Caro mentioned her pleasure in finding places serving food in UK that she enjoyed. We may not have too much to praise but there surely is a place for it in our daily observations. My own is fulsome praise for the on-going District Nursing team in our area who came daily with bright confident reassurance when I needed it.  How lucky we are. I am also pleased that tractors will be going faster.......

Anyone else enjoying the Great Continental Railway journey progs?

Strictly speaking this is from yesterday, but the alarms the fire department fitted in my house about three years ago work. (I never asked them for it - they just turned up one day and fitted them).  One alarm started making a noise yesterday while I was microwaving popcorn.  The "microwavable" bag had caught fire. No damage done fortunately - but obviously in future I'll have to take any popcorn out of the "microwavable" bag it comes in and do it in a covered microwavable dish.

Priscilla, I saw a programme - which I think was part of a series - where Michael Portillo travelled to a very high altitude by railway in  (I think) the Alps but that was a few months ago.  Is that the series to which you are alluding? It was a good programme but as it's a little while since I saw it I'm not sure if it would be the same series .......

Aye,Lady,  the same chap. catch the repeats if you can. I have friends inspired by his pros who are able to make many of the rail journeys he covers and having a great time.

My rave today takes shape in the several letters of thanks and report backs for the medical treatment I have recently received. From room cleaners to surgeons, I met nothing but  positive helpful treatment; my one moan was about the aloof reception department, all striding about in 'important ' heels and then barely able to lift an eye from their screen when a patient approaches. After wide complaint on this issue there came improvement. Forget their self important stances, the medics and phsyio people were great........ I have made  startling progress they  say  because I listened to and took advice. I guess it's a matter of trust.

I was pleased to hear today someone actually talking about St Andrew's Day on the radio; we even got a jazz couple singing Flower of Scotland and Scotland the Brave (though my husband turned off the radio at that point to use the telephone which I thought could have waited a moment).  There's always plenty about St Pat's Day, but I feel sure there are more people in NZ with Scottish ancestry than Irish.  (When I say I feel sure, I mean I don't feel very sure, but there ought to be more.)

So much for Scottish celebrations.  I was a little surprised to see the name of the pub was The Clutha pub - where I live is called the Clutha district.  I work for the Clutha Leader. 

We haven't yet learnt just what the extent of injuries or worse are, with people trapped.  Perhaps our news is just out of date, as I would have thought by now in a one-storey building without a fire they would have been to get to people reasonably quickly.  However I don't look too hard at news that has people unable to get out of buildings.

Caro, the Clutha was once the ground floor of a tenement but about 40 years ago the upper stories were demolished and a new roof added. The helicopter went through this, bringing down the roof over about half the pub. It's an old and very well known pub, busy not just for its live music sessions but also as a traditional neighbourhood bar with a lot of older customers.

Yes, it is St Andrew's Day and, as usual, the Historic Scotland properties are on free entry so I'm taking advantage and going up to Stirling to see the restoration of the Renaissance palace in the castle.

Nothing of earth-shattering momentum and it was actually a couple of days ago but a good neighbour saw me carrying some bulky shopping (including a new packet of cat-litter) and came to my assistance so there are some decent people around ......

On Saturday a lady who lives down the road gave me a lift in some awful rain which came down unexpectedly locally.  Then on a very venial and mundane level, I read today that Channel 5 won't be showing the third series of "Once Upon a Time".  Hurray!!!!!  Of course it doesn't really affect me as I don't watch the silly programme anyway but it's still good news.

I am pleased to read that we may no longer be expected to pay for translators for helping Benefit Claimants. They must fund their own - for which no doubt they will also make a claim.

Further to this, having just read some enviable nordmanndic English  eloquence in the St Peter thread, I suggest he could make a fortune - and save us millions, if he would also write the Benefit Claim forms for Benefit- seeking migrants. I hope would never have to make a claim,, tho.

This comment has cheered me this morning - not just the kind thought from a Daily Mail reader (bless 'em all), but the spelling reminds me of happier times. Referring to the flooding, the poster says:

My heart goes out to everyone of them poor people. People have lost everything the farmers have lost their lively hoods.


It is still raining, so, as I venture out this morning, I am really grateful for the lively - and very warm - furry hood on my new anti-flood jacket.

EDIT: perhaps a new knitting project for Priscilla? Lively hoods for all here -  much nicer than them old huffs.

May I recommend the WIki entry about curling. 'Chess on Ice' is it's nickname - and now I see why. At the end of the long description there is a para about the sportsmanship of this absorbing, ancient team game. Long may it continue. Not as yet a big profesional sport, if it ever should become so I guess that will be the first quality to be lost.

Many years ago, P, we used to go to a small hotel on the shores of Loch Fyne and which had a miniature curling table in the bar. It was the size of a billiard table but with a refrigerated top instead of baize and marked out for curling along with sets of tiny stones and brushes. Great fun, I've never seen nor heard of another.
As you probably know, all the best curling stones are made from special types of granite from Ailsa Craig - locally known as Paddy's Milestane - in the Firth of Clyde. It's a bird sanctuary and no more blasting is allowed but quite recently there was a collection of loose, previously quarried rock to allow the continuation of the manufacture of the stones.
If you've got a spare £1.5 million lying around, you can buy it from the Marquis of Ailsa.



There hasn't been a Grand Bonspiel here for years;  in 2010 one nearly took place but it was cancelled at the last minute for a variety of H & S considerations.

Here's the Lake Of Monteith in 1979.

I am tempted to invest in ice bar table curling, though... brilliant idea, ferv1 No bad backs, either. In the bar fortified nerves would help..... and what a game for keeping nerve it is - and more so in a team game, I imagine..... but then I  would funk taking a corner kick in soccer. Strange that because I could sail a tough course without flinching even now and have  met with strong people with a will of steel and   kept my resolve but faced with a curling rock to push over the hog and I would go to pieces I reckon.

The miniature curling table sounds like fun Ferval, there is a loyal following in NZ to curling from the Scottish descendents in the South Island, nearer to Caro. They seem very well organised.
http://www.curling.co.nz/
I imagine the $38 curling stones are a local imitation!!

I didn't have my brain on today and left handag on bus when going to Spanish Elementary class.  Ran after bus waving arms - no notice taken, but a very decent African man who was delivering in the area and gave me a lift to catch up with the bus and I was able to retrieve the bag. Not many people would have done that, so I was lucky and I did say thank-you.  I must try and keep my brain on in future.

A little rave about myself!  It was our annual autumn garden show at the weekend, and I won four events - best native flora vase, best tree or shrub, best fuchsia in a vase and most oddly, best decorative rose.  No one could decide what the difference between a decorative and an exhibition rose was and I was thinking I might just throw away my little rose, since it didn't compare with the other lovely ones.  But apparently it was one of the few to meet the criteria! (And it's called Carolyn, so that is specially good to see it do well!).

My husband was specially pleased though - his tray of vegetables was one of the premier winners and he had the most points in show (mostly due to tomatoes, carrots, silver beet, potatoes and other veges - no trival flowers for him!)  And cynical people, like sons, who suggest that the fact we were both stewards (helping the judges) in the sections we won was a relevant factor are quite WRONG.  We were very silent.

Well done Caro!

But I'm intrigued ... how does one have a "best tree or shrub" event? Do you have to dig it up and bring it along in a pot?

Talking trees I got my mail-order delivery of plants yesterday, so spent a very happy day potting stuff up and planting the bushes and trees out. I'm particularly pleased by my Wollemia nobilis ... I've wanted one for ages but they can cost a lot, but in the end I just thought I'd better get one now otherwise I'll never get to see it grown. Of all the vices in the world: drink, drugs, gambling, a loose-tongued mistress ... buying plants for the garden is probably one of the more innocuous ones, though it can still be rather expensive.

Here's my new Wollemia ... it looks a bit dwarfed by the neighbouring Californian redwood but maybe that'll give it some encouragement to grow.

Jeez, how stupid I am.  Had written a whole post and then went back and edited the last one, so this latest one has disappeared. 

Your redwood might encourage the other one to grow - or it might not.  Might take all the goodness out the soil, though that doesn't seem to happen in bush/woods.  I always admire how our ancestors (at least in countries with late settlement by Europeans) would plant slow-growing trees for their descendants to get pleasure from.  Nowadays we tend to plant quick-growing ones so we can see them for ourselves.  [Do you think that has anything to do with a more religious lot of people, thinking they would be looking down from heaven on them? Or is that fanciful?] 

The tree categories were in vases, ie branches or bits from them.  The native flora one was two different types in one vase, others were flowering/non-flowering/variegated.  I think the other one I won was just tree or shrub in a vase.  There were pot plants too.

Congrats Caro (and M) for your success in the cut throat competition of gardening prowess. My stuff only gets judged on a plate - curly kale, yesterday, or by a neighbour over the fence. Our local events are terrifying events and likely to bring on high blood pressure along with vindictive bouts of scorn about others' methods or ploys. Your private life might be circumspect but how you got toms like that verges on treasonal conspiracy.

Enjoy your Norfolk island pine, MM. Many in the tropics use them for Christmas trees and those I was given and planted now tower in the garden of the house we eventually left. Ours seemed to grow quickly but needed good watering in the hot season. When the top of one of mine was lopped by mali - how he managed that because it was far higher than him was a mystery but his tears of mortified horror seemed genuine - well it survived and another grew with barely a trace of 'join.' Onwards and upwards it went and mali's head was not served on a plate though I may have threatened it at the time. I never found out why he was anywhere near it with a treelopper because that one never needs it. Best not to question such events too closely in the tropics, I learned; the explanation always begged so many more. I ramble  - like Caro others I am in garden mode at the moment.

Caro wrote:

Your redwood might encourage the other one to grow - or it might not.  Might take all the goodness out the soil, though that doesn't seem to happen in bush/woods. 

It's not actually that close, it's a good 7 metres between the two trees but I think it looks closer because the redwood is so big - it was nearly 30m tall the last time I measured it a couple of years ago and the trunk is about 1m in diameter. But I also planted the Wollemia there specifically to get wind protection from the surrounding trees, to get dappled shade at least when young, and because the redwood, of the same plant family, araucariaceae, seems to have done well there. Also I've read studies that suggest that wollemia as well as other redwoods do especially well when there are symbiotic mycorrhizal funghi present ... and I wonder (I don't know) if such have developed around the redwood, and so could benefit my new Wollemia.

Caro wrote:

I always admire how our ancestors (at least in countries with late settlement by Europeans) would plant slow-growing trees for their descendants to get pleasure from. Nowadays we tend to plant quick-growing ones so we can see them for ourselves. Do you think that has anything to do with a more religious lot of people, thinking they would be looking down from heaven on them? Or is that fanciful?

Mmmm ... as an atheist I think it might well be the other way around. I am certain that when I die that will be it and so I will not be "looking down from Heaven" . But since I do only have my allotted "three scores years and ten", or so, ... that actually makes me a lot more keen to make my mark during my life - although I accept that any mark I do make will not be for anything remotely near "eternity". But to leave a mark that persists for a couple of generations after me (I have no children) would be quite nice.

And so, continuing the arboreal theme, that is partly why I am quite keen on planting trees. I am fortunate in having bought, in 2007, an extensive garden that already contained numerous, well-established specimen trees. The whole collection could put many an urban park, or indeed a small civic botanic garden, to shame. I have tried to continue the ethos of the previous owners and so am continuing to plant and develop the garden ... while at the same time encouraging native trees on the 75% that is "natural" forest.

So actually, far from hoping to see the trees I'm planting grow to maturity, I am fully aware that some of the trees I have planted will not be mature until long after I'm dead. An oak tree is really only just getting into its stride after 100 years ... and a redwood, if planted in a good position, and if fortune favours it, can expect at least 1000 years of good life ... many thousands of years potentially when one considers that they coppice freely and so new genetically-identical trees readily sprout from the old tree when it eventually dies. And of course no-one really knows how long a Wollemia might live as the species was only discovered in 1994.

So maybe this is my bid - if not for immortality then at least for an influence long after I'm gone.

5 new royal tombs have been found at Vergina, a bit too early to know yet to whom they belong but they are exciting finds none the less.

http://www.tovima.gr/en/article/?aid=576773

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb-K2tXWK4w

Not, of course, that I'm counting ....

After two months somebody has been this morning to fix the problem with my phone and broadband.  It seems to be functioning satisfactorily now so I just hope it continues to do so.

This certainly isn't a rave, nor is it a rant but I put this here merely for lack of a better place.

Historians in the city of Leon, Spain are claiming to have discovered the Holy Grail. Let the battle of the cathedrals begin over who has the best relics, vestments could fly over this one.    

http://www.europapress.es/ciencia/noticia-historiadores-concluyen-lugar-dudas-santo-grial-san-isidoro-leon-20140326172125.html

As the link is in Spanish, here is a rough translation. It is only from a pc translator mind, so is not perfect but you'll get the idea. And the piccy of it is on the link.

The historians Margarita Torres and José Miguel Ortega of the River have presented this Wednesday the book ' The kings of the Grail ', which gathers an exhaustive scientific investigation developed for three years that there demonstrates 'undoubtedly' that the Holy Grail, ' the glass that the Christian community of Jerusalem in the XIth century was thinking that it was Christ's chalice, she is located in the Basilica of San Isidoro of León '.

   This way it has been explained by the co-author of the work and historian medievalista Margarita Torres who has detailed that this find is confirmed by means of the discovery of two original Egyptian parchments dated in the year 1054, that gather that the chalice was sent to the king of León Fernando Big, after having being plundered of the Church of the Holy Tomb of Jerusalem, where it had remained from the IVth century.


These documents try ' without any doubt ' that the chalice was delivered as a token of gratitude after the from Leon monarch was sending a big shipment of supplies to Egypt, in a ' year of big famine '. The investigation demonstrates, therefore, that that chalice that was considered to be the Holy Grail by the Christian community of the XIth century is in León.

   Before this moment, until 400 A.D., there is not known what happened with the glass, has added another author of the work José Miguel Ortega of the River, who has told that ' papers relative to this period are lacked ', but it has highlighted the importance of this find because ' none of other supposed saints griales have such a solid base on which to rest '.


PARCHMENTS

   Other one of the evidences that support the dissertation of these two historians is that, as they gather the Egyptian parchments, during the transfer of the relic to León one of the splinters of the chalice skipped. He lacks the same splinter to the chalice named till now chalice of Infanta Mrs Urraca, daughter of Fernando I the Big one, and that is located from the XIth century in the basilica of San Isidoro.

   Also, the datación of the glass, which could not been have realized by means of the test of the Carbon 14 for did not talk each other about an organic rest, but it has been realized by means of a finished study in accordance with his typology, it has demonstrated that it belongs to the period understood between the Ist century before Christ and the Ist A.D., which would coincide also with the moment with the one that believes that Jesús used the Holy Grail.

   It talks each other, there is attaché Ortega of the River of ' an enormous puzle to which now there are fitted the pieces that were insipid ', that has admitted that ' many questions still stay without resolving ' concerning this matter, although he has trusted that after this first find ' there go out to the light new investigations that complete it '.

   The building of Booties of León has received the presentation of ' The kings of the Grail ', which has been sponsored by the Foundation Monteleón. His president, José Manuel Fernández of the Corral, has shown that ' the support of the institution deserves the work for his historical contributions and implication with León '.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wioh5qUj7fM

Performers not repertoire this time ....

Here's one Gil,

Triceratops wrote:

Here's one Gil,

Considered that and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCuIrs_sFGk

Rejected both in favour of one I had a crush on many years ago - Cherry Wainer.

Now for
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uNLw3pXlVM&feature=kp

Here's Cherry for you Gil;

Must admit my tastes have changed (what do you mean "deteriorated") over the years!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rXhXLsNJL8

Islanddawn wrote:

This certainly isn't a rave, nor is it a rant but I put this here merely for lack of a better place.

Historians in the city of Leon, Spain are claiming to have discovered the Holy Grail. Let the battle of the cathedrals begin over who has the best relics, vestments could fly over this one.    

http://www.europapress.es/ciencia/noticia-historiadores-concluyen-lugar-dudas-santo-grial-san-isidoro-leon-20140326172125.html

Yep, here we go. In English this time.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/31/crowds-flock-spanish-chuch-leon-holy-grail-claim

And again ties in with the RIII thread on presenting hypothesis as fact, but this time in order to sell a book.

Instead of the bit of amusement that the Grail gumph originally was, it is rapidly turning into a rant. Should have put it the other thread.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VadngOGKlP0&feature=kp

Well, since there's no evidence that the Sangrail (other than Clovis of that ilk) ever existed, I'd describe the claim as "fantasy", not even "hypothesis"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL5l3k7vBsk

 or possibly
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY0WxgSXdEE&feature=kp

or even

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rfL0_ORFdw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBEcLxnXVAc

Today I ceased to be gainfully employed in school.

A few days as a scrounger (although I won't be claiming any benefits) will be followed by a period of SKIing.

  Here's to you Gil, congratulations on reaching independence day.
I hope that your, ahem, winter sports will be rewarding and delightfully expensive.