needed top be plugged into the mains to work for more than 5 minutes on its own power, remember those days?  Well maybe not after all i'm talking 1990's!!
The pocket sized communicator carries a wealth of gizmo's and this story tells you how to unlock some of them.  The lead piece though showing how to make your Smartphone into a microscope has more than a hint of "Blue Peter and sticky backed plastic about it - - - lol  - - -

The cold weather temperatures around the UK are big stories in most news media.  Locally we are around -3.5c now and the snow which fell on Boxing Day is still around and looks set to be so for a few days, although a peak at the Metcheck forecast seems to indicate it will be +11c on New Years Day

A slack news day at the Express resorts to telling us that pensioners are going to be responsible for house prices soaring - - - again - - -









Down at the Fun Factory (Matlock Sainsbugs) we are being treated to waves of shoppers buying anything available in response to the current bad weather.  A number however were not amused to find no bread or milk deliveries on Boxing day.  The following day bread was in but the milk vehicle was stuck in our Dronfield shop and once again this caused a bit of grumbling.
Our shop manager, "lets call him Matt announced a little prematurely that "Milk will be available in 5 minutes" only to discover the truck could get into the unloading yard because another larger vehicle was trying to get out.  20 mins later above the "stampede" for the white gold, a voice was heard to cry "let me through!" as some self important idiot demanded to be first in line - - -

Using ones initiative in the Fun Factory is often frowned upon and sometimes actively discouraged so it was a brave "self" who suggested we reduce some bread of which we had far too much.  The reason i voiced the suggestion was that it had the following days date on and under normal circumstances would not have been reduced until that day.
So 110 loaves were reduced from £1 to 50p and liberally displayed in the isle.  Even then because of the lack of shoppers due to the weather it only moved very slowly.
The following morning i wandered in to see about 4 trays (48 loaves) still in the isle and repositioned them ready for the shop opening.  It was at that point i noticed the price stickers i had put on for 50p had been covered by one for 5p!!
By way of an explanation: It is normal procedure that as the shop nears closing time previously reduced items are knocked down to very cheap prices just to get rid of them and avoid the waste. 
The colleague on the evening shift, "lets call her Anonymous"  had failed to notice that the loaves carried the following days date and therefore could be left at the 50p price until that day.
I didn't bother to point out the error and directed colleagues who were shopping to this "bargain".  The colleague who does the shifts when i am absent, lets call him Steve", wanders in and loads his trolley with 5 loaves when i point them out.
At this point the Store Manager wanders up and starts chatting -  -- eventually and with a look of horror on his face he notices the 5p loaf and demands an explanation.  This I do as, said manager says "Your not selling my bread at 5p" and reaches into Steve's trolley and puts the bread back onto the stack and tells me to get the bread off the shop floor and re-price it! - - - Steve's face is a picture and i chuckle for ages spreading the word to anyone who will listen! - - -

the weathercam camera has the snow piled up in front of it the other day

while Mr Squirrel enjoys a cold breakfast on the bird table

even the blackbirds are finding it hard locating food under the snow and resort to visiting us

 while the Robin is always somewhere around

A jackdaw comes along but most of the fayre has already been taken

even at 11:17 the sun is already near the point of leaving the valley, the solstice point of the pic is at far left so we should start to see the sun in the pics again very soon

cold stats this morning but with the possibility of a sunny day methinks

very cold and frosty from the weathercam this morning

Enjoy the day

Follow this link to see  our weather website

Or this one just to see  Live webcam - - Birdfeeders

hack for fun & the cold and snow arrives

The Christmas day hack of xbox has been revealed as something that was done "just for fun"  With the amount of money these companies take from purchasers and online subscribers you would imagine they have the funds to make the things secure ! - - -

At last we get the predicted "freezing weather" along with some snow and the inevitable results of travel problems - - -

locally our area got a good dusting although the snow was very wet.  We lost power for half an hour during the snowstorm which was preceded by a huge flash of what looked like lightening but turned out to be a an electricity sub station going pop - - -

cold frosty stats just now and it will get a little colder before it gets light - - -

Enjoy the day

Follow this link to see  our weather website

Or this one just to see  Live webcam - - Birdfeeders

Free money in Wan Chai & cool xmas morn

Great story from Wan Chai in Honk Kong a vehicle carrying money crashes and loses some of its load.  Money is strewn across the main road.  People rush into the road to collect the money and car drivers stop to join in.  The fun stops when the police arrive but by then a substantial amount of the money has already been scooped up and disappears!  - - -

This fine looking Canon is part of a lost property auction of items left on London's buses and Tube trains.
The auction of 4000 items  raises £300k!  - - -

The cold weather merchants are still insisting that its going to be minus 5c this morning as people are opening their presents - - - wrong its currently +5.6c here






The scrum down at the shop yesterday when i arrived around 08:00 was a little muted! The fresh veg display looked more like the end of day picture with no parsnips and very few potato's and sprouts.  A request had already been sent off to a couple of stores nearby for some of the missing items! No doubt i'll get the full story when i return tomorrow.

The stats show the wind is not completely absent but looking through the window its not blowing right now and we have a cool xmas morn with the prospect of some sleety rain later

Merry Christmas!

Enjoy the day

Follow this link to see  our weather website

Or this one just to see  Live webcam - - Birdfeeders

News review & A Goggle eyed shopping melee methinks

The years review  from Sky News has a great pic of the poppies at the tower earlier in the year.  The text starts with the rains in January causing the flooding and ends strangely enough with a story from 3rd Dec about the Mother and baby found dead in the Avon Gorge.  No doubt we have time before the "real" end of year for a few more doom and gloom headlines - - -

Must be a skeleton staff on at the Express as they report yet "another" new test for Alzheimers - - -

The BBC has a Stark and touching video about a soldier suffering PTSD after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan - - - i wonder how many more are suffering in silence though? - - -

If you are a fan of Richard Litllejohn who writes for "the Mail" you'll love this article by him  Its a good read anyway and he's having a rant at the way Police forces in general waste their time even though they are facing "savage cuts" in budgets from the Chancellor.
As the pic shows there's a real "heavy copper presence" here just to catch a confused seal.
A funny bit is near the end when he muses that a man calling 999 to report a hedgehog in his his garden, might have had a helicopter and armed response team to shoot it - - -

The fun factory is open already this morning 06:00 the doors will have creaked open , no doubt annoying any night shift people left around as they always wonder how we "day colleagues" cope with the masses.  I'll be joining them soon after 07:00 just to pick up a few things and maybe to snap a pic of the a Goggle eyed shopper or 2 in the melee - - -

I heard on the radio earlier that the Boxing Day online Sale starts today!!  Might be some Easter Eggs to be had you never know! - - -

The stats reveal that the predicted "cold snap" has not arrived and forecasters are even predicting some sunshine for later
Enjoy the day

Follow this link to see  our weather website

Or this one just to see  Live webcam - - Birdfeeders

Doom and Gloom news & in the garden again

Its all a bit Doom and Gloom in the news this morning with the Express front page reporting the death of Joe Cocker and the tragic vehicle crash in Glasgow
They still manage though to bring us down to earth by regurgitating what could be a 2013 story  about controlling arthritis

Their final effort on the front page is a picture of Dear old Tara who flew into a rage and was arrested by armed police  at Heathrow because she was refused entry to a first class passenger lounge.    Other accounts of her "rage" describe it as a panic attack.  Sounds more like a "don't you know who i am" attack - - -

I scanned through a story about "preppers" in the US yesterday.  People are hoarding food and arming themselves against what they see as the Apocalypse "coming soon to a state near you"
This story though with its multi level underground facility where the "prepared, famous and presumably very rich" could live for up to 5 years looks like the prize we should all be "aspiring" to achieve - - -

Are you up to speed on current events?  this BBC quizz of the year will let you know.  OK its part 3 with the final "part 4 tomorrow.  Where's 1 and 2 well obviously thats part of the test isn't it - - - my score? miserable! lol - - -

the unseasonally warm weather yesterday, almost 13c at one point drove us into the garden to have a go at one of our little projects.

it was "all very well" that we should have such a stunning display of Nasturtiums but they took over the old garden bench which was meant for us to sit on and watch the fish in the pond

so after collecting a couple of handsfull of the dropped nasturtium seeds and distributing some to other parts of the garden we pulled out the few plants on that whole level 

plastic membrane was cut and laid and will be covered with gravel today if we can beat the forecasted rain 

The stats once again show double figures in the Temp. display but the Bar. is falling and most pundits seem assured that we are in for wind and rain later today 

Enjoy the day

Follow this link to see  our weather website

Or this one just to see  Live webcam - - Birdfeeders

Winter solstice explained & garden jobs

Why do mornings still get darker after the winter solstice  its not something i have ever noticed but as the story says "you will now"
Its all to do with the fact that our days are not all 24 hrs long.  This has the effect of making the earliest sunset on the 10th of December and the latest sunrise not until the 2nd of January - - - interesting - - -

A sensible headline for the Express this morning.  Mind you if its as close as they say 51/49 it will all depend on who bothers to vote on the day!

The mention of minus 5 degrees for the "christmas big freeze" is not supported by many of the weathermen - - -

the resident squirrel was captured tucking into the contents of food for the birds

here's a view from the "other side" of the bird food cam - - -

we finally get the fruit trees into their positions one is in the top greenhouse planted straight into the ground another is outside in a pot and this one is not fully hardy so it will only come out of the bottom greenhouse when the winter frosts have ended.

The RAF rescue chopper passed overhead as we were working it looked to be headed over towards Froggatt Edge - - -

almost 12c this morning the wind is set to get a lot stronger today according to the forecasters

the weathercam shows the clouds fairly scudding along already

Enjoy the day

Follow this link to see  our weather website

Or this one just to see  Live webcam - - Birdfeeders

Orion re-entry vid & Trees and bulbs

Here's the Orion Spacecraft bobbing around in the Ocean after returning from a space flight.  There's a 10 minute video thats worth a look if you have the time showing it creating a plasma light show as it crashes through the Earth's upper atmosphere - - -

The Express front page warns us of 400k of Migrants are missing in Britain.  This is an increase of 140k from their story on Thursday - - - !! - - -









I popped down to Banbury to see No 1 Daughter (the elder) yesterday and couldnt believe how clear the M1 motorway was, i mused that it might be the prelude to a "car park" experience on the way back

Here we are having lunched at The Pickled Ploughman although my expression looks like its me that's pickled! - - - Not a drop etc etc etc!  We both had soup and fish and chips, I cant wait to see what No 1 thinks about our Fish and Chips at The Grouse at Froggatt  our local lunch stop - - - Coming back the M42 was a bit of a car park for a while but all was well after J24a on the M1 - - -

 No 1's kittens are growing and developing their individual characteristics, as they do.  It will soon be that "worrying time" of letting them roam! - - -

 Sally was visiting our friend Lisa yesterday and its not long ago that Lisa rescued these 2 "dumped" kittens from one of their units on the farm.  They are from the same litter even though completely different colours.  The grey is the boss apparently, the other has so many markings like "old Tom" its hard not to mention the fact! - - -

We ordered 2 or 3 miniature fruit trees by post way back at the beginning of summer, having promised ourselves a number of times "not to do it again".  "They will be delivered in Sept/Oct" said the blurb.  Having received nothing by mid Nov we contacted the firm and received the usual "jig" from Customer Services.
Not long ago a long cardboard box appeared at the front door and it was opened

although packed well every single tree was damaged to some extent i guess because we got them late we got all the "end of the line" specimens - - - so once again "Dont do it again"  along with the order are 75 tulip bulbs that must go in today! - - -

Cool stats again with wind and rain for the next 3 days forecast by most weathermen!

Doesn't look too bad out there at the moment though
Enjoy the day

Follow this link to see  our weather website

Or this one just to see  Live webcam - - Birdfeeders

Will it snow for xmas? & Disappointing Kodak C195

Will it snow at xmas?  ever the "burning question" in UK with its quirky climate , forecasters say with some certainty that it will snow Christmas day, at least over the mountains - - - we shall see

Two thieves in Coventry go all out with the Christmas spirit by distracting an elderly couple while they steal £700 earmarked for Christmas presents from them.  Take a look at the video and see if you recognise them - - - they look like "local boys" to me - - -

It would appear that i have an extra 12 years of life added according to the Express headline this morning.  "IBUPROFEN ADDS 12 YEARS TO LIFE"  mind you the Mirror also carries the story so it must be true - - -

My testing of my new Kodak C195 was to say the least, disappointing yesterday, I completed a short local walk and took the same dozen or so pics with the new one and my old Kodak DX7630.  Both cameras were set to "point and shoot mode"






It was a grey old day so i didn't expect miracles from either machine

this was the new camera and the pic size was 3.3Mb

This is my old DX 7630 and the size is 1.7Mb
I think its all to do with the lense on the old one, its a Schneider KREUZNACH (?).
Needless to say the C195 is winging its way back to Amazon as i scribble  - - -

Cool stats this morning especially when you get out into the wind

Lunch in Banbury today - - - might see the "Fine lady upon a white horse"

Enjoy the day

Follow this link to see  our weather website

Or this one just to see  Live webcam - - Birdfeeders