10800

(10800 awakens from RMWeb slumber - other things going on in my life at the moment). Brilliant news Dave, I had a feeling that someone would produce this fairly soon, pleased it's yourself. I hope (believe) it will be a great success. Ian, yes Balcombe was the trial site together with Lovers Walk in Brighton. We don't think it was ever used for revenue purposes, although of course it will be on our model! Oddly it was the Eastern section that went for the OH yards, the Central addressed the issue by just having 3rd rail in the reception roads.

I had beach groynes once but a bit of salt water and a course of antibiotics did the trick.

Meanwhile, over on the Teignmouth seawall, the security guy I spoke to the other day said he had lots of conflicting information as to when it would reopen to pedestrians - September, November, even next year.

And here he/she is - only shot I got from long range, handheld and photo cropped, but not bad. This was in the grounds of the NT Plas Newydd estate near LlanfairPG.

Heard cuckoo near Beddgelert this afternoon, also saw red squirrel on Anglesey yesterday.

I've got some in my drawer John ...

That 4-doll bracket signal is magnificent.

Yes, the snapping function works, many thanks; and Mike, yes I was grouping the doors - in fact it's easiest to group one and duplicate, then group those to make four, then eight etc. The next issue (and sorry if this has been covered before) relates to the pros and cons of cutting direct from Inkscape versus saving as a DXF file and importing to Silhouette. Take a coach window for instance, with rounded corners done as a modified rectangle in Inkscape. It will cut directly but with little or no influence on blade pressure so you have to cut several times and punch out (using 10 thou plastic card); but if transferred to Silhouette as a DXF, I lose the rounded corners - but have the greater flexibility over cut parameters. Is there a way round this? I seem to remember there was a 'controller' being developed for use with Inkscape - option greyed out on my version - but has anything resulted? Why is the rounded corner detail lost in the DXF conversion?

Many thanks both - I'm away until the end of the week but I'll have a play at the weekend and let you know.

I just can't get to grips with snapping. Mike, could you please show how it's done, maybe with a simple panelled door where multiple copies are needed and it's more efficient to butt them all together? Many thanks. PS at the moment I'm just doing it manually by entering the appropriate x and y values, knowing the width of each door as per below.

From that description it's a Grey Wagtail.

Lapwings have declined due to changes in farming practice. Whether improved environmentally friendly practices will make for a turnround we will have to see, but they were a feature of travelling around when I was a child, now to see a flock is a rarity.

Looking at it again based on that, I think you're right. Just goes to show how your brain can be fooled at first glance!

Apologies if it's already been mentioned, but security guy by sea wall entrance in Teignmouth said another 6-8 weeks before public access returns. Damage is more fundamental in places than thought - he said a digger fell 3m into a previously unknown cavity (well they all are until you find 'em) a few days ago.

Not entirely convinced on dunnock - the beak looks too heavy and there's the white area above the legs. I agree about the difficulty with an isolated bird in a field, but comparing with the rape flowers it looks a bit bigger than a dunnock. I was wondering about buntings and pipits, but I can't find a match in my book unless it's an odd female or juvenile plumage.

How can you tell? Is it the extent of red on the face, which seems slightly different?

No problems with squirrels or jackdaws fortunately. This is a hanging feeder, and the biggest 'problem' if you like is woodpigeons who can scoff the lot in short order. The ground feeder is a different matter, but the problem is not jackdaws or squirrels but herring gulls.

Sunflower hearts is what they're eating at the moment. The tits and greenfinch love them too. Best for goldfinches are nyjer seeds, but if you have any thistle heads in the garden later in the year they will flock to the seeds on those.

Here they are, aren't they cute?

Pair of goldfinches moved into the neighbourhood, first heard them before I saw them. Now regulars on my feeder, will try and get a photo if I can. Delightful birds, didn't realise they had such a nice song as well as the twittering calls.

A4 running about 20 late, here are the same trains at Teignmouth (Shaldon Bridge) Nice scenery to look at in the gap between them!

[pedant]New Red Sandstone (or Sherwood Sandstone in new money) in fact [/pedant] Pore water pressure is a factor, but NR have been getting geotech advice from ?Camborne School of Mines. If drilling a hole was going to make a significant difference I think it would have fallen down on its own already.

I'll have my own celebration with other Teignmothians when we can walk to Sprey Point and Parsons Tunnel again!

I'm away from Teignmouth unfortunately, so missing all the fun. Is the Teignmouth sea wall open to pedestrians now, or is non-railway repair work still going on?

Quite right John - I read that this morning and immediately thought the same.