Nice People Thread Number 11 - A Treasury of Nice People

vivatifosi

I really shouldn't have read Dr Seuss before watching the Queen's Speech and seeing all those Lords in their red and white robes. I am getting a whole different image from the serious one I'm supposed to have.

vivatifosi

Re model villages and alcohol...

I have heard that similar constraints were placed upon the building of Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City.

In Letchworth, a ban on selling alcohol in public places was in place until the 1950s though there were earlier pubs on the outskirts that continued to sell booze. Again, Letchworth had strong Quaker roots.

Welwyn Garden City is known for its lack of pubs for a town of its size, which was laid down by Ebenezer Howard in his initial plans as temperance was seen as an ideal at the time. He was also responsible for the design of Letchworth and is buried there.

I think Welwyn Garden City has one of the nicest looking town centres in Hertfordshire. St Albans is pretty, but it is also congested and tight to get around, whereas WGC is pretty and beautifully laid out with big parks and the most decadent roundabout (with a park in the middle).

Generali

Wasn't there some town in Essex/Suffolk that had no pubs until a few years ago?

Certainly, I recall people talking about dry valleys in Wales and when I was a kid, large parts of rural Wales wouldn't open the pubs on a Sunday I think.

I once told an Irish mate that I was going for a nice meal out with booze on Good Friday. He looked at me like I'd told him I was off to shag his Mum!

GDB2222

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Yossie fell out of a window in our second floor flat when I was 8 months pregnant with Isaac, and scared the living daylights out of me. I squeaked until OH got out of bed, put some clothes on, and went to find him.

He was fine. Bruised leg and chin, otherwise completely OK. He'd wandered in to a nearby doorway and waited for OH to come and collect him.



:grouphug:



He does. He's Daniel Mark <surname>.

Are you on the same anti-biotics as Lady GDB? Are you both feeling on the mend?

Is yossie a cat?

Give Daniel my love.

I am not on antibiotics, as I was not quite ill enough. DW qualified by having very low blood pressure, a racing pulse, and high temperature. She was treated for acute septicaemia and was given around 15 litres of IV fluids, mostly saline. The annoying thing is that she now feels better than I do. So, the treatment worked.

Gen, my thoughts are with you.

zagubov

vivatifosi wrote: »

Re model villages and alcohol...

I have heard that similar constraints were placed upon the building of Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City.

In Letchworth, a ban on selling alcohol in public places was in place until the 1950s though there were earlier pubs on the outskirts that continued to sell booze. Again, Letchworth had strong Quaker roots.

Welwyn Garden City is known for its lack of pubs for a town of its size, which was laid down by Ebenezer Howard in his initial plans as temperance was seen as an ideal at the time. He was also responsible for the design of Letchworth and is buried there.

I think Welwyn Garden City has one of the nicest looking town centres in Hertfordshire. St Albans is pretty, but it is also congested and tight to get around, whereas WGC is pretty and beautifully laid out with big parks and the most decadent roundabout (with a park in the middle).

The city fathers in Glasgow were very anti-alcohol. Large areas of the south had almost no pubs whatsoever. Castlemilk was a huge council estate as big as Perth and allegedly the only drink licence was in the local Conservative Club.

The result was the night buses were full of obnoxious drunks coming home from the pubs in the city centre. Pretty awful, and to be avoided.

zagubov

Generali wrote: »

Wasn't there some town in Essex/Suffolk that had no pubs until a few years ago?

Certainly, I recall people talking about dry valleys in Wales and when I was a kid, large parts of rural Wales wouldn't open the pubs on a Sunday I think.

I once told an Irish mate that I was going for a nice meal out with booze on Good Friday. He looked at me like I'd told him I was off to shag his Mum!

When I was at Uni, the pubs didn't open on Sundays. Nothing at all did, except hotels. For my first year of uni we avoided the nearest pub as it was men-only. Other pubs had a small section by the entrance called the Snug where women guests could sit but the main bar would be for men only. Within a year. that had all been changed and the laws for opening hours for pubs and shops were liberalised much more than here in London. Before that they had to close from aboout 2-5PM in the afternoon, and at 10PM at night.

The students union was technicaly a private club and it was always mobbed because (a) nobody asked your age and all the 17-year old fiirst year students could get drinks there and (b) it had extended hours.

lostinrates

Btw last night I dreamt of low sugar praline chocolate with booze stacked cherries and stuff in it. Kind of like a huge Easter egg, but not. It was branded as 'wild harvest' and was in the shape of a deer in front of a sheave. It was VERY big. I had it on a trolley like you get in a DIY shed. And in a sci fi twist, I could sort of shrink it down but it would slowly grow again to full size where it really wanted to be. ( shhh michaels).


Anyway. The chocolate stuff looks like its here to torment me for a while.

vivatifosi

I remember being told by my Dad (in a concern for daughter rather than sexist way) that if I was to go out with my friends, I should go into the saloon bar rather than the public bar and sit at a table rather than at the bar. How things have changed...

Funnily enough, one of his good friends for years was the stepmother of a local MP, a formidable woman with a background in law, who would think nothing of sitting at the bar with all of the guys and holding her own with all of them. She was amazing and a great role model. When I met her she told me that as a young woman I should follow my ideals and not think of myself as bound by class or gender. One of those people you didn't have to meet many times for them to make an impact on your life.

vivatifosi

Good people of the NPT thread, I'd like some advice please.

I don't use my garden very often and it has a tendency to overgrow. DH doesn't sit out there because he gets terrible hayfever and has ended up in hospital. I don't sit out there. It is just there and unused.

Presently we have a lawn and two patios. We're looking to replace the lawn (which in reality is very weedy so more of a meadow) and are scoping out options. I have a friend who is a garden designer and will mock up some ideas for me once I know what I want. I have three ideas on the table currently:

1. Replace the main turf area with astroturf and add flower beds round the side to be planted with low maintenance plants.
2. Similar to 1, but using a gravel or slate base instead.
3. Have a non-grassed garden, but with a series of flower beds and paths. This will require more maintenance than 1 or 2, but planting will be carefully selected.

Main garden area is about 25' by 18' with the patios either end, so not massive. I can't easily leave it as it is as it is hard for me to maintain.

Constraints:
I currently have a lot of birds, butterflies and bees visiting the garden and retaining these, in particular the song birds is important.
There are cats in the neighbourhood who quite like pooing in my garden, so I'd like to add plants that cats don't like. I may also look at putting a fine net over the astroturf or gravel/paths to stop cats using the garden.

What would you do if you were me? What plants would you use? How would you lay out the garden? I don't have a huge budget, it is more to get it low maintenance without impacting on the wildlife or having to clean up cat poo.

lostinrates

vivatifosi wrote: »

Good people of the NPT thread, I'd like some advice please.

I don't use my garden very often and it has a tendency to overgrow. DH doesn't sit out there because he gets terrible hayfever and has ended up in hospital. I don't sit out there. It is just there and unused.

Presently we have a lawn and two patios. We're looking to replace the lawn (which in reality is very weedy so more of a meadow) and are scoping out options. I have a friend who is a garden designer and will mock up some ideas for me once I know what I want. I have three ideas on the table currently:

1. Replace the main turf area with astroturf and add flower beds round the side to be planted with low maintenance plants.
2. Similar to 1, but using a gravel or slate base instead.
3. Have a non-grassed garden, but with a series of flower beds and paths. This will require more maintenance than 1 or 2, but planting will be carefully selected.

Main garden area is about 25' by 18' with the patios either end, so not massive. I can't easily leave it as it is as it is hard for me to maintain.

Constraints:
I currently have a lot of birds, butterflies and bees visiting the garden and retaining these, in particular the song birds is important.
There are cats in the neighbourhood who quite like pooing in my garden, so I'd like to add plants that cats don't like. I may also look at putting a fine net over the astroturf or gravel/paths to stop cats using the garden.

What would you do if you were me? What plants would you use? How would you lay out the garden? I don't have a huge budget, it is more to get it low maintenance without impacting on the wildlife or having to clean up cat poo.

For your wildlife? Low maintainaince flower beds, plants chosen for them.

AstroTurf would be frightful of
R them, the worst option. ( and I undesrstand when animal excrement gets in the mix it can be unpleasant to deal with)

Do you know there are non cut lawn options? Chamomile for sunny areas, moss for shadey ones ( I'd love a moss lawn so much) .

I have a book on non grass lawns if you care for the details of it to borrow from a library near you :DI can find it and give them to you.