Simon G

Morning all, another very cold and frosty one here so far. As in recent days, our exercise will be taken this afternoon when the sun will have hopefully defrosted the roads and pavements. On the brighter side, I am looking out of the living room window over to a snowy Snaefell on Fraggle Rock. A cup of coffee is shortly to be had, then I might see if I can spread some more rotted manure and seaweed around the veg patch in the garden.

Morning all and Happy New Year. We didnt bother staying up to see the year in, so I as happily in the land of nod at the time. Today seems just like the lst 2 or 3, ie too icy to go out for the daily exercise just yet. It should have thawed a bit by this afternoon.

Well our first day in Tier 4 does seem to have made a difference, namely twice the Tier rating seems to equate to twice the people out and about. I haven’t seen the beach car park as busy as today since the summer! We didn’t venture onto the St Bees promenade as it was so busy as to make social distancing difficult. If this is what is going to continue in Tier 4, god help us! Our walk today was carefully planned to coincide with the time of the day when there would be the least amount of ice on the paths and pavements. It was still slippery in places, but we didn’t have any accidents, I am pleased to say.

Well I got that wrong! We have jumped directly from Tier 2 to 4! Not sure how they work that one out, but Mrs G and I are perfectly happy with it, as it won’t change much for us at all. It will be interesting to see just how many “essential” journeys are still being made. This afternoon was lovely and sunny, so we braved the cold and went out for a walk. After a short while, I was actually too hot, and had to remove my woolly hat! We were still surprised to see people out in tee-shirts and another in shorts.

Not to mention all the second/third homes in the Lake District. The mountain rescue organisations have had calls for help over the festive period from people who should by rights have been at home in their Tier 4 areas. That then puts the mountain rescue volunteers at risk as well. The local news seems to think that Cumbria will go into Tier 3 today. While our rates in West Cumbria are among the lowest in England, other areas of the county are rising fast apparently.

Morning all, Still no snow here, but it is a bright, cold morning. I may venture into the garden to do a little work and prune the apple tree, and spread some rotted manure around. I suspect it will be a short venture, before I freeze up!

Morning all, A longer than usual walk was had yesterday, along with some friends whose son passed away a few years back after a long and still undiagnosed illness. Usually on the 28 December, Tom's friends and school colleagues would have a memorial rugby match of St Bees School former pupils against Egremont, as he played for both. Obviously no rugby was possible yesterday, so instead people undertook to have a good walk instead. It was all for the Calvert Trust, a charitable organisation based in Keswick, who helped look after Tom during his illness. Our walk brought back some great memories of Tom, who was the best friend of our younger son. Last time I looked, over £1800 had been donated to the Calvert Trust as a result. No snow here today, but there is ice on the ground, so we may see if it warms up slightly before going out.

Morning all, I was pleased to hear that the Bedford floods have not directly affected chrisf (when I first typed that in, my autocorrect changed it to Christ!!). The same floods have moved on downstream, and my son spent all day yesterday expecting to be flooded in St Neots, but fortunately it seems that the flooding didn’t quite reach his house, and the River Great Ouse is thankfully (hopefully?) now past the peak there. He had moved all he could upstairs and cleared the garage as far as possible. The wind here has died down a bit, but it is still very blustery and showery, so we may venture out if it clears up at all.

Morning all, Todays weather is not surprisingly similar to NHNs. It is clear so far today, so we can see the snow on Snaefell from our living room, with a very grey and choppy sea in between. We might venture out for a walk today, but I still have a sore foot, so it won’t be a long one.

As far as I can tell, we remain in Tier 2, but like you, we are also behaving as if we are in Tier 4.

Wow! I haven’t heard of any show on the Lakeland hills causing issues, but looking at that, there must be a goodly amount higher up. If my memory serves me then the altitude for that picture is over 1500 feet, so quite high. Good news on the eye results. Following a suggestion from Mrs G, the sloes left over from the sloe gin are being (very slowly!) destoned, so that we can use the gin flavoured flesh in some muffins and also possible incorporation into homemade chocolates. Sloe gin, muffins and chocolate! Sounds like a good diet to me!

Morning all, yesterday’s appearance of the bright orb in the sky has been replaced by the more traditional wet stuff falling from the sky. Just as well we don’t really want to go out today! A rather pleasurable indoor task is underway as I type this. We have made some sloe gin, ie the gin has been soaking in sloes for 3 months, and it is time to separate the gin from the sloes. It is a rather slow (no pun intended!) task, as to make the resultant drink nice and clear, it needs to be filtered. As I only have a small kitchen funnel and small 6 inch filter papers, it takes a long time. A brief sample of the results has been done and it is well up to standard! Last nights shopping expedition to the metropolis of Whitehaven didn’t go entirely to plan. We arrived at the Aldi car park at about 6.30pm, and there was barely a space to be had. We went and had a look in another supermarket, but didn’t get all we wanted, to returned to Aldi just past 7pm. It was still heaving. Social distancing was just a joke, so we rushed around as fast as we could and got out again. At least we got all we needed.

Morning all, The weather here today is most odd. There isn’t any wet stuff coming out of the sky, the trees and bushes are not being blown all over the place, and there is a strange yellow orb in the sky. Most unusual! I would go out for a walk, but the blister on my heel from Saturdays walk/drenching has now lost all the skin and is pretty sore, and wouldn’t take kindly to shoes being rubbed against it for a couple of hours. A little potter around the garden instead methinks. Tonight will see us try to complete the food shopping for the next week, assuming that what we want is still on the shelves. If not, an early start tomorrow morning will be necessary to try to beat the crowds.

Morning all, Not much chance of seeing the planets this evening if the weather forecast is correct. Currently raining, albeit not very hard. The final section of track relaying has just been done and the PVA is now drying. Test trains may be run again later today. My brother sent me a couple of Tier 4 related jokes, so I here they are:

Morning all, Todays walk has been walked, but can only be described as an unmitigated disaster! It was fine when we set off and remained that way for about 40 minutes. Then the rain started and got heavier and heavier. As it had seemed OK on the BBC weather website, we hadn’t even worn full waterproofs! We got absolutely drenched. To make matters worse, we both got wet feet, and my wet shoes started to rub at the back of the heel, with the result that ai now have an uncomfortable blister. More annoyingly, we rain more or less stopped 10 minutes before we got home, so we have had the worst of it. I shall not be venturing outside again today! Hopefully there will be some good rugby to watch this afternoon. Now sitting with a cup of coffee trying to warm up and dry out.

I entirely agree. It has angered me all year when I have taken every reasonable precaution to protect myself (as I am still classed as extremely vulnerable), and I hear and see others who are either too stupid or too selfish doing things which will clearly help spread Covid. Now it just seems that a significant number of people have lockdown fatigue, and so carry on as they normally would. Weather here today is carp - wet and windy with more of the same forecast for the next couple of days. The morning has been spent on track realignment on the layout, along with design of the platforms to be constructed next.

Afternoon all, today was supposed to be dry, but it is now very wet. Just as well we went out this morning. We drove to Egremont to deliver some cards, post some ebay items at the PO, then went for a walk along a cycle track (formerly a railway line) which made a pleasant change to the usual rambling from the house. Last night, we appeared to have a surfeit of eggs, so for the first time ever I made a souffle for dinner. The results were such that it wont be the last one I made. We really enjoyed it!

Many thanks for all the discussion and ideas. Ideally I would have avoided curves as tight as 450mm radius, but with space at a premium, a 8 by 4 foot layout was the largest I can have. Then after allowing for additional tracks along the straights, I couldnt go any larger than the 450mm on the inner circuit. As the curves are part of a complete 180 degree bend, it was impossible to avoid joins on the bends, Having partially built a layout at the MRC using Setrack, I wasnt very impressed with it, hence my use of flexitrack instead. The reason for the divergence between the inner and outer tracks noted by RobinofLoxley is that I have already realigned the outer track, so the inner will now basically follow the outer track. In order to do this, I have a number of pieces of wood, with small notches cut out so that two motches will sit on the outer track and two notches on the inner track. These should then keep the track spacing correct while the PVA dries. I have now lifted the relevant track, and following Wheatley's advice, have cut approx 2mm off the left hand side of the lower bit. Next I plan to refix the track above the join, and only refix the lower bit when the top is firmly secured. I will look to putting a pre-bend in, although having been laid down once, there is already a bit of a bend in the track. I will post again when I see how things have turned out!

Morning all, to continue the theme it is very wild here today. Wind is about 50mph at a guess, but at least the rain has stopped for now. I have done a couple of outside jobs, and returned inside to warm up again! There is one more job outside to do, then I plan to stay inside and keep warm!

I am not experienced when it comes to laying track, and have ended up with a slight kink in the track where two sections of rail are joined. The track is Peco code 100, and the curve radius of the track is about 450mm, ie similar to second radius. The attached picture shows it. It was worse, so I lifted and realigned the track which improved the kink, but tightened a part of the curve so that some locos have a bit in trouble going round it. I need to lift the track to make the curve radius consistent, but fear that this will make the kink at the join worse again! Would it help to lift the track, then solder the track joiners in place before fixing the track back down? The track is currently fixed down with PVA, so is pretty easy to lift. The attached picture shows the current position.

Afternoon all, It is wild windy and wet here. Given that, what sort of idiot would go out for a walk today? Well, we did this morning, when it didn’t seem to be raining quite so hard, to post some letters and cards. Having posted them, we decided to walk a bit further and got well soaked, even with wearing full waterproofs. In addition, one of my walking shoes decided that it no longer wanted to be waterproof, so I had a pretty wet foot by the time we got home. On returning home, a large batch of soup was made, using chicken stock and loads of vegetables, lentils, soup mix etc. On first tasting, the result seems pretty good, and it tends to improve after a day or so. Now waiting for the Exeter v Glasgow rugby match to start as my afternoon’s entertainment.

Morning all, Cold and breezy here today, so this mornings walk cannot be described as pleasant. I had a hood up as well as a woolly hat, and my head was still cold while in the wind. Now sitting with a cup of coffee and contemplating what to do next. The layout beckons!

Evening all, A largely sunny day here, but very cold. A pleasant walk out which was rather slow and I kept meeting people to chat to! Like others here, I watched some rugby this afternoon (not the England game ) which was good. On the subject of central heating, we are having a ground source heat pump fitted to my mothers cottage in Wales, as it doesn’t currently have a central heating system. Unless you are prepared to go down deep into the ground, the ground pump requires quite a lot of land to get the necessary ground heat. We hope to partially power it from solar panels that will be installed at the same time. If you do have the land, then an air source heat pump is the better option. According to the suppliers, the ground source pump is no noisier than a large fridge, although the air source one is supposedly a bit noisier.

Evening all, A pretty busy today with a 5 mile walk this morning in cold dry and calm conditions. A few jobs done early afternoon and then watched some rugby on the tablet (Exeter putting on a dominant second half performance to be Leicester). This evening was a shopping evening as the cupboards were starting to look a bit empty! Now all restocked. We came home with some reduced bread and cakes, so I have made a bit of a dent into those since we got home! I was sent a most amusing (to me at least!) piece of video today. A short search found it on YouTube as well: Apologies if you have seen it before.

Afternoon all. No snow here today, although there was some just a few miles inland. The snow level on the fells is now considerably lower than the 2000 feet yesterday. Managed a one hour walk in the dry this morning. It then started to rain shortly after my return, and has rained since, so an unpleasant afternoon! Following a change of mobile provider, I had had two unsuccessful attempts on the O2 website to transfer my old number to them. Gave up in the end and phone their Customer Services. Sat in a queue for 30 minutes, but got it sorted then. I left the mobile on hands free while I did some work on the layout, so the 30 minutes weren’t wasted.