Today I shall be Mainly...

[Wendyf]

What a lovely day. Been outside (well wrapped up) most of the time. We got the logs moved inside and the chimney swept. Have just been sat out with a glass of wine watching number 2 wind turbine on Bleara being hoisted into position. The ponies are in their stables enjoying a haynet and there is a beef stew ready for us to eat in Col's new slow cooker (which is to be used when the sun is shining and we are making electricity).
I do love this time of year.....when it isn't wet & windy!

[Stanley]

Nice positive post Wendy. Glad to hear another turbine is going up on Bleara, I get very angry with the anti wind-power people. They are perfectly willing to enjoy the benefits of leccy as long as someone else has to put with the downside of generating it. Leaving aside all the other arguments, the turbines will be redundant in fifty years as Fusion comes on line and they will., gradually become redundant. It will be as though they have never been, the groundworks they leave will be minimal and not obtrusive. Exactly the same arguments were used against pylons.
I shall be looking after myself to guard against the effects of the clock change. Upsets my life.....
Fireworks, the old fashioned ones weren't too bad but the industrial scale of them these days is ridiculous, everyone has to have bigger and better bangs. Recession? What recession......

[Sue]

Great weekend with the grandchildren, now , after a6.00a.m start to the day, they have gone home and I am collapsed on the sofa!!

Yesterday was the art and craft fair for Todmorden U3A art and craft groups. It was a successful event and I sold over£43 of my own stuff. I even sold one of my oil paintings but I am not sure which one!

I am donating the money to Alzheimer's Society, a cause dear to my heart. dementia and alzheimers are so distressing, i so hope that one day we can prevent it. We wanted to use all the funds raised for charity but a charity (ie the U 3A) is not allowed to raise money for charity so we said that individuals may like to donate their earnings. I hope others do

[Stanley]

That's what sofas are for Sue, collapsing on! That sounds like a successful day! Funny thing is I've run registered charities and never knew about that rule, still, I don't think I ever broke it!
I might have to think about some writing today for the paper.

[David Whipp]

Enjoying more freedom!

Now I can walk up town OK, Barlick's my oyster.

GP appointment first thing, then some time getting lantern making workshops underway and helping run school holiday cinema at the Rainhall Centre.

(None of which will tax me very much, or lead to me lifting anything too heavy - just in case Alison reads this...!)

[Sue]

I think it is a new rule Stanley, and we only became aware of it at the planning stage last March

[Tardis]

Cleaning, ready for the arrival

[Sue]

Walking this morning with the walking group.we are walking in Healey Dell,which I love so am charging the camera, hopeful of some good photos.

I have put up my electronic knitting machine after many a long year, and doing a couple of jumpers for me then some for the grandchildren. My hand knitting is taken up with a long cardigan for me and it may take some time! Anyway, back to the machine. It took ages to remember how to assemble it and longer to remember how to use it. It's going to be a steep re learning curve this afternoon!

[Wendyf]

I haven't used my knitting machine since 1986. I was just getting going with a little knitting business...starting to sell at craft fairs etc when hubby started up his own electronics business and persuaded me to work for him instead. I never went back to knitting.
In Colne library this morning.

[PanBiker]

I think you have mentioned it before Wendy but I have forgotten, what branch of electronics was Colin into?

Back on topic, If the rain keeps off I may make a start on my Remembrance cross distribution today (no grandchildren today). I have to go on town first then set the tea off and then I'll see if it's worth getting togged up for a couple of hours. I have over 60 to distribute now from the 30 odd that I used to do when I started. Keep finding more every year and last year was a concerted effort to do a really good sweep. I went down the other week for a re-orientation run and still found another who was not on my list.

[Tardis]

Today, someone from Brighton, made a slight detour from her lecture presentations in Leeds to visit me here, just to see the new dog.

What a fun tweet up

[Wendyf]

The business started off as a hobby Ian. He made an add on box for the CPC computer for plugging in extra ROM, advertised it in a computer mag and it took off. The next product he designed was a video digitizer or frame grabber for the CPC....followed by one for the Amiga. We went from making them in the garage to a company with 40 employees in about 3 years. The end came with the sudden demise of Commodore in about 1995. Until last year he was working for Pace developing set top boxes for Sky.

[PanBiker]

I thought you had mentioned that he was involved in design. Your experience similar to many early computer related start ups I think, Apple being one of the biggest, Pace is a similar story as well. I don't think I have ever mentioned that I wrote a computer program in 1983 called "Windows" but that is another story.

Whilst mentioning Pace, I used to be involved in a computer club back in the early 80's we met in Colne Library in the upstairs rooms and would invite anyone we could get our hands on to give demonstrations of anything computer related. I got Gary Hood who started Pace in his mums garage in Shipley building modems (Nightingale) to come over one Tuesday night. He brought a raft of Nightingales which we hooked up to BBC's, Amiga's, Commodore Pet or whatever our members had. One of our members was a BT engineer and we hacked into the telephone lines which were accessible under the floor on the upstairs walkway. We used dial back through the engineering test numbers to get tariff free connections so we could get onto all the different bulletin boards. No one was the wiser when we vacated the building. Happy days.

As I am being drawn back into my amateur radio interests, I'm going to put up a new thread for amateur radio homebrew activity. I'll shove some pictures up of my construction projects that I did back in the 80's.

Sorry for going off topic will continue in similar fashion in a more suitable thread.

[Sue]

Wendy I had a little knitting business before I started full time work in 1983. I did however continue knitting with the machine until the girls were in their mid teens and didn't want the jumpers any more. Issued to love knotting to measurements, I liked the maths involved. Now I have a computer programme that does it for me. I have enjoyed today and will venture in to patterns on my next venture.

[Wendyf]

Ian I have put a bit more in the Computers topic, but we used to buy the modem cases from Pace in the early days for the digitizer we made for the Amstrad PCW.

[Stanley]

I shall avoid the shed today as I need to write some articles for the BET. Not sure what the topic will be yet but a couple of pipes and pots of tea should do the trick!

[Sue]

Today I am knitting and packing for a few days away. It's brionys first birthday and there will be a family gathering.

Here are a few photos from yesterday's walk in Healey Dell

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[Sue]

Why did I get three copies of my first picture?

[Wendyf]

Moving the ponies and their electric fencing down to their "over winter" section of the field. I think this bit is on the limestone fault rather than on shale because it drains much better and the grass is coarser and thicker. The rest of the field is mostly standing water already. Just got rained off with a bit of fencing up the wall side still to do. I don't risk letting them scratch against the dry stone walls....repair costs are a bit high!
Here are Dennis & Sparky in January 2010 when Sparky (the little one) had just arrived from Happa. They aren't as clean as that today!

[Tardis]

Ever done a grass type survey? Only 22 species in UK. It would tell you exactly what you have and what kind of stocking ration you can achieve.

I'm not good enough from the photo, but I'm guessing that they are 'fescues' and 'fog' types

[Wendyf]

No Tardis, I haven't studied the grass so closely.....yet.

[Stanley]

Sue, next time you are in Healey Dell take note of the pointing under the arches on the viaduct. My old Jack, Peter Tatham, did it in 1984.

[Sue]

Will do

[Tizer]

Tardis, I have to correct your claim that there are only 22 species of grass in the UK - it's more like 150! Admittedly, some are rare but it would be easy to find more than 22 species.
Wendy, if you want to identify British grasses, the authority on the subject was C.E Hubbard (worked at Kew Gardens) and his Penguin paperback book `Grasses' is still regarded as the best. You'll easily find a s/h copy through the Web. In the 1980s I was working in cereal science and had a side interest in wild grasses. I bought a number of books on grasses that had been owned by Hubbard when his library was sold off.

[Tardis]

22 species of agriculturally useful grasses native to the UK, my apologies (my memory can not tell me if that includes the rye grasses)

The best key I've ever found is the one by Francis Rose, as it does ever tree, flower and grass in the UK by season