Liam

All looks good Rob. I’ve been tempted down similar lines after seeing Chris Nevard’s ‘Brew Street’ in volume 7 of How to Build a Model Railway. If it wasn’t for the clearout I did earlier today I probably wouldn’t have unearthed it... I’ve got a few unused boards in the garage so I might well end up building something similar to Brew Street.

My cooking endeavours if nothing else have at least generated interest in this thread...

Perhaps, but as of today Malaysia has 2,320 cases, and 27 death, and when here in the UK we had a similar number of infections the death toll was around 100, so warmer weather, if it doesn’t delay the spread of the virus, may lead it to mutate into a less fatal virus. I’ve used this news article here, and the graph by Peng Wu, a student at Leeds who everyday converts the latest figures from the Department of Health & Social Care into a graph. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/malaysia-new-covid-19-cases-mar-28-12585940 https://mobile.twitter.com/DHSCgovuk/status/1243901924786790400

No officer, I wasn’t drinking while cooking! *hic* Badger haven’t referred to it as a ‘deceptively drinkable ale’ for no reason. But all jokes aside, that wasn’t my best effort; my best so far was this last August. Must admit though that that wasn’t made with Tangle Foot; despite being located literally next door to the brewery, Tesco in Blandford didn’t have any Tangle Foot, so we had to make do with some Golden Champion, which I would enjoy if it wasn’t for that peculiar floral aftertaste.

Tangle Foot for me tonight. But last Monday I baked another Tangle Foot toad in the hole. Here’s the finished product:

So after my earlier post there was a rather interesting development - the blue tits and coal tits were simultaneously entering the nestbox! At one point there was a blue tit AND a coal tit in there! One theory I had was that they’ve put their differences aside, reconciled with each other and have now joined forces to have a mixed brood. But that would lead to a very overcrowded nestbox, and add to that four adult birds and it would get quite cosy in there during the night...

That’s exactly what ours have been doing - they peer in but often they don’t actually go in. Methinks blue tits are rather fussy about where they nest.

Well the previous owners of our house left a nestbox on the right hand side of the garden, and the nestbox which has been used is an RSPB one attached to the wall of the shed on the left hand side of the garden. Currently the old nestbox is buried in undergrowth but if one pair find it then they could use it as a well hidden nesting site. Though I do remember the RSPB website saying that nestboxes shouldn’t be positioned too close to each other as it can lead to conflict.

Well, there appears to be a battle between the blue tits and the coal tits for our nestbox. The coal tits had moved in last Friday, but then on Sunday/Monday the blue tits, who have used our nestbox in 2015, 2016 and 2018, decided that THEY would use the nestbox, and Bulleid the coal tits out. This involved somewhat of a dogfight between one of each pair. The blue tits then moved in although they would often hesitate on the entrance hole before going in. But this afternoon the coal tits have reclaimed the nestbox and restarted nest building, although so far I believe I’ve only seen one as the one I’ve seen hasn’t been seen with their partner and uses the same flight routes. I hope we have a coal tit family because they were here first.

How much have you got in there?

You may well be right - in Morrisons this afternoon there was a notice saying that sales of bottles of beer and cider were restricted to three per customer. I got a Pure UBU, Hooky Gold and Golden Sheep - the latter of which I’m looking forward to try.

May I take this opportunity to say that’s a very impressive DVD collection?

I’m picturing Corporal Jones hysterically shouting ‘Don’t panic!’ and Warden Hodges shouting ‘Put that light out!’

Of course it will be tough. And it’s not like I have any other choice but to ‘get over it’.

Thanks Simon. I’m keen to have a ride on them when this period of chaos is over but it’s difficult anyway when the nearest points of the GWR network to you are Worcester SH or Evesham. IMHO the HSTs won’t be the same with power doors and fixed windows.

I agree, speaking as a fairly sporty 18 year old. Aside from physical activity, I’m so used to travelling regularly that staying in one location for (hopefully no more than) three weeks will be tough. I’ll just have to optimise ‘shopping trips’ and my ‘daily exercise’.

I had a look in Realtime Trains earlier but can’t seem to work out what the abbreviation for the short set HSTs are. Is it something like ‘diesel locomotive, trailing load xxx tons’? Also, anyone know their diagrams for north of Bristol? Many thanks,

Probably by sharing it on social media if you have Facebook or Twitter etc.

That’s what I’ve heard from a Lt Col who went through Sandhurst and then fought with the Gurkhas for a while.

And people gathering in isolated areas in mass also damages the opportunity that better weather brings; a slower rate of infection. If the weather was good and people did not gather in large groups then there could be a chance of a decrease in the number of infections.

I followed your lead tonight and I’m currently enjoying one. It’s very nice and had a rather nutty aroma.

What I have noticed when the tweets come out from the Department of Health & Social Care announcing the number of cases as of 9am that day is that the daily increase number (the number of new cases reported in a day) appears to have levelled. If the number of new cases does not increase, then while they may remain level for a while let’s hope it’s not too long before they decrease. That said, it’s probably too early to make any strong judgement. Various graphs are uploaded by people on Twitter who use the info from DfH&SC. https://mobile.twitter.com/DHSCgovuk/status/1241058983336706050

I’m going to take you up on your offer of posting a photo of my layout Rob: I really must have a bit of a tidy up!

I visited Morrisons in Boroughbridge on Wednesday. Not that I looked down every aisle, but one massive gap was in the multipacks of lager - plenty of Corona though for some bizarre reason....

Absolutely. This evening Purity announced a new product called ‘Pure Pub Experience’ - essentially, nine bottles of their bottled beers, two packets of Pipers crisps and a half pint stem glass all for £24. After club finished last night, I secured a bottle of Hooky Gold from Morrisons on the way home. It’s a very nice crisp golden ale. But that’s only half of the story - when I looked at the back label, it said how if I was in Southern Australia or the Northern Territories then I could claim a 10 cents refund if I returned the empty bottle to the supermarket. In short, I might well have consumed a beer in Worcestershire that was brewed in Oxfordshire but bottled in Australia!