Boom!
Brits love their fireworks, but the locals especially love a maroon. It is a very big boom to mark timed occasions, like a minute of silence.
There was a maroon this morning at 11:00 and 11:02. There were two on the day after the queen died (to mark the Accession, I think).
There will be one at the start of the bonfire night fireworks – which, as I have explained before, is staggered in Sussex so every local bonfire society can march in everyone else’s parade. It goes on for months.
Anyway, I try to observe the proper decorum, but I’m afraid every time one of these bad boys goes off, I think to myself “Wotta maroon!” in Bugs Bunny’s voice. I will always be an American.
Have a good weekend, maroons!
November 11, 2022 — 6:39 pm
Comments: 15
Behold!
The worst chicken house ever bodged together by human hands. Yes, the roof doesn’t align, like, at all. Yes, the door is held shut by a twisted bit of wire (it was fully 1/8th of an inch too tall to fit in the frame).
Finally, I called Uncle B out and we hit it with hammers until it submitted. I’m not done ‘finishing’ it, but I have a feeling we’ll be covering the roof in tarpaper. Honestly, it could not possibly have gone together the way the ‘instructions’ said it would.
Moe will be warm and dry and have a proper perch to sleep upon, so I’m calling it a win.
As for the red wave that didn’t, I haven’t much to say – except that it is extremely unusual for the betting shops to get it this wrong. Pollsters, yes. People with money on the line, not so much. I think we’re in uncharted waters and the old rules no longer apply – for whatever reason.
I’m’a dip out of politics for a while, until I can act less butt-hurt.
November 9, 2022 — 3:56 pm
Comments: 13
Sad
Another covid casualty: St Mary in the Castle, Hastings. This weird old building is a decommissioned church that has been used as a music venue since 1997.
Uncle B and I have been to a few events there over the years and we’ve always remarked what a nightmare it must be to keep up. It’s Grade II* listed (any work done there is hellishly expensive) and it’s built right into the cliff face. In fact, I think parts of the back wall are literally the stone cliff.
Can you say damp?
The acoustics weren’t great but the building was a treat. I suppose it will deteriorate pretty fast if it’s left empty for any length of time.
And, yes, this was the exciting post I forgot to hit SEND on last night.
November 2, 2022 — 6:43 pm
Comments: 4
The high price of being goth
Behold, the Benu Skull & Roses Fountain Pen. I got a promotional email from my favorite pen dealer today. It comes in all black, all red or red and black (excuse me: crow, red rose and smolder).
I’ll be honest. I thought about it for a second. But at £140, I didn’t think long.
That’s not much to a pen collector, but I ain’t one of them.
An article from this same dealer once said, a pen over £20 and you aren’t paying for a better nib any more, you’re paying for decoration. I don’t have any >£20 pens on my desk.
October 27, 2022 — 5:45 pm
Comments: 12
What are people living on?
I attended a meeting today with several other local ‘heritage’ businesses – a tourist information center, a couple of local museums, that sort of thing. Hoping to pool our resources in, erm, trying times.
For one, we can’t get volunteers. None of us. They just didn’t come back after lockdown. Bless ’em, a couple of our best died (not covid, we’re just a terribly old organization).
But we can’t get paid staff, either. I gather this is a problem in all sectors, up and down the country. It’s like people got a taste of not working during the lockdown and decided they rather liked it.
Surely, though, everyone still has a mortgage and groceries to buy. How are they paying the bills?
That’s the silver lining if we really do have a desperate hard winter – at least we’ll all be able to get paid staff! Pollyanna, that’s me.
Please enjoy this picture of fat kitty that Uncle B took on Sunday. Yes, we still have some things in bloom, though looking decidedly tired. One day, he’s going to forget he shared access to his Google pictures account and hilarity will ensue.
See you back here tomorrow for Dead Pool Round 159.
October 13, 2022 — 4:45 pm
Comments: 13
We went on the choochoo!
There are several excellent heritage railways within day-trip distance of us. We haven’t been to one in ages. They’ll soon stop running for the year (except the Christmas trains in December), so off we went on Sunday.
It was a beautiful run through the countryside. Sheep and cows and little streams with little bridges over them. Clusters of oaks and blackberry bramble. A proper castle, even! You can go a long way in the countryside here without seeing anything ugly.
We splashed out on First Class and had it to ourselves. On this train, First Class was a corridor with those little wooden compartments, like in the Agatha Christie movies. We forebore to murder each other.
There wasn’t a tea service this time, but we bought a packet of sandwiches in the station and made do.
We were so worried that some of these railways wouldn’t survive the lockdown. Despite much of their staff being volunteers, they’re terribly expensive to operate. Not only have they survived, but a couple of them are working to reach a main line station – and then they’ll be more than just a novelty service.
September 26, 2022 — 6:08 pm
Comments: 6
Endings
That, in case you don’t recognize it, is the Three Man Globe of Death. There are three – 3! – motorcycles zooming around in there. It’s been the finale of our local circus for years.
And you know what that means – the circus is here and summer is officially over. The circus is the last event on our annual calendar of events, and it’s always a nail-biter. They don’t decide whether they’re coming to our area until a few days before they actually do.
They operate on a shoestring and each year we worry will be the last. The ringmaster gets older and fatter every time.
But we were spared one more year. Roll on autumn!
Shall we have the Dead Pool tomorrow?
September 15, 2022 — 7:09 pm
Comments: 9
Why ruin a perfect record?
I had today off. It rained heavily. I have done exactly jack and shit today. It was glorious. I’m not about to ruin it with an effort post.
So I give you a riddle. The picture is of a plaster caste of a plaice that I posted about ten years or so ago. Can you tell what makes it unique among front page photos on my blog?
Answer in the comments.
September 14, 2022 — 6:48 pm
Comments: 12
The nights are getting longer
It’s really and truly Fall now – I picked the blackberries today. Just a couple of pounds. We’re short of freezer space.
When I was a kid, I hated it when Mother announced she was making a blackberry cobbler. It meant I was going to have to go pick blackberries and that’s where the rattlesnakes were.
I’m sure you know this, but for the sake of them in the back, there are no vegetarian snakes. Snakes it the little creatures who eat the fruit and a blackberry bramble is their favorite place.
To be fair, the rattlesnakes we get in Middle Tennessee are mountain rattlers – short and fat and shy. In all my years on that farm I only ever saw one, and it was sunning itself in the front yard. My boyfriend shot it and my mother the proto-hippie made us cook it and eat it.
But I’m sure I’ve told that story.
I saw a cottonmouth in the pond once, too. It was swimming with about six inches of its body stuck up out of the water, like the cobra on King Tut’s hat. Creepy.
But hoo my dad had some stories about aggressive copperheads in the mountains!
September 7, 2022 — 6:58 pm
Comments: 16
Holy astroturf, Batman!
When we came out of the supermarket this afternoon, this was parked next to us. Every inch of it was covered in astroturf. I blurred the license plate but not the phone number – I mean, it’s an ad, right?
Available in glorious green from my Twitter.
September 5, 2022 — 6:55 pm
Comments: 10