Alt.Mustardland

I think all the little brown ones have gorn off on their holidays, but I've heard Tawny owls after dark, and maybe a short eared owl. The Barn Owl sounds as though someone has just met a very painful death, so I don't think it was that. I picked up a couple of plants in Morrisons, among other things, but don't know what to have. I've just fed Cassie so only me to think about. The rhubarb I thought was in the veg box is Rainbow Chard.

I'm hoping we'll get some more rain here.

I was in Billericay on Friday, and a squadron of squawking honking Geeses flew overhead just tens of feet above Roof height. Having no estimate of Direction, but would this have been an annual flight South? Back in my Working Days, a Similar squadron passed over our office - Possibly from Valentines Park according to our tame Ornithologist. He Opined They were Southbound, but they seemed to me to be going East.

I think ours are from Slimbridge in Gloucestershire. They tend to vary their route, but we do get some at various times during the year.

We have two threads for August. The one from Management was clearly begun first, but came the pretty way, so wasn't in evidence when I begun this one.

Let's pick this one, "manglement" just started one to fill a void It's got a less discouraging title ....

It's a lot cooler here than it has been lately. I've gone back to long trousers and long sleeved shir. And socks. The summer is over Allegedly. I may go out to feed the compost heap with more kitchen scraps material. Since I started on my vegetarian career everything cut off the ingredients is grist to the mill.

I didn't decide to be a veggie, but just lost motivation to buy meat about a month ago. I've always liked nuts, so thought it might work. I don't like the idea of just buying 'fake' meat like burgers and the like, especially as burgers don't count as food IMHO. I made a mushroom pate the other day, and it's nice, but doesn't have what the experts call 'umami', which is found in many savoury foods. I can always add nuts, but don't want to cheat. When I was staying with friends the other week I didn't tell them, and just ate what was put in front of me. But it was nice to get home and please myself. I'm still eating cheese and eggs but with practice on menus may go vegan.

The orchestra is having two outings this month, so it's extra work.

"manglement" just started one to fill a void

Oh dear: That sounds Like Local Gov Newspeak. The recent new members of this Town's Council have just done something even odder - inviting opinions of the populace. We'll see...

Goodnight each.

Our local government in town changed to independent counsellors. One of them was co-opted during the previous administration because he cleaned up the streets unpaid. Our District Council was amalgamated with the one next to it that contained the County Town and is apparently greeted with apathy by some tax payers. Our lot are much more bolshie or proactive, so they may have a surprise when they consider planning applications for a start.

We have had some weather, including an electrical storm during the night. No floods yet, but the garden is benefiting. The laundry had a good extra
rinse and I brought it in, wetter than it was when it went out in advance of more heavy rain tonight and tomorrow morning.

Morrisons had no Manor House cake yesterday, so I made some oatcake which some ignorant persons call flapjacks instead. No syrup, extra nuts.

I'm dodging news programmes but heard more than I wanted to, owing to my habit of having a radio in every room, which I don't always remember to switch off as I move around the house. The OFCOM person interviewed on Feedback made the assumption that we all pay for the BBC, but I don't watch TV or have a licence. When I stayed with friends the other week, I sat in mutinous silence while they watched a programme about wedding dresses, and manipulating most of the buyers to be fashion victims at enormous expense. When the news programme came on, I went out to see how the engineering work in their garden to get 3 fishpond pumps to work in synch was going, to avoid having to see or hear the current tenant of Larry the cat's house.

Larry the cat ... Oh, Has He got a tame MP as a pet. I hope He takes him to the Vet and get him "done".

No TV here - well, not a working one - Being "Last of my Line" I seem to inherit stuff that I can only dispose of when everyones has forgotten? Thus I have a disused one here. I don't believe that the Current System would work on this one. - I intended to take the works out of it, and fit a Z guage (i.e. small) Model railway in it. Its aside somewhere and I forgot all about it. TV was fine when the True-to-Life programmes were on - The Man from Uncle, The Avengers, Thunderbirds - but all these news programmes are far too far-fetched.

A friend of mine put his TV in the fireplace and I always meant to record a video loop of our wood fire in our fireplace that he built. Then since he liked to play silent TV programmes to visitors, the fire video would be more soothing. He wasn't very amused.

A neighbour and frequent visitor who always drank only the first half of any tea you gave him was very offended when I gave him the half he usually drank, minus the tea he used to leave behind.

Which half did he leave, The top half or the lower half?
(reminds me - Must buy another box of Hardwater tea.)
Seems to have been some excitement here last night - Men with Guns were seen at other end of town - but the Arrest was made here, although I knew nothing about it.

He left the lower half, but because I didn't give him that half, the top half fell into the bottom of the cup, so he assumed I'd given him the half he didn't drink. It was a surreal conversation. Actually, thinking about it, we drink a mixture of top and bottom (and sides) of a cup of say tea, so maybe it was the middle he left. I'm not going to sleep for a week.

Why am I not surprised Martial law has begun in Essex already? It's handy for London I suppose.

I meant to bring in a couple of towels I'd left out on Friday that looked dry yesterday, but didn't want to harm my amateur status by pitting on a pair of shoes. It threw it down with rain during the night and I can see they are very wet again. No wonder my neighbour is moving away.

Bank holiday Monday. For some reason, my gardener likes to come here on Bank holiday Mondays. So I had to open the 2 boxes of plants that were delivered on Saturday, which at the time I thought was Friday. I've watered them and hope they look a bit more promising by the time he gets here.

Losing contact - Pooter went wrong (or the connection went wrong) doing minimal stuff here until I can get things working properly. Seems that I needs to "save" whatever is currently working, then do some sort of re-fit . But I needs a Flas stick, and or a something else stick or .... ! Got a load of stuff to find, edit, and repost. Must find more aspirins.... No, Not allowed more asprins (cos I'm already taking them). I'll se if George Cat's vet has anything suitable. and must reply to PPI bods.

I've become very irritated with BT. I'm still stuck with BT Yahoo which is a pain. I can't get into the settings that give access to their protocols, and Yahoo are just as bad. The offline email team are going to ring me back!

If you are on rat poison you don't need more blood thinners.

If your claim is ongoing, you are already in the PPI queue. The deadline is for new claims.

I've been seeing flutterbys around the garden in the past few days. They always used to be called Flutterbys, then it got changed around. Can we be going back to that I wonder?

It's September now, but I'll wait until someone else starts a new thread.

If you're a silent lurker, don't let that stop you.