BS: All welcome on this thread

Subject: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 20 Aug 17 - 12:55 PM

...provided that you are polite and not here just to argue. Anything goes apart from that. How long can we keep it going?

Just been over to Manchester to clear up round the grave that my Dad's ashes are going in in a couple of weeks. There was a crew of men there, of all ages, with words to the effect of 'putting back into the community' on their hi-viz jackets. They said they would do a major clear up of the area tomorrow. I have no reason to suppose they will not. In general I find people are good and helpful as long as you are friendly with them.

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Will Fly
Date: 20 Aug 17 - 01:25 PM

One of my long-standing projects - one which I've pursued for nearly 40 years - is photographing my village: streets, houses, pubs, churches, the countryside, etc. So I regularly walk the streets and footpaths, camera on my shoulder, shooting what catches my eye.

I very often get into conversation with householders in or near their houses - mainly because they're curious about what I'm doing. I always respond with a question about their property, and give them a "business" card which advertises my website about the village. Just to allay any fears...

I've had some great conversations - and got some great photos from being invited through the front gate and into the grounds. (I never take photographs inside the houses). Only this morning I had a 20-minute conversation with the owner of a 16th-century house, with him talking animatedly about its history and what he'd had done to it over during his 20-year ownership. Fascinating stuff.

Motto: Take an interest in people and their interests, and you'll learn some wonderful things.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 20 Aug 17 - 01:33 PM

"Just been over to Manchester to clear up round the grave that my Dad's ashe"
My grandfather, a Liverpudlian, donated his body to medical science
Two years after his death, we received a letter informing us that what was left of him would be buried in Didsbury Cemetery
I don't think he ever visited Manchester in his life
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 20 Aug 17 - 01:41 PM

I spent Friday and Saturday babysitting my 16 month old grandson, who lives about two and a half hours drive away. We talked a lot about shapes (which let to a fb chat with a goodly number of relatives and friends about how the word 'rectangle' dies fit with the other shape names); I spent much of the time buried beneath an ever increasing pile of toys he kept bringing. We sang lots of nursery rhymes and morris tunes and discussed geometric series (which he didnt quite grasp the final details of, but no matter)


His mother is Italian so reading his books was challenging

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 20 Aug 17 - 01:47 PM

Lovely, cousin McGnome :-) Just had my grandsons over for the weekend. Bit older than yours at 6 and 8 years old but great fun. Going back to believing that people are intrinsically good I think you only need to watch children for a while to see that they harbour no preconceptions or in-built prejudice against anyone. We could learn a lot from them.

Wes it Crosby, Stills and Nash that included the lyric 'Teach your parents well'?

:D tG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Mr Red
Date: 20 Aug 17 - 02:18 PM

In my town (3,500 inhabitants) people do talk but rarely about my photographing the town. There is a project to archive images for 2017. My take is to photograph the minutia. When you see old photos it is inevitable that your eye goes to features. ie minutia/social history.
House Names
Miscelaneous - eg boot scrapers see "iron on buildings"
Business Hoardings
Wall Art (including Yarn Bombing)

and in the greater area (Stroud, Gloucestershire) I do talk to people, at bus stops, via contacts and at drop-in centres. The interesting recordings of life in the old days* are edited to 2 minutes that usually is about one or two subjects.
Stroud Voices (search engine) (I have seeded it with- "courting"!)

*specific to Stroud before about 1970

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 20 Aug 17 - 03:04 PM

Wishing that Mudcstter Senoufou, also known as Eliza, would join in. This is the kind of conversation that she favored and she has much to contribute, wherever she is now. Miss her much.
And her lovely Cote d'Ivoire husband.
And her two male Siamese cats.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 21 Aug 17 - 03:59 AM

Anyone else want to contribute to a non-argumentative and polite thread? I am sure many would enjoy it.

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Mr Red
Date: 21 Aug 17 - 04:03 AM

an interesting thought - the thread on longevity implies that being nice to people helps with the subject. Though social media are not big predictors (if at all).

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 21 Aug 17 - 05:11 AM

I saw that Mr R - Good news for those of us with a social disposition. Not so good for the ant-social ones :-(

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 21 Aug 17 - 05:40 AM

The first two days of the folk festival have been a joy. Saturday morning involved a constant stream of tea and coffee to friends who dropped in to say hello ......... and take advantage of the parking behind our house and the music has been great. Saturday afternoon saw us in the Waiting Room and the Black Horse in the evening. Yesterday we decamped to Glaisdale for a fantastic session in the Arncliffe Arms and then the Blach Horse last night.

More to follow today.................

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 21 Aug 17 - 07:16 AM

See you on Wednesday! :-)

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Pete from seven stars link
Date: 21 Aug 17 - 08:33 AM

I remember you posting your pics awhile back will fly and enjoying touring your village on the cat !

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 21 Aug 17 - 10:45 AM

They were very good indeed. Let's have more! Anyone with such a hobby should share it here and let the 'cat enjoy the fruits of our labours :-)

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: JHW
Date: 21 Aug 17 - 02:19 PM

Ref Will Fly post and Mr Red. As a junior electricity board engineer I laid on removal of supply to properties that were coming down so having this advance warning I would take photos of them, polaroids back then. Alas as I moved on the project faded and I've just been reminded of it.
It is important that areas are photographed in every era or there will be nothing to look back on.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Will Fly
Date: 22 Aug 17 - 04:28 AM

Places change constantly. New roads, new houses, changes of business, repairs and repaints, etc., are all part of it. The seasons bring their own changes as common lands and agricultural fields are filled with grasses and crops, and trees blossom and then close up for the winter.

Recording all this can seem a little obsessive at times, but - looking back over the years - it's like seeing a film of a village in slow motion. I've always been an amateur photographer, and still have my old Pentax S1a 35mm SLR and various lenses. When cassette cameras, digital cameras and the like came in, I also had several of those over the years. However, I realised after retirement some years ago that it was all too easy to relax in a chair with a guitar or the laptop - and get no exercise. So out came the camera really as an excuse to walk regularly - and to walk with a purpose. Then, about two years ago, I got fed up with the compact digital and had a yen to return to an SLR where I could have complete control over focus, aperture, shutter speed, etc. - just like the old days.

I now use a moderately expensive Canon DSLR with a "kit" zoom lens (18mm-135mm), which does me fine. And, more to the point, I shoot in RAW - which allows me complete control over the post-production with Adobe Lightroom software. For those non-camera buffs, RAW is the unprocessed file taken by the camera, containing all the information needed to create a JPG. Compact camera software creates a JPG according to the software in its chip, and you have very little overall control of it once the picture's been taken. Lightroom and RAW, together, are the equivalent of taking, developing, fixing and printing in the old darkroom process.

But that's a huge digression from the original point - which is the people I've met, the conversations I've had, the hidden places I've been to while doing all this - just from casual conversations and being interested in other people!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Will Fly
Date: 22 Aug 17 - 04:36 AM

For those who want to see one or two pictures in high resolution (the website with my photos compresses uploaded images), I have some full-size photographs. There's a page of thumbnails of them here, all taken over the last two years with the Canon:

High resolution images of Henfield

This page contains links to a few selected, high-resolution photographs taken from my archive of many hundreds of Henfield images. The images are held on a separate server, allowing me to display photos of a greater file size. Click on a thumbnail below to display the photo in a separate browser window - then click on any area of the the displayed photo to see it in extra detail. Clicking on the photo caption will take you to the relevant page of information about the subject.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 22 Aug 17 - 04:45 AM

I have a Fuji 'bridge' camera that does raw - Must have a play! Thanks Will.

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Will Fly
Date: 22 Aug 17 - 04:58 AM

Good luck with RAW, Dave. Adobe Lightroom - like most modern Adobe graphics products - is now only available with a monthly subscription, and it's impossible to buy the up-to-date version of Lightroom. (I use a Mac laptop with 10.6.8 OS).

However, I managed to find and buy a CD of Lightroom 4 for a Mac with my old operating system - on eBay - and it works fine. There are alternatives to Lightroom, by the way.

I don't know how your Fuji operates - I've got a couple of Finepix compacts - but the Canon produces RAW files in a format called CR2. This is a Canon version of RAW which has to be converted into DNG (digital negative) format for use within Lightroom. So be aware of that,

The other point to note is that RAW files are fairly massive - around 50Mb each - and computer hard drive storage can get eaten into pretty quickly! The resulting JPGs produced from Lightroom are also between 10Mb-15Mb each, so you could just keep those and trash the original RAW files. I keep both, however, and store them on two separate 8Tb external hard drives - backed up immediately.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 22 Aug 17 - 05:11 AM

Will, A word of caution. A few years ago I was tasked with collating and storing all company records which, because of the nature of the business, had to be kept for a minimum of 80 years.

During this work I had a long meeting with a Kodak rep. The upshot of which was that he couldn't guarantee that digital photographs of the files could be kept for such a period.

However microfiche could be kept, or so it was calculated for 500 years.

Hopefully your record of the village will at some point be made available publically. So my advice would be stick to film and an SLR

Cheers

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 22 Aug 17 - 05:11 AM

On excessive precautions for photos. I went on a trip of a lifetime a few years back and decided I needed every bit of security i could come uo with, so ended up taking a 64Gb memory card for every morning and evening, eight spare batteries, a second camera and a portable hard disk sdcard backp gadget. Then when I got home I backed everything up to an ftp area and the cloud and a secondary 2Tb drive. At that is all in addition to my normal nightly backup to the cloud.

It is not as if the photos are that specual, but they are mine!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Will Fly
Date: 22 Aug 17 - 06:03 AM

Indeed, Raggytash - many of my photographs have had hard copies printed on archival paper - which is another way of preserving them.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 Aug 17 - 12:30 PM

The good news is that you folks are still here.

The other news is that I can't say a thing about photography.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 22 Aug 17 - 04:32 PM

Yesterday was a bit of a non event in Whitby, no doubt in some part to my excesses's over the first two days, and in some part to the fact it was Regatta Monday.

Today started off quietly but built up into a very pleasant day. Time for food and some sleep however.

Tomorrow is a new day !!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 22 Aug 17 - 05:06 PM

I hope to be setting off from Haworth by 11 but with the best will in the world that is likely to be nearer to 12. 3 hours-ish to Whitby. Set up camp for the girls - an hour. In the pub by 4. So theory has it...

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 Aug 17 - 05:48 PM

See the BS thread on author Robin Jarvis
regarding his latest Whitby iteration.
Written for 'tweens and young adults,
suitable for families
(who don't mind some "Goose-Bumps" style horror)

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Mr Red
Date: 23 Aug 17 - 04:14 AM

So my advice would be stick to film and an SLR

Digital cameras have a few options that film struggles with. I document my town (aka village with excellent shopping) for 2017 have 2000 pics on-line, some of which are of overhead. The only way to get these shots of moving objects is to point and hope. But with digital I can point and shoot 20 times and select the best one, discard the rest. With film you would struggle to get 4 in and have to re-point the camera each time.

Then there is the notion of saving to the "cloud". It will survive even the "kids' clear out".

And how are you going to lighten, crop, zoom? In a darkroom that you don't have?

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Aug 17 - 10:39 AM

I never go anywhere without two cameras. One is my iPhone 6S, fabulous in emergencies and remarkably good at getting decently lit pics. Of course, you can't really zoom. My other is a titchy little Canon Ixus 285HS. It has built-in wifi so that I can upload my pics on to my iPad, thence into the Cloud, after every trip. I can zoom in and take smashing little videos with it. But here's the rub: I can shove it into the pocket of my shorts. I do know that they can't hold a candle to modern DSLRs. I admire you guys with you DSLRs and interchangeable lenses and filters. I dabbled in that meself for a year or two many moons ago in the pre-digital days, but the hassle of carrying it all around and the sheer bulk of the camera were no good for me. I'm very much a hands-free rambler and the only thing I'll ever countenance around my neck is my tiny pair of Olympus 8x25 PCI bins, even then not if I don't have to. I've got pair of DDR-made Carl Zeiss Jena 8x30 that I've had for forty years which are greatly superior (they are the genuine article, not a cheap fake copy), but they're also three times the weight so they stay at home for astronomy and birdwatching in the garden.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 23 Aug 17 - 01:50 PM

My main camera is a bridge, a Sony a6000. This is a fair bit larger than most compacts, but when one of the smaller lens is in use it still fits happily in my pocket. The main disadvantage I find over a full SLR is that the range of lens isn't huge. I am not a serious photographer, so I think the most expensive lens I have was around £200.   For those who don't know about such things, a friend is a keen photographer and recently spent £10,000 on a glass (when you are that serious you don't call them lenses!)

If you are entering a photo in a competition, I can see why people might spent hours on it in Photoshop. My Photoshop use, except in the rarest of circumstances, doesn't go beyond a little fiddling with brightness and contrast. As a result, I don't really understand Photoshop at all. It is all very well to come up with a five step process to improve a picture - "Add a little magenta here" - but unless you have built up an intuitive understanding, coming up with the right five steps is difficult, and certainly beyond my skills.

I am not sure why this is become a photography thread, so by way of variety here's some of the books I am currently reading; I usually have several on the go.

- The Suicide Club
- Miss or Mrs?
- The Handmaid's tale (rereading after few decades)
- Singing from the Floor
- The Complete CS Lewis Signature classics

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: JHW
Date: 23 Aug 17 - 02:20 PM

Is 'Singing from the floor' what i might expect as a folkie?

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 23 Aug 17 - 02:38 PM

Only when you the singer had had too much to drink John, not that you or I would ever do that !!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Aug 17 - 07:41 PM

Bude was the hottest place in the UK on Tuesday. My son, his missus, our precious one-and-only grandson (aged nearly two and blessed with both my good looks AND my intellect) and Mrs Steve did the relatively gentle walk from Trebetherick, across St Enodoc golf course to the church with the wonky steeple, paying homage at the grave of John Betjeman (on which someone, fittingly, had placed a cloth cap). As the spring tide was so low we had an excellent view of the Doom Bar across the Camel estuary. Then on to the beach at Rock where the little feller had his picnic. Next, across to Padstow on the ferry where we grown-ups found a bench, braved the seagulls and devoured our Chough Bakery pasties, in my view the finest in Cornwall (therefore the world), washed down with tea from the little takeaway hatch with the very nice lady a few yards from the pasty shop. Back across to Daymer Bay on the ferry and a goodly slog in the sunshine on one of Cornwall's finest beaches back to Trebetherick for a cup of char and a flapjack. Now that's what I call a day out.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Will Fly
Date: 24 Aug 17 - 10:01 AM

That's my kind of day.

A sort of equivalent down here in Sussex would be to start at the top of the South Downs - somewhere like Devil's Dyke or Chanctonbury Ring and walk east or west as the fancy takes you. Fantastic views all round, always with the possibility of dropping down to the Weald on one side or to the sea on the other.

The downs are in the South Downs National Park - about which there has been a lovely BBC4 documentary, presented by the Vicar of Firle, Glynde and Beddingham, Peter Owen-Jones.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Ed T
Date: 24 Aug 17 - 06:24 PM

Music trivia 

A little below the line music trivia, just for fun.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 25 Aug 17 - 12:10 PM

My name is Bruce and I'm a Mudcatter. I'm glad to be here.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 26 Aug 17 - 03:51 AM

Today I plan to visit Grey's Court. I know nothing about it, having never been, but it is roughly the mid point between where we live and my brother-in-law's place, which they moved to this year so we are meeting there for a peruse and picnic.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Will Fly
Date: 26 Aug 17 - 04:03 AM

Greys Court looks lovely - have a great day!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 26 Aug 17 - 01:58 PM

Well, back safe from Whitby and glad to see this thread still going. I would add more but the promise of cold beer is luring me away from the keyboard :-)

TTFN

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 26 Aug 17 - 02:53 PM

My inexpert snaps around Greys Court

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Pete from seven stars link
Date: 27 Aug 17 - 12:20 PM

They look good to my "inexpert " eyeDMcG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DaveRo
Date: 27 Aug 17 - 02:29 PM

Our (2001) NT handbook mentions "a Tudor wheelhouse". Did you see that? If so, what is it?

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 27 Aug 17 - 04:28 PM

There is a wheel that was turned by donkeys, then a later one turned by horses. I only got a snap of the horse one.

But that reminds me of my Gneral Studies 'A' level exam. I think it was an excellent idea because it forced we science bods to learn something about art and architecture and the arts people to learn some science,

Anyway, one question was a woodcut of a horse turned wheel connected to some cog mechanism and we had to work out whether a rope at the end would be raised or lowered. All round the room were people moving their hands in small circles as they tried to work it out.

Another section was a language translation. Because of the way it was marked your lowest score was not included, so what the hell, I picked a section in Russian. I didn't even know the alphabet!

But my all time favourite exam question was in my 'O' level chemistry practical question which was insane, but as I think I have said it before I won't repeat it unless asked.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Aug 17 - 07:34 PM

Jaysus, what a great day. Wall to wall sunshine, twenty-three degrees. Burgers and bangers on the barbie. washed down with Aperol Spritzer followed by Morrisons Nero d'Avola. We raised a glass to our arrival in Cornwall thirty-one years ago today, and, to cap it all, Liverpool slaughtered Arsenal 4-0. What a shame that Michael, aka MGM Lion, Arsenal's number one fan, is no longer here to gloat at. He was a complete arse at times, but I miss him.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 28 Aug 17 - 01:44 PM

Fully recovered and re-lubricated after Whitby now. Must make plans to do more festivals! I'm a bit surprised that more people have not been on here. I did invite everyone but it seems that not everyone likes to party politely :-) Oh - Dropped one of the daughters off in Manchester on the way home (ish!) and called into the graveyard I mentioned in the OP - The lads there had done a grand job.

I shall just say, Steve, that I was always told that if you cannot say something nice about someone, don't say anything. I'm keeping shtum ;-)

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Aug 17 - 06:29 PM

Lifeboat Day in Bude today on one of the best bank holiday Mondays I can ever remember. We parked a mile out of town and strolled over the cliffs into Bude. Had a damn good pasty in the Lifeboat Day marquee then ambled into town for a cappuccino. Had a good butchers at the vintage cars on the Wharf and had a pot of tea at the Olive Tree by the canal. Then strolled back over the cliffs and went home for a barbie with pork fillet (wot I'd bought at Gloucester Services) and campfire potatoes that were scoffed even before they knew they'd been dug up, all herby and garlicky, with buttery runner beans from t'garden. All washed down with a cheap bottle of Prosecco wot I'd bought for a fiver at Morrisons and a magnum of Nero d'Avola wot I'd bought for £7.99 at Lidl (there's still plenty left). At half nine we strolled up our lane to the vantage point for watching the Lifeboat fireworks display from a distance. Jesus, we know how to live.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 29 Aug 17 - 04:27 AM

Sounds grand Steve. Just a shame it is not in Yorkshire

:D tG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 29 Aug 17 - 05:02 AM

On Sunday both Galway Senior and Junior Hurling teams play in their respective All Ireland Finals.

Don't know if you have ever watched Hurling but it is a great spectator game, very fast and very skillful.

I'm flying out on Saturday in time to watch both matches in a cracking bar in town.

There will no doubt be music after the games, win, lose or draw!!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 29 Aug 17 - 07:12 AM

Dave,
Thanks for your welcome to the thread, I'm just 'clocking in' to increase the numbers.
I've been watching, but with nothing much to say.

Cheers

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 29 Aug 17 - 07:52 AM

Much appreciated, Nigel. Thank you.

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 29 Aug 17 - 12:47 PM

I've never watched hurling but a relative in Ireland (a cousin I think) played for Limerick many decades ago. So I have held a hurling stick - if that's even its name - but that is as close as I ever got to the game.

We spent Sunday pn Brownsea Island, so decided to go for a quiet Monday, with just myself, my wife, my daughter and her partner. Convivial meals and conversation was our

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 29 Aug 17 - 12:52 PM

... goal, and achieved. A rather run down pub nearby has be recently restored as part of a fairly good chain (Hall and Woodhouse) so we took put lunch there. Carved into the door on the way in was a verse and chorus of 'God speed the plough' so I inflicted it on my small party, but not all the diners. I have some consideration.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 30 Aug 17 - 04:22 AM

When visiting my mate up in Scotland we spend some time with his golfing mates in the pub. I regularly call golf clubs bats, rackets, sticks and cues. They have stopped correcting me now :-) Try it with Hurling and see what an aficionado says!

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 30 Aug 17 - 04:40 AM

Hurling is played with using a Hurley (made from the wood of an Ash tree) to strike the Sliotar, (the ball which is made of cork and leather)

The "aficionado's" won't give a monkeys what you call them. They will in all probability buy you a pint even if you support the opposition team.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 30 Aug 17 - 06:30 AM

Well, you learn something knew every day :-)

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: MikeL2
Date: 30 Aug 17 - 06:45 AM

Hi Steve

Sounds like you are having a great week-end.

<"Liverpool slaughtered Arsenal 4-0."> I was at Anfield ( Treason !!

My son had tickets and he went to a "posh" wedding in Amsterdam. So I told him I would reluctantly take his ticket.

I thought that Liverpool were fantastic , great attacking football.

Arsenal were bloody awful - lacked a plan and were wandering all over the place. The Pool could have scored far more if they had not eased up.

Reminded me of the day when Man United beat then 8-2

Regards
Mike

PS Thanks Dave for this thread -

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 30 Aug 17 - 10:39 AM

De nada, Mike :-)

Phew, I have just been over to the GB + NI thread. You are much better off with the hurley over here than the hurlyburly over there.

:D tG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Kampervan
Date: 30 Aug 17 - 12:24 PM

I started that GB-NI thread cos I wondered why NI was singled out out as an addition to the title GB in the name of our athletics team.
Wow, what did I start?

This is a much nicer thread to get involved with, and much easier to follow too.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 30 Aug 17 - 12:38 PM

You mean when they beat Arsenal 8-2, Mike! I thought you were trying to sneak a bogus slaughtering of Liverpool by Man U past us there! 😈

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 30 Aug 17 - 02:06 PM

Kampervan, welcome to the club. You are not alone in starting something with peaceable intentions and watching something completely different take shape. It has happened to a whole bunch of us.

When anybody mentions Hurley I think of Shane MacGowan singing about a rusty tin can and an old hurley ball, on "The Broad Majestic Shannon." That "fall from grace with God" album was the first I ever heard of the Pogues.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 30 Aug 17 - 02:33 PM

It happens, Kampervan. Unfortunate fact of life on Mudcat. I tried to moderate another of my own threads by asking anyone who had just come to argue to go elsewhere but sadly that does not work. The only thing that can happen when a thread gets so bogged down in acrimony is its consignment to the bin.

Hopefully it will not happen here :-)

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: MikeL2
Date: 30 Aug 17 - 02:42 PM

Hi Steve

Sorry for ambiguous sentence.... I better make it clear that Man United bear ARSENAL 8-2.

Liverpool v Man United games are usually hard fought low scoring games.

Long may it be so.

Cheers
Mike

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 30 Aug 17 - 05:01 PM

"You are not alone in starting something with peaceable intentions and watching something completely different take shape. It has happened to a whole bunch of us."

Well I started a thread to wish good luck to Texas and it's turned right into one of those "robust debates" seasoned with a good dose of acrimony and the odd post deletion. But I'm never bothered. It's nice to have a hassle-free banter but one has to be philosophical around here. You can actually learn quite a lot from those dodgy threads. You can learn about how people get very good at arguing from positions of prejudice and denial and about how they use misrepresentation to try to beat you down. And you can learn how easy it is to make an arse of yourself by not checking your facts before posting or by reducing yourself to a gibbering, name-calling buffoon (best seen in others, admittedly). I'm not quick enough on my feet to make a good case in the face of some of that unless I have the time and space to think about what I want to say (still doesn't always come out right...), so I prefer the banter here to the risky endeavour of taking someone on in the pub after several pints...

Still, as they say sur le continent, one man's fish is another man's poisson and un oeuf is un oeuf!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 31 Aug 17 - 04:49 AM

You are not alone in starting something with peaceable intentions and watching something completely different take shape. It has happened to a whole bunch of us.

I have an interest in this.

Kampervan's thread is still live It is instructive to look at how and why it changed.

Who made the first acrimonious post?
Who posted the first gratuitous personal abuse about people's character, faith, etc.?
Who first referred to years old discussions to try and make a case against other contributors instead against of their expressed views on the current subject?

Who first objected to these abuses and tried to restore harmony?
(That last one was me actually. Hence my interest in this.)

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Mr Red
Date: 31 Aug 17 - 05:08 AM

Chough Bakery pasties, in my view the finest in Cornwall

Well. Excuse me for being contentious, but

saffron buns are much more worthy of mention ................

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 31 Aug 17 - 05:15 AM

Kampervan's thread has now been closed, Keith, but thanks for posting and please keep to the spirit of the thread.

...provided that you are polite and not here just to argue

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 31 Aug 17 - 05:20 AM

Anyone got a spare ticket for the All Ireland Hurling Final at Croke Park on Sunday?

Nah, thought not, I'll just have to watch in the pub with the lads and pint of Guinness ............ or four!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 31 Aug 17 - 05:30 AM

I see it has now closed Dave.
Thanks.
It remains on the thread list for a couple of days for anyone curious about why it collapsed onto acrimony. The guns of the guilty still smoke.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 31 Aug 17 - 05:36 AM

Meanwhile back at the sunshine club .......... my local has five excellent real ales on tap.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 31 Aug 17 - 05:51 AM

The saffron bun is indeed a thing of beauty, especially when heavily belaboured with Trewithen butter spread so thick that your teeth leave miniature cliffs at the edge when you bite in. I'll not demur. But a saffron bun is no pasty. As well as my favourite Chough bakery pasty, I'm an aficionado of Malcolm Barnecutt's productions. I can get one of those just up the road at the Post Office at Wainhouse Corner on the A39. I had a lovely pasty in the RNLI marquee in Bude on Monday which was allegedly supplied by Tasty Pasties of Bude. I'm currently investigating further.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 31 Aug 17 - 06:02 AM

It's Pork Pies around here. Three local(ish) butchers make excellent versions of them.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 31 Aug 17 - 06:40 AM

My sister, who lives in Netherton near Huddersfield and she obtains the finest pork pies. I'll have to ask her where she gets them from. You can, and I do, get superb pork pies at Gloucester Services (so presumably at Tebay as well). The average supermarket pork pie is seldom worth bothering with. The more of that jelly the pie contains, the more I like it.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 31 Aug 17 - 06:47 AM

Mmmmm, pies...

I must say I never experienced as good a pork pie in Lancashire as I have since moving to Yorkshire. However, they do not hold a patch to pies in general. Tykes have no idea how to make a meat pie or meat and potato pie. In fact you get a very puzzled look if you ask for a meat pie! Luckily you can get Hollands in most places and, while not the best, they do help to keep my Lancastrian tastes satisfied until I can get home for rest and recuperation :-)

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 31 Aug 17 - 06:51 AM

The three butchers are Fords at Glaisdale, Jacksons at Ruswarp and Radfords at Sleights.

I've never quite decided which is best. But if push came to shove it would be .............. er.......... er...........

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 31 Aug 17 - 07:06 AM

It's a Greenhalgh's potato pie for me every time. Best eaten outdoors in the draughty little square in Millgate shopping centre in Bury, that bit where the brass bands play carols before Christmas. An essential part of the pie-eating ritual is that the first plastic forkful burns your mouth. Another part of the ritual is that you go back into the shop for another pie when you've finished.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 31 Aug 17 - 07:19 AM

Simply the best Meat & Potato pies are from Wards in Eccles. As a teenager I had a Saturday job at Waddiloves Bakery but still perfered Wards.

I went in last year for the first time in almost 40 years and the pies were just the same as they were and just as good.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 31 Aug 17 - 08:04 AM

Titleys in Swinton for me, Raggy, but I believe he gets them from somewhere in Walkden. Our mutual friend in Scotland takes back a job lot whenever he visits.

DtH

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Donuel
Date: 31 Aug 17 - 08:52 AM

adv.

Hello its Donald, this is quite a turn out here. Thanks for coming out.
I wanted to remind you that the Harvey Storm has ruined many golf courses, ruined many golf courses. Its sad. But Trump Golf resorts are all open and in beautiful shape, beautiful shape. From Mara Lago to New Jersey and even Scotland. Reserve your T time today. You will be glad you did.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 31 Aug 17 - 08:58 AM

:-)

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Will Fly
Date: 31 Aug 17 - 09:30 AM

There was a brief bit of chat - earlier up the thread about visiting graves or places where ashes were scattered.

Mum-in-law passed away on Monday last, and we went out to a local natural burial ground this morning to pick a plot (in the Alder Glade). And a grand place it is - in the lee of the Jack & Jill windmills on Clayton Hill in Sussex - with wooded glades. So good it was that, after picking out her plot, we grabbed the one next door for ourselves - just thinking ahead, you understand.

To be honest, I don't really care what happens to me after I'm gone, but getting it sorted now saves a bit of hassle for my son when the time comes. And I do believe in crumbling away and giving life to a nearby tree. Dust to dust, etc.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 31 Aug 17 - 09:44 AM

Sounds a grand idea, Will. I will investigate the same at this end! I often thought that being buried in a cloth bag and planting a tree on the grave is a far better idea than traditional burials in a coffin with a marble headstone. Growing new resources instead of wasting them :-)

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Donuel
Date: 31 Aug 17 - 01:39 PM

Its about whatever mind body and spirit wants to acknowledge in pleasure and pain, in success and failure, in inspiration and desperation and in satisfaction and dissatisfaction.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 31 Aug 17 - 02:37 PM

Radio 4 is quite staple fare for me, as I have about an hours journey to work, so the Today programme and PM are often on while I drive. I usually catch some of the ones that start at 4:30pm but mainly miss the stats one, "More or Less", on Fridays because that's how my working week pans out. Shame really, but the process of getting them on my iPod is a pain - though if I could download them to my phone .... hmmm, something to try.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 01 Sep 17 - 02:54 AM

In 24 hours I shall be landing in Dublin, coach out to Galway and then onto my beloved Connemara ........... Great Stuff !!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DaveRo
Date: 01 Sep 17 - 04:13 AM

DMcG wrote: "More or Less"...getting them on my iPod is a pain

So the iPod cannot handle podcasts? Seems odd, but I don't use iThings. But perhaps that's another thread.

Last week's More or Less was excellent - with a musical illustration of Simpson's Paradox and its application to A-level results, and the history of women's clothing sizes.

Here's the RSS podcast feed address:
http://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p02nrss1.rss

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 01 Sep 17 - 05:02 AM

If you have Freeview, record them. I do.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Mr Red
Date: 01 Sep 17 - 06:24 AM

Simp son's Pair of Ducks you say?

And just to hark back to Pi - I find some heavy going so - where would you weight a pie?

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 01 Sep 17 - 10:34 AM

Somewhere, over the rainbow, weigh a Pi

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 01 Sep 17 - 10:37 AM

Talking of pies, when I get up to Nottingham (usually once a year for Tenpin Bowling) I do like "Pukka Pies" as sold behind the bar at "The Newsroom" on canal street.


Mmmm . . .

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 01 Sep 17 - 10:45 AM

You can get Pukka pies in Morrisons! Probably other supermarkets as well but seeing as I work for Mossers, try them first :-)

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 01 Sep 17 - 12:03 PM

My iPod does handle podcasts, but doesn't have wifi. It also lives on the car. So it is just a minor hassle to unwire it all from the car, download podcasts onto pc, sync the iPod then wire it all up again - every week. Not hard, just irksome. At ake's almost suggestion, I have now set my phone to download the podcast automatically and then the bluetooth connection in my phone plays over the car's speakers.

It is an ancient iPod so in those days they had 160Gb memory. As far as I know they have never produced anything that big since.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Sep 17 - 03:43 PM

What learning style (how do you learn) - (not your ability to learn)do you use depending upon content and subject?

Visual, auditory, word, spatial?

Well, neuro psychologists say 'learning styles' are a myth.
Repeated practice is the only thing that works.
"We have to debunk these brain based style theories and get back to basics."

remember the crazy Mozart effect fad 15 years ago?
bunk

I knew that.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Sep 17 - 05:48 PM

I had a dream about the testimony of Mueller before the US Congress regarding the Russia investigations. It was magnificent, patriot affirming and a pulling back from the cliff of intolerance, racism and hate. Then it was up to Congress to judge the President and themselves based on all the evidence that seemed to be beyond reasonable doubt. That's when it all fell down and I woke up.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 02 Sep 17 - 04:51 AM

Donuel's earlier comment has got me thinking about those strange gaps in languages where there ought to be a word, but it is either so rare few people know it, or it doesn't exist at all.

A couple of years back I went on a short evening course of wine appreciations (2h a week for 8 weeks). This was given by a woman who used to be a sommelier at the Dorchester in London and was born and raised in the Champagne area of France. It soon became obvious at that (and a follow-on one matching wine to food) that she had a intense awareness of taste in the way some people do with colour. It is, if you like, the opposite of anosmia. But is there such a word? And while wine appreciation is primarily taste, the smell and colour are also involved, as are many senses that are not included in the classical five. So what word to describe this? 'Sensual' is perhaps closest in the strict sense, but clearly that word is not used, really, for anything to do with senses...

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 02 Sep 17 - 12:26 PM

I went on a Whisky appreciation course once. Can't remember a thing about it... :-D

I must say I a quite disappointed that the uk bollocks thread has overtaken this one. Just shows what motivates more people. C'est la vie as they say in Yorkshire.

Come on people, keep the better thread up there!

DtH

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Stanron
Date: 02 Sep 17 - 01:54 PM

Dave the Gnome wrote: I must say I a quite disappointed that the uk bollocks thread has overtaken this one.

I posted on the other thread because I wanted to talk about Brexit and how well I thought it was going. As long as Dave Davies doesn't give away all the money before talking about a trade deal I'll be happy. Do you really want to continue all that here?

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 02 Sep 17 - 02:22 PM

No, Brexit is much more suited to the combative threads. This one is, I think, more for shoes and ships and sealing wax, cabbages and kings.

Perhaps not kings, though. Too much risk of a republician/monarchist disagreement, and we all know where THAT led.

Cabbages, now. I quite like most of the brassica, but I have always found savoy cabbages too bitter and dominant a flavour...

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Sep 17 - 05:45 PM

A new word comes to mind for intense sensation; pansynthethesia
That means all senses cross over and overlap with all other senses with more intensity than what each discrete sense would deliver.

An experience like tasting black raspberry sherbet hearing music that images orange red cliffs above aqua waters and diving into carbonated water during orgasmic coitus would be a pansynthethesiatic experience.

combining 3 or so sensations would merely be supersensory

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 02 Sep 17 - 06:31 PM

I think that cabbages need to be organic. Waitrose and M&S both sell a sweetheart organic hearted cabbage that is a thing of beauty, though at an eye-watering £1.50 each. Once you've grown your own cabbages (and picked out the slugs and caterpillars of the Small White), you won't enjoy a bog-standard savoy ever again. Though M&S do sell, on occasion, bags of ready-washed, chopped mixed greens that you just chuck into boiling water for five minutes - not epic, but not bad. I find that supermarket cauliflowers can be excellent if you rummage a bit. The little packs of purple sprouting or tenderstem are a ripoff. I have purple sprouting from Christmas to May in my garden and I have a decent crop of summer purple sprouting just coming in. I also have loads of Cavolo Nero that I've never tried before - dead easy.

For two people.

Cut a fairly large cauliflower into bite-sized florets. Put into your biggest mixing bowl.

Take a 200g chorizo of your choice. Skin it and slice it into rounds as thick as two one pound coins. Throw it into the cauliflower.

Add 30g pumpkin seeds.

Skin three garlic cloves, bash them with your hand and throw them in. Optional.

Cut up a couple of onions roughly and throw them in.

Get about 50g of green olives, the best you can get, chop them up roughly and throw them in. No stones.

Add a tablespoon of smoked paprika, some black pepper and a pinch of salt (easy, tiger). Glug in at least four tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.

Get in there with your hands and mix the whole lot thoroughly,

Get a baking tray about 30x40 cm and line it generously with greaseproof paper. Tip the whole mixture into the tray and spread it out. Whack it into the oven at 180 degrees for about 25 minutes. Half way though, toss it around a bit.

While it's cooking, chop up a big handful of fresh parsley. When the cauliflower is done, share into two bowls and sprinkle the parsley on top. Eat with a fork in front of Holby City. You'll need a glass or two of red to take your mind off the telly.

This is good on its own but if you're a pig have it with a bit of garlic bread. It is an amazingly tasty recipe, I promise, and it's so easy. Kudos to Yotam Ottolenghi.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 03 Sep 17 - 03:43 AM

...provided that you are polite and not here just to argue.

Just a gentle reminder :-)

I have tried one or two of your recommended recipes, Steve. That looks like another!

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Sep 17 - 06:25 AM

That is indeed one of the tastiest things you can make. You might care to go easy on the salt to start with, as the olives and chorizo may already have enough. I love doing things in one tray or pot that I can leave for half an hour. You can do most of the clearing up before you eat and enjoy a nice glass of something while it's cooking.

This next one is the easiest thing you'll ever cook and it's devastatingly tasty. Make sure the tinned tomatoes are good quality (Cirio or Napolina) and don't contain salt. I prefer to use the whole plum ones and break them up a bit as they're cooking. If you've got really good home-grown toms, use them instead. It's up to you, but I really can't be arsed to skin tomatoes.

Marcella Hazan's butter and onion tomato sauce

Peel an onion and cut it in half. Put it in a saucepan with the tin of tomatoes, some salt to taste and a large knob of butter (easy on the salt if you use salted butter). About a quarter of a pack, maybe just under, is good. Simmer uncovered for about 45 minutes. Discard the onion - honest!

That's it! You can serve this tossed with spaghetti (toss the cooked pasta with a bit of butter first, not olive oil). Grate some Parmesan over it.

Or you can have it with potato gnocchi. You can buy good vacuum-packed gnocchi these days but I usually make my own. Make sure that the gnocchi you buy is no more than about 30% flour. Cook the gnocchi as instructed (dead easy), lift out with a slotted spoon as they rise the top then put them gently into the tomato sauce. You can add some little pieces of mozzarella to the pan with the tomato and gnocchi sauce for a minute. Then serve in bowls with some grated Parmesan and some little basil leaves on top. Voila - Gnocchi alla Sorrentina! It's amusingly stringy to eat on account of the mozzarella but who cares about that when it's so tasty. A lot of recipes tell you to bake the mixture in a dish, but you honestly don't need to. Keep it simple is my motto!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Mr Red
Date: 03 Sep 17 - 06:41 AM


Well, neuro psychologists say 'learning styles' are a myth.

well bugger me. Allow me to (in my ignorance an experience) be contentious.

1) When I was at Uni I found writing things helped memory retention. Motor actions refer.
2) When I wrote songs I found that learning the finished song was essential, and an entirely different process from composing. Divergent cf Convergent. Writing it out, (repetition). Singing in the car - more repetition. Listening to my own renditions (recording).
3) I heard and practice the style when meeting new people to repeat their name back to them. Or even write it down. The motor actions put the memory in different parts of the brain.
4) I read in (think) the New Scientist that recall is better in the same context as when you learned it. And saying that to a guitarist at a session he came back with the immortal observation. "Yea, there are 1/2 pint tunes, one pint tunes and the ones you daren't try before the second pint."

Ring any bells anyone?

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Sep 17 - 06:43 AM

These days I buy my minced steak mail order from Donald Russell. It's of superb quality and it's often on special offer, six packs for £19.90 last week (you do pay postage unless you spend forty quid). That's as cheap as the three-packs-for-a-tenner in supermarkets, and it really does taste like steak. I use it, among other things, to make the quickest and easiest burgers imaginable. You need to add nothing at all to the mince.

Form one pack of minced steak into six little burgers with your hands. Press them to make them thin in the middle and thickest at the rim. Cook them dry in your best frying pan on the highest heat for absolutely no more than two and a half minutes a side (under two minutes for me). Don't move them around. Have faith. That isn't blood. It's juice.

Done! Great with chips and some cherry tomatoes done for five minutes in the oven with seasoning, olive oil and fresh basil. I prefer to leave the burgers for a few minutes to rest in a warm oven before scoffing, as you would with a steak. You won't bloody BELIEVE how good they are. No salt, no pepper, no onion, no mustard, no nothing!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 03 Sep 17 - 10:35 AM

A most indulgent lunch: a few weeks ago my daughter spotted a jazz lunch at a highly rated brasserie and as is her wont persuaded my wife and I to join her and her partner. So a long and leasurely lunch listening to jazz and enjoying seared trout with a 1er cru Chablis. Then a local cheeseboard to finish.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 03 Sep 17 - 01:26 PM

GREAT DAY FOR GALWAY !!!!

Both the junior and senior teams WON their All Ireland Finals

Party time beckons !!!!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 03 Sep 17 - 01:57 PM

The other thing that the hurling discussion made me recall,
was the Scottish Highlands thing called, is it Shinty?

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 03 Sep 17 - 05:24 PM

Well, we laid Dad's remains to rest in the family grave at St Augustines. It was a lot easier than I imagined it would be and a very uplifting experience. Went for a meal at the Henry Boddington (there's a name that some will know!) after and had a generally good day. We kept a bit of him and hope to take that to Poland at some point in time so at least part of him goes home. Nothing official. I think he would appreciate being smuggled through customs ;-)

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Sep 17 - 07:01 PM

I wish to speak up for the Herb Fed poultry company, based in Yorkshire I believe. I bought two of their free-range chickens a while back at Gloucester Services as they were half price due to that silly sell-by date thang. Great big hearty beasts they were, coming in at about six pounds each. I got them for just over six quid each and whacked them straight into the freezer.

Well we had one tonight, roasted with all the spuds and veg out of the garden. I've had many a damn fine bird in my time but this was the best chicken we've ever had. Lovely texture, gorgeously moist and full of flavour. They'd be well worth the money even at full price, which is actually not much more than Morrisons' corn-fed or Waitrose finest free-range (both very good). With chicken you get what you pay for. This one was the absolute numero uno. I will not countenance the pappy M&S Oakham jobbies, nor those other cheap supermarket barn chickens that give off a ton of watery slop when you cook them and taste like dirty dishcloths.

As for stuffing, I must make my own. Mrs Steve and I have almost approached divorce proceedings over the stuffing we have at Christmas, but all the rest of the year is mine.

Take twelve of the finest butcher's pork sausages you can get your hands on. Squeeze all the meat out into a big bowl and discard the skins.

In another bowl, put a good big handful of breadcrumbs, some finely-chopped fresh herbs (thyme, parsley, sage, or all three) and a finely-chopped onion. Add some salt and pepper. Pour in a small glassful of boiling water and mix like mad. Then add that to the sausage meat and mix thoroughly. I love doing it with my bare hands. I will not be deprived of that. Divide the mixture into three and put two lots in plastic bags and freeze them. The other third is for tonight. Form it into a shallow brick and put it on to a sheet of non-stick baking paper on a metal tray. It goes into your hot oven, along with the spuds you're going to roast, for about 45 minutes. You can't buy stuffing as good as that in shops, and it's so easy.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 04 Sep 17 - 03:43 PM

Shinty, I was right.
They filmed a scene with a shinty game in "Outlander", with boots and kilts and those mean-looking sticks, and rather a lot of mud.


I looked Shinty up here on the Mudcat search engine.
A fellow Mudcatter recalls playing Shinty on New Year's Day, every year, but ON ICE. Now that sounds downright perilous.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 04 Sep 17 - 04:00 PM

And then, it seems, there is shinty-hurling

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 05 Sep 17 - 10:02 AM

Did you know that shinty hurling was an anagram of hurl shity ginn.

Just saying.

:D tG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 05 Sep 17 - 10:18 AM

Well after a GREAT weekend for Galway hurling and two days of partying the town is a little quieter today. People were still savouring the victories of both the Junior and Senior teams late on Monday night.A

Hurling is possibly the best spectator sport I have ever come across. I love cricket and enjoy Rugby Union but Hurling is a class apart. So fast and so skillful and not many prisoners taken, respect for the referee and a shake of hands whoever wins at the end of the match.

Tonight it will be back to the music (after watching Ireland play in the World Cup qualifiers) with some fantastic musicians. I anticipate there will be at least one melodeon, one banjo and three guitars plus whoever walks through the door.

And copious amounts of excellent Guinness of course in a superb bar.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Mr Red
Date: 06 Sep 17 - 03:03 AM

No Bodhrans?

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Sep 17 - 07:52 PM

Of course there were no bodhrans. Raggytash did say back to the music!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Mr Red
Date: 07 Sep 17 - 03:24 AM

OK, OK. Don't keep banging yer drum on that one!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 07 Sep 17 - 04:47 AM

I think someone is marching to a different beat here...

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 07 Sep 17 - 10:25 AM

There are Bodhrans ................. and one or two people can actually play them, but none at the session on Tuesday. My good Lady plays one, quite well as it happens.

If she couldn't I might have introduced a razor blade onto her tipper.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 07 Sep 17 - 10:49 AM

Ah Jaysus, here's me calling it a tipper when in fact it's correct name is a Cipin.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: MikeL2
Date: 07 Sep 17 - 03:01 PM

hi Steve

<"Some years ago we bought steaks from Donald Russell by mail order.">

We were not impressed by the quality or prices. Maybe we were unlucky.

Now we buy most of our meats from a local farm shop. Great quality at good prices.

I bought some steaks and lamb chops from them last week and they gave me a bagful of sausages for free. Bloody lovely too.

Not that keen on burgers. Best we ever had was in Menorca where a Spanish Restaurant made them out of freshly baked bread and we watched the chef made his mince chopping fillet stakes with two large knives - bloody lovely.

Cheers

Mike

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Sep 17 - 05:58 PM

Well, generally the steaks from Donald Russell are pretty expensive, even with their mixed steak offers. But I've found the quality to be unfailingly good, and, if you're not happy, they'll sort you out anyway. I only ever buy stuff from them when it's on special offer and when I can get free delivery. I'm dead happy, but my bottom line is that I only buy stuff that I could otherwise not get locally at the same quality and price, and I'm a smart shopper!

Maybe you don't cook your steaks properly rare, Mike...

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Sep 17 - 07:03 PM

Clearly I've missed some good recipes by not dropping in here sooner. That cauliflower and chorizo bake of Steve's sounds amazing. How thick are two one pound coins?

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Sep 17 - 07:32 PM

Heheh! It's an Ottolenghi recipe. I think he says to use "cooking chorizo". But I always buy a spicy 200g job, skin it and cut it into rounds of about half a centimetre. But anything goes. I was going to have it again tonight, having sourced a lovely cauliflower in Sainsbury's, but Mrs Steve wanted a fine-herbe omelette, and who am I to demur! (She does do all the cleaning, so what can one do...)

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 08 Sep 17 - 02:54 AM

A pound coin is, apparently, 3.15mm thick.

You learn something new every day!

:D tG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 08 Sep 17 - 09:23 AM

Just posted on another thread about us (the global 'we' on Mudcat) not really doing much to change the world. If we stick to our specialist subjects, IE folk, blues and related minority pastimes, we do a pretty good job. But as we all know these below the line thread go well beyond that remit. Perhaps we can do something though. I did make the point that we can post our dreams and aspirations for that brave new world. Maybe what we can do is have a 'think tank' for how we get there. No dream is unachievable. No idea too daft. But please remember the opening sentiment of not coming here to argue.

My dream, like that of many others, is for global peace and a stop to wasting our precious resources.

My idea to achieve it is to drop all borders and educate everyone equally.

My policy on defense is to paint all de fences white so no one can sit on them.

There. Your turn :-)

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: MikeL2
Date: 08 Sep 17 - 10:54 AM

Hi Steve

<" Maybe you don't cook your steaks properly rare, Mike.">

Hi Steve Idon't cook steaks. I leave that to my wife. She was a Cordon Bleu cook and worked for many years in the Family restaurant business.

When I met her she owned a Pub that had a fantastic restaurant.

I do cook as these days now we are both retired. So we share it.( just in process of cooling a vegetable risotto.

But I will concede that I am not a good shopper. I don't always look around for the best buys - but I'd like to think I know quality when I see it.

Cheers

Mike

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Donuel
Date: 08 Sep 17 - 11:34 AM

Wow Dave your personal dreams can't be beat.

Mostly I think of dreams as something that happen to us.
On rare occasions aspirational dreams like MLK come to mind but are almost never practical. For example to solve the race problem I see a CRISPR genetic engineering project to make all future people of any race become technicolored like exotic birds in fractal patterns with no two alike. Beauty would be omnipresent in marvelous markings rather than weight height or faces.

No more earth tones.

btw the technicolored markings are not present at birth but evolves from a gold color to full spectrum radiance as children grow.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 08 Sep 17 - 01:26 PM

Dream, aspiration, idea, policy....
....and of course what I do best is procrastination and conflict avoidance. Don't hold your breath waiting for me...

anyway, I will be done with Arizona in a few more days, and already I can barely wait.
The one thing I haven't witnessed in my visit here, is that infamous advertisement posted at a bus-stop kiosk on a Phoenix Metro bus route. I was driving my car down that street at the time, so I saw the advert in passing, and missed everything except the big message in capital letters:

GUNS SAVE LIVES

LEARN TO SHOOT STRAIGHT

That was years ago, and I won't soon forget it.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 09 Sep 17 - 03:40 AM

On the 17th it is the simultaneous birthday of my daughter and myself, so we are at the start of a fairly long period of pre-and-post events. This evening we are off for a meal on the Wessex Belle, which should be fun, then on Friday we have a fairly packed day involving a tour of the Houses of Parliament, a visit backstage to the Royal Opera House and finishing off with a meal in Veeraswamy. Then later I will have some other celebrations with my other sons and their wives, before facing up to wedding anniversary celebrations on 30th.

A quick review: decades ago I booked a box at the Royal Opera house to take my then 4 year old niece to a ballet, because if she got fed up she could move and play a bit without disturbing anyone. It was, without a doubt, amongst the worst seats I have had anywhere. What I had not allowed for was that the point of those boxes was to be seen, not to see, so they face into the theatre, not towards the stage. By squeezing into one corner you could see most of the stage ...

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 09 Sep 17 - 04:33 AM

Never you mind, Harpgirl. As I said, anything goes on this thread and it is good to see you are so well prepared. My Cousin and his wife up near Tampa are staying put but his mother has been moved from her care community to a bunker somewhere near Disneyland!

DtG

---

She re-posted on the thread she'd meant to put it in, [What's the weather like where you are?] so I deleted the duplicate on this thread.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 09 Sep 17 - 01:05 PM

Thanks mudelf.

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 09 Sep 17 - 03:02 PM

But it was a nice post! I wouldn't have deleted it but I'm not the boss!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 09 Sep 17 - 05:46 PM

It was indeed, Steve, and and here it is!

:D tG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 11 Sep 17 - 01:31 PM

My wife is away babysitting so I thought I might investigate an upmarket burger and cocktail place that has opened about a half a mile away. I look at the menu and the first two sides are 'fries' and 'gourmet chips'. What are you trying to do to me? I have no idea if 'gourmet chips' is to be read as American or English. If they are both the same basic thing, call them both fries or both chips. Otherwise I assume you are making a distinction and 'gourmet chips' are actually what UKers would call 'gourmet crisps'.

No, it turns out they are both fries/chips. The change in terminology is purely to irritate customers like me ...

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 11 Sep 17 - 01:52 PM

I will be joined by my good lady tomorrow, she at present is on route to Holyhead.

Goodo !!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 11 Sep 17 - 04:56 PM

We went to an Irish bar in St Louis once and got fish and chips. It was crisps and fish goujons. What a disappointment. Still, the music and beer were good.

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 11 Sep 17 - 08:09 PM

You did not get good beer in America, Dave. Now I'm going to be very nice to you and simply offer you the opportunity to rethink that post...


😂😂😂

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 12 Sep 17 - 03:07 AM

There was a micro-brewery in St Louis that did some really good stuff. But, yea, probably had something cold and wet in the Irish pub :-) The other thing you don't get in America is cheese. They do stuff that they call cheese but I reckon some of it has never seen a cow.

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Mr Red
Date: 12 Sep 17 - 03:35 AM

A pound coin is, apparently, 3.15mm thick.
New or Old?
& not if you pound it!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 12 Sep 17 - 04:45 PM

I think you may be on a (bank) roll Mr Red. Cash in on it while you have a yen.

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 13 Sep 17 - 07:43 AM

Are we all done on here then?

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 14 Sep 17 - 09:09 AM

Devils Bit Scabious is blossoming all over the Connemara

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 14 Sep 17 - 09:30 AM

I am not sure if scabious or the devil's bits are all that welcome...

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Sep 17 - 09:35 AM

Field scabious is abundant round here. I get them mixed up. I have to remember field scabious dry, devils-bit wet. It's called devil's-bit because the root looks like it's been bitten off. The devil did it in anger at the Virgin Mary. I read it in a recent history book by a living historian.

😈

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Sep 17 - 09:37 AM

They used the plants to cure scabies. I think that's another reason that the devil was cross. He prefers people to suffer.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 14 Sep 17 - 09:42 AM

Wet devil's bits are even less welcome.

Living historians are tolerated :-)

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 14 Sep 17 - 09:43 AM

Ooooh. And that was a gross. In more ways than one.

:D

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Sep 17 - 12:41 PM

D McG has a joint birthday coming up,
as per his earlier post to this thread.
Hope it is a grand and glorious occasion for all concerned.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 14 Sep 17 - 01:09 PM

Thank you kindly! The whole weekend will be busy with celebrations of various kinds, with tomorrow as the first day (apart from.last weeks steam train trip). I am under strict instructions from daughter to make sure my wife sticks to a single cake - she was thinking of three for some reason. But anyone leaving the house underfed has always been something she avoids at all costs.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Sep 17 - 08:03 PM

Are you a Nazi tonight,
Do you miss a good fight?
Are you sorry you joined KKK?
Does your memory stray to that bright sunny day
When you lynched raped and killed, those unlike you?
Does the media lie, and tell only fake news?
Is the world made of shit, and you are the glue?
Is your heart filled with hate, is pain and death your true fate?
Tell me Adolf, are you lonesome tonight?
I wonder if you're lonesome tonight


sniff...Nazis have feelings too.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 15 Sep 17 - 02:18 AM

I am afraid our celebrations got off to a shaky start about an hour after I last posted. My daughter is due a medical examination to find out if she has a problem - I will spare you the details. The need for an examination under anaesthetic was decided in April. The examination itself was then set for August. Shortly before it was cancelled and rebooked for October. Yesterday she got a letter saying it is cancelled again.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 15 Sep 17 - 04:23 AM

Bugger :-( Sorry to hear that cousin McG. Hope it all goes well - eventually!

Good luck

DtG

Subject: BS: I am
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 15 Sep 17 - 05:56 PM

Groot

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 16 Sep 17 - 02:41 AM

Very good day yesterday, as anticipated, but almost blown by traffic so that despite an early start we arrived for our coach with literally 1 minute to spare. There are standard tours of the Houses of Parliament where groups of around ten have a guide, or alternatively there are audio tours with headsets, but because ours was arranged through the MP, it was a personal tour of just my myself and my daughter and his secretary. I always prefer that kind of tour myself, because it gives you the flexibility to stay as long or as short a time on each bit, or to study things other people might not be as interested in, on the one hand, and then to ask questions on the other. But the biggest difference was that we were able to go to St Mary Undercroft (not my photos). This is reached via a set of gates labelled "pass holders only" and even our secretary had to notify the security people we were going there. But why did we want to go in particular? Because that is where Emily Davison's cupboard is. I was pleased to see a large information panel beside it, giving the story, but it seems a very British thing in some ways that it is in a part most people can't see.

Next, off to the Royal Opera House for the backstage tour. I hadn't appreciated just how large a building it is. The theatre, for those who have visited, is perhaps one quarter or one fifth of the total size of the building. It has six floors above ground and two underground. It contains what is, or perhaps was, the largest lift in Europe, which takes entire lorry and is used while transporting scenery. In renovations and other building work since the millennium they have been able to bring most of the auxiliary activities on site. So rehearsal rooms used to be about 45 minutes away - they didn't say but Sadler's Wells rings a bell for ballet rehearsals. Now they have three or four duplicates of the stage for various purposes - rehearsals, built sets for other current productions. We were lucky enough to see some rehearsals under way, but could only watch for a few minutes. Then in one of the rooms at the top of the building is where they make the props, which is a serious little machine shop, with separate rooms for the metal work, carpentry, glass fibre work and textiles, plus a properly vented spray room. all these are clustered round the main area where a mere handful of people are busy carving heads out of polystyrene amid a tumble of props - a chair with pig feet and ears, axes, turtles hung from the ceiling and fake tiger skin rugs.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 16 Sep 17 - 04:02 AM

Emily's plaque . This is inside the cupboard. The infornation board I referred to is outside.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 16 Sep 17 - 04:11 AM

Sigh

The 'Groot' post was from another thread entitled 'I am'. I guess it was brought here by someone who does not know Guardians of the Galaxy.

Ah well.

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 18 Sep 17 - 05:18 AM

Not had any posts for a couple of days so I guess we have done here. I found it interesting that although the premise was "Anything goes" it has been a peaceable place. Maybe the proviso "you are polite and not here just to argue" did work! There have been posts from people that would generally disagree with each other but none of the usual 'fighting talk'. I know there have been some posts deleted and I appreciate the efforts of the moderation team in doing that. I think it just goes to show that most of us can get on with each other and I would like to thank all the contributors for keeping to the spirit of the thread. I would have liked some posts from a couple of other people but I guess they had nothing to add really. All we need to do now is see if we can keep this up on other threads :-)

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 18 Sep 17 - 08:59 AM

Saw Harebells for the first time this year, just a while ago. Such beautiful and delicate flowers.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 18 Sep 17 - 06:15 PM

My first post on this thread, which I have followed with interest. I hope I am always polite in my postings. Just been having such a nice time with Linlithgow Folk Festival the weekend before last, then the regular monthly session just yesterday, and a wee gig fir German visitors the night before in the most beautiful location in West Lothian: only sheep and cows for neighbours, so we could "gie it laldy". My Tuesday am music class re-started after the summer break last week, and have had practices for other events coming up tomorrow, so music all the way......Keep calm and play music!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 19 Sep 17 - 10:50 AM

Sounds like you have a lot to be happy with, Tattie, and it shows in your posts! The very epitome of politeness:-)

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 20 Sep 17 - 09:05 PM

Might go pear-shaped, bow I'm getting into raspberries and telescopes, though!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Mr Red
Date: 21 Sep 17 - 05:45 AM

pears, raspberries and a telescope?
Funny thing to stir the crumble with!
Does it go a long way?

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 21 Sep 17 - 10:56 AM

This thread seems to be tootling along fine Tattie. It is the 'not welcome' one that looks to be destined for the bin.

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 21 Sep 17 - 05:45 PM

Just got in from seeing the Northern Ballet on "The Little Mermaid." Some astonishing dancing and highly recommended, but I miss when they were Northern Ballet Theatre, when they paid more attention to the theatrical aspects. Their versions of "A Christmas Carol", "Cinderella" and "The Nutcracker" all had a depth that I have rarely seen elsewhere.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 21 Sep 17 - 06:53 PM

Feeling good about the gig we did at our wee folk club in West Lothian on Tuesday: raised over £250 for Alzheimer Scotland. Small room full to busting, and all musicians, club members donated their songs and tunes and put money into the fund.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Sep 17 - 09:39 PM

Celebrate every say you can. We all come with an expiration date.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: frogprince
Date: 21 Sep 17 - 10:03 PM

Tatie Bogle: as a caregiver for a loved one with increasing symptoms...bless you.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 22 Sep 17 - 09:25 AM

I see the counterpart of this thread has died a death. Not sure what that proves, if anything, but it is interesting all the same.

And, yes, well done Tattie. I was never good enough to perform for charity. I think I would have drained money from them! But I have been active in helping to fundraise for a number of causes in the past and I can confirm that there is no better way to pay back into the community.

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 22 Sep 17 - 10:11 AM

This week one of the pubs I play in presented a cheque for 5000 euro to the Galway Hospice.

On a Tuesday night we play and sing for the assembled people in the pub and sell a CD, a compilation of various singers and musicians. Any monies raised go to the fund for the Galway Hospice.

The added bonus is that's it's always a great night too!!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 Sep 17 - 10:41 AM

i still say, mudgeon your curs.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Donuel
Date: 22 Sep 17 - 10:45 AM

Depending on your browser - dangerous ads are appearing on Mudcat. Deleting cookies may solve the problem but if you accidentally touch some ads on a touch screen the fix will require some offline repair.

Which ads? the most outrageous sounding Russian Facebook type ads.

Example ; Obama dead, Rush Confesses, Bill O'Reilly dead!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 23 Sep 17 - 07:51 AM

Birthday celebrations now drawing to a close, with a visit by my son and his wife, who is from Mauritius. As reported elsewhere, we flew out there a few years back to celebrate their Hindu wedding. Sso their birthday present was 'a taste of Mauritus': lots of small foodstuffs that are difficult to obtain here, but they got her family to bring over when they visited a month ago. Very much looking forward to having "Madeleine moments".

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Sep 17 - 10:00 AM

Donuel,

There are some ad distributors that for the life if me I can't manage to block, even with browser settings or tweaking the adware. Tabooli or Taboola, something like that, and Outbrain. They're just clickbait.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Sep 17 - 07:06 PM

Raspberries! I grew up hearing them called Bronx cheers.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 24 Sep 17 - 02:18 PM

don't let this thread down / drown

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 24 Sep 17 - 02:22 PM

Had a great night (early morning) with Betty and the Baby Boomers in a favourite bar last night. Got home about 4am though !!!!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Mr Red
Date: 25 Sep 17 - 05:20 AM

Had a great weekend at the Stroud Folk Weekend did the sessions but on Saturday night I skived off to Stroud French Dance.

A couple who always turn up late came in and the guy looked a bit haggard. He never had a problem dancing before but on Saturday he apparently was struggling. Only after they shot away was I informed he had developed Alzheimer's.

Had I known I might have suggested they went to singing venues, he would know some of the songs at least. Apparently the brain is wired differently for music than speech, and sufferers can often sing songs they used to, where they struggle remembering other things. She is such a very keen dancer.

One confirmation for why I will dance till my legs wear out. You never know when it will be taken from you. Pass the Ibuprofen gel please.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: JHW
Date: 26 Sep 17 - 11:36 AM

Lots of Sheeps Bit Scabious on the S bank of the Tees nr Newbiggin in Teesdale Sunday. Think it was Sheeps Bit, Devil probably has bigger bits. Also an enormous red Bull which had wandered across from another thread. Had some change ready but he didn't charge me.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 26 Sep 17 - 11:46 AM

Looking forward to our regular Tuesday night session. At least one Melodeon, one banjo, two guitars, One bodhran and 3 vocalists plus whoever walks through the door to join us. All this in a fantastic pub, great Guinness, wonderful bar staff ........ and I do really mean wonderful, what more could you wish for.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 26 Sep 17 - 02:11 PM

Easy come, easy go! Booked a holiday on a cruise ship on Friday evening, which was a music festival and we were going with my sister in law and her husband. Come this morning, the company has sold the ship and the whole caboodle is cancelled.


About the shortest booked holiday i have had, except when we have had off the cuff breaks.

Oh well, not really enough time to get excited about it!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 27 Sep 17 - 02:47 PM

Well last night was not quite as expected, one melodeon, one banjo and myself and my good lady on Guitar, Bodhran and vocals. However it was a great night wejust had to do a lot more singing than we usually do. I think we got home about 3am!!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Sep 17 - 05:18 PM

I'll come clean. I've been in Funchal, Madeira, for a week. I'm in love with Madeira. I'm especially in love with Strelitzia reginae which grows everywhere, which is Madeira's national flower and which I'm going to grow at home. Today was International Tourism Day. How naff does that sound. But Funchal, a lovely city, put on some brilliant traditional dance events in the streets that, er, kind of put Morris slightly in the shade...(ducks)...I have videos... anyway, back to Blighty now and a miserable, long winter...

Funchal is of the nicest places to hang out. Jayz, I'm enamoured...

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Sep 17 - 05:21 PM

Ah, bollocks, let's try that again!

I'll come clean. I've been in Funchal, Madeira, for a week. I'm in love with Madeira. I'm especially in love with Strelitzia reginae which grows everywhere, which is Madeira's national flower and which I'm going to grow at home. Today was International Tourism Day. How naff does that sound. But Funchal, a lovely city, put on some brilliant traditional dance events in the streets that, er, kind of put Morris slightly in the shade...(ducks)...I have videos... anyway, back to Blighty now and a miserable, long winter...

Funchal is of the nicest places to hang out. Jayz, I'm enamoured...

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Sep 17 - 06:11 PM

Good Times Mr. Red.

Here in Bilge Bay, Maria brought a southerly wind which cleared the stench of the Delmarva pig farm waste detention ponds for almost 2 days. Woo Hoo

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: JHW
Date: 28 Sep 17 - 05:40 AM

Always fancied going to Madeira but never have. Maybe one day.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 28 Sep 17 - 07:12 AM

I have only had a few days in Madeira and it has been on my list of places to visit for longer ever since.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 28 Sep 17 - 11:10 AM

Have some Madeira, m' dear. . .

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 29 Sep 17 - 07:22 PM

We came home laden with six bottles of Bual 5-y-o Madeira. We visited the Blandy winery and found that, not only was the Bual on special offer at 20% off, but also that they would arrange for your order to be at the airport, post-security, for no extra cost. A damn fine drop that lots of our rellies will now be quaffing at Christmas! But we also discovered what we regarded as Portugal/Madeira's finest achievement, the custard tart. Forget yer Marks and Sparks four-pack jobs, tasty though those buggers are. These are a masterpiece, a dense culinary delight. With an afternoon coffee in a sunshiny Madeiran bar they are just what you need to lift the spirits and sustain the inner human until the evening meal (I can tell you about an amazing fish restaurant...) We had one every day. Quite frankly, it simply had to be done.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 01 Oct 17 - 01:46 PM

DMcG,charming to be reminded of the Mauritius nuptials in your family a while ago. Those were some delightful posts to Mudcat.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 01 Oct 17 - 06:10 PM

Most kind.

I can't remember if I said, but the couple were married in the UK first, with a wedding in her home town originally planned for about a year later, but eventually it took place two years later. So my wife and I went over to meet all the relatives when it was originally scheduled anyway.

On arriving at the airport we were all waved through as residents, because we were in-laws and that was close enough as far as the immigration desk was concerned. Much to the chagrin of all the tourists who were in great long queues ....

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 02 Oct 17 - 08:30 AM

I have juat checked the saga I wrote before and had mentioned the way we were treated as residents even though we had not set foot pn the island before.


But what I didnt seem to mention, because of the focus on the wedding was "What Katy did next". As it was just round the corner, relatively speaking, my daughter and I abandoned the rest of the family and flew off for four days trekking through Madagascar (ok, trekking is a bitn of an exaggeration, but we did spend several days walking through the forest). That's another tale ...

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 02 Oct 17 - 05:34 PM

Nice to see the thread still going :-) I am just back from Normandy. Three nights in Bayeux, one of the prettiest cities I know, followed by a night in Bella Riva, Ouistreham before the early ferry today. We followed the potential route of my Sister in Law's (my wife's half-sister) Father on route from Arramanches to Grainville sur Odon. He fell just before the latter on the 27th June 1944 in his 21st year. He is now buried in the British cemetery in Bayeux where we lay my Mother in Law's ashes to rest some years back. We had a wonderful, if very emotional, time and I would recommend a visit to Normandy to anyone. Not just to experience the amazing achievements of the Allies in 1944 but it is also beautiful part of the world. Check out the story of the Number 4 Commando Kieffer as well. It is an amazing tale of the courage and fortitude of the free French.

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 02 Oct 17 - 05:45 PM

Last week my sister visited what is now known to be the grave of my grandfather who was killed at Neuve Chapelle. Athough I have visited it several times over the years it has always been listed as "believed to be" his grave. I have no idea what has changed but they are now certain his remains are there.

For many people, and I include myself, it needs a visit to somewhere like Tyne Cot to begin to grasp the scale of the killings on both sides.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 04 Oct 17 - 12:48 PM

Brilliant yellow ragweed in bloom here.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 05 Oct 17 - 03:18 AM

Just remembered to look this up. For obvious reasons it was running round my head all the time we were in Normandy. Hope you enjoy it and apologies to those who don't YouTube.

Normandy orchards. Lovely version by Cupola Ward.

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 06 Oct 17 - 11:39 AM

Raggytash, has your Ireland cat claimed you again during your visit?

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 08 Oct 17 - 04:35 PM

Does anyone else listen to
the Delilah show on the radio?

As for me, only when driving the car, on the car radio.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 08 Oct 17 - 05:02 PM

Not heard of the Delilah show I'm afraid keberoxu. Is it a US thing? I do listen to Chris Evans in the mornings of radio 2 and that will probabley get me in a lot of trouble with the UKers.

:D tG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 08 Oct 17 - 05:34 PM

I've not heard of that show either, though I only really listen to the radio to and from work.

A very disorganised day today. I was supposed to be going to a Playford dance session all afternoon. Drove over to Twyford (40mins) and about 10 minutes before I get there started to wonder if it is in Sorberton. Reach Twyford Village Hall and it looks small and dark and on my phone a reminder has popped up: it is in Sorbeton. So I drive there (30mins) expecting to be half an hour late, turn into the car park and all is deserted. Search for the website - yes, it is in Twyford.

At that point it was be an hour or more late, or abandon the whole thing, which I am afraid I did. On getting home I discovered it was in Twyford Parish Hall, not Twyford Villiage Hall.


Still next time is in Sorberton, so I know where that is!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 08 Oct 17 - 06:04 PM

Yes she has kerouboux, though not as frequently as on previous visits. This, however, I take as a good sign that she is being well fed elsewhere.

She is a VERY pretty little darling and very affectionate when she does visit.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 09 Oct 17 - 04:00 AM

I am sure we can get to

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 09 Oct 17 - 04:01 AM

200!

:D

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 09 Oct 17 - 01:22 PM

Yes, Delilah's radio show is a North American thing.
For the time being,
her syndicated show is going to broadcast older episodes;
she has just had a death in her family
and is on some kind of compassionate hiatus. Leave. Whatever.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 11 Oct 17 - 01:19 PM

Let's get this thread back to the top.

My son, after a horrible divorce, has found a lovely house with his new fiancee, have a mortgage offer, and are setting a wedding date. Last night I played at a lovely historic pub, tomorrow night has a nice friendly round-the-room evening lined up, and on Sunday afternoon I'm doing two hours with a player I greatly admire, and next week I have a 70th birthday meal with my family.

I feel quite smug sometimes.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 11 Oct 17 - 01:29 PM

Post that on olddudes 'good news' thead as well RD - And congratulations on everything :-)

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 11 Oct 17 - 02:50 PM

Does that mean you've had 69 meals for this birthday already, or that you're coming up 70?   :-)

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 12 Oct 17 - 04:17 PM

Oh, come on, Steve. Surely you don't need any more some English lessons.

:D tG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Oct 17 - 04:55 PM

Certainly not, Dave. I always prefer to be one hundred percent specific about everything in every way, more or less. And you know me: correct spelling is, at all times, absoluteley de rigour.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 13 Oct 17 - 04:05 AM

:-D

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 13 Oct 17 - 04:08 AM

And you know me: correct spelling is, at all times, absoluteley de rigour.

And you know me: if I attempted to parody the misspellings, muddled phrasing and omitted words of my own posts - it would be completely indistinguishable from the norm. :(

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 13 Oct 17 - 04:17 AM

I always use a spill chucker.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Oct 17 - 08:38 PM

Between you and i dave my view is that adherence to proper english is the cine qua none. You see all kinds of tortitudes on this forum. for example you see, serious misuse, of commas e.t.c. not to speak of people who fail to start a sentence with a capital and to end it with a full stop

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 13 Oct 17 - 10:55 PM

Don't you mean e.c.t.?

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Oct 17 - 03:25 AM

Pedant!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 14 Oct 17 - 06:30 AM

I had a real moment of bafflement this morning and it is still a bit incomprehensible to me. A friend is on a holiday in India - very nice - and she is staying in an essentially Western hotel. Well, that is a bit of a shame, but it is not that easy from here to find alternatives. But the real startling moment was a Facebook post where she showed where she had gone out to eat: a fusion restaurant run by a 'Profesional English Chef'. what are you thinking? You are in India and go for an Indian meal. Why on earth go to one doing 'fake Indian' in the English style?


We shall have to have words when she gets home ....

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 14 Oct 17 - 05:36 PM

"Pedant!"

Ha! You've sussed me! ????

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 15 Oct 17 - 03:29 AM

As someone who once had an entire run of CD inserts printed to read 'practicing' instead of 'practising', I am in no position to take umbrage at SS's gentle and well-aimed correction.

Interesting though that he missed the dreadful slip from singular to plural in my post above, which really does merit his excoriation.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Oct 17 - 04:34 AM

I seem to remember Dave Mallinson in his D/G tutors who, having spelled "practice" in the verb sense with a c throughout, because it was obviously impractical to reprint the books, issued a blanket apology in one of the prefaces.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 15 Oct 17 - 11:29 AM

From: Rusty Dobro - PM
Date: 15 Oct 17 - 03:29 AM

As someone who once had an entire run of CD inserts printed to read 'practicing' instead of 'practising', I am in no position to take umbrage at SS's gentle and well-aimed correction.

Should have just blamed it on having spell-check set to US settings.
Even the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) gives:
Practice (vb): US spelling of 'practise'
Here
Useful to know if it prevents the cost of a reprint.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Oct 17 - 03:48 PM

Generally, I like American spellings, but in the case of practice/practise I think there's a useful distinction worth preserving. I suspect that most Brits who use "practice" for everything are acting out of ignorance.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 15 Oct 17 - 03:59 PM

Mea Culpa, guilty as charged !!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 16 Oct 17 - 02:31 AM

Me too, obviously, and I speak as someone who regards 'pedant' as a compliment...

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Oct 17 - 03:28 AM

It’s such a widespread mistake that I should imagine most people not remarking on it, and the intended meaning is always clear. I predict that dictionaries will gradually come to see “practice” as acceptable.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 16 Oct 17 - 03:36 AM

So, so we practice at the practise or practise at the practice?

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 16 Oct 17 - 04:35 AM

Dave,
It's often a difficult one to remember to get right. It's not helped by the fact that the two words sound the same.
I (nearly) always remember which to use by comparison with advice/advise where the pronunciation makes it obvious which to use and the differentiation between noun/verb is the same as with practice/practise.

Cheers
Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 16 Oct 17 - 05:28 AM

That's a good aide memoire, Nigel. Is it your own discovery or did someone else suggest it? Not that it matters either way.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 16 Oct 17 - 05:32 AM

Just as I ran it through in my head ,'C is a noun', the old synapses triggered something and it came out as 'Caesar noun'. Which it is :-D

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 16 Oct 17 - 06:18 AM

That mnemonic was one of my own, but decades ago.
I'm almost sad to say that I still have to use it from time to time.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 16 Oct 17 - 07:21 AM

Just finishing off about 8 portions of Makkhani Murgh, a very rich, buttery and creamy chicken curry. Even if I say so myself it's bloody good.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 16 Oct 17 - 08:05 AM

Or, just for Dave the Gnome "C is the noun" => seize the noun => "carpe et noun" or "carpe et nomen"

Seize the (g)nome

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Oct 17 - 06:51 PM

The Coffee Sack. A new place we discovered today at the corner of Manchester New Road and Scholes Lane in Prestwich. Best cappuccino outside Italy and gorgeous avocado on toast with poached eggs (?5.45). Lovely relaxed ambience and amazingly friendly staff. What a find!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 17 Oct 17 - 03:39 AM

I like it, Nigel :-)

I'm off to Manchester today Steve but will be around the Eccles/Swinton/Salford area. I am sure I have seen the Coffee Sack if I get of the M60 at Prestwich and go past Heaton Park to avoid the death valley bit of the 'smart motorway' (stupid phrase) upgrade. Is it not Bury New Road and Scholes Lane? Anyway, Must give it a try sometime.

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Oct 17 - 04:25 AM

Yep that?s it, Dave. Maybe one day I?ll get Mother there on a day you can get there too!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Oct 17 - 10:52 AM

What's your excuse?

Its the way of the world
Its not my fault
He did it
No time
What?
Me?


I didn't have the money
What about the kids
Someone stole it
I was cheated
Its too far
I can't
Huh?

If only
If they only
If we all could only
I'm sure I could have
No one really cared
They do not care
I didn't care
I'm tired
fukit

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Oct 17 - 10:56 AM

Its none of my business

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 17 Oct 17 - 12:23 PM

Not sure what the post appertains to, Donuel, but it is welcome :-)

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Oct 17 - 01:11 PM

If I need an excuse;
Its a mitigating a-pertinent pointless post, aren't they all?

Or is this the wining and dining to the apocalypse thread?
not that there is anything wrong with that
It reminds me of the 20's whoopee

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Oct 17 - 03:44 PM

Gold is discovered being created when two gargantuan neutron stars smashed into each other. Along with gamma rays and gravity waves detected by LIGO, all the heaviest elements known and unknown were made by the explosion. No mining please. It was long ago and far away.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 17 Oct 17 - 07:21 PM

I used to practice medicine. If I had practised it, people would have thought I was no good at it! ( OK, maybe they did anyway!)
Happy news: family got back from N Ireland with no problems: might have been a different story if they'd booked to come back yesterday......O- Feel-Ya!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 18 Oct 17 - 03:27 AM

rom: Tattie Bogle - PM
Date: 17 Oct 17 - 07:21 PM

Happy news: family got back from N Ireland with no problems: might have been a different story if they'd booked to come back yesterday......O- Feel-Ya!

"My heart is aflame,
Soft as a kiss,
Hear me whis-per your name"

Sorry, thought we needed some music, and it follows on from Tattie's comment ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 18 Oct 17 - 04:03 AM

Why do doctors need to to practise? What if they have not practised enough? Are we at risk? We need to know these things!

:D tG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Oct 17 - 05:53 AM

Because they?re only junior doctors, of course! All juniors have to practise! Tsk!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 18 Oct 17 - 05:58 AM

Halfway through making 6 portions of Murghi Badami. a beautiful rich "curry" but need to get some more yoghurt quickly !!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 18 Oct 17 - 05:59 AM

Ah sod it, I'll just add more cream!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 18 Oct 17 - 07:54 AM

I've just been told by my good lady that the Murghi Badami exceeds even her expectations of my cooking, which is normally set very high.

Brownie points for me!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Oct 17 - 09:59 AM

I made a really good fish pie for fussy buggers at the weekend. Even Mother loved it. No prawns, no salmon (the usual hatred-inspirers), just smoked haddock and unsmoked cod. With hard-boiled eggs of course. I also made an Elizabeth David beef daube. You can get the really easy recipe from the Guardian if you google "Guardian daube Elizabeth David" (no shit, Sherlock). It's a winner as long as you stick to the top rump she specifies. I bought a big piece from Sainsbury's and cut it to size myself. I used pork rinds that I'd trimmed off some pork chops and kept in the freezer, but I left them whole and just fished them out at the end. I just used some streaky bacon slices cut up small instead of the chunks she specifies.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 18 Oct 17 - 10:32 PM

What was that?

Ophelia my heart is aflame?

Is that a lyric or something?
never heard of it before

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 19 Oct 17 - 08:17 AM

Is this talk of curries and wind linked?

:D tG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 19 Oct 17 - 08:52 AM

From: keberoxu - PM
Date: 18 Oct 17 - 10:32 PM
What was that?
Ophelia my heart is aflame?
Is that a lyric or something?
never heard of it before

Count it as a 'modegreen' "Velia, O Velia" from The Merry Widow"

Cheers
Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 19 Oct 17 - 08:58 AM

Several versions on Mudcat Here

Although not with quite that line.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 21 Oct 17 - 03:52 AM

I spent yesterday evening at Butsner Ancient Farm, for this:

Samhain Festival?? Friday 20 October?SOLD OUT
Join us to celebrate the evening of Samhain in the magical surroundings of the great roundhouse. Between 7-10pm you will enjoy live music, professional storytelling by Jonathon Hue

Great fun. The instruments and music were perhaps some way from authentic, since they included banjos and sang of New Orleans but what the heck, just enjoy it for what it is.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 21 Oct 17 - 11:24 PM

Visiting Phoenix, Arizona, again.

I don't know what kind of bird this is here.
It looks like a jay of some kind. Entirely dark.
The funny jay gait.
And you should hear it calling!
It's the kind of sound that makes you straighten up and look around.

High, piercingly clear, really a whistle.
And the jays, when they talk at each other (they are often in groups),
have all different pitches and notes that each whistles,
and some of them have little ornaments, grace notes, sliding from one note to the next.

The funniest thing I ever hear from these jays
is the sunset, the crepuscular soundoff.

For this one, they all clump together in the branches of trees
(one tree, if it's big enough for the whole group)
and deep behind its green leaves,
they all whistle at once.
I mean, it is the darndest sound.
They sound like they're all high on the same drug.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: akenaton
Date: 22 Oct 17 - 11:06 AM

One of the good things about America to me, is the fabulous names they have for their towns and cities, and how they often link them to the State concerned.....Phoenix Arizona.   Sounds great.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Oct 17 - 04:08 PM

Bury Lancs.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 22 Oct 17 - 04:52 PM

Go on I give in, what is the connection between Phoenix and Arizona apart from the former is in the latter.

Ripon and Yorkshire, Bude and Cornwall, for example, seem to have the same connection, that is none but that the former named town is in the latter named county.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 Oct 17 - 07:11 PM

Raggytash, I couldn't say,
unless an association were made
between phoenixes and raucous jays in the trees at sunset?

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 23 Oct 17 - 04:33 AM

Is it something to do with there being a number of different Phoenixes and Arizona is placed at the end to differentiate that one?

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 23 Oct 17 - 04:50 AM

Well Dave, I know Swinton holds a place in your heart, but which Swinton.

The one is Lancashire or the one near Harrogate, or the one near Ryedale or the one in South Yorkshire, perhaps the one near Glasgow or the one in the borders.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 23 Oct 17 - 06:30 AM

I shall start saying I come from Swinton Lancashire :-)

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 23 Oct 17 - 07:03 AM

The Beatles set a precedent with Blackburn Lancashire.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: akenaton
Date: 23 Oct 17 - 11:42 AM

Doesn't have the same ring to it as Memphis Tennessee or Deadwood City South Dakota.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Oct 17 - 12:18 PM

It bugs me whenever I see or hear anyone saying "London, England" or "Paris, France." Yanks usually.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: frogprince
Date: 23 Oct 17 - 12:26 PM

I've driven by London quite a few times on my way from Michigan to Massachusetts. I would have to do research for a bit to see how close I was to Paris when I was in Texas.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Oct 17 - 04:10 PM

Yes, froggy, good old London, Ontario.
I remember a joke written into the sitcom "All In The Family"
regarding London, Ontario versus the London east of the Atlantic.


This morning, still in Arizona,
I got in my rental car and headed for the freeway.
On one exit ramp, I found myself behind a van
with its business service advertised on the rear windows:

CANINE RATTLESNAKE AVERSION TRAINING AVAILABLE

PROTECT YOUR PROPERTY AND YOUR PUP

... now I really HAVE seen everything.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Oct 17 - 05:03 PM

In Colorado downhill from Rocky Flats you see many signs like;

Water is now ~ safe

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: frogprince
Date: 23 Oct 17 - 08:57 PM

The closest I've been to Paris, Texas, was Fort Smith Arkansas, 40 years ago. The closest I've been to Paris, France, was the Madrid airport a few years ago.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Mr Red
Date: 24 Oct 17 - 05:44 AM

Here in the UK we have to hang a qualifier on towns and villages.

You try asking Yell.com or BT telephone enquiries for Stonehouse or even Stroud, such databases are so precise - you have to be.
There are at least 23 Newports and not all of them have marinas or docks!

And it should not be a surprise that there are a humungous number of Newtowns.

Not one Memphis, and only 2 Paris's and they are a farm or a Hall.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Oct 17 - 06:37 AM

There's Paris Street bus station in Exeter and the London Inn just up the road in Kilkhampton.

I once went into the gents at aforementioned bus station for a wee. A man in one of the cubicles inadvertently let out a very loud, ripe, wet fart, and immediately started to hum a tune very loudly, the first note of which was represented by the fart, which he managed to get the rest of the melody fully in tune with. Knowing that he would eventually emerge from the cubicle and have to confront witnesses to his raucous air-biscuit launch, his clear aim was to make us think that he hadn't farted at all. Had the floor in the bogs not been so disgusting, I'd have rolled on it laughing me 'arris off. Incidentally, why ARE gents' toilet floors always wet like that? Yeuurgh...

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Oct 17 - 06:41 AM

Incidentally, can anyone explain to me the inanity of printing New York - Paris - London on the labels of small bottles of scented industrial degreaser (aka "shampoo")?

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 24 Oct 17 - 07:03 AM

If we are being asked to explain why marketing seems to bear little relationship to reality, we may be here some time...

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 24 Oct 17 - 07:45 AM

I am waiting for the label that says 'London-Paris-Cleckheaton'

:D tG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Oct 17 - 07:46 AM

"Swansea - Arbroath - Shitlington"

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 24 Oct 17 - 08:35 AM

I felt sure it was "The History of Mr Polly"on which one character is commenting on a delivery van of his friend which has his company name and an Oak tree as a logo and the slogan "Branches everywhere". When our hero points out his friend only has one fairly small shop, he defends the slogan "But oak trees do have branches everywhere
"

Bu

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 25 Oct 17 - 12:47 PM

Further rumination on Akhenaton's comment.

There is one practical reason for
US natives to insist on linking town names
"to the state concerned."

There are city/town names that are common enough
literally to have one such in every one of the lower 48 states on the continent.

One has to differentiate between the towns by specific mention of the state concerned.

"Springfield" is a classic case,
almost every state has got a town, if not a city, named "Springfield."
And so many others:

Bowling Green.
Woodville.
Lafayette.

I'm too lazy to recall the rest.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: frogprince
Date: 25 Oct 17 - 03:15 PM

Plus, there are a good handful of town names that occur more than once within the same state , which can lead to really inconvenient confusion; U.S. people have no custom of referring to towns or cities by county, and would have no idea what county a town was in without researching.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 25 Oct 17 - 03:40 PM

As I understand it, it isn't just towns & cities.
"Ode to Billie Joe" mentions the "Carroll county picture show". I wasn't aware there would be multiple choices for a county name.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 25 Oct 17 - 03:48 PM

Still, it seems a bit daft to say 'London, England' or 'Paris, France' when those are the originals and, generally, the cities that people are referring to when they are mentioned.

But what do I know?

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: akenaton
Date: 25 Oct 17 - 04:44 PM

Yes, I understand that Ker, they all just sound so cool.....Nevada, Alabama, Illinois, Idaho......perhaps native American roots?

Or maybe it's the old cowboy songs of my youth and "Western" fiction?

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Oct 17 - 05:15 PM

Dullsville Arizona

Crudesville Arizona

Titty City Arizona

Successville Arizona (etc.)

I didn't get where I am today by not remembering David Harris-Jones...

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 25 Oct 17 - 05:26 PM

Mountain View, Arkansas s was one of the best places I visited. Being in a 'dry county' the provision and carrying of alcohol was illegal but I did notice that every now and again one of the banjo pickers would saunter off to his car and spend 2 minutes with his head in the boot :-)

Bought a T-shirt there that said it was the folk music capital of the world. I am sure there are some who would dispute that...

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: frogprince
Date: 25 Oct 17 - 10:07 PM

Hyperbole aside, I have a fond enough memory of an evening of music in Mountain View. At that time the weekly (Saturday night?) gathering was in the court house. Jimmy Driftwood lived nearby and often MC'd.

Nigel, I think the implication was that, whatever the name of the theater, it was the only movie venue in the entire hardscrabble county.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 02 Nov 17 - 09:11 AM

My good lady has been to Manchester today and is returning with a dozen Meat & Potato pies from Wards Bakery in Eccles.

Wonderful..............

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 02 Nov 17 - 07:22 PM

Troll! Everyone knows that you can't beat a Greenhalgh's meat and potato pie!!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 03 Nov 17 - 05:03 AM

From: frogprince - PM
Date: 25 Oct 17 - 10:07 PM
Nigel, I think the implication was that, whatever the name of the theater, it was the only movie venue in the entire hardscrabble county.

Frogprince.
My comment wasn't about multiple theatres, but about the fact that there are multiple "Carroll County"s. (at least 3, Maryland, Georgia & Virginia)
This was in response to comments about repeated use of town/city names in US.

Cheers

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: frogprince
Date: 03 Nov 17 - 10:10 PM

Yo, Nigel; looked back and saw where I missed your point.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 04 Nov 17 - 02:47 AM

So how has everyone's week been? We are not in an area where "trick or treat" folk knock at the door, but is still fairly prominent. Daughter is involved in a costume hire place and over 400 were rented out at the weekend. Apparently this is their busiest season - Halloween, then Children in Need, then Christmas. This is what she came up with - no prosthetics, just face paint!. I expect that is 'public' but let me know if it isn't.

Tonight we have a few friends and neighbours round for a fireworks and food. Whether she will turn up in costume is to be determined ...

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 04 Nov 17 - 02:49 AM

That is pretty gruesome, actually forget the pretty bit!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 04 Nov 17 - 05:01 AM

Two Flixtons in Suffolk, plus another near Manchester and another near Scarborough.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 18 Nov 17 - 04:46 PM

Still open, just quiet.

Curious what happened in the Boston area today.
The same right-wingys from a weekend earlier this year,
which attracted counter-protesters in their tens of thousands,
decided to give Boston another try.

Their request for permission was refused, the radio soundbite said;
they planned to show up anyhow.
But they had made their intentions known with the earlier request.

According to the radio announcer soundbite:
the right-wingys did their thing and left.
A modest number of counter-protesters attended.
And all were outnumbered by public enforcement officials, everywhere and all over the place.
Peaceful . . .
. . . doesn't mean what it used to?

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 19 Nov 17 - 04:22 PM

I missed the meat and potato pie debacle.

You are both wrong. Titleys in Swinton are undoubtabley the best. People come from Scotland to get them - Ask my mate Dave :-)

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 19 Nov 17 - 05:30 PM

Hang about, your mate Dave from "Scotland" was born in Swinton.

Offside was the cry!!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 20 Nov 17 - 02:34 AM

Damn, caught out again :-)