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My Grandson passes on his thanks for your comments on his pictures and has informed me he will be here after school on Wednesday to take some more...... Following on from his pictures I noticed he had shunted some goods wagons into the harbour siding and though they made a nice picture so here it is

On that crisp autumnal morning, looking down the forestry track, we got our first glimpse of an engine….

Monday, rather a somber mood here after the weekend. Sorry in advance for not reviewing all the posts, will try and get to some, congratulations and commiserations as needed. Friday we attended a memorial service for a good friend who died last November (age related). We'd known her and the family for 20+ years. After that, we returned home and the Mrs got a text message from the parents of the Michelle, young lady she's been tutoring and helping care for for 14 years. She had Cerebral Palsy and was in hospital for the past week with some serious respiratory issues. The text said, "come as soon as you can". The Mrs and Jemma (who had also cared/tutored her while on summer holidays from college) went over and were with her when she died. She was part a part of our family/life - also the folks who found Bob, our cat, as a stray and Michelle adopted him even though they couldn't keep him themselves because of allergy issues. I'd frequently take Bob over to visit as they loved seeing him. The Mrs took it very hard as she has always felt Michelle was like a second daughter, and Jemma had a special bond with her also. Saturday was quiet and reflective, Jemma had stayed over Friday night and we mostly reminisced about Michelle, she was such a lovely spirit especially given her circumstances. Sunday, somewhat better, we visited Trevor and Meagan in the afternoon and the Mrs had a session with Meagan, who'd offered to talk with her about it all. (Meagan is a clinical psychologist). After that, an Indian take-out. <phew> heavy weekend all told. Today, one day of work, the Mrs and Jemma are going over to see the family later. Tomorrow we're taking a planned three day vacation with our travelling companions, off to the heart of Wisconsin for a quite retreat. A cool but pleasant and sunny 10 here first thing, forecast of some storm activity later and a high of 23. Stay safe and well, hugs all round the canteen.

A few Settle and Carlisle photos today. Note the changes to the platform at Langwathby between photos three and five. Ribblehead viaduct July 82 C5686 a Kirkby Stephen Class 156 487 Leeds to Carlisle 15th Aug 06 SIMG_2548 Langwathby156482 Carlisle to Leeds March 93 J13735 Langwathby156482 Carlisle to Leeds March 93 J13736 Langwathby 156479 Carlisle to Leeds 30th July 02 C26095 David

Afternoon Cornish leftovers.

A dull and dismal morning, hopefully brightened up a little by another look at 60501.

Can we please get back to my workshop now. O4/5 63745 finished and ready to paint now. There's plenty of variety among these GC 2-8-0s, O4/5 is one we haven't had before, a rebuild with a Gresley boiler and new smokebox on a saddle. The reversing screw had to be moved outwards on these resulting in the small step out in the cab side. 63745 ran with an ex ROD tender, no water scoop and the coal plate moved back on this JE tender. The loco uses some of my own etches with a brass boiler and steel cab and smokebox.. I now have to work out how to paint the frames since the original builder made no provision for the crossheads to pull out back past the motion bracket. I can get the coupling rods off but not the connecting rods so they might have to be masked. I've had these frames for more than 30 years, it's taken a long time to get round to using them but it does run very well.

I've never posted pics on here before, but thought I might stick my neck out and show a couple of drone shots of my preserved South Lancashire Railway.

And now for something a little different (not least because Grantham is currently centre stage in the chapel). At least that gives some opportunity for stock work, always a favourite past time. But I aint really done anything quite like this before ... Take a sheet of 40thou plasticard and score some horizontal planking lines. Separate into 4 pieces. Score vertically and add some top and bottom rails. Add vertical door surround strengthening pieces. Cut out door apertures and make up doors from 20 thou pieces suitably scored plus surrounds. Affix doors and add intermediate vertical strengtheners and top runners. Utilise spare n/s rivet strips to make diagonal braces and corner brackets. Superglue into position. Fashion top bearing brackets from 10thou, suitable punched. It was at this stage that I realised that the top runners should have been L-girders. Ah well ... Leaping on perhaps just too much, having made the ends using pretty similar techniques, plus some further body details, we now have - in essence - two wagon body kits. Which can be assembled like so. I give you two ex-LMS Dia.1871/1872 6-wheel CCTs (see first pic). Well, bodies only for now and with endposts and other remaining detail to add. Two slightly different underframe styles - I'll make them one of each. That's the next part. Interesting vehicles which are turning up too often in photos to ignore. Very distinctive body style which - I think - lends itself to such an approach. I believe that there has been a kit of sorts in the past but not easy to get hold of. And anyway, I end up with two unique vehicles which I can say 'all my own work'. Not really made a proper wagon from scratch before and I've rather enjoyed this little mini-project so far. 6-wheel wagons are a bit irresistible, aren't they? But quite a few show up in pictures, in both parcels and fitted goods workings so not unreasonable to have a few knocking about. More on these whenever I'm able to devote some more time to them.

Two new models from Hornby just in for photography and review in BRM................ Tapping into nostalgia, the substantial packaging echoes that of the Hornby Dublo of my youth, though blue/white stripes signified three-rail back then. Since both these are two-rail, perhaps the broad stripes should be red. Both these models are substantially different from the norm of today in that their loco bodies are die-cast (again, nostalgia but these aren't the crude things of the past). The 'Princess Coronation'. There are extra parts to be added. And the original 'Merchant Navy' (again, without the extra parts added). I've yet to test both these on Little Bytham, but on the test track they run superbly. Such is their weight that huge trains should be taken with ease. I'll report accordingly.

They forecast snow on the moors later during the morning; not that the crew of the class five are worried.

After the trials and tribulations of the past fortnight a bit of good news came my way today. Philip my friend came around bringing with him a new coach for my collection. The quality is far higher anything I could achieve myself.

*Cough* years ago, I faced a similar situation with my Swiss metre gauge layout, when I wanted to model one of the characteristic box girder bridges on the Montreux Oberland Bahn in HO scale. This is the bridge I wanted to model: The solution I eventually adopted was to kit-bash the bridge kit made by Roco, Cat. No. 40080. The kit structure would result in something far too heavyweight looking for this bridge, but I found the plastic soft enough to carve easily, and it was straightforward to add additional cross bracing using plastruct section, resulting in an appropriately lighter-weight looking bridge. It required quite a heavy butchering, including reducing the width of the decking to accommodate 12mm gauge track, rather then the intended 16.5mm. It was time-consuming work but I was pleased with the end result. For the intervening years the completed structure has sat in a box, still waiting for the layout to be built... Your post got me thinking, so I dug the bridge out of its box for an airing, and took a few pictures: the green sections are original unmodified kit parts for comparison, so you can see how it was cut down.

Bear's afternoon report (so far)..... Stairs hoovered. Again. Tick And then onto that dented bin....fortunately the lid unscrewed easily (it would've been impossible otherwise). I searched the shed for various rounded implements, the best of which was a medium sized wooden file handle. That, plus a hide mallet and Bear's woolly pulley to act as an "anvil" were all that's needed. Here's the result - before & after: Before: And after; the dent is just below the right hand end of the bright splodge in the middle of the photo (the dark mark just to the left of the dent is a reflection). Unfortunately the dent has a crease line in it - try as I might I just could not shift it any further). However, in reality it's now 99%+ gone, and with the bin positioned in it's new home it basically is gone So a free bin . Downsides? Well, Bear's supply of free bin bags (aka charity bags delivered thru' the door at regular intervals) no longer fit .

Another exciting morning at Hunt Towers sorting out the glory hole, AKA dump for everything, behind the garage and taking a car load of assorted stuff that may have come in use someday rubbish and waste to the tip ten miles away as all the recycling boxes and bins are already full and it's another week until they are collected. I'm not sure that all this non-stop excitement is good for me. It's now time for a shower and stretching the back before going down to the shed for a spot of modelling. At least Some of the day may therefore be enjoyable. Dave

Where's our resident awl-wielding, plane building ER'er lately? With a workshop I'd give ALL my cake for....... Or even worse dents than it has now.... Tricky....it's round.... In other news: Bear's progress so far: 1. Two safety catches fitted to loft ladder - now if any plastic bit does let go then at least Bear isn't heading to A&E. Tick 2. Telephone conversation with Council Planning Dept.; only an hour and a quarter late - which I could perhaps understand at the end of the day - but for an 09-15 appointment? Still, better late than never. And it seems that Bear will require planning permission cos' it's forward of the front house wall - for which they'll want two hundred odd quid.... Yet they seem happy for a developer to build 38 houses on a Farmer's field not 500 yards from Bear Towers. Overlooking the fact that it's Green Belt. Oh yes, and flattening the farmhouse and buildings for another 8 houses - it was to be ten, but the council didn't like that (despite the fact that a quarter of a million quid sweetener was to be paid by the developer "towards local amenities"). Now that it's eight the £250K has been withdrawn. Oh yes, and those houses are to have some sort of self contained poo treatment tanks, the output of which will go straight into open ditches. Yum yum..... And now? Well a dustpan was being held under each of the holes being drilled into loft ladder to catch the swarf. Only for the last two holes Bear dropped the pan - which contained the swarf from the first ten holes - and the pan bounced off the banister rail on the landing and down the stairs, depositing the dross en-route. Those paying attention may recall that Bear hoovered the stairs yesterday...... So that's the next job.....

Aft'noon folks. Back from my wanderings oop norf and I see that there's 8 pages to catch up on. In the fullness of time I might manage to, but in the meantime I offer: Generic greetings, welĺ wishes or commiserations as necessary Apologies if I accidentally 'put mi foot in it' as a result of not reading posts since Friday bedtime Back later, laundry to sort and process.

Afternoon all. What a weird day so far... Supposed to have a meeting with a manger from elsewhere in the business today but as Teams didn't send an invite, they missed it. Left for work early to pop in to a cash and carry supermarket, ended up being 30 minutes early. However, have some drinks to last me until the end of the year now. Only two days left to work this week, which is nice. Already have plans for my days off - boiler being serviced, a half tipper truck load of logs being delivered so that's 3 hours of my life moving them around... Would be great if they happened at the same time as I always feel awkward when talking to repair people... I don't really know the protocol on whether I should offer a hot drink (I don't drink them and my thirst drive is relatively low, so I frequently forget to offer ), a snack or what. Log deliver is easy, they dump them on the drive, I pay, they drive off!

After a year incarceration at my Mum’s house in Yorkshire, and three months after I brought Bourbon to our new home in Ayrshire, we finally got the girls home. Crash, the tabby, is a much more sedentary beastie, content with occasional forays outside but mostly preferring a belly rub. Chili, the Tortie wild child, has already scaled the apex of the roof of our 3 storey Victorian pile….

Morning all . . today is dull and grey . .but . . GRANDDAUGHTER is 18 years old today. Bear . . you can do it . . just take your time . .the first time I did any metal bashing, was to make a sleeve to join a 'bike exhaust back together. I used a redundant 1"diam SDS bit as a former . . .It worked and you couldn't see any dents on the finished article . . shame it was covered over. Anyways have a good day, all, and keep smiling. John

Bear has my sympathies about planning permission - it was very lax here for years, then became exactly the opposite, nowadays you almost need permission to cut the grass. Decking, windows or a door changed, fences, just about anything. Ridiculous. But the developers can do just about anything just as you relate, brown envelope contracts.

Another quiet morning here at Tunstead Sidings.

Raining now - pah! Comment about colour vision deficiency reminds me that Mrs NHN has red/green issues, yet can pass all of those tests normally used, both the dotty thing and matching wool strands etc - she passed this (and everything else) in a police recruitment medical some years ago. However she sees BR/GWR green as brown....and perfectly understands 'improved engine green'!

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Up early this morning as a lot of things to get done. None of those as far as I know but its this:- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waardenburg_syndrome . A former colleague of mine is the mother of the child born with the cleft palate, her sister had two children born deaf. Also the childrens grandmother had a streak of grey hair from the forelock to the nape, another sign of the condition. Its extremely rare and in the case I mentioned above was not identified until the second deaf child was born. Incidentally the deafness has been treated by implants and the child with the cleft palate has had reconstructive surgery as he has grown up (he's now 21).

Firstly, special Beary thoughts are with IA..... In other - and obviously insignificant news considering the above: Bear has just received a message to expect the Tiler tomorrow afternoon, at long last. Bear happy.

It's a pity an etch isn't available that would be a neat fit. As for the roof boards I thought either were correct as the train was always called the 1030 limited by railwaymen. I can soon change them for products from John Peck if they offend. Here's the three Hornby jobs for comparison.

Matthew had exactly the same colour vision deficiency as Aditi’s Dad. Colours like pale green and pink were indistinguishable from silver grey. They could identify green and red but saw them it seems as different shades of brown. They both had problems with blue/mauve/purple. It wasn’t a Ishihara test that identified Matthew’s colour vision problem. It was a “why Is my Furby only one colour?” Tony

Can Bear assume that the sh1t really hit the fan after that little number? Whaaaaaat? You never invited them in for a slice of LDC??? Bear knows some of these 2. A Politican 3, A pain in the ar5e 5. No idea, but I suspect Gwiwer doesn't suffer from it after reports of his escapades involving an iron were reported earlier..... How'd I do? Bear's Plan for the day: 1. Fit the extra catches that were delivered from South America yesterday to the loft ladder for the long-awaited degree of extra confidence that the whole bl00dy thing won't collapse unexpectedly.... 2. Receive a telephone call from the Council Planning Dept. regarding Bear's idea of a bike store in the front garden (I *may* neglect to add the word "motor" when discussing said idea, in case it "muddies" the waters....). As to whether or not such verbal advice is confirmed with a letter or email is of some concern - I have a sneaky worry that there could easily be a "we have no record of ever saying that" somewhere down the line, and after Bear has shelled out lots of gronkits..... 3. Take a look at a new pedal bin that was delivered to Bear from S.America dented - a replacement was requested but after much delay they've refunded me ( - I really wanted an undamaged example) and also asked me to dispose of the offending article. It may be that the dent can be removed - though I very much suspect that Bear's arsenal of tools won't run to suitable implements - nor Bear's total lack of knowledge of panel-beating techniques. Getting the dent out would be easy; doing it without it ending up looking like a piece of stainless steel bubble wrap is another matter entirely.... I suspect that leaving it be may be the best option; as to whether or not Bear can live with it is another question entirely...

Pleased to announce that the portrait is finished and framed. So now I should be getting right back into the old Bovey Tor groove but... I've decided that 65 years in the big smoke is enough for one man. So now planning a move way out west. On the surface this seems like an impulsive decision and if you know me, in some ways it really is. But I have friends in Somerset that I've known for 60 years, plus family in Devon, so it kind of makes sense to me. And let's not forget all those summers spent in Brixham, growing up. I guess the next few months are going to be all about sprucing this house up, before taking photos and marketing it. We've lived here for 23 years so moving will be a bitter sweet feeling no doubt. But I was born in Paddington, where else would I end up?

Greetings An hour in the jungle yesterday morning half-filled the garden waste bin but aggravated my aches and pains. Much less strenuous was watching "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" with George Lazenby as James Bond. Did I mention that I watch too much TV? There are several good reasons to be out and about and here and there in the week ahead. Zoom is all very well for keeping in touch with clubs and societies but you can't beat a face to face meeting. To attend one of these gatherings later in the week I shall need to clutter up the M1. Have I really forgotten just how bad that road can be? Maybe the reminder will not be as bad as I fear. Maybe it will. Best wishes to all Chris

If it was only up to me ..... ..... Dr. SWMBO is not yet comfortable about having anyone other than a tiny handful of close friends / family indoors. Certainly not anyone who might not have taken a Covid test and who might have been enjoying the social side of life with large numbers of others. The LDC will have to wait. Speaking of which today has been a non-event. I woke with the alarm at 5am and was very clearly unfit for work. The House of Fun was called and my apologies for absence tendered. That will now remain the case for at least most of this week. I have to await the result of a PCR test just in case nad am therefore advised to self-isolate until proven negative. Just as a precaution, you understand. I have slept most of the day and only emerged for small bites to eat at random (not conventional meal) times. I finally get a reply from NHS111 earlier which resulted in much stronger antibiotics being prescribed os we shall see what they do, The doctor who called me ventured his opinion that my cough does not sound like a Covid cough and the slightly raised temperature is not of undue concern but we have to be aware of the virus in the room. So it's at least three days rest and medication to see what happens and no visit to the dentist tomorrow nor the GP on Wednesday as I am possibly displaying one symptom of the germ. A negative PCR test will release me. That should arrive tomorrow and will be mailed straight back for an overnight result - we hope. Dr. SWMBO has to take one as well. Bother, said Pooh. I don't do being unwell very well. But there was no question this morning - I wan't fit and that was that.

I have returned from Canvey minus a bit of scalp. The stitches look like a spider escaping from my brain. I got home and as instructed phoned my GP to ask for an appointment to remove the stitches after 12 days. No problem ringing “you are first in the queue” and appointment made for practice nurse to remove them. Apart from the local anaesthetic being injected I didn’t feel a thing and all the staff (surgeon and two nurses) were very good. There wasn’t even a problem parking. Tony

I predate some of the jokes here.… …. but not many of them.

As promised photos of the wishing well planter

Afternoon all Took youngest to the hell hole that is Pinderfields Hospital for an appointment. We set off at 10 for an 11am slot we got there around 20 past 10 no car parking spaces pah so we parked with a couple of other cars on grass. Only one of us was allowed in to the appointment so I waited in the waiting area. As I was watching the world go by I noticed several members of the medical staff wearing masks under their noses. The appointment itself didnt last long but they wanted a blood test it was 1hr 30 mins wait pah

Will this do? I'm out of carbol*ock at present!

If it can’t be removed, how about adding a matching dent in the other corner so it looks deliberate?

Good morning everyone To a very dull and wet northwest of England, but thankfully the rain has stopped falling, but it does look like it could resume at any minute. Sheila is getting herself ready for her Zumba class, but as she is running a little late, she MAY require a lift to get there on time. My plans (if it stays dry) are to see if I can cure the leak on the outside tap! It’s a strange on as it only leaks when the tap is turned on and doesn’t leak when it is turned off. I’m hoping it is just a washer on the spindle, I have several to hand, but if I can’t fix it or get a replacement, I shall fit a new tap. Taking it apart will be the first job to see what can be done. Once that’s done, again if the rain holds off, I shall continue with the fireplace wall, but if it rains then more work on the engine shed will be done. Enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later. Brian

Good moaning from down ere. I'm intrigued by the Flying Flea as We live 40 miles north of Saintes. I was wondering where the airfield is as we pass a grass airstrip as we drive down. Just a couple of hangars and a windsock but it does look mown. Just as an aside the word hangar is used for an open fronted building over here. As mentioned, a word that was 'borrowed' by the English. I would suspect during WW1. There is no door on our woodshed and the postie knows to leave parcels in the hangar. The market got visited yesterday and we got our Pass Sanitaire's checked by the Gendarmarie. All very efficient. Mussels were bought and a very nice Moules Marinierere was had for lunch. We had no white wine in stock so white Pineau was used by Beth. It tasted lovely. After lunch I loaded the trailer with a large pile of garden rubbish. This morning I'm waiting in for nurse Dominique so will probably run the tractor round to cut the weeds, a thunderstorm is due this afternoon so I'll get it done while it's dry. If nursey comes early enough then I will be off to the tip. Regards to all. Jamie

Yesterday’s job, first up I picked up a work colleague from basford hall who came in with 66731 I then got dropped off at the station where I saw a former colas work mate so got chatting to him by the old diesel depot i then went to Leamington spa and onward to site to collect the first train of the night and took it back to bescot, too and tail locos on 20 or so falcons and into bescot then it was taxi back to Leamington and work another one back to bescot, 66723 with 20 auto hoppers And that was that, change of job today, shrewsbury to Donnington RFT and back, a nice short job for a change!

Some cuisine and/or cooking are stinkers, literally!

Good moaning from the Charente where it's still sunny but that may not last. The Tardis has travelled overnight to land at Limon Costa Rica on the 4th January. I had spotted that there was a train ride to a banana plantation so we went on it. We walked from the ship to a train made up of a decrepit looking loco together with two equally decrepit coaches and a caboose. After getting out of town we turned back towards the sea and passed a commercial port where there was evidence of railway activity. Including a large pile of freight car running gear. Then surprise surprise a loco amongst stacks of banana containers. We stopped after a short time only a few yards from the sea. The track looked in rather decrepit condition. 3' 6" gauge. here is our loco. IIRC it's a GE U6B. We stopped several times whenever the crew saw something interesting. Here a couple of Sloths up in the trees. Jamie

Morning all. It is a very pleasant morning here. It is slightly more overcast than it was earlier. Main excitement today is another trip out of Benfleet. “Overseas” too. Well perhaps oversea is an exaggeration, over the bridge to Canvey Island to have something removed from my scalp at a dermatology clinic there. I have never been to that clinic before but it is right next to a place used for functions/weddings etc so no parking problems, I hope. I was going to drive myself but the instructions say not to. Looking forward to Flavio’s food quiz but I can’t imagine doing very well on that . My favourite food/meal would be egg and chips but I could possibly confer with Aditi. Tony

Morning from a once more grey and breezy rock. Normal service.... Norra lot on the cards today, general pottering is prescribed, a walk around the village then just maybe some muddling. Poly, yes, Car 3 decided to have a little run out without its crew, who swear the handbrake was left on....which turned out to be defective, but other issues contributed to the runaway also. Lots of operating changes have been made. If anyone had been on board and were not able to operate one of the three braking systems, they would not have survived. It got almost down to Bungalow station before it derailed, on a 1 in 12 gradient it must have been doing some incredible speed, the fell rail of course guided it as otherwise it would not have got nearly so far. It was literally matchsticks.

Moaning awl. I'll be off to work within the next half hour or so, but to set the mood just so, may I entice you to a truly atrocious pun... "One time at the hoagie shop the actress Ms. O'Hara asked what the tiny pimiento-stuffed thing in my cheddar-bread sandwich was and I had to respond: "Wee olive in a yellow sub, Maureen."" …quoted from https://www.bulwer-lytton.com …

NZ went back into lockdown recently due to delta finally reaching us. This was fortuitous in some ways, I had ordered some etch primer for the W's body. The Lockdown impacted postage (primer still hasn't arrived) and so i've been sitting here twiddling my thumbs, waiting. Naturally once I was happy with the remediation work on the body, this turned my focus to the chassis. This was my first etched kit, and there are a lot of thing i'd do differently on the next one. One of the main areas was the valve gear, I'd put the radius rod on backwards and the nuts/bolts I'd used to secure everything were very prominent in all the wrong ways. I'm sure you can guess what happened next; Wheels and rods came off. DLT's pickup arrangement was able to be removed as one unit and should hopefully slot right back in. I noticed that the wheels were actually incorrect, and had 18 spokes instead of 17. No one offers a plain rim 5'6" 17spk wheel with 14" crank throw (pin between spokes). The closest AG wheel I could find has the correct number of spokes, a beveled rim, and 13" crank throw. Not perfect, but an acceptable compromise until I can 3D print my own wheel centers. Some progress over the weekend saw amendments made to the motion bracket. The first iteration that came with the kit puts both parts in the wrong place, the front one is too high, and the rear one is too low. After some modification, they are now in the right place Like most Maunsell Locos the motion bracket should be a hefty great casting. I added some details to try and represent this from brass T section and rivet strip. On theme with the rest of the build, I added a representation of the internal valve gear in the gap between both brackets, much better than a bit of brass strip painted red. You cannot see this at all, even glimpsing it is difficult. So it's pretty freelance in terms of what should be there, but it's better than nothing. I also added some brass spacers made from leftover etch, at the front and rear of the chassis to help with body fitment and keep it all square The chassis really needs another dunk in paint stripper to get the rest of the stuff off between the frames - everything looks quite messy at the moment, as there is lots more cleaning up to do. OH, and this arrived..

Good evening. With the accent on evening rather than good I am afraid. Once again I find myself dealing with NHS 111 out of hours. Not the brightest of starts to the day turned into a positively unwell feeling by lunchtime. Unusually I wasn't terribly interested in eating but managed a light lunch nonetheless. Hoarse coughing increased slightly as did the sensation of having too much fluid in the lungs. I dozed the afternoon away instead of joining Dr. SWMBO at friends. When I woke I felt cold and found I had a temperature of 37.7C which is a bit too high so another Covid test was done (we test at lunchtimes anyway) and was still negative. Matters improved only very slightly into the evening so Dr. SWMBO called 111 on my behalf. After an assessment with one of their paramedics I await a call-back from a local out-of-hours GP if they can get me in for an ear-to-chest consultation tonight. There's not too much they could do; there's nowhere open to dispense antibiotics at this hour which is what may be needed. It was needed a couple of years ago when I had the same thing - a single course wasn't enough and it took three seven-day courses to finally get rid of the bug. As it's a school night I am off to bed shortly. I always have the phone beside me; it alarms me at silly o'clock and I can take messages as and when required which might be of an urgent nature inbound from Australia so in a different timezone. Time will tell how we go. I aim to be at the House of Fun in the morning. It would take a positive test or feeling very much worse than now to stop me. The temperature is back to 36.9C so within a normal range. Sleep well. I intend to try. Stay safe. And I also intend to try that.

Good evening everyone It’s been a busy old weekend and I’ve just not been able to find the time to do a full post, although I have kept looking in to keep up with what’s going on. Yesterday, we had Mike and Sarah coming round for tea, but as we were having an Indian takeaway, I didn’t have much preparatory work to do, I just needed to make a dessert. However, sleeping in a bit too long yesterday put us both on the back foot and we seemed to spend the morning catching up with ourselves, still we managed it. The dessert in question was a cheesecake inspired by a Black Forest Gateaux, it went down very well indeed. It only takes about an hour to prepare, but this is spread of a few of hours whilst first the biscuit base sets and then the cheesecake filling sets, before the topping can be added. Mike and Sarah came a little earlier that usual, as they both wanted to use our shower, this is because they are having a new bathroom fitted and it’s not quite finished, it still needs tiling, all walls, floor to ceiling, then the new sink and toilet can go in. The new bath is in, but it hasn’t been sealed, due to there being no tiles fitted, so they are being cautious about using it. They were here until almost 9 o’clock, they left to go home and watch the tennis, something that neither Sheila nor I follow. We then had a quick tidy up, before sitting down with a nice bottle of wine and watched a French thriller we’ve been following for the last few weeks. Now, on to today, once again we slept in, so again we were playing catch up for the first few hours. I did make a start on the garden fireplace wall, this morning I’d just finished a mix of mortar and was just about to take a break for muggertea, when it started to rain, so my tea was put aside whilst I packed away all my tools etc. I then went back to the cellar and spent a bit more time on the computer designing windows for the engine shed. On Friday I did a test print on a single sheet of self adhesive paper, yesterday morning and cut a couple of windows out, stuck them to a sheet of clear plastic sheeting and then cut out the frame. I’m very pleased with how they’ve turned out, so in between rain showers this morning, I designed a few more windows to go in a few other kits that I have.

Blackberries were not quite as abundant as yesterday but I picked a good few. Enough for a few breakfasts with porridge and stewed apple. I should have taken a giraffe to harvest this lot. The camera was already above my head to even get this picture of them. You will notice the large Bramble thorns - the tiny ones get into the fingers and under the finger nails with such ease even when you are most careful. Other hazards mixing in with the blackberries include Holly as here, Blackthorn, Hawthorn, Stinging Nettles, rusted wire fencing, slug and snail slime, spiders and their cobwebs. It has not put me off, not yet, anyway, and the blackberry and apple crumble is well worth the effort. Tomorrow is another day. ' night all and nos da.