Nice people thread 2 - now even nicer

misskool

tomterm8 wrote: »

That's not my main project for the day, though... I have been scything away at bramble and bracken... cleared around 150 square foot... quite good going, but very hard work. Trying to prevent the bracken spreading.

.

oooo....I always wanted a scythe.

Today I used the mattock we bought at the carboot last weekend to help dislodge a few small trees.

Most satisfying. Weeded about 100 strawberry plants out of the lawn. Never thought I'd say that :rotfl:

misskool

lemonjelly wrote: »

Well, my courgettes have come forward with a few HUGE yellow flowers!:)

Hoping they'll be bearing the first fruits of the harvest.

Actually, I'll be harvesting chives tomorrow.

male or female flowers? You know you can only get courgettes from the girly ones.

tomterm8

misskool wrote: »

oooo....I always wanted a scythe.

http://www.thescytheshop.co.uk/ . You really want an Austrian scythe, the traditional english varieties are nowhere near as easy to use. They are very knacky, you need to hold them at the correct angle. When you do, and the blade is sharp, a bramble busting blade it will cut through 2 year old trees quite easily. Get the smallest blade you can.

Mattocks... I have a hand mattock, but always wanted the real thing.

misskool

Hrms....I didn't realise it was that much work to keep the scythe going. The mattock is great, just absolutely makes a meal out of the clay soil.

Next on the list is an azada.

tomterm8

I've just googled it, and now I want one. Drat.

misskool

get one get one

You can use it to dig over the land you scythed today

Aspiring_Writer

Ellie2758 wrote: »

Hmm is possible yu should get a Carlton then AW, if a bed can be fitted into it so much the better eh?

Its a good job you're so subtle Ellie, otherwise people might think there's something 'going on' ...:D

Ellie2758

Now you're just bein silly AW . Get back to your garrett and write!

Aspiring_Writer wrote: »

Its a good job you're so subtle Ellie, otherwise people might think there's something 'going on' ...:D

Aspiring_Writer

lostinrates wrote: »

Carolt I think I'm finally getting open office to install on this lap top. So I'll have a word processing programme. Trying to type a book into ''notepad'' was never really gonna work.

LIR, I have Open office on mine, due to a system crash and not having original cd to reload MS Office. Openoffice is ok, but there is a facility on MS Office called readability statistics, which I find really useful when editing. It basically gives you an idea how many words, how many paragraphs, so far so so, but then it tells you how many words per sentence, should be around 12/13 but 16 is the max, a bit unwieldy at that length by then. Also, passive sentences, the benchmark is 3% - that means the maximum should be 3% - and finally, Flesch reading ease, the benchmark is 6O, which means plain English, which is defined by sentence length and the number of long words you use.

I dont know whether you want to write or not LIR, but if you do, there are a number of books you can read, which are interesting in any case, but you can learn a lot. In particular, The Elements of Style by Strunk & White is the writer's bible and The Ultimate Guide to Great Copywriting by Andy Maslen. The latter is, I appreciate not 100% relevant to all writers, but there are quite a few chapters which will teach you a lot, and on page 33 you will find reference to the hint I gave you earlier about writing a book for Carol.

Go for it though, as regards copyright and MSE, check! ....thats all I will say.

vivatifosi

tomterm8 wrote: »

You really want an Austrian scythe,

tomterm8 wrote: »

Mattocks... I have a hand mattock, but always wanted the real thing.

misskool wrote: »

Next on the list is an azada.

Mmm... Maybe the next incarnation could be called the nice people and old tools thread:D.