WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Cathy]

The things people think of, quite clever really once you get your head around it.

[Tripps]

There's a business opportunity for someone here. A 'crafter' perhaps who's saturated their market with birthday cards. There are none on ebay, and google takes you mainly to Tizer's link. A colour printer a pair of scissors, some craft card, some energy, and a lot of imagination and you're sorted.

Pity I don't have any of the above. . .

[Marilyn]

I think I can make those. The family have been teasing me, handing me bits of paper and cardboard etc to go toward a creation.

[Stanley]

Sorry, I haven't got enough room for my books let alone 'book nooks'. I only have to look at the spines of the books and I can see a vista of what's inside it!
The beauty of the miniature cabbages they sell in greengrocer's shops. They call them sprouts.

[Cathy]

I love that about books too, similarly with the taste of foods.

[Stanley]

[Tizer]

I think I can make those. The family have been teasing me, handing me bits of paper and cardboard etc to go toward a creation.

Have a go at it, Maz, then post a picture for us on OG. You can illuminate inside the book nook with those tiny LED lights.

[Tizer]

Some good photos...
`In pictures: Photos show 'silent drama' of winter walks' LINK

[Stanley]

Nice pics but all out of focus! I'd have recognised the one of Rum with the foghorn without the caption.



Here it is in later years. It has been added to and converted to a whale watching station.
How good proper coffee tastes with Pussers Navy Rum in it. (54.5 proof)

[Tizer]

We still have an unfinished bottle of Wood's Old Navy Rum (57% proof) given to us by an `old navy' man back in 1989. He and his son had a small local printing business and was the first printer we used when we started publishing. It keeps well! Wood's Rum

[Stanley]

Try a drop in your coffee on a cold morning. Warms the cockles.....
Kahara got all my attention yesterday. Such a bonny well tempered baby. He is a miracle and I'm so glad I have survived long enough to see him, hence the four generations picture.



That of course was triggered by this old family pic.



Me in 1936 on grandma Challenger's lap with Mother and Great Grandma Shaw.

[Stanley]

Susan told me yesterday that one of the ladies in her knitting group reads for Newspapers for the Blind and she told Susan that my articles in the BET are top of the pops. That's nice and it reminds me I have to write more, the stock pile expires this week!

[Marilyn]

I can’t see your pic, Stanley
Oh...suddenly ...there it was! After I had posted... Got It!

[Stanley]

[Marilyn]

How old was Mrs Shaw then?
( she still has a twinkle in her eye)

[Stanley]

Not certain Maz but I have an idea she was in her late 70s.

[Bodger]

Stanley caught this on Practical Machinist, interesting 10 mins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZTYc8yDRdo

[Tizer]

Those are impressive machines, Bodger. Late on in the video it shows a man shovelling very regular cube-shaped blocks into a hopper on the back of an engine. From the regular shape and the the fact that they must be light in weight could it mean they were firing the engines with peat?

Later...I've now ploughed (!) through the comments below the video and saw this:
`For somebody who comes from Peat land that burns Peat as fuel , Please help me out by looking close . At 6:00 minute Look at the Hopper With Formed Pressed Briquettes . I can not see what the fireman is shoveling up , but look on top in the Hopper at The Briquettes . It looks like the Boiler is being partially fired by Peat Briquettes ? The fuel has a certain place value . In The Past we used Wood and Coal here for Boilers . Yes I Watched it a Second time , he is using a Pitch fork not a shovel . They are Burning Peat To Turn Peat . It looks like they had it worked out pretty good!'

[plaques]

Impressed by the depth of the soil. You must be able to grow anything in this stuff without resorting to artificial fertilizers.

[chinatyke]

Lovely photos. I can't help noticing that you all have the same chin right back to great grandma Shaw.

[Stanley]

I think my mother looks Susan's Jess as well China....
The ploughing. Interesting. I noted the briquettes but didn't associate them with Peat. Those engine look like Fowlers with modified wide wheels to me.....
They used big engines in the US as well for direct haulage in the enormous fields. During my travels I found Steam Joe in Minnesota. His family had run a steam contracting business for many years and never sold any of their old engines. He lived in a big house full of steam engine parts and surrounded by huge engines gradually sinking into the ground....

[Cathy]

One of our main supermarkets is already selling Hot Cross Buns. ‘Apparently ‘ a survey was done and 53% of people said yes to getting them back on the shelves ASAP.

[Stanley]

Have they no shame?

[Stanley]

THIS report by Save the Children who estimate 7Million children are homeless and exposed to freezing cold weather that can be fatal. Add to this the starving, abused and those in war zones and the scale of deprivation overwhelms us.
We live in a world that is richer in resources than ever and yet we are in such a mess. I sit in my warm house with a full belly on a quiet morning and grieve for mankind. It shouldn't be like this......

[Cathy]

I agree Stanley but how long have these countries been crying out for help. Decades... more..., What are their Governments doing?