WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Tripps]

The fact that I can live, for a whole day at least, totally without radio and television. I am at saturation point .

[hartley353]

It is possible to get 60 mpg from my 1400cc petrol car. My volkswagon combi van averages 38-42 mpg on its normal around the city mileage, for a turbo diesel my dealer says it is good mpg. I have seen little benefit in changing to diesel, probably long distance top gear motoring would be better,but that is not what I got it for.

My 11 year old 1.9TDI Golf gives me 50mpg round town, I got 58mpg on the run down to Kent on Friday.

Similar engine to my van, all the blurb says it should do better, the bottom end of what I quoted is the norm, if I book it in they will say there was nothing wrong,and give me a bill. As we all know the fuel figures on most cars are hyped so it is good to hear people are doing better, Noticed recently that Volkswagon have backed down to Greenpeace pressure and admitted they can make more fuel efficient vehicles, after saying they were state of the art.

[Stanley]

David, I agree. Have been listening to a lot of music! Loved Comrade Nolic's quote from Ken Loach.......
I see that a Parliamentary committee has voiced fears of civil war in Afghanistan when troops leave. It makes you wonder about going in there in the first place. We should have learned from the Russian experience.

[Big Kev]

My attention was caught by this.

[Stanley]

Nice pic of the Cove.
I'm going to get a visit next Wednesday from friends. That'll be nice. Will have to tidy the shed....
Pluggy called in and solved a problem....
The fact that 50,000 tons of suspect meat got out of Holland.

[hartley353]

My attention was caught by this.

Lovely Image, I can remember when this was a lonely place,and the local hostelry sold Watneys Red Barrel from the counter top,Now a thriving place and when the peregrines return so shall I with my long lens, to jostle with the crowds.

[Nolic]

Early this morning a guy on a bike on Bullholme.....nothing unusual in that apart from the fact that he was being pulled by 4 huskies in harness. Great sight. Nolic

[Thomo]

This headline "North Korean missiles are now in the upright position", I suppose its too much to hope that they are the wrong way up!

[Tizer]

..and the local hostelry sold Watneys Red Barrel from the counter top...

I can't remember what beer they sold but 30 years ago they did a good potato pie and mushy peas!

[Stanley]

My old tutor telling me I hadn't lost my touch after reading my piece on Less Eligibility.
The change in the weather....
There is an interesting debate going on about whether the BBC should play 'We're off to see the Wizard' in their chart programme because it contains the line 'Ding dong the witch is dead'. Apart from the fact that this is over sensitive the song is actually very pertinent in today's world. Here's an extract from Wiki on the subject:
Although numerous political references to the "Wizard" appeared early in the 20th century, it was in a scholarly article by Henry Littlefield, an upstate New York high school history teacher, published in 1964 that there appeared the first full-fledged interpretation of the novel as an extended political allegory of the politics and characters of the 1890s. Special attention was paid to the Populist metaphors and debates over silver and gold. As a Republican and avid supporter of Women's Suffrage, it is thought that Baum personally did not support the political ideals of either the Populist movement of 1890–92 or the Bryanite-silver crusade of 1896–1900. He published a poem in support of William McKinley.
Since 1964 many scholars, economists and historians have expanded on Littlefield's interpretation, pointing to multiple similarities between the characters (especially as depicted in Denslow's illustrations) and stock figures from editorial cartoons of the period. Littlefield himself wrote to The New York Times letters to the editor section spelling out that his theory had no basis in fact, but that his original point was, "not to label Baum, or to lessen any of his magic, but rather, as a history teacher at Mount Vernon High School, to invest turn-of-the-century America with the imagery and wonder I have always found in his stories."
Baum's newspaper had addressed politics in the 1890s, and Denslow was an editorial cartoonist as well as an illustrator of children's books. A series of political references are included in the 1902 stage version, such as references by name to the President and a powerful senator, and to John D. Rockefeller for providing the oil needed by the Tin Woodman. Scholars have found few political references in Baum's Oz books after 1902.
When Baum himself was asked whether his stories had hidden meanings, he always replied that they were written to please children and generate an income for his family.
The most recent research and opinion supports the theory that the Wizard of Oz was indeed a polemic against economic policy and fits exactly with Baum's political beliefs.

[Tardis]

Yesterday in the Aldi Appeal. Pendle Council seemed to be arguing with the developers about walls

[Tardis]

The work carried out by Joan Shaw and all the other Barnoldswick in Bloom people who have replanted the cenotaph area

[hartley353]

..and the local hostelry sold Watneys Red Barrel from the counter top...

I can't remember what beer they sold but 30 years ago they did a good potato pie and mushy peas!

The year was 1966, We would walk over the tops from Stainforth,have a pint at the Buck,then walk back on the road to Settle, have another pint, then walk back to Stainforth and have a drink at the Craven heifer, then back to our camp at the Foss.

[Stanley]

The re-opening of the terrible case in Canada where a poor lass was raped by four men at a party and pictures circulated among people who knew her. She committed suicide and till now nobody has been identified. However, new evidence has emerged and this may be rectified. I hope so. The perpetrators are animals.

[Tizer]

One of Mrs Tiz's friends has a blog page about stitching and it also now has some photos of Oakham Treausres where they recently visited. http://sowystitch.blogspot.co.uk/

[Tardis]

Apparently the Environment Agency, with the acceptance of a current Pendle Councillor, have said that Barnoldswick now has a river running through Ghyll Meadows.

Will that affect house insurancies?

[Tardis]

and this from the Woodland Trust. I will caveat it by saying that I was a member from University until prior to my marriage break up:

You may have seen that the Department for Education is consulting on changes to the school curriculum in England.

As a parent, I know how valuable getting outdoors is to my small son. He is one of hundreds of thousands of children across the country who gets to experience nature first hand as part of his school week, when, every Tuesday, his class goes out to on a trip to the woods to play - and learn without realising it.

But today I am concerned that opportunities like this will be reduced for many children in future, if changes to curriculum guidance go though as planned. At the very least, this will mean that children will only learn about caring for the environment when they are older - from 8 years old and above - instead of the current study guidance which begins at age 5. It could even see schools give less priority to those trips and outdoor learning opportunities, like the ones my son enjoys so much, like the ones I'm sure you enjoyed when you were at school, which are so vital for teaching the next generation about nature.

It's because of this, and the strong belief that the Trust has that every child should plant a tree, that I have asked the Campaigning team to help me highlight the Government's consultation and invite all our campaigners to take part in responding to the consultation.

Please add your views, and do pass this on! The more people who tell Government that we do not need to make children wait another 3 years before they get to go on school trips to play and learn outdoors, the better chance we have of our message being heard. Many schools are still on holiday so we need to spread the word as widely as we can before the consultation closes on the 16th April.

Contribute to the consultation:
http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/en/camp ... hool_trips

Thank you in advance for your support.

Graham Blight
Head of People Engagement

and

Nikki Williams
Head of Campaigning

PS: Our Woodland Matters mini-series gives the parent, policy and pupil perspective on this important issue. Read about my son's experience in my blog:
http://wtcampaigns.wordpress.com/2013/0 ... ed-to-sow/

[Tardis]

The bubble in the price of gold appears to have burst

[David Whipp]

Apparently the Environment Agency, with the acceptance of a current Pendle Councillor, have said that Barnoldswick now has a river running through Ghyll Meadows.

Will that affect house insurancies?

Thankfully, the river hasn't been running through people's houses for several years now.

But a decade ago, some people were flooded out three times in the space of little more than a year.

The repeated flooding led to a series of investigations to find out why it was happening and action to reduce the risk of it occurring again.

Part of the problem was that the 1960s/70s houses had used the old drainage system from the temporary hostel huts. The foul and surface drains were interconnected leading to surcharging in heavy rain. A further issue was the culvert which takes water from the sports field side of Skipton Road (and quite a lot of it at times!); following subsidence, one of the houses had been piled - one of the piles went straight through the culvert.

Over a period of a couple of years, the different problems were addressed and protocols put in place to reduce the impact of flooding (these include closing the road in the event of flooding to prevent the wash from vehicles going into people's houses).

The big issue was to tackle the main culvert. The area committee put £5,000 in the pot to kick start a scheme to replace (and divert) the length of blocked culvert. We went round all the organisations we could think off to drum up the rest of the cash needed for the project. The scheme was quite expensive and eventually cost around £300,000. Strictly, such work is the responsibility of the riparian owners (ie the householders whose land the culvert passed under) but we managed to avoid going down that road.

The work has been a massive success. Since it was completed, none of the properties on Ghyll Meadows has suffered from flooding. Properties which had become uninsurable could be insured again.

Since the work was completed, the Environment Agency designated this section of culvert 'main river'. This gives them the power to carry out work on the watercourse (which it does from time to time). The alternative would be for the liability to be on the riparian owners.

So have the changes influenced insurance costs? Yes; people whose properties were previously flooded regularly can now get insurance and the reduced flood risk means premiums are less than they would otherwise be.

[hartley353]

The bubble in the price of gold appears to have burst

Lot of nervousness in the gold market at the moment, everyone is awaiting a program to air on CBC Canada. The program says it will prove the rumour that has been circulating for a while now. This is the rumour that says for every real ounce of gold there is 100 ounces of paper gold, there is almost a certainity that people buying paper gold have been sold a pup. Those owning the metal itself, preferably in gold currency needn't worry. Gold and silver are becoming scarcer to mine and are required more and more by manufacturers,. it will always be the only thing you can rely on. Presently it is still within the controlled parameters set by our global masters.

[Thomo]

Something we often hear about, and hope that we are never a victim of is "Identity Theft" often used for fraudulent purposes. My Daughter who "Was" expecting her third child, and her family were planning to move out of Bristol to a larger and better home in North Somerset. Going through the standard procedures for obtaining a mortgage, it was discovered that their details had been used to commit a serious fraud, this information was passed to the Police and thankfully after a months delay the move is back on track. Ten days ago I was told that my Daughter had suffered a miscarriage, but was only made aware of the fraud issue last night. I believe that these two events are linked, and it is very sad, fortunately my Daughter and her husband are very resilient and will "move on", the memory of these events will no doubt linger for a long time.

[Marilyn]

Sorry to hear about the loss of the baby, Thomo. That is sad.

We have had a death just a few houses down the road ( I don't know the people or who it was that died but I think it was an adult male.) The family are foreigners and I cannot even pick where they may be from...I had thought 'middle eastern' but that doesn't seem to be quite right. Last Friday night we were aware of a lot of noise and cars in our quiet little street...to the extent where it was impossible to settle off to sleep for the banging of car doors and people chattering away on the footpath. After an hour of laying there hoping they would all go away, Febby went out to see what on earth was going on. A very polite man spoke to him and explained that ( as was necessary with their religion) the house must be filled with people for days, and they must keep a vigil. He said it would "go on for days yet".
And it has. The house is surrounded on all sides with plastic chairs and wall to wall people. There are cars parked every which way. The past three mornings they have swept the street with strange stick like brooms ( are they just bored or is this part of proceedings?).
I don't mind a bit and they aren't bothering me...except they could keep the chatter down a bit at night. I wonder how long it will continue for. It is a tradition I was not aware of before now. ( the man did say that they must remain at the house until family come from overseas)

[Tardis]

Apparently the Environment Agency, with the acceptance of a current Pendle Councillor, have said that Barnoldswick now has a river running through Ghyll Meadows.

Will that affect house insurancies?

Thankfully, the river hasn't been running through people's houses for several years now.

But a decade ago, some people were flooded out three times in the space of little more than a year.

The repeated flooding led to a series of investigations to find out why it was happening and action to reduce the risk of it occurring again.

Part of the problem was that the 1960s/70s houses had used the old drainage system from the temporary hostel huts. The foul and surface drains were interconnected leading to surcharging in heavy rain. A further issue was the culvert which takes water from the sports field side of Skipton Road (and quite a lot of it at times!); following subsidence, one of the houses had been piled - one of the piles went straight through the culvert.

Over a period of a couple of years, the different problems were addressed and protocols put in place to reduce the impact of flooding (these include closing the road in the event of flooding to prevent the wash from vehicles going into people's houses).

The big issue was to tackle the main culvert. The area committee put £5,000 in the pot to kick start a scheme to replace (and divert) the length of blocked culvert. We went round all the organisations we could think off to drum up the rest of the cash needed for the project. The scheme was quite expensive and eventually cost around £300,000. Strictly, such work is the responsibility of the riparian owners (ie the householders whose land the culvert passed under) but we managed to avoid going down that road.

The work has been a massive success. Since it was completed, none of the properties on Ghyll Meadows has suffered from flooding. Properties which had become uninsurable could be insured again.

Since the work was completed, the Environment Agency designated this section of culvert 'main river'. This gives them the power to carry out work on the watercourse (which it does from time to time). The alternative would be for the liability to be on the riparian owners.

So have the changes influenced insurance costs? Yes; people whose properties were previously flooded regularly can now get insurance and the reduced flood risk means premiums are less than they would otherwise be.

Thank you for that response. I note that you don't say whether or not the householders were contacted to tell them about the river, as residences change hands on a regular basis and just wonder if this designation would be picked up by a simple solicitor's search.

[Tardis]

Cllr Smith Benson, Mayor for next year, makes The Sun:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne ... mayor.html

I note that there is no quote from him

[Tardis]

Sorry to hear of your loss Thomo