jonny777

Dry and sunny again in North Somerset. Just a bit of watering to do, but most tubs were done yesterday. My friendly Ocado shopping app tells me I can buy a 600g tub of Birds custard powder for £2.10, which seems reasonable to me. Although I don't use that much, and the last one I bought 6 months ago is still half full. Acquired a whole bunch of 1970s railway prints, which I intend to photograph and store the digital images on my ext hard disk for 'reference purposes'. (Yes, I really am that nerdy). However, these ones have been printed on very glossy paper and I am still scratching my head how to do this without getting a reflection of my fingers holding up a mobile phone in each photo as well.

I'd better not mention the sunny blue skies here.... oops I already have. Anyway, today is National Fish & Chips Day, so I might partake of the delicacy later. https://www.wmfraser.uk/blog/2021/06/01/national-fish-chip-day-2021/

Dry and sunny here in North Somerset. A few wispy clouds but mainly blue sky. I think I can just about make out the distant mountains (only seen on a few days each year) above the line of Tickenham Hill which is much closer. The trigonometry of this is prone to inaccuracy but with an angle of between 1 and 1.5 deg to the horizontal, it cuts out all high ground (because the nearby hills obscure them) except somewhere close to the Brecon Beacons which are 50 miles away. Hence they are a rare sight. Washing is on, and should dry quickly outside today.

If it is the same magazine as the railtour reviews I used to read circa 1985/6, they were some of the funniest railway articles I have ever come across. A 'crankex' coaching stock set was referred to as Beryl and Cheryl, but BR banned this reference after the Chernobyl meltdown as they said it might upset railway customers. I think the decision was roundly ridiculed in one article, which may not have helped the reviewer's cause.

The sun has broken through the cloud here in North Somerset and the temperature is heading towards 20C. I've been on bindweed duty (removal) because the stuff has suddenly appeared. I'm sure it grows at a foot a minute when my back is turned. I managed to cut both front and back grass before the rain arrived yesterday afternoon. There is another dollop (technical term) visible moving north towards the French coast, but it might just miss us and go more over Hampshire, Wiltshire and Sussex. Our 4am blackbird serenade usually wakes me up. It is so regular that I could set my clock by it, but fortunately only lasts about 10 minutes after which the bird seems to fly off in search of earthworms and relative quiet is restored.

I really do sympathise with those who suffer from hay fever. I know the symptoms because I get the same reactions from being in a swimming pool, or from painting large areas with oil based treatment - creosote being the main problem. I would be horrified at the fact that I could not spend much time outside, for fear of those symptoms, even in the shade.

You may have seen it over the weekend, but there was an hour long programme about Oliver Postgate on the BBC. It was very good, and included lots of archive footage (including Bagpuss). I can't remember which channel, BBC2 or 4, but it will be on the iplayer.

Dry and sunny again in North Somerset. Temperature heading towards the 20s again. Ocado delivery came early again, and so I was way-laid for a while. I now have the ingredients for Italian style chocolate ice cream a la Nigella Lawson, but that will have to wait for SWMBO to vacate the kitchen because there would be no ingredients left before I could tip them in the bowl, otherwise. Yesterday, I sat outside contemplating the garden and decided the virginia creeper could do with a trim before it took over the shed roof. It would be a quick job for which standing on a garden chair should suffice - I mused. Everything started well and the plant was getting a decent haircut, when there was an almighty 'crack' and I fell backwards onto the grass but with one foot in the pond, the chair rolled right into the pond and the frogs must have had a fright. One leg of the chair had snapped, but I seem to be unharmed and did what I should have done in the first place - used the step ladder. Oh well, another of my nine lives wasted; although having counted, I seem to have had way more than nine already.

Thankyou for this, as it helps another (long ago) thread on how late into the 1960s would a chocolate and cream passenger carrying Mk1 be seen on BR (not therefore including the BGs used for a short time on the Bournemouth Belle).

Dry and sunny again in North Somerset. Tubs have been well watered, and goldfish pond has been topped up; because in this weather the level drops quite steadily due to evaporation. I'm rather glad that I didn't become one of the lemmings who headed for the Dorset coast yesterday in order that they could get away from it all.....

I just tried mine on WBAC, and the price quoted is half what I paid for it; which is not bad as I bought it new back in June 2014.

I had a Siskin on the seed feeders this morning. Quite a shock as they were normally winter visitors to our garden; and even more of a surprise because my last record of one was way back in March 2009.

Another nylon disaster from the 1970s were nylon underwear. I remember my wife buying me a pack of three nylon pants because they were on offer in M&S. All fancy colours, but boy did they make me itch on a hot day. (Sorry if that is too much info). I think they were quietly moved to the back of my pant drawer and must have been ditched after a respectable time.

Dry and sunny here in North Somerset, and quite warm too; with the temperature already up to 16C. Not a lot to do today, as the garden is growing by itself. I am amazed that the 'mixed' lupins I planted between where some valerian and foxgloves had seeded themselves, have come up a decent shade of pale mauve which is almost half way between the red of the valerian and the purple of the foxgloves. Saw a sparrowhawk on the fence yesterday afternoon with something feathery/hairy held in its foot, but I couldn't identify the creature. I'm supposed to report this the the BTO but I haven't a clue of the species.

Dry, sunny and warm here in North Somerset. Traffic websites show the normal 50 mile bank holiday tailbacks on the M5 in the Bristol/Somerset/Sth Glos area, so our usual 'stay at home and relax away from the emmets' policy will be enjoyed. The blue tits in our nest box appear to have fledged, as there is no activity in and out of the hole and I saw a juvenile bird in the nearby pear tree being fed by a parent. One episode which has been apparent by its absence this year is the mass squawking of juvenile starlings waiting to be fed by parents driven mad by the racket. I saw one family doing the rounds of back gardens about ten days ago, but that was it for here. I wonder if many open starling nests have suffered from the recent persistent rain and the chicks died of hypothermia?

When we experienced the last earthquake here (epicentre somewhere below Swansea) a few years ago, the walls shook and there was a strange creaking noise from the window frames. However, the one thing that I experienced was a severe sense of foreboding for 5 minutes or so, as if something dreadful was about to happen. I can only remember this feeling twice before:- in June 2006 after lightning struck so close that there was no thunder - just a loud 'crack' like a gun going off multiplied 100 times louder. And the second was in August 1999 as I sat outside in M-i-l's back garden (Sth Kent coast) and the moon obscured the sun enough to drop the temperature, the wind, and all the birds went quiet.

If they had landed close to other mission sites, they could send it off to look for Beagle.

They are not the only things to move in high winds. I think most buildings are designed to move, in order to reduce stresses in undesirable areas of the structure. I know that when I worked on the 12th floor (top floor) of an office block, if there were winds gusting 60-70mph and we sat on our office chairs with our feet off the floor, we could feel the movement through the chairs. It could be quite un-nerving, and not made any less so by the strange 'hum' that the building seemed to produce on very windy days. I hate to think what life is like towards the top of the Shard in stormy weather, especially as the top floors would likely been in the low cloud, and therefore nothing would be visible out of the windows.

Yes, of course. How dare a wild creature defend its home area against beings 100+ times its size?

Oh ok. I thought the old woman must be her mother. The ad makes even less sense to me now.

Am I the only person who fails to understand Aviva adverts? The previous one with a couple of bulging eyeball (druggy?) women who crash into a petshop on a deserted road during daylight was bad enough, especially as one of the petshop animals appeared to be a hedgehog?; but the latest nonsense features another woman who drives from her city home with thoughts of kids in her mind. It appears that the weather takes a turn for the worse around Lancaster and so she abandons her car in a downpour and wanders off into the moorland without any bags, and without getting even the slightest bit wet, then walks all the way to the Isle Of Skye where she reunites with members of her extended family who appear to be living in some isolated hovel with no road access. If they thought the stupidness would make more people insure with them, it has backfired in my case.

Dry and sunny here in North Somerset. At last some semblance of summer might be arriving, even if it is going to take a while to reach decent* temperatures. * I have strict temperature parameters. I can cope with most of the 20s Celsius, although 28/29 is a little too high. Anything above or below this, as a daytime maximum, is deemed uncomfortable and so is to be avoided. Unfortunately, whenever this subject is mentioned temperature one-upmanship tends to take over, and so I will retire gracefully.

I didn't mind the dirty nappies, but they turned SWMBO's stomach, so guess who had the job of changing the babies when at home during the daytime? And working shifts, I was home quite a lot during the day.

My first was my Mum. She often broke down.

My guess would be a garden warbler.