Awful weather - typical Brits talk

pink_poppy

Another windy day yesterday, but at least the power stayed on. I realised on Friday when the power was out that my candle holders and candles (mostly tealights) were not that effective at lighting up the room. The fire gave off the most light and a couple of large Yankee candles helped. I also managed to find my 'Lord of the Rings' Christmas candle holder from the understairs cupboard using my phone torch, as that holds larger tealights that give off a bit more light. I love candlelight, but when it's the only source of light it felt too gloomy and I found myself yearning for daylight.

Another issue was my phone. I'd just put it on to charge when the power went out and I only had 45% battery. This was just for using the torch on it because we didn't have a signal. We have a couple of power banks, but unfortunately I discovered that the charger for my new phone doesn't fit either of them. I knew charging my phone in the car was a problem and I think there's an adaptor I can buy, but of course I hadn't got round to doing that.

Suffice to say, I need to start reading the 'prepping' thread I've seen somewhere on MSE and buy myself some proper candles, but thank goodness for a decent supply of red wine and access to music    

Anyway, it'll soon be time to start picking rhubarb


Another yellow weather warning for wind today and feels cold at 3 degrees.

YoungBlueEyes

I'm another one that could watch the sea for hours wort, isn't it mesmeric. Even if the sea's rough I think the rhythm of it is calming Like Dusty's first one - with no people or dogs - that's properly atmospheric. Lovely.

Your cosy evening sounds lovely pp. The very definition of "every cloud has a silver lining" eh

Did I miss it, or are you no further forward with your free filbert tree Farway? Did you get your sedums up? 

I absolutely agree Arb, there's nothing like line dried clothes when it's been good and windy Did you get your cuppa in the garden? It really is the little things eh. 

Things like that are so much easier when you've got a decent neighbour eh gb.  Did dog think ball in garden was an acceptable substitute for a walk..? 

I had to look up the name for baby owls and turns out my brain already knew it - owlets :rolleyes:  The collective noun for them is a parliament, and I'm nearly sure I knew that too ha haa! You can't leave your insult story there! What did you say? Yep I'm on good form cos the neighbour's are silent. The Oracle says she's left again, for the very last time, this is it and she's NOT JOKING! She took dog with her so he's gone to find her. Dunno. Anyway it's quiet next door, that's the main thing. And I'm that relieved Cissie et al came through the storm. And himself is away on site next week, he's off to Cardiff to do somethings. If anyone in that area sees a tall grey haired fellah in a van asking for directions you're not to steer him wrong. It's Mean, Not Funny, and bad for your karma   Do you think you'll stick with your wee house now then? Sometimes it's better the devil you know..

Which reminds me, did anyone see the Yorkshire Post yesterday? There's a good Rottery Acres for sale! I'll go get a link.

OT cold. Cold and bright and a bit breezy. They reckon it's 2' feeling like -4' which seems about right. Rain twirling up this way this aft after it's finished with you suvveners. In theory I ought to get some gardening done, I spose.

YoungBlueEyes

Rottery Acres.  I don't know what that 'selling it off in lots' nonsense is about, I want all of it or I don't want any of it.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/157030925#/?channel=RES_BUY

Dustyevsky

pink_poppy said:

 thank goodness for a decent supply of red wine and access to music   

You have your priorities right... .apart from the need for more candles, torches etc. Out here in the sticks, we've half a dozen rechargeable head torches, plus a few hundred tea lights and candles. While we'd hope not to use any in an emergency setting, the daft energy policies followed now make that increasingly likely, never mind the weather!  We're still short of a good paraffin lantern. There are cheapie Chinese ones, but those can leak, apparently, and a strong, more reliable model is about £60 and up.

I recall the student solution in the 1970s: a half jam jar of paraffin with a string wick pulled through a small hole punched in the lid.  Hmmm....they didn't leak and we survived!

Horribly wet and windy again here, though at 04.00, when I made a bathroom pilgrimage, there was no hint of what was coming. Then, the sky was clear and hardly a breath of wind. It looks as if we are in for 3 more days of this nonsense too.

Sorry, Bluey, that estate looks humungous and totally unmanageable to me! It's open to the riff-raff as well.:# And why are they selling it after only 700 years? I bet there's a backstory.

It's supposed to be the big garden bird survey weekend, but no self-respecting bird's going to be abroad in this gale. We've taken all the feeders in again too. Do we cheat and fill in the response on a different day? According to a certain broadcaster, Brits are becoming more dishonest. That's hardly surprising, when they spend so much time relating how our leaders are engaging in morally dubious practices. Then, the people who tell us this, exit stage left, having been caught out themselves! 

There's nothing nefarious about the only new picture I can find relating to recent garden bird spotting. It's a poor photo of a Long Tailed Tit, which paid an all-too-brief visit last week. The fact that the tail goes behind the pole,  makes it look even longer!

wort

Pops hail dropped in on its way up, just as I had put the wash on, luckily it was just a shower and dried well. We had sun and blue sky but it’s was deceptive as it was bitter cold. Dsis and I had a mooch for cards then called for chips, dropped books at the book cycle, then had chat.
last night was db s birthday so out for food and wine. Today is overcast and windy with rain forcast coming from Dusty’s neck of the woods.

wort

PP glad to hear you’re safe, it’s scary when it sounds like the roof might blow off! What about those camping lanterns I think they use leds now and are quite bright. 

One of the reasons I don’t buy new leads and battery packs is because I don’t know which usb mine is and if it will fit. Why they can’t have an adapter that’s universal I don’t know 🤷‍♀️ actually I do , money.
Enjoy the peace and quiet YBE long may it last.

greenbee

No, YBE, he did NOT think that chasing the ball in the garden was a good substitute for a walk. Nor was yesterday's day of gardening/ball throwing/short walks. But I needed to get the garden waste bins filled and some more of the veg plot cleared.

It's freezing this morning, so we've had one short walk, but I suspect other walks will be curtailed by the wind arriving at lunchtime. And I need to go out and buy a couple of bits before then (petrol station the other side of the main road will do). 

I've had some work done on my drains recently (improving the airflow by removing the durgo on the soil stack at the end of the run and replacing it with an open vent above the eaves, removing the vents on the two soil stacks between that and the septic tank, and adjusting the fall on the final run of drain into the tank). The smell seems to have improved (I haven't lifted any of the drain covers or the tank covers as I really can't face yet more time spent looking down drains) but there's either still a faint whiff or I'm just paranoid. 

I do think I probably need to switch to a treatment plant sometime soon, so I'm going to register for a free local scheme which may cover me if enough other people in the village apply. I'm not keen on the disruption, but I think it needs to be done sometime in the next few years anyway - and free is better than paying. I've currently got a two-tank klargester system, that's probably around 30-35 years old. There's a pump in the second chamber, and the leach field is under the drive. I did wonder whether the pump is because the leach field is getting clogged. But I've also realised that either there is no vent pipe on the system, or it's been covered up by the grass - I need to work out which. 

Part of the problem is that the vent for the stove in the sitting room draws air from the drive into the house, which means any smell from the tank ... 

I'm also considering trying some bacterial treatment to see whether that helps, but there appear to be rather a lot of options to navigate!

YoungBlueEyes

Yeah that Rottery Acres is a kinda big Dusty but we'd just keep the staff on to maintain it. I reckon there's a good backstory there too, bet we'll never know it though. And look at you using "abroad" proper!  

I don't do that birdwatch thing, but I might do it next year. I keep hearing more new (to me) birds, well my phone app does. There was an unusually deep sonorous sound last night and I thought it was an animal in bother. Turns out it was a Great Bittern... unsettling sort of sound it was My blackie-a-trois is on the go again, and I'm sure I saw a mistlethrush yesterday morning too. 

Wort take your thing with you when you go shopping for another lead/battery etc. IME folks in shops are endlessly helpful when if you're dumb as a post and you're open about it  

Gb by bacterial treatment options, do you mean like badger or fox or a couple of peasants? Or whatever you can scrape up off the roads round you. They're all the same aren't they Dusty  

Farway

Dull & windy, with Dusty's rain due very soon, he has a lot to answer for, with me & Wort getting his leftovers

wort said:

PP glad to hear you’re safe, it’s scary when it sounds like the roof might blow off! What about those camping lanterns I think they use leds now and are quite bright. 

I've got one of those, it's extremely bright and mine has a sliding sleeve thingy to dim it down & prevent eyeball scorching

You lost me Greenbee on sewage , but it sounds expensive & PIA, but not literally I hope. 

PP, rhubarb! I'll have to look for mine, still in pot, but hope to get into the ground this year.

Rottery Acres, that one would require more than a Rottery win, but it does look splendid, would Rachel want her share though?

2P, sounds like your wee house is the Devil you know, not sure about you, but I just couldn't bear to start over again, with all the hassle, buying etc, then finding you have a Leach Field, or not !

I was another around when appraisals started, then they went for 360 degree ones or similar waffle. 

My boss was flummoxed with my response to the “where do you see yourself in XX years” question, I replied “Retired” which scuppered all the ways I could improve my mediocre performance

YoungBlueEyes said:

Did I miss it, or are you no further forward with your free filbert tree Farway? Did you get your sedums up? 

The Filbert is due for collection 22 Feb, not free, subsidised & funded by UK Government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund. A bit back from my taxes.

Sedums, the sun did come out, and I got them up, and planted the Rosa Car Parkii grown from cuttings last year. Lots of lovely roots in the pot, so I have every hope it will do well, and the rain due over the next few days will get it settled in.

I was hoping the weather would hold off, so I can get an achillea in, it's in a pot so OK for time

Also need to check if my few aquilegias from seed made it through winter, I can get them in if OK

Last sunset pic with decent weather

Spot the typo

LessImpecunious

gb wondering when you last had your tank emptied? We didn't for a long time as the previous owner told us he never bothered and it all sorted itself out, resorting to well-known (or at least advertised) brand of bacterial treatments which I convinced myself for a while sort-of worked - then last spring, having got sick of having to rod the pipe to the tank and deciding the drain field was maybe blocked irreparably called in the emptiers  -  and it has been fine since There was one day of suspect smell after several days of heavy rain, when tank level went up a bit (peering through hole at top), but that went away/down again promptly.

YBE think a Great Bittern unlikely https://www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happening/news/bitterns-booming-up-north but if it was it might be a new record!