Snow Hill

It made a change from the usual dead cats, badgers and the occasional muntjac deer that are usually posted.

Truely bizarre, someone has found a dead octopus on a large grass verge according to a post on community FB page. We are at least 80 miles from the sea at the nearest point.

Tried to book a Villa holiday in Menorca today, it comes with car hire, seeking some clarification around the size of car included I tried the chat, after a few minutes of annoying the chstbot go connected to an agent, who went through what type of car we could expect, and we could upgrade should we wish for an additional sum. I asked was there an upper age limit, was told they impose an upper limit of 70 years of age as this is what rental companies impose. So I couldn’t book as I would be 72 and my OH 71 when the holiday would be taken. I noted who they booked car rentals with and contacted one of the who said after checking they don’t impose an upper age limit in Spain. So why are the red smiley tour operator imposing at 70 limit. Tomorrow I will drop into local travel agent and discuss holiday options with them, if unsuccessful we will go back to original plan of booking a cottage in France and driving there ourselves.

I have a hot composter as well as a standard dalek composter, grass cuttings I have found need to go in the composter in small amounts I have found, so about a quarter goes in the composter, to which I add the partially compost bark, shredded paper & cardboard (brown material) give the newly added a layer to mix, I occasionally add a handful of pelleted chicken manure. I don’t add food waste, other than green food waste, chopped up into small pieces as recommended. You need to “feed” the composter a few times a week to keep it going. My 25 year old dalek bin is about to be exterminated as the side has cracked, extermination will mean being thrown in skip I am due to get in a couple of weeks, the contents will be transferred to the dalek replacement, which is square.

Meet with your local councillors to call in the application that will ensure it’s not decided my a planning, best do it as a group of residents. Make sure your objections are on planning grounds, when I was a councillor I saw many objections such as “it will devalue my house”, or “loss of the view”, these won’t be considered by planning officials or a committee.

If he is an ex-mayor, then how is it a conflict of interests if he is no longer in office?

I don’t see ads whilst away from home, as my vpn switches on automatically and blocks them.

A lot cooler than yesterday’s mid 20s C, currently 15C cloudy with a strong SE breeze, rain due late this afternoon and overnight. Committee meeting this afternoon for a couple of hours, then back to looking for a holiday or two for this year, probably land based, but will see if there are decent cruise offers available. Last night we binged watch Shardlake on Disney’s Star Channel all 4 episodes in one evening, just under 4 hours of viewing. We enjoyed it, and the performance from disabled actor Arthur Hughes in the role of lawyer Matthew Shardlake was excellent. Shardlake is based in the books written by the late C J Samson based in the Tudor period.

Summer hasn’t arrived yet still spring, hopefully will appear on schedule in June.😉

Last time I recall watching in full was 1981 when Bucks Fizz won.

Have been watching the spectacular Northern Lights, they were viewable from my patio even though we had hazy skies. Went all the way to Northern Norway in 2019, never saw them.

Been a warm day, up to 25C if the gauge in the car is be believed, it did feel much warmer than yesterday. I strimmed the bank that runs alongside our drive this morning as there were numerous dandelions which would have burst forth with millions of its feathery seeds in the next few days, already have enough, don’t need anymore. I noticed the Holly self seeders have shot up in the last few days, it’s a prickly problem removing them.😉 Too hot work in the greenhouse, so decided to paint the side door to the garage as it’s been 3 years since it was done and the paint has deteriorated, a few other odd jobs done around the garden.

No roses in flower yet, apart from the climbing roses, they all got a hard pruning this year, something I do every 2 or 3 years in so still putting on new grow, no buds a yet, unlike the climbing roses which have a number of buds, but no flowers as yet.

On another forum already seen someone post that they will decant the spirit they enjoy into a screw top wine bottle to disguise it. As I said previously doesn’t affect us as we rarely drink spirits, however the short notice given by P&O of the changes to what you can take onboard and what they are planning to charge is the bigger issue. Another PR fail by P&O?

The airport scanners can detect alcohol, but I don’t believe they can distinguish between types of alcohol,

Currently 13C with hazy sunshine, due to reach 21C this afternoon, I am making the most of it catching up on outside jobs, as the forecast for next week shows a return to cool and showery weather. Today’s line up is - Transplanting tomato seedlings, all 20 of them, some will be given to friends and family. - Clearing out cold frame and moving young geranium, lobelia and petunia plants into it, to prepare them for planting out later this month. - Put up small trellis to support a clematis - Restain small panel above garage door Hopefully I can get it all done.

Not sure how they will detect if you have spirits in you suitcase, security at Southampton is under the control of Associated British Ports, not P&O and as far as I am aware scanners can’t distinguish between a bottle wine and a bottle of spirits. I guess if the bottle was a distinctive shape they might.

Apparently Scottish whisky only accounts for 2% of that market, guess to 150% tariff on it has some effect.

As a a former trade Union lay officer for over 20 years, overtime bans were seen as an effective tool as many businesses relied on overtime working, certainly in the rail industry they do. If a driver for example goes off sick, then often another driver is asked to cover on an overtime basis, but with a ban in place then that doesn’t happen this leading to uncertainty on whether service will run or not. So if you are planning to go by train, then I would suggest you give yourself plenty of time to get there. As for seeing Elbow at the O2, very envious.

Is this the start of change in a policy of what alcohol you can bring onboard? From the accountants point of view only allowing alcohol purchased onboard to be drunk on board would maximise the profit from those sales, especially with the markup on the price of a single alcoholic drink and non alcoholic as well. To make the changes in one fell swoop would cause a bigger uproar no doubt, factor it in over couple of years then maybe different. So this year prohibit spirits, next year add wine to the list of prohibited items. At the same time raise the price of drinks packages and exclude certain drinks from said packages. The airlines have been doing it for sometime, what used to be included in the fare is now chargeable and you can’t go elsewhere whilst in transit. What next a charge for the number of cases you take onboard that would be a nice little earner from the accountants point of view. Let’s face it Cruise Lines are like any other business they are there to make a profit. Am I being too cynical about the accountants involvement in respect of this policy change?

Same estate has had numerous instances of theft of garden ornaments such as plant pots, one incident last week when a homeowner challenged a woman who had taken a plant pot from garden at 1:00 am and was threatened with a screwdriver, fortunately other neighbours heard the commotion and managed to detain her until the police arrived.

Last night there were thefts of 3 cars off the drives on a nearby new housing estate, clearly owners were up in arms about the thefts, quite rightly. Lots of suggestions how to prevent thefts, such as make sure doors are locked, security lighting, cctv, faraday bags, disklok for steering wheel etc. One glaring item was missing, put the car in the garage, all the shared cctv footage shows cars parked outside the garage, often a double garage, why not put car inside out of view, that’s where mine goes each night. I wonder how many have on their insurance “locked in a garage overnight” but actually leave it on the drive.

Depends where you live, a glass of wine in my local/pub restaurants is cheaper by around £1 on what P&O were charging before the latest increase.

Another day of warm sunshine, the 4th in a row, albeit we had some overnight showers at weekend. Have been sitting on patio this afternoon, had to put on my sun hat as sun was burning the top of my head where hair covering is thinner, temperature was 23C, the patio is south facing and sheltered. Have been trying to find some Trellis fixing kits, was offered kits fir metal trellis at 3 well known DIY stores, in the the end I have put together my own version using 10mm pipe inserts & long screws, much cheaper than the online offerings. So I will attempt to put the trellis up tomorrow as clematis needs support as it has grown rapidly in the last few days.

Looks like a Horse Chestnut, given the size when fully grown not really a tree for garden unless you have a very big garden.