It is time
Time to harvest the cobnuts. I’ve posted about Kent cobnuts before. I am fond.
Last year was the most prolific year for this tree that I can recall. We harvested, like, three sacks of nuts. Naturally, we ate a fraction of them. Knowing nuts, they’re probably still good.
This year, very few branches were productive, but those branches were very productive. They have to be pollinated by another cobnut, but we have one around the side of the house (that has never been prolific) and our neighbor has one. Go figure.
It’ll probably be just right.
August 18, 2025 — 5:26 pm
Comments: 2
As fat as ever
Someone inquired about our cat. He’s fine, thanks. Here he is having a kip in the chiminea, his summer quarters.
Have a good weekend, everyone!
August 15, 2025 — 4:20 pm
Comments: 7
Logs for scale
Look at my Batman. LOOK AT HIM!
I walked past him twice at a junk stall today and tried to talk myself out of it. In the end, the lure was just too strong. I’m not a huge Batman fan (really more of a Spiderman gal), but I’m a sucker for a 20″ superhero action figure in very good condition.
The seller said, “your husband is going to love that” and I’m like “my husband?”
August 14, 2025 — 5:32 pm
Comments: 3
They’re looking for a pilot’s seat – can you help?
They are rebuilding a Messerschmitt. This very one, in fact. It came down in one piece near Canterbury in 1940. They had a display with many of the parts they’ve been able to salvage or machine and they hope the final airplane will be about 80% original.
Here is the story and description of the project. Note the text doesn’t say “Messerschmitt” anywhere on it, so I had to ask my friend Grok how to spell it.
As the paint has worn away, you can just make out that it has been called 5 and 6 and 8 at various points in its life.
August 13, 2025 — 6:16 pm
Comments: 8
Logs!
Fresh in from our new log man. Nice enough chap.
We’re in one of the hottest spells of the summer, but it still feels autumnal in the mornings and afternoons. It’s like that here. It will feel good to have a full wood store.
This pile won’t last through the winter, even with the help of central heat. Our stove is very greedy.
August 12, 2025 — 4:55 pm
Comments: 5
The one on the right, I think
Could be both. Assuming it’s for heaving around faggots of wood, a two-pronged fork seems like what is called for.
Yes, the agricultural shows are still upon us.
August 11, 2025 — 5:54 pm
Comments: 7
Nothing happened today, so have a stuffed badger
Spotted at one of the country shows. They tried to put it over as an albino, but I’m pretty sure it’s just a very old bit of taxidermy. There’s a similarly pale wolverine in Kipling’s old study.
Have a good weekend!
August 8, 2025 — 6:12 pm
Comments: 3
Uncle B bought me a robot!
It’s a battery powered can opener and, believe it or don’t, it works. You clamp that little magnet down on top of the can, press the button, and it grinds round and round until it’s completely detached the lid. Usually takes it about two revolutions, but it gets the job done.
It also makes me squeal with delight.
I’d give you a link, but I don’t want to look it up. ‘Twas a gift.
August 6, 2025 — 6:54 pm
Comments: 8
Oh, that’s cool
Myelin, you probably know, is the insulation on our brainal wires. It keeps them from arcing and sparking as they cross each other. That’s my very in depth medical understanding, anyhow.
Turns out, when you practice – whether a sport or an instrument – the actual measurable physical mechanism by which you get better is you grow more myelin sheath. Your insulation gets thicker!
I read that interesting fact this week and I cannot remember where. Grok backs me up.
It’s touched on briefly in this article (item 18) but I’m only linking to it because I stole the illustration from them. I dunno. I think they might be selling supplements.
August 4, 2025 — 6:03 pm
Comments: 4
‘Make better choices’: Endangered Hawaiian monk seals keep getting eels stuck up their noses and scientists want them to stop
That’s the actual headline of the article. It’s an archived article from 2018, so I have no idea the source, but here’s the same story from the Guardian.
Short answer, they don’t know how this happens. Three or four juvenile seals were found with eels jammed up their noses in the two years prior to 2018. I mean, really jammed in some cases.
No idea if it still happens, but I would guess not. A quick Google search only turned up articles from 2018.
I saw it, so you had to. Have a good weekend, everyone!
August 1, 2025 — 3:53 pm
Comments: 7