WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[David Whipp]

Completing and printing Barnoldswick in Bloom's portfolio several hours before the ultimate deadline is the highlight of the day so far!

[David Whipp]

(Yesterday...) the judging tour for Britain In Bloom North West.

Picture shows us meeting up with representatives of the four primary schools who've helped us create a 'canal boat' planter to celebrate 200 years of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. This is on Fernlea Avenue for the summer. The planting is in pop-up planters made from old pallets. Each school has grown the plants and planted them out before bringing everything together for a coordinated display.

The judges appeared to be very impressed with everything, but remained tight lipped about how we'd done - we have to wait until October for that.

A big thank you to everyone who has helped get the town into such good condition for the judging (and who keep it looking good throughout the year).

Oh, the canal boat is named 'Violet' after a barge built in Burnley in 1916. Canal historian and President of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal Society, Mike Clarke came up with the name.

[Marilyn]

Just lovely...

[Big Kev]

I'm one of 12 winners in the P&O Cruises 2017 calendar competition, very pleased with that.

[PanBiker]

Well done Kev, what do you win?

[Big Kev]

Well done Kev, what do you win?

I don't know, Ian I believe I get two copies of the calendar, not sure if there's anything else. I'm just pleased to be a winner.

[Wendyf]

Well done Kev, what a fabulous photo. Can you post it on here?

[Tizer]

Great news, Kev, well done! Tell them you'll swap the calendar for P&O cruise.

David, a lovely photo of the `little mites' sitting on the canal boat...butter wouldn't melt in their mouths!

[Big Kev]

Well done Kev, what a fabulous photo. Can you post it on here?

Thank you. There you go, it's the P&O cruise ship Azura in Skolden, Norway. To give you an idea of scale it accommodates 3000 passengers and deck 19 has a basketball court.

[Tizer]

How did you take the photo Kev? It looks like you must have been walking on water!

[Big Kev]

How did you take the photo Kev? It looks like you must have been walking on water!

60mm lens sat on the shore of the fjord No miracles involved.

[David Whipp]

Sadly, not up to Kev's standard - but there is a water connection.

Contractors are cracking on with building the new barrier alongside Skipton Road.

I took this photo as the lightning began flashing yesterday afternoon, but the rain didn't come to anything more than a few splashes.

The central section of the scheme is for a masonry wall with concrete reinforcement (the rebar can be seen with the yellow caps on top). The face of the wall to the road will be a 'rustic' buff brick (which will fit in with the houses in that area). The back of the wall will be waterproofed with earth banked up against it.

Where the barrier is lower at either end, it'll be an earth mound rather than a wall. The top of the barrier will be about 8" (200mm) above Boxing Day high water.

Meanwhile, we are vigorously pursuing funding for a major improvement scheme to reduce flood risk further. A bid to carry out a full study on possible solutions is due to be made this week.

The most likely solution will be to replace the remaining lengths of old culvert with upgraded, larger, sections. I'll keep people posted on progress with this.

[Julie in Norfolk]

Ooh Julie, a friend of mine got a Munsterlander last year, a magnificent dog...well bitch actually, but they need plenty work to do! I'll find out where hers was bred.

Lovely photograph, thanks for that! They are as beautiful as they look. We went to see some at a show on Sunday. Now I'm looking into field trials training (for me mostly) so I can see if I am making a good decision. Plenty of homework to do here.

[Stanley]

Lovely time catching up with these posts. All good and interesting news.
The main thing that has struck me since I arrived home yesterday morning is that even though I had a wonderfully productive time with some very nice people it's nice to be back in my own hutch and especially my own bed! I have commented often on the fact that my mattress is over 40 years old. After using a new mattress for four nights I have to report there will be no change!
Oh, by the way, Jack was no trouble on his holiday with his friends in Earby but you should have seen him when he realised I was back.... He was making noises I have never heard before..... He has made a painless transition back to East Hill Street rules!

[Stanley]

One of Trumps supporters saying that Hilary Clinton should be shot for treason..... This campaign is going to get even more vicious in the run up to the November vote..... I asked my American friends last week what their prediction was and they all hoped Clinton would get it but were not discounting the fact that the US seems to have gone mad. Trump for president? We live in strange times......

[Tizer]

And Trump had an aeroplane flying with a sign saying `Hilary for prison'. His supporters now all chant `Lock her up, lock her up' at the meetings.

In Daniel Finkelstein's regular Saturday column in The Times he writes that he has attended three American political conventions and describes how people pay little attention to the speeches and instead spend the time talking to each other. He said it reminded him of being in synagogue.

[Stanley]

BHS.... Green is described as 'the unacceptable face of capitalism'. Now where have I heard that before......
I watched the TV programme about Bakersfield (CA) and Trump last night. I assume that they tried to find liberal whites but there were none on the programme. The most moderate and sensible were the blacks and Latin-Americans. There is a big problem here and Trump is stoking the fires of racism. As one black lady (an army veteran) said, how can it be that hate buys votes? A good question......

Later....


I cleaned my stove out ready for winter and the grate broke in two as I was chipping the clinker off. No point welding burnt cast iron, I have ordered a new one and will go into the heating season full of confidence!

[Tizer]

Vapour trails photographed over our house at 08.12 this morning. When people see a lot of trails like that they often think it means a lot more aeroplanes than normal but that's wrong. It's usually the same regular flights as every day but the atmospheric conditions at the altitude of the aircraft favours formation and persistence of vapour trails. It's when you find out there are many more aircraft passing by than you see for most of the time!

[Tripps]

Best take cover, and be safe. . . Chemtrails

[Tizer]

That makes a nice little conspiracy story, Tripps. I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it if I were you. It looks like a case of adding 2 plus 2 and getting 22. Taking rainwater and comparing the minor contaminants with those leached from fly ash doesn't prove `they' are spraying it out of `tanker jets'. But then I know you're more than capable of working that out yourself!

[Stanley]

Barlick has more than its share of vapour trails, we are on the main route out over the N Atlantic as most of them head for a beacon in SW Scotland before turning out over the Atlantic.
How satisfying it is to get essential tasks done or in progress. Yesterday was stove cleaning and LPAs......
Bad news this morning.... See THIS for a BBC report. The tree has Honey Fungus and the decline looks terminal. The planting of an apple pip by a young girl changed the world!

[David Whipp]

Good news and bad news from last night's Pendle Council central planning committee.

The bad news is that permission was granted for up to 148 houses at the Barnsey site off Long Ing/Coates Avenue. (Part of the site is the former mill area, but most of it is the greenfields alongside and beyond the old mill area.)

Despite warnings about the impact on flooding, traffic, potential noise nuisance from nearby industry, inadequate infrastructure (schools, doctors etc) and road safety at the bad bend at the bottom of Rainhall Crescent, a majority of councillors approved the plans. (The vote was 8 to 3, with me and Ken Hartley voting against.)

The good news is that my proposal to turn down the application for 34 houses within Salterforth Parish next to Northolme was agreed by the committee (though some councillors voted against the refusal). The grounds for refusal are because of the severe impact on road safety due to the very substandard pedestrian access arrangements.

[PanBiker]

I have no problem with building on the brownfield site at Barnsey but the greenfield floodplain, when are they ever going to learn? Might be advisable to make plans now for where the flood barrier will need to be built a few years down the line, (or make it a condition of the build).

[Tizer]

Shouldn't the Environment Agency be opposing any building on the flood plain?

[PanBiker]

It's never happened in the past Tiz. Everyone knew before they built the Ghyll Meadows and Valley Drive estates that the area flooded. Culverts not upgraded at the time, successive floods in the past culminating in the Boxing Day deluge and the mammoth community effort to hold back the water with a temporary barrier which is now being replaced by a permanent structure. It's a partial solution, (culverts still need upgrading) that could have been avoided using local knowledge. I'm sure David will comment on this.

For the record Bancroft Fold is another disaster waiting for a so called "100 year event". They built the small cluster estate on the direct line of where all the water came from in the 1932 flood of which we have multiple pictures of and notes on the site.