jonny777

Wow, they are doing well. Mine are not up to that standard, but my grape vine is not that old - and is in a container. I have most of the vine covered in netting, but wasps seem to have found a few that the net does not quite reach. I wonder if this means the grapes are now ripe enough to pick, but I would like to leave them until the end of the month if the weather isn't too bad. However, I don't want the wasps to have the lot. Decisions, decisions...

Hello all. I am probably going to annoy everyone, but from a very young age I have always hated the Last Night Of The Proms. I can't remember why, but it may have something to do with being forced to watch it as a child while my parents sang very loudly to various tunes. Similarly, my hatred of church services has originated the same way. However, I have no such hatred of Handel's Messiah even though every Christmas as a young child I was handed a thick copy of sheet music and forced to listen to the BBC Radio version, while my parents sang the soprano and tenor parts. I will go to my grave knowing everything about 'I Know That My Redeemer Liveth'. Didn't every 6 year old spend Christmas this way in the 1950s?

I find it sad that only 100 have survived out of the hundreds of thousands which were built; but I suppose being open and of steel construction they were prime candidates for rapid corrosion. I think it is rather a shame that our 'heritage' lines cannot each muster up a decent number of 16 tonners for some shunting demonstrations on gala days.

Good morning. Dull and miserable here, with low cloud and drizzle. 16mm of rain overnight, which should please the slugs. Outdoor activities suspended for the day, and will have to amuse myself watching the stand-off between our resident robin and next door's black cat. Although at lunchtime, for a bit of mild amusement there will be the Manchester football derby.

Here is a nice pair at Euston. 87006 and 86258 28th November 1983

I believe at one point in the 1960s, there were two combines published per year. I have a Summer 1962 and a Winter 62/63 edition, but I presume things were happening so quickly on the loco front that whole classes would have vanished in 12 months. The seemingly "never-ending" increase in the numbers for Brush Type 4s was also an eye opener for us spotters in that era. We knew they couldn't go beyond D1999 but didn't expect them to get that far. So, when they did and then started back at D1100 we were left open-mouthed...

Yes, thanks. I had added some dark spraymalt to it as well, at the beginning - and a Mangrove Jacks high alcohol yeast. I tested the brew yesterday and the SG was down to 1014 and still bubbling away nicely, so I am hoping it will turn out alright.

Hello, from a bright and breezy (but noticeably cooler) Zummerzet. The brain appears to be a little reluctant to function after a few more bottles of home brew yesterday, but granddaughter is expected at any time and she only has two settings - mayhem and asleep - which will be a good cure for my current lethargy.

That is what really annoys me about humid air on the coast. The day starts sunny, the inland temperature rises quickly and sets up the sea breeze which then blows onshore and brings in the sea fog. Having lived on the Welsh coast for a number of years, the thing which always amazes me about sea fog is how thick it can be. I could have half of my garden in fog and the other half clear, which is difficult for non-coasties to understand. In order for them to appreciate the problem, here is a photo I took at Cardiff Airport many years ago. Edited to add that within 5 minutes the aircraft in the foreground would not be visible.

Good morning. It's a lovely sunny morning here in cider country. Lets hope it remains that way. I was intrigued by some unusual noises from the garden, but my curiosity was satisfied when all of a sudden a large ginger cat jumped onto the the barbecue by the back window ( which I had opened earlier ). It poked its nose inside the window and had a good sniff, but suddenly noticed me sitting and staring at it; then decided quiet retreat was probably the best option and jumped back onto the lawn, much to the consternation of the local robin and starling populations. I suspect a couple of my tomato plants now have blight, and these are ones close to the greenhouse. My thoughts are that maybe the containers they are planted in remain in the shadow of the greenhouse for much longer during the day than the ones further away, and therefore stay cold and damp longer, thus allowing the virus/bacteria to thrive.

This reminds me of the short time that I spent in a wheelchair after breaking my leg, when aged 8. Because the fracture was both bones above the ankle, the doctors did not want me to add any pressure on the leg for a few weeks afterwards and I was instructed not to try and do any movement until they had x-rayed the setting and once it looked ok they would give me a "walking plaster" afterwards. It may have been pinned for the 6 days that I was in hospital, but I dont remember any pinning once I had been allowed home, just a large plaster which came up to the top of my knee. They provided me with a wheelchair. To make matters worse (my parents must have *loved* me!!), five days after leaving hospital we moved house and this meant starting at a new school where I knew no one. Around the house I had quickly learned to hop short distances on my "good" leg, and so I was not completely immobile, but the school was half a mile away so my mother pushed me there in a wheelchair. It was bad enough with all the parents staring and ushering their children clear of me, but when the entire playground came to a sudden halt and just stared in my direction the stress was too much and I just burst into tears; so much so that my mother pushed me home again after speaking to one of the staff, and I had another day off. The next day, I had been primed to ignore all the gawping and was delivered into the school hall for assembly in the wheelchair. I was amazed at the attitude of the teachers. Nothing was too much trouble for them, they pushed me around the classroom, found me pencils, crayons, exercise books. I had never been treated like that before by any teachers, and I couldn't believe my luck. However later that afternoon, while the teacher had left the room for a short time and we had been told to get on with some work, the end of my pencil broke and realising that the sharpener was on a bench only a few yards from me, I hopped over to it and was standing there on one foot when the teacher returned. Obviously the staff had not understood that I could move short distances when required; and from that point on their whole demeanour changed. There was no more "let me do that for you", or "I'll push you there"; it was back to normal. I was left under no illusions that if I wanted something, I had to get it myself or go without. Still, it was great while it lasted.

I have rarely watched the Paralympics, and I doubt I will watch very much this time either; not because I object to the events, but because I find the media coverage to be bordering on patronising. I also have issues with those hi-tec "wheelchairs" used in many athletic events. To me, the competitive skill/ability is in danger of taking second place to technology; and therefore countries with the biggest budgets will be able to provide the best equipment for training and practice.

Hello everyone. A very pleasant morning here, in contrast to yesterday's low cloud and drizzle. Our overnight minimum of 18.7 C is one of the highest that I have recorded for any month, not just September. However, after the heavy rain over the weekend I notice that the grass almost needs cutting again; and I only did it last Friday

Hi 298. Do you have a date for the introduction in the blue livery? The loco in my Watford photo appears very clean, and I wondered how many days it had been in service when I took it.

Thanks. I didn't realise photos of 87001 with a blue repaint and numbers at both ends were rare. I have one from Watford on 23rd May 2003.

I take your point about my idea being hi-jacked by the anti-cyclist brigade. I had not thought of the darker side of driving attitudes towards being forced to slow down and respect all road users, when all certain drivers seem to want to do is show off their latest status symbol with high speed acceleration/overtaking demonstrations which leave two-wheeled users in the hedge. However, that is not to say all cyclists are perfect when it comes to obeying road markings, signs and the highway code either.

I wasn't putting forward my proposal in order to solve a problem, nor to save lives; but if those are by-products of the introduction then all well and good. I just see pavements, especially in less urbanised areas, as a large resource that is readily available; and the pavements are constructed and maintained at great expense by local councils only for hardly anyone to use them for much of the time. I don't see why not having priority over pedestrians would stop folk from cycling; after all I have been on numerous bridleways and many canal towpaths where cyclists and walkers manage to co-exist, and add horses to that mix as well in the case of bridleways, and there are no speed limits. People just use common sense. I don't remember mentioning anything about removing the cyclists' freedom to ride on side roads. This is not about curtailing cycle freedom, but merely adding pseudo cycle paths across the country at little or no extra cost as an alternative. The motorbike would not be included in my pavement scenario because motorbikes are more than capable of matching the speeds of other road vehicles, and to my mind should be treated with exactly the same respect as any other road vehicle. If the pavement law was such that pedestrians have the right of way, then with a collision between a deaf granny and a person on a bike, the bike rider would be deemed by law to be at fault.

Good morning. Overcast here but very humid. I went to put the bins out and was in danger of beginning to perspire. Mind you that might be due to my excess weight, rather than the outside temperature.

Sorry, yes to you all. I really must not try and watch telly at the same time as posting. I will correct my errors.

Here is L403 in Twyford Cutting during 1992, a few months before the 165 take-over.

I can't comment on the current situation; but whenever I did media forecasts (mainly radio in my case) I endeavoured to have the latest satellite and rainfall radar images with me in the studio. I always tried to get the "now" right, because my thinking was, if you can't get the current analysis correct - what hope for the forecast?

This site is not Met Office, but is quite easy to interpret. http://www.xcweather.co.uk/forecast/ Just type your town/city (or postcode) into the box and it will give you a forecast. *** Warning, that forecast is taken from the raw computer output, so needs a little common sense (or better still - meteorological experience) to interpret; for instance if your home town is under a computer forecast of a thunderstorm for that particular hour, you may see a thunderstorm symbol with 12mm of rain; but when you look at it 6 hours later it has a sunny/shower symbol and 0.1mm of rain. This doesn't necessarily mean it is just rubbish, but that with the nature of thunderstorms the second run of the computer did not have one right over your area. You need a more broad brush approach to this website, and interpret the more general trends rather than take each 3-hourly forecast as literal.

As an ex-professional seaweed reader (although my personal preference was for pine cones) I believe that the tropical air from ex-hurricane Gaston is supposed to be with us tomorrow. Of course it depends on where you are, but my thinking is that very few places in England and Wales will escape some very murky conditions both tonight and tomorrow with the extremely moist air, so that lapses in precipitation will be much more temporary over the coming 24 hours. However, there will be an improvement late in the day and the warm weather looks like returning from Tuesday until Saturday... Hurrah. And what is more... I don't charge to get it wrong.

I have never understood why, in an intelligent society, we can't pass a law which says that pavements can be used by cyclists unless there are signs to the contrary. This cycle usage would be subject to the law which would give pedestrians the priority of right of way at all times. Restrictions could be imposed in town centres/near rows of shops, but for the most part as long as cyclists gave way to pedestrians I think it could work. After all most adults are (or like others to believe they are) responsible human beings. There might be a problem with groups of teenagers racing up and down on bikes vs old grannies with hearing difficulties, but if the law is firmly worded and the punishments for wilful transgression are relatively harsh, then it ought to work. After all, I can drive around my area and see mile after mile of pavements which are not being used by anyone from one hour to the next; or even one day to the next.

Hello all, We had 21mm of rain yesterday which is enough to keep me going (in the fruit&veg watering dept) for a few weeks. Gloomy this morning with a few spots still blowing around in the wind, but weather appears to be improving slowly. I'm in charge of planning (food logistics mainly) for a family holiday near Leominster in a couple of weeks. With 7 hungry people to feed, and a range of dietary restrictions for most individuals, this is not going to be as easy as it sounds. My plan B is "get the bbq out", but when away from home even that is not the straightforward option it might appear to be. Maybe I will pack everyone off to Bulmers in Hereford and by the time they come back they will be in no state to notice what they are eating...