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PINEAPPLE we've got a few small flocks of house sparrows here, noisy and argumentative little blighters they are too, but they tend to hang out in the front hedges and never in the same place twice. My neighbour has a nesting pair, unfortunately under the front eves of the bungalow and they've been there for couple of years now, I think part of the problem is there is not enough natural food for them and thier natural habitat is becoming less and less every year, poor sparrows!!! Cheers Lyn xxx.0
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When out walking yesterday with the little ones and OH we spotted a pair of sparrows and remarked on it as you see so little of them.
LOL at TVL, how ca they take you to court without your full name and no evidence whatsoever. They are just like the debt collectors, letters full of what "may" happen to try to scare you into coughing up. Scum bags.
Personally I hate the licence fee and if it weren't for the kids we would go with iplayer and such and live without live tv. Why has every other area of public spending had to take a cut, but no cut in the LF. I would happily vote for any party that vowed within a month of getting into power they would half the LF.
Ali x"Overthinking every little thing
Acknowledge the bell you cant unring"0 -
Back from work, and what do I see as I'm making myself a cuppa? A blue jay! Sat in the tree looking at me! First time I'v seen a real 1, it's only been photo's before, I was surprised at how big it was:D, wonder what else is going to show up this year.
And we've got quite a few sparrow's round here, got 4 sparrow's,1 robin, 2 blue tit's,1 blackbird and a mouse nesting in the hedge at the back, come in handy living in the country and the neighbour's both side's feed the bird's, we darn't 'cause of adopt-a-cat, she's a devil for killing bird's and mice, surprised any stay here at all.£71.93/ £180.000 -
What a treat BOULT they are beautiful birds aren't they? We have quite a few round here and I love to see them busy in the autumn flying around with acorns and chestnuts to bury for thier winter food. The other thing we seem to have lots of are Green Woodpeckers and you see them on the grass verges by the roadside, occasionally if we are really lucky one comes in to the birch trees in my neighbours garden and we get to see it close up, another beauty too!!! Cheers Lyn xxx.0
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It was a nice surprise, normaly it's just the crow's,magpie's and pidgion's on the front, never seen a woodpecker, but we do get a falcon perching on the fence every now and again, it's one of last year's young and I don't think it's figured out yet that us human's are to be avoided in the general run of thing's 'cause we have thing's that can hurt 'em, ie: netting to protect fruit and adopt-a-cat.£71.93/ £180.000
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It's probably sat there eyeing you up as potential supper m'dear, like all young things over ambitious and huge appetite!!!!! It'll learn!!! Cheers Lyn xxx.0
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If you saw the size of me you'd know it was definetly over ambitious and suffering from eye's bigger than it's belly....£71.93/ £180.000
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Cornucopia wrote: »Believe or not, that is one of their standard letters. It means precisely nothing. I've personally forwarded it to various arbiters and authorities on these things and apparently it's okay for them to send it. Sickening.
99% of what they do is directed by the BBC. And the wording of every letter (including the "see you court" one, above) is approved by the BBC.It is bliddy sickening. It gets my goat that the BBC have a license at all. Other countries think we're barmy for putting up with it. The New Zealanders staged a popular revolt and got rid of theirs years ago. Funny how that was not reported in this country.
My pal the Computer Wizard is a freelance IT pro and spends all his working hours looking at pooter screens and doesn't even own a telly. He was menaced by TV Licensing more than a decade ago and told them amiably (he's a very amiable fellow) that he'd be delighted to wait in for one of their people to check his home for TVs. Subject to them paying his daily fee (several hundred pounds) in advance.
Funnily enough, they didn't take him up on that and have never bothered him since.:rotfl:
And this is the BBC who pays no end of its staff silly salaries and keeps them off-payroll to shirk taxes and employer's NICs, which operates as a profitmaking company when it suits them, whilst simulatenously draining down the household incomes of tens of millions of people, many of whom can hardly spare it. Grrr!!!!On a happier note, the sparrows are all in my Nan's back garden. Lovely several-hundred year old hedge between her garden and a field and it's heaving with them. Barely see them elsewhere.
The commonest bird heard across the lottie is the great tit, closely followed by the seagull. Bygorry, they're noisy beggars, aren't they? And I had a magpie in the elder having a major tantrum yesterday but I couldn't see what was setting it off. I do like it when the robins help my gardening efforts by picking up the nasties as I unearth them.Re mood/ the feeling in the air etc, I'm a pragmatic sort of soul, not given to either dark nights of the soul or pollyanna-ish optimism. I've known years without work (too ill) and know that I could be back in that situation again. I have a modest little job and the bills are paid and some extra salted away for a rainy day.
I like having considered the What ifs....? What if the gas/ leccy/water goes off? What would happen if my bank account was frozen? What if the government gets into some creative accounting to balance the books and wants to do a Cyprus?
Having thought it through, and made some reasonable level of preps, I feel calm and rested, the very reverse of stressed and fearful.
I think that the trouble is that we've had several generations of comfort, ease and protection from the worst consequences of unwise personal choices. This has led to complacency in many people, and what I consider to be a babyish sense that there is someone called THEY who is all-powerful and all-benign and who will kiss our boo-boos and make it all better.
If I'm ever tempted towards this mode of thinking, I look at politicians. These are the numbskulls who will be deciding all the really important things when the rubble starts bouncing.
Since they give every appearance of not being able to find their rears with both hands and a map, in the best of times, I very much doubt they will grow backbones and manage a crisis on our behalf.
Most likely scenario is that they'll be on the first plane out, such as the English government-in-exile briefly mentioned in a book called Untied Kingdom (very good incidentally, a post-SHTF novel with a twist) by James Lovegrove; they were governing from Bermuda, apparently.
England had done something unspecifiedly awful, referred to in passing as the Unfortunate Gamble, and had been bombed and emgargo'd back into nearly the Middle Ages by the international community. But only England; Scotland, Wales and Cornwall had been spared and closed the borders to the wretched English.
Tell thee, I shall never feel quite the same about Lewisham........Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.
John Ruskin
Veni, vidi, eradici
(I came, I saw, I kondo'd)
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what I consider to be a babyish sense that there is someone called THEY who is all-powerful and all-benign and who will kiss our boo-boos and make it all better.
This'd be the same "they" that my aged mother earnestly believes simply wouldn't allow things like aspartame to be added to food if there was the slightest shred of evidence or even suspicion that it might be harmful... nor would they "allow" GM foods if there were any doubt at all, nor can payday loan companies be as bad as I think they are, if they're allowed on the High Street, etc. etc. The idea of they has been around for a long time; it's almost as if people want to believe in them.
For a brief time in my 20s I actually was one of "them" as in a civil servant in a certain London location. And I can tell you that whilst they individually very probably have no evil intent at all, most of them are really rather busy protecting their own backs, playing safe, calculating the likely effects of any given statement or decision on those who are patently desperate to step into their shoes, and generally playing Machiavellian games to see outside the little boxes they've constructed for us to live in.
ETA: on reflection, if asked, I think my mother would say that it's all part of the Social Contract. You work hard, you pay your taxes & NI, you behave well & look after those less fortunate than yourself, and in return Society (which They are employed by) looks after you, particularly when you are in need. And I rather think that an awful lot of people make that assumption, and that makes them fairly easy to manipulate when they think that Other People aren't Putting Anything In...Angie - GC Aug25: £106.61/£550 : 2025 Fashion on the Ration Challenge: 26/68: (Money's just a substitute for time & talent...)0 -
The trouble with these kinds of unwritten social contracts is that there is no one you can hold to account when some future government decides to renege on the deal. One will be left like a devasted child wailing It's not fair!
I don't recall hearing much of a buzz when unemployment pay was dropped from 12 months to 6 months before it was means-tested. Which meant that a lot of partnered people suddenly lost out; one is taxed as if a singleton but supported as a dependant in a couple when it suits TPTB.
And yes, I entirely agree with you about setting sections of society against each other by rubbing the noses of the rule-playing hardworking majority into the messes of the p-taking bone-idle minority.
I do see a fair amount of RL stuff which would easily meet the Daily Wail's criteria for a dishonest-claimant-benefit-bashing headline article, and wish that those people who abuse the system had a moment's consideration for the rest of the vulnerable in society, who will bear the brunt of attempts to clampdown on dishonesty. Some poor souls have committed suicide already.:(Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.
John Ruskin
Veni, vidi, eradici
(I came, I saw, I kondo'd)
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