jonny777

I am going to be pedantic and say that it is unlikely that a 121 with whiskers would be seen with an 08 in blue, as the whiskers were succeeded by by small yellow panels in 1961/2. Also, it is unlikely that many 121s were seen alongside class 17s, which I doubt ventured south of the Midlands; and most of those times were delivery/running in turns. Just saying. But rule 1 applies to all layouts.

Dry with sunny spells today, and a small risk of a shower. Grandson is here and so I am commandeered to perform toy driving operations. Yesterday was the day when everything that could go wrong did go wrong. The miniature solar panel flatly refused to stay anywhere in the sun for more than ten minutes. The organic meat joints arrived, but rather than being fresh they turned up frozen. I put them in the microwave to defrost and it started to cook them. I tried making Nigella Lawson's easy Italian ice cream and it ended up like milk. I whisked it for about ten minutes but couldn't achieve a stiff peak (ooh matron). Nevertheless it went into the freezer and was looking promising this morning. My memory of Mr Whippy ice cream is the closest I can recall. Then I hung my washing out in lovely windy, sunny weather; and within an hour it was tipping down and remained wet all afternoon. The solar panel finally broke free of its wiring on the tenth disaster. I tried to patch it up, but it seems not to be working so have ordered another. At least they are under £10 on Ebay, which is probably why they fail easily. Then my random skin itching (post second covid vaccine ten days earlier) began on my legs, which necessitated half a tub of Sudocrem. I was glad to get to bed and wish May 25th goodbye.

Or maybe some form of Verbascum?

The flowers look a bit like arrowgrass but it has grass-like leaves, nothing like that.

Yes, and the nights will start drawing in just over 3 weeks from now.

Dry and sunny here in North Somerset. Have tried to attach solar panel for pond bubbler to a sunny branch of the plum tree, but the best place as usual is slightly too high for me to reach without dislocating my shoulders, and I can't see what I am doing as the sun is shining directly in my eyes. However, have lashed it up with a piece of wire and it seems to be staying put for the moment. I don't really care where it is, as long as it generates electricity for the air pump. (update: SWMBO has taken to monitoring the kitchen window and has now given me two individual reports that the solar panel has tipped off the branch. No wonder I'm paranoid). I am kicking myself because some weeks ago I saw from the spare bedroom window, the extremely rare sight of a line of distant hills beyond the Severn Estuary. I haven't really thought about it before because I simply assumed they were the high ground near Caerleon which is logical. However, they would only be 25-30km away; and if so, I ought to see them on a relatively regular basis. But, I don't. They only appear maybe once or twice a year, and so I have realised they must be much further away as extremely high visibility is not common in these parts. Using the compass on my phone and a steel ruler on a OS map, I think they must be the high ground between the Black Mountains and Brecon Beacons, just north of Ebbw Vale/Tredegar. That might explain why I hardly ever see them. I am kicking myself for not taking a telephoto picture when I last saw them.

I went to a grammar school during the 1960s and I'm sure we had to wear short trousers in the first and second years. Only third year and above wore long trousers. Caps were compulsory until the fifth year I think, and there used to be a ceremonial unofficial burning of school caps right in the far corner of the playing field by the high jump pit. What really pee'd me off was that I reached the end of the 4th year and the wearing of caps was discontinued for all. One thing which makes me smile now, was the snobbery over school shirts. In those days, boys wearing nylon shirts considered themselves to be a cut above us poor souls who soldiered on in cotton shirts because our mothers had bought a job lot which would have to last until the chest buttons burst, or the collars could not be done up. I wonder how many of the nylon shirt wearers would now deny all knowledge of doing so? Once again, strict rules were applied. All boys wore grey shirts, except prefects who wore white. Here is a close-up from a photo at Reading in October 1976. I think one kid may have white trainers, and another possibly baseball boots; but the majority appear to be in dark shoes. Parkas or denim seem to be the jacket of choice, rather than anoraks and one chap appears to have nicked a coat from the Des Lynham cupboard at MoTD.

Although no one wore trainers in the 1960s. I don't think the term 'trainers' even existed in the 1970s. Kids may have worn pumps, but they were sneered at as being cheap and nasty. I don't remember ever wearing an anorak in the 1960s either. A duffle coat was worn mainly because my mother had bought it, and I had no choice. Shoe fashion in the 1960s was very fickle, and depended on what photos of what the Beatles or Stones were wearing. The fashion changed each year, and wearers of footwear deemed 'out of date' were mocked relentlessly. I remember cuban heels, and pointed toes similar to 1950s winkle pickers although not as sharp, but then the trend changed to square end toes. I only remember this because I was sent to the shoe shop with my Dad once, and he didn't object to buying me a new pair with the latest toe end design - something which I couldn't believe at the time. For a few weeks I was the height of shoe fashion. I did have a couple of pairs of jeans in the 1960s, but they were black denim and had narrow legs. So narrow in fact, that it took about 5 minutes each night (before getting into bed) to get the bottom of the jean legs over my ankles. Oh, and by the way. I never had a bottle of tizer either; as it was far, far too expensive. Even more expensive than Coke, and I never had that either. I may have had a bottle of highly diluted orange juice, but that was it.

Sunny spells and heavy showers here in North Somerset. 3.5mm since midnight, to add to the 19mm we had yesterday. This brings our total for the month so far to 131mm, and we might get close to the (my) record May total of 172mm in 2007, but it will be hard to beat that. Still, the garden is looking ultra green, unlike this time last year when we recorded 5mm for the whole of May and I was on almost full time watering duty. I think the lupins and foxgloves have survived the winds as they are on the verge of flowering.

Dry and bright here in North Somerset this morning. I gather that a brief spell of wet and windy weather is racing towards us across the Irish Sea, and so I suspect my tall garden plants will take another battering this afternoon and evening.

I saw a UK magpie yesterday, sitting on my garden fence with a blackbird's egg in it's beak. The ritual of life and death in nature is well under way around here again.

I have been on the Glasgow underground a couple of times, many years ago... and yes; the narrow island platforms there were extremely unnerving to me at the time. I could not quite rationalise my fear, because I could see how far it was from either edge to the tracks and knew that if I stood in the middle I was ok, but something in my brain seemed not to calm down until I was on the train each time. Cloudy but dry here in North Somerset. At last the wind and rain have moved away. Despite the media hype, I doubt the mean temperature this May will be as cold as May 1996 when we had easterly winds for almost the entire month; but I'm sure the lies, damned lies and stats people will find somewhere which has broken all records and can be morphed into a representation of the entire country. After all, they were already blithely talking about the whole month, yesterday, when there were still 10 days to go until it ended. One reason that I rarely watch any TV news.

Wet and windy in North Somerset this morning. My solar powered air bubbler, for the goldfish pond, arrived yesterday. I doubt it has had much chance to charge the battery powering the air pump, as the sun has gone walkabout. However the battery also has a USB charger which can be plugged into a laptop or mobile phone charging socket, and I gave it a full charge before installation and it has continued to bubble away ever since yesterday afternoon. I think it is not a bad little device for around £15. As for the Indian variant of Covid, my belief is that for it to spread across the UK in accelerating numbers, there must be a lot of people returning from India and not bothering to follow the quarantine rules. It must be pretty obvious by now that Covid spreads rapidly in confined spaces with little ventilation, where there are lots of people gathered together. If that still does not deter people from civil aircraft, and indoor parties, then there is no hope for certain sectors of the population; or our beleaguered NHS.

Wouldn't 56286 have been renumbered around that time, to 54286? There is a 54286 in my 1986 Platform 5 book - listed as at Southall but unserviceable.

This brings back memories of my spotting days on the GN&GE, specifically to see a similar train but from Lincoln to March which conveyed dmu cars on the rear, fresh from overhaul. Most of my underlinings of E79xxx East Anglian based units were from these trains. I was lucky in that the line curved in the distance and so I could be prepared for the number of dmu cars to be concentrated on. There was a similar train which ran down the ECML to Kings Cross, although as well as dmu vehicles, it also had the occasional newly painted blue non-gangwayed suburban coach in the consist. The numbers in the E43xxx or E46xxx series were somewhat confusing until I read a copy of Railway Observer some time later.

Same here. Our house is always cold when it is windy outside.

Thanks very much, for all your efforts to put together this package. It is much appreciated.

Cloudy and breezy here in North Somerset. A few spots of rain, but the real problem will be the overnight gales due later. Oh well, if the slugs don't get my carefully tended summer plants, the weather usually does. Visited my daughter inside her home, yesterday, for the first time since October. Was able to inspect her shiny new kitchen which somehow looks bigger that the old one even though she now has more cupboard units. Tried to connect my iPhone to her wifi, but it wouldn't do anything. Went outside with grandson and sat in sun for an hour or so while he played around and showed me his outdoor toys. When we went back inside again I noticed that one of the phone apps, which had been greyed out and listed as 'uploading' for days, was now normal. I pressed it and it worked. I reset network settings for the umpteenth time, tried the wifi logon and that worked as well. Saints be praised, I was back online I think that what had happened was; at home I had started a 'backup to iCloud' procedure, but when that seemed not to work, I initiated an 'erase all data and restore' on the phone which was also via iCloud. Therefore the phone was trying to upload and download the same data at the same time. Moving away from my automatic iCloud connection meant that the phone was slowly relieved of this data paradox, and could download a couple of simple apps (slowly) via the 4G signal. My resetting the network could now actually go ahead without having to wait for the network to become available (which had probably been reduced to 'never' with the upload/download conundrum); and then join my daughter's wifi network with no problems at all. At the same time, back at my gaff, the wifi router was at last freed from the impossibility of having uploads/downloads to monitor as well as various other devices attached (cable tv, airport, Swmbo's iPad, etc). So when I came home yesterday evening and logged onto my wifi, it worked first time. No booking a lengthy visit to the Apple Repair Centre necessary.

As someone who cannot eat cheese, and has eczema problems with cooked tomatoes (for some unfathomable reason, because raw tomatoes are ok) I think I will be giving this a miss. Good luck to those who enjoy the foodstuff, whether baked in a pie or not.

Cloudy but dry in North Somerset this morning. We have had some rain overnight but it has gone elsewhere for the moment. Today we will be venturing inside our daughters house for the first time since last autumn, now the rules have been relaxed. We could have gone earlier and sat in her garden, but all the days available to both of us were cold and windy, and not really suitable for sitting outside. And anyway, visits to the toilet would have meant going indoors which rather defeats the object of staying within the rules. I'm sure many have turned a blind eye to the covid regulations, which is probably why the Indian variant is now here and spreading fast.

I have a few class 66 photos, but not too many as I tended to give up photography just after they were introduced. Here is 66022 somewhere near Knottingley early in 1999.

Sorry to appear ignorant, but what is a chicken parma?

Oh thanks. That is a completely different book, and I think I might have misunderstood your original post. I would love all of the books on Nottingham, not that I originate from the city - but I did used to go trainspotting there as a young boy, and only discovered the details of fascinating web of lines in the area after many had already closed. The problem is, can I afford them all - and do I have the shelf space, without SWMBO issuing a cease and desist order?

Mainly because they had been told by their mothers "If you fall off that engine and break your legs, don't come running to me crying, and expect some sympathy".

We had an early morning shower here in North Somerset. Now the sun is shining, but more black clouds appear on the horizon. Apparently, there were funnel clouds in Somerset yesterday. They showed a couple of photos on last night's news. I can do without any of those types of weather phenomena, thanks. I had a call from the 10am to 11am Ocado delivery man saying that he was running a bit early and could he come in a few minutes (this was at ten to nine). I have no problem with that, but cannot understand how deliveries can be 80 minutes earlier than the earliest time? Have Ocado discovered the secret of light speed travel? Anyway, all was safely packed away in the cupboards/fridge by the time SWMBO got up. If I had known, I could have added a litre of malt whisky to the order.