Some time ago Jill was interested in our local expression "It's a bit black over Bill's mothers" to indicate the likelihood of rain. The sky in Picture 1 is the sort of sky we mean.However, other contributors are invited to submit definitive examples. At the moment there are plenty of such skies about.
Although I lost my £1 to Y yesterday because the weather remained dry, I won it back today by backing Nadal to win in the Stella Artois Tennis final
A most affable and sportsmanlike young chap and, on the day, the better player triumphed.
Fathers' Day was good and I had calls and cards from the full complement of offspring. We had Barnsley Chops for lunch, with carrots, sweetheart cabbage, roast potatoes (desirée) mint sauce and sweetcorn. Melon for starter and peach chunks and ice-cream for pudding. Everything worked well except that the melon disappointed us. I know one is supposed to depress the end and sniff, which I did, but it was still not ripe.
No gravy - we are trying to avoid sauces etc., and eat modest meals. And it's working - Y has lost some pounds and so have I.
Picture 2 is Mr Bullfinch, today accompanied by Mrs Bullfinch, sitting on top of the feeder while her husband is inside, scoffing ! Rather like being left sitting outside the pub ! This morning I managed to grab a tripod and a longer lens. From the closed bedroom window though because if I opened the window they would be off. As you say Jill, taupe and grey but with the same distinctive black cap as the maleIncidentally, aren't crows timid creatures really? They visit the appropriate feeder but if there's the slightest movement close to the window they vanish. And they look so scary you would expect them to stand their ground as robins do.
We feel lucky to be visited by the bullfinches because, as comments show, some people haven't seen one for years. This morning David reminded me of my scaring them off the apple trees with an air-rifle when we lived in Mansfield.
The final picture is Karen, the jackal god, waving as their float walked by. It isn't the hauliers fault, but apparently 'elf & safety and astronomic insurance prevents them providing the flat-bed trucks as floats. As they traditionally have done in villages for decades.
Too many killjoys and jobsworths about aren't there?
You can just about see Karen, centre right, near the frame edge. We shall have to be patient till Tuesday to discover if they won.David and family are caravanning at the Blackwall Plantation and poor John was working and he tells me they are having trouble with fuel protesters and demos.
Comments..... Jill .... Clever you, and Bungus, to both get 'riant'. I was miles away and so was Y. The usual 'AC' for Bill ensnared me and wouldn't let go.
Bungus .... The answer to your question about the Carnival Day morning carboot sale "How did they find someone to take over the running? when Y stopped is simple. "They didn't. It just doesn't happen anymore".
Not so happy with my dongle now I've used it for some hours. The broadband it provides is very slow and clunky and, at 3am this morning, it told me that I had exhausted my permitted capacity! I researched it and found that although it is basically £15 per month, if I exceed my 'capacity' I have to pay per GB. I'll contact them in the morning but I feel it likely that I will send it back - there is a 14 day 'cooling off' period.
I'm sure you are right that blackcurrant attracts bullfinches but these things have always mystified me. Do bullfinches cruise around looking for black currants? A Metropolitan Police Inspector colleague once told me the strangest story. He and his wife had an eleventh floor apartment somewhere near Potters Bar, with a little balcony. They decided one year to grow a few broad beans in a trough. The growth was no problem but they got black fly !! How ? Are there swarms of black-fly reconnoitering North London, eleven floors up, on the off-chance of finding half a dozen broad bean plants ?
Tommy Cooper - Chic Murray - both great.
Quotation time ..... Spot on Ambrose (no - not the band leader).....
"There is nothing new under the sun but there are lots of old things we don't know".
3 comments:
Danny brought me a Father’s Day present which surprised me because I had forgotten (so I cannot blame anyone else for doing the same). It was accompanied by a nice card which I shall scan and email.
No gravy? That cuts out Yorkshire pud as well.
Your remark about ‘being left sitting outside the pub’ reminds me of a late Geordie member of the Welly Dominoes A Team. He married at 18 and his bride was only 16, so she had to sit on a wall outside the pub in her wedding dress, after the ceremony, while he went in for a three or four hour celebration with his marrers!
Shooting bullfinches, hey? All I ever potted was sparrows; and I was only 15.
Yes, H&S plus PC (not a constable) is making it very difficult to do anything, as Sandra was saying yesterday. By the time you have sorted out how to do it, it is oftenh too late.
Fuel protesters, hey? And aren’t the tanker drivers being greedy? A policeman’s lot is not a happy one.
Sorry to hear that you are suffering from dondle disappointment. Perhaps it is better used when there is no alternative; ie, as Rob (or is it Reg?)
Sandra tells me that the apple rose is:
FRANCIS LESTER
Large clusters of apple-blossom-pink blooms that fade to white, highlighted by attractive golden yellow stamens. Hips follow in the autumn. Bright rich green foliage. (Lester, US - 1946
It smells nice too!
Chic Murray:
“My wife had a go at me last night. She said: "You'll drive me to my grave." I had the car out in 30 seconds.”
Tommy Cooper:
“Apparently, 1 in 5 people in the world are Chinese. And there are 5 people in my family, so it must be one of them.
It's either my mum or my dad. Or my older brother Colin. Or my younger brother Ho-Cha-Chu.
But I think it's Colin." ”
Did you know that the word gullible isn’t in the dictionary?
I saw a marvellous 'black ovver Bill's movver's' sky a few weeks ago while returning from hospital.
Unfortunately, my camera batteries had run out!
Dongles, or mobile broadband, are (I think) still in their infancy so I expect the coonection service to improve over the next couple of years. I may be wrong, however, though I think both RG and Bungus are right. The benefit of the device is when you are on the move or away from home. They are not as good as a cable coming into the home, not yet anyway.
I was missing over the weekend as I was fairly busy, well fairly busy for me that is. We went to the caravan on Fri evening and, on Saturday, went to Wetherby in the morning and Portland College in the afternoon. I'm doing a bit of NVQ work for my previous employers and had to meet someone in Wetherby to talk about his NVQ (he lives and works in Newcastle).
The trip to Portland College was to check it out as a possible wedding reception venue. We liked it and have made a provisional booking. The BIG DAY will be 6th September; ceremony at Newstead Abbey in the afternoon (family members only) and an evening do at Portland (for friends as well). On Sunday afternoon, whilst Elaine was at work, I cleared out the darkroom which had become a mess. It took me two and a half hours but looks good now and makes me want to use it again.
I should imagine Chelsea supporters are delighted by the appointment of Big Phil as this gives the club a good chance of keeping their stars instead of them going off to Inter Milan. Whether they will still want Petr Cech after his fumbling last night remains to be seen. What a comeback that was by Turkey!
I have never heard the word riant so would have been forever mystified had not Jill and Bungus made the clue/answer easy to see. I don't do crosswords very often and cryptic ones tend to leave me confused, probably because I don't understand the language/jargon rules. It was only yesterday that I finally made the connection between butter and ram!!
I continue to be amazed at the sameness of the Tommy Murray and Chic Cooper quotes. Did anybody ever see them together?
Tonight we are going to La Tasca, a Spanish restaurant in Nottingham. It is Little Den's birthday and he is 65 today.
Photographer Den
Plumber, Toolmaker, Tory
Old Age Pensioner
Rob
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