WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Big Kev]

I've written millions of words without knowing what a 'fronted adverbial' is and I refuse to try to find out. Whatever it is it is quite obviously superfluous.

Fronted adverbials are words or phrases placed at the beginning of a sentence which are used to describe the action that follows. Here are some examples: Before sunrise, Zack ate his breakfast. After the rain stopped, Sophie went outside to play.

I'm at a loss as to why 5 and 6 year olds need to know this, unless they're going to become a professor of linguistics later in life...

[Stanley]

Quite. Makes you wonder how I learned to use them without giving them a name. Could it have been better teaching? More reading? Perhaps even my comics!

[Big Kev]

We all learned to use them, it's just the focus of having to name them. I think it would distract from any creative flow, too much theory and not enough practice.

[Tizer]

This was a mystery object for us in our garden this morning. We had sub-zero conditions last night and the pond is frozen over. The first photo shows a ceramic dish which we keep filled with water for the birds to drink and bathe in. It was full of water yesterday and this froze overnight. The first photo shows what we saw from our window this morning - a piece of ice standing up on end! You can see a reflection of the bowl in the ice. I took the close up photo from behind and above the bowl. The lump of ice is not solid and it's shaped like a squashed paper cup, hollow down the centre. The rest of the water in the bowl is still frozen and appears undisturbed. We've no idea how the `mystery object' formed. All ideas are welcome!

[Stanley]

A fox brought it in from next door and has been sucking on the end.....

[Tizer]

Well, that's an imaginative thought! We still haven't come up with any suitable answer and then we end up with things like `A piece of ice that fell off an aircraft passing overhead'! If it was just a lump of ice it might be easier to explain but the shape of a squashed hollow tube...well, that's got us stumped. Later in the day we looked out of the window and got another surprise - the raised ice structure was moving around the bowl! But that we can explain. The bowl had warmed up slightly and the released water was lubricating the bowl-shaped lump of ice, allowing it to rotate. There was a gusty breeze and the raised ice was acting like a weather vane. As you see in the photo it was on one side of the bowl and the wind would rotate it round to the other side. However there was even more to it - as you can see in the photo the bowl slopes slightly to the to the right, so the water is deeper on that side and the ice therefore thicker. The wind came from the right and rotated the ice round to the left. When the wind dropped, the disc of ice rotated back to its original position because the thicker side is heavier and moves `downhill' to a stable position. I guess giant icebergs in the ocean must undergo some of these movements if they are not perfectly symmetrical!

In the meantime here are some cooling pics for Cathy and Maz...
`Snow in the UK: Wintry weather in pictures' BBC

[Cathy]

Maybe the wind has just formed an unusually shaped icicle.
Thanks for the snow pics, I enjoyed them.

Here we are finding it hard to sleep because of our hot temps and our need for cooler air, and some of you are getting out of your warm beds and homes to freeze yourselves, haha. Looks like a lot of fun for the kids and animals.

We had lots of rain today and I enjoyed standing out in it, when I came back inside, I was dry within a few minutes.

[plaques]

Well, that's an imaginative thought! We still haven't come up with any suitable answer and then we end up with things like `A piece of ice that fell off an aircraft passing overhead'! If it was just a lump of ice it might be easier to explain but the shape of a squashed hollow tube...well, that's got us stumped.

Do you have any rain troughings or water collectors on a nearby roof that could have been blow onto the dish?
Do you live anywhere near where the Canterville Ghost could be lurking about?

[Stanley]

I've seen ice form like that in a container that was leaking at the bottom as the water was freezing. Like the inside of a large pipe. The centre is the last to freeze and so sinks down.

[Tizer]

No gutters, drainpipes or anything overhanging - the bird bath is out in the middle of the garden. It's too far away from the house and the walls and fences for any ice to drop from them into the bowl, even in a strong wind. Any practical joker would have to get over 6ft high fences and I doubt anyone would have been out and about in the sub-zero night. Also our bedroom faces the garden and is in direct line with the position of the bowl and we would have heard anyone stumbling about even if they could get over the fence. The bowl is perched on an upper level immediately above the pond and that would have been an elephant trap for anyone negotiating our garden in the night! (Unless it was the Canterville Ghost, Plaques.) Brian Cox would probably tell us the answer lies in quantum tunnelling!

[Stanley]

The truth is out there.....
What grabbed me this morning was that my web connection was AWOL for half an hour. Makes you realise how much you rely on the web!

[plaques]

What grabbed me this morning was that my web connection was AWOL for half an hour. Makes you realise how much you rely on the web!

My TalkTalk has been acting up for the past two days especially late evenings. Mrs P's laptop wouldn't connect at all until I rebooted the router which was something the TalkTalk tech people told me to do when I last had this problem. Something going on?

[Big Kev]

My connection dropped briefly on Monday afternoon, Openreach were working to repair an infrastructure issue somewhere around Foulridge, three of their vans were on the Hare and Hounds car park and I spotted a couple more when out for a walk. Facebook users were also reporting the outage. The three were back on the car park yesterday but I've not noticed any connection since Monday, I'm working today so hopefully it's been fixed.

[Big Kev]

Had to put diesel in the car yesterday (en route to a dental appointment) and it has gone up from £1.10 to £1.17 a litre since I last filled it up (early December last year).

[Tizer]

Perhaps I'm naive but I don't understand what's going on here!...
`Facebook apologises for Plymouth Hoe 'error'' LINK

[Big Kev]

A gardening tool or a girl of loose morals
It's an American thing...

[Wendyf]

I enjoy a bit of hoeing in the spring.

[Big Kev]

I enjoy a bit of hoeing in the spring.

I shall refrain from writing a childish comment

[Tripps]

I won't. . .

Hoes Sauce.jpg

[Wendyf]

[Big Kev]

[Stanley]

Tinternetwebthingy.... Did anyone get caught out by the tills being down at the Co-op?
Hoe as a euphemism. Never come across that one. I think we've treated it with as much reverence as it deserves....
I did good with my compressor, it is holding it's pressure now. I shall see how long...

[Tizer]

I thought the OGers would be able to put me right on the hoe question!

Instead of OGers I almost wrote OG fraternity but that derives from brothers and I'd get flak from the ... maternity, from mater? No, it would have to be sorority. Is there a similar word for a group containing both sexes?

[Wendyf]

Community?

[Marilyn]

Motley Mob?