Stormy Weather

[salymap]

mercia clever you, I looked on google but got rubbish. It was probably 1936/7 so quite a crowd collected to see the new big ship. Can't remember where we were though, probably Kent coast.

Rather a short and sad life for such a beautiful ship.

[mercia]

salymap, youtube has some film of Normandie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDYVp44St1k&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhYQgoOPm3o&feature=related

[BBMmk2]

Another hot day today. 29C!!

[pilamenon]

I don't find daddy-longlegs a nuisance, they're rather endearing - careering around and blundering into things. They don't bite or hurt, or do damage. I've never seen so many as this year.

[Mahlerei]

mercia clever you, I looked on google but got rubbish. It was probably 1936/7 so quite a crowd collected to see the new big ship. Can't remember where we were though, probably Kent coast.

Rather a short and sad life for such a beautiful ship.

Always sad when a great ship meets such an ignominious end. The SS Île de France was eventually sold off and spectacularly sunk in the 1960 film The Last Voyage. IIRC the French were so incensed they insisted the ship's name be altered in the credits.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

all ships meet inglorious ends .... like people it is the life that matters ... i suppose liners grab popular attention but give me a working vessel any day .... the great romance is in the cargo ships with half a dozen passenger cabins ... disappeared from view in the fifties i suppose ... the Windward Islands banana trade always had a passenger service, like a cruise in the Caribbean really but without the casino, hairdressers and shops ... just the ocean and the dining room .... and ports!

sunny and warm in the Middle Kingdom, time to sort out the yard ...

[Anna]

Researching my family we have two brothers, and their half-brother, who were all ships stewards on the White Star line. Initially doing the American crossings then in early 1880s New Zealand and a few years later the Melbourne/Sydney run. Eventually they, their wives and families moved to NZ and Oz respectively and founded the branches of the family over there, they stopped stewarding and took up other occupations (one became a sheep farmer in NZ) I don't suppose being a steward is as glamorous as it sounds.

It was just over 27 (80) yesterday, today will be the same but nicer as refreshing breeze causing leaves to come down thick and fast.

[Serial_Apologist]

Well, with a much clearer atmosphere, and none of yesterday's thin cirrus to weaken the power of the sun, my guess is that today's max temperature here in London will top yesterday's all-time 29 C record. Make the most of it!

[Anna]

Yesterday I have never heard the buzzards so continually noisy, whether it was because all the fields had been cut, left, turned again, exposing small rodents, vulnerable voles or succulent shrews and other tasty morsels seeking shelter I don't know. Then peace and quiet shattered this morning as the balers moved in. Oh, the joys of country life!

[eighthobstruction]

Been up on the Moor for the first time in week or so. Completely different architecture up there. The bracken that plays so much in the changes, is ravaged by heat, drought, and those high winds of a few weeks ago. So different from last year when prolonged heavy rain just bashed it flat and dumpy. It ends up getting smited by some miasmal element each year and ends as humus, after going through the range of greens, yellows and rusts. Now the jutting Gritstone blocks of 'the devils apron-full'; as I call it....come out and bloom like the angular knuckled constants that they are. Perpetual, spanning time, played on by wind, rain, frost and snow.
The paths up there are a checker-board of small birch leaves, soon we will be scuffing through a deluge of mountain ash, beech and sycamore....dogs are happy soon it will be easier to find thrown sticks....and time to chase deer again now they have lost their cover....

[eighthobstruction]

Yesterday I have never heard the buzzards so continually noisy, whether it was because all the fields had been cut, left, turned again, exposing small rodents, vulnerable voles or succulent shrews and other tasty morsels seeking shelter I don't know. Then peace and quiet shattered this morning as the balers moved in. Oh, the joys of country life!

The farmers here have cut the grass 4 times this year....usually only twice. Is it the abundance of grass, through best growing conditions, or a trying to absolutely maximise hay and sillage with £'s being in short supply and feed prices going through the roof probably....

[Serial_Apologist]

Nice evocative message, 8th. I've never trampled on so many acorns as this year, it seems. Or crab apples.

[Anna]

The farmers here have cut the grass 4 times this year....usually only twice. Is it the abundance of grass, through best growing conditions, or a trying to absolutely maximise hay and sillage with £'s being in short supply and feed prices going through the roof probably....

Oh, maximise every bit of grass available, particularly if stock needs to be brought in early and housed for a longer period than normal and more feedstuffs for those left out (assuming forecasters are right and it'll be another very harsh, prolonged, Winter) Remember, we had snow end of October last year. If you believe old wives tales just look at the early fruit harvest and the abundance of berries

[Serial_Apologist]

Speaking of seasonality, Conservative Chairman [sic] Baroness Farsi's lunchtime interviews on telly and radio were, for me, the last straw.

I'll get me bikini...

[eighthobstruction]

That Farsi has a real nasty side if anyone chooses to oppose her....f'f'f'f'f' nightmare....