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This is the top story on my local news site tonight

It’s nice to live in a place where the local news is this boring. Dull privilege.

Reminder: Sunday is the 1st of May and May is the Month of Birthday. Stand by to see my sly scheme to avoid putting any effort in for a while.

Good weekend, everyone!

April 29, 2022 — 6:17 pm
Comments: 15

Why do they call them bluebells when they’re purple?

What? Oh, I know. It doesn’t make sense in black and white. Here’s the same shot in color.

As I don’t think we have bluebells in the States (I don’t remember them and I grew up in forests), they’re kind of a neat optical illusion. You can look down and see individual flowers, but when you look in the middle distance they meld into a carpet of color. It’s extraordinary, though it doesn’t really translate in photos.

The picture is from the county council newsletter and they don’t identify the location, but I’m willing to bet it’s Hole Park. Family estate with an open garden, famous for bluebells. We went there once. It was amazing, but there were almost more tourists than flowers.

This is the peak bluebell season. I told you this was the best time of year.

April 28, 2022 — 7:42 pm
Comments: 6

Any pest control experts?


Anobium punctatum. The common furniture beetle. Pretty sure this is the beastie we are dealing with, on account of whatever this is leaves a very fine dust behind.

Picture nicked from Wikimedia.

The best treatment is prevention, but it likes damp and it’s in the bathroom, so good luck with that. That’s whar I take muh baths. Fortunately, I don’t see any signs of it in the ancient beams (we call this the Tudor Crapper) but only in one spot in the newer woodwork.

The professionals use permethrin, but I read not to use it in a household with pets, so that’s out.

The safe alternative is apparently boron, but I’m not sure if that’s elemental boron or a derivative like boric acid. I used boric acid as a powder fairly successfully with cockroaches, but I found my cat collapsed and foaming at the mouth late one night and always assumed he ate a boric-acid laden roach (I sat up with him all night and he was better in the morning). This is apparently a powder you dissolve in water and spray – and it has the additional advantage of being a fire retardant.

At least we haven’t heard from the death watch beetles lately. That shit was creepy.

April 27, 2022 — 7:24 pm
Comments: 12

Vintage adorable

I had to host a Zoom meeting tonight, so I turned to my Google photos for a post. This is the first image Google showed me, in that weird thing they do where they display a random years-old photos for no discernible reason – usually a cat that is now dead and gives me the sads.

This is Jenny, who was a fine chicken and wonderful mother. Eaten by the fox. I know this because the fox got trapped in the henhouse afterwards with Jenny’s sister screaming blue murder (she survived). This is my only confirmed chicken-eaten-by-fox and she was one of my best.

The adorable chick is Sam (hatched on the 4th of July), who is now a strapping great four-year-old cockerel. He was a bought egg. As was Mo. And Millie, also a fine chicken probably eaten by the fox. Perhaps not the same fox.

I hope you have enjoyed this trip down poultry Memory Lane.

April 26, 2022 — 6:48 pm
Comments: 6

Your daily dose of adorable

This was shot from the garden, my dudes. By Uncle B on his fancy new phone.

I know I was complaining I couldn’t see the lambs for the overgrown hedge. That’s the super big field behind us where most of the flock hangs out. There’s a smaller field next to us (the one I tried to buy for lama keeping) and the flock has access to it. A few sheep wander in it sometimes.

These little puff balls came right up to the fence. A gang of six was pronking around in the grass.

This is the *best* time of year here.

April 25, 2022 — 5:35 pm
Comments: 6

Dead Pool Round 152: stand by for Spring!

Pablo takes it with C.W. McCall. I considered disallowing it because the name didn’t ring a bell. Then I read he was the “Convoy” singer and it gave me a spasm of nostalgia for the time America lost its frickin’ mind over truckers.

Remember that? Crazy times. The culmination for me was an article about a well-known surgeon who gave up his lucrative practice to drive the big rigs.

Are you sitting comfortably? Then let’s begin:

0. Rule Zero (AKA Steve’s Rule): your pick has to be living when picked. Also, nobody whose execution date is circled on the calendar. Also, please don’t kill anybody. Plus (Pupster’s Rule) no picking someone who’s only famous for being the oldest person alive.

1. Pick a celebrity. Any celebrity — though I reserve the right to nix picks I never heard of (I don’t generally follow the Dead Pool threads carefully, so if you’re unsure of your pick, call it to my attention).

2. We start from scratch every time. No matter who you had last time, or who you may have called between rounds, you have to turn up on this very thread and stake your claim.

3. Poaching and other dirty tricks positively encouraged.

4. Your first choice sticks. Don’t just blurt something out, m’kay? Also, make sure you have a correct spelling of your choice somewhere in your comment. These threads get longish and I use search to figure out if we have a winner.

5. It’s up to you to search the thread and make sure your choice is unique. I’m waayyyy too lazy to catch the dupes. Popular picks go fast.

6. The pool stays open until somebody on the list dies. Feel free to jump in any time. Noobs, strangers, drive-bys and one-comment-wonders — all are welcome.

7. If you want your fabulous prize, you have to entrust me with a mailing address. If you’ve won before, send me your address again. I don’t keep good records.

8. The new DeadPool will begin 6pm WBT (Weasel’s Blog Time) the Friday after the last round is concluded.

The winner, if the winner chooses to entrust me with a mailing address, will receive an Official Certificate of Dick Winning and a small original drawing on paper suffused with elephant shit particles. Because I’m fresh out of fairy shit particles.

April 22, 2022 — 6:00 pm
Comments: 77

I’m not a very observant Nazi


Man, I can’t believe I forgot to wish you guys a happy Führer’s birthday yesterday.

I think it was the SPLC that first informed the world that conservatives observe Hitler’s b’day. If you do a search of SPLC and “Hitler’s birthday” you get a long list of white supremacist goings-on that they claim were timed to coincide with the big H’s big day. Jail uprisings and the like.

I honestly would have no idea what Hitler’s birthday was if they didn’t publicize it. Now I can’t forget it.

Well, except I forgot it yesterday. Perhaps on account of that other thing we observe on the 20th.

Dead Pool tomorrow! Be here! Or don’t! I’m not the boss of you.

April 21, 2022 — 7:01 pm
Comments: 4

Get me down!

Pretty high up for a fat boy. Most of the time, a cat picture like this actually a cat caught mid-yawn, but our lad there really was screaming at me.

He’s a talky boy, is our fat black-and-white. He’s shouting at me to get him down – not because he’s scared, but because he likes us to lift him down off high places. We call it playing tree.

And while I was searching for that post, I found this post of him as a lad, before he had the snip.

I also learned that 13 years ago, this blog was the number one hit on Google Images for “cat testicles.” Sadly, I’m not even on the first three pages any more.

Don’t google it. You will see things you can never unsee.

April 20, 2022 — 6:49 pm
Comments: 7

Much reduced

The prevailing wind here is from the West and it is often very powerful. Brisk isn’t in it. In the path of this wind across from us were three large and robust willow trees.

They blocked our view of the fields beyond, but they were obviously planted as a windbreak, and very welcome for it. I called them the Three Sisters.

Then a terrible storm came along and blew down the old girl in the middle. Imagine, a tree as old and established as that. Blew it right over. It very much damaged the one on the left, too.

After that, I called them the One-and-a-quarter Sisters.

Now look! Quarter sister didn’t make it through the Winter. I noticed it on the ride home today. She has joined Middle Sister and is no more. Yes, I’m talking about that sad dead stick way over to the left.

I guess it’s just the tree across the street now. Not much breaking of wind there.

Speaking of windbreaks…we’ve let the brush at the end of the garden grow up to help shelter Uncle B’s vegetable beds. Now I can hear little baby lambs and I can’t see them! It’s making me nuts!

Oh, yes. We have LAAAAAAMBS!

April 19, 2022 — 6:38 pm
Comments: 6

Spam is weird

I’m not even sure why I opened this one; seldom a good idea with spam. I guess because I take zinc supplements and I wanted to hear what they had to say. So why haven’t I got real estate commissions? I supplement already!

We had an absolutely gorgeous weekend, weather-wise. I did, in fact, go outside and touch grass (as the kids say). But I also spent a whole lot of time playing VR.

Do you remember, back in the day, when you’d go to the movies for an early show and, after seeing the film, you stepped out of the dark theater into the noonday sun? That’s what it’s like to play a whole lot of VR and then land back in reality with a thump.

Pablo has won the Dead Pool. I was going to disallow it on account of the name didn’t ring a bell, but it came back to me when I found out McCall was the singer of Convoy.

Oh, yeah. That guy. See y’all Friday (at the very least).

April 18, 2022 — 5:42 pm
Comments: 4