He had forty-two boxes all carefully packed
With his name painted clearly on each;
But, since he omitted to mention the fact,
They were all left behind on the beach.
The Hunting Of The Snark
Lewis Carroll
Despite the best efforts of the vandals who wrecked the base just over a week ago, the stonemasons have completed the memorial plinth and plaque to commemorate the floods of two years ago and it reads;
City of St Asaph Flood
On the 27th November 2012
the River Elwy rose
to within 100mm (4")
of the top of this
arch. One life was
lost, 322 houses
and 32 businesses
were flooded.
The bridge arch thats mentioned is over the footpath that leads onto The Common,
it is 7'.6" approx head height in centre of arch, the footpath is about 4'.0" above the normal level of river so it gives you some idea of the sheer volume of water raging down the Elwy that fateful night
Well what a surprise; we beat the Springbocks at long last!
I didn't go to this one but watched it on telly, my neighbours went to the game and I got a blow by blow account when I picked them up from Rhyl train station on Sunday afternoon; rubbed it in good style they did!
6 Nations next up and I think we would like to go to Rome and Paris again in March, we can dream!
Now; where are those lottery tickets?
Our club meet this Wednesday the 3rd Dec.
Last get together this year folks and theres free coffee and mince pies for all members who attend
and Keith will surprise us (I hope!) with his pics of Japan visit.
Spring is nearly here!
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Will you walk a little faster
Said the whiting to the snail
Theres a porpoise close behind me
And he's treading on my tail!
Lewis Carroll
Too early for Nadolig Llawen yet but the one good thing about Christmas is it brightens up an otherwise dark cold and miserable time of the year.
Do not forget the wild life in your garden though as its a miserable time for them food wise particularly the birds, give them an early festive treat of some fat balls, sunflower hearts, etc.
A big treat this time of year is to buy raw beef fat/suet from your butcher if you can get it and render it into dripping in a pan.
When its rendered down stir barley, oats, sunflower hearts and dried mealworms in as it cools.
Allow to cool slightly before pouring or spooning it into empty yoghurt cartons used as a mould until cold. It helps if you put a loop of string to hang it by before they set solid, tie a 6" loop of soft string and push knot halfway into mix while still warm.
Most birds particularly the tits absolutely love it
It's also very gratifying seeing the various birds flock to it and devour it this time of year
Phil
Said the whiting to the snail
Theres a porpoise close behind me
And he's treading on my tail!
Lewis Carroll
Too early for Nadolig Llawen yet but the one good thing about Christmas is it brightens up an otherwise dark cold and miserable time of the year.
Do not forget the wild life in your garden though as its a miserable time for them food wise particularly the birds, give them an early festive treat of some fat balls, sunflower hearts, etc.
A big treat this time of year is to buy raw beef fat/suet from your butcher if you can get it and render it into dripping in a pan.
When its rendered down stir barley, oats, sunflower hearts and dried mealworms in as it cools.
Allow to cool slightly before pouring or spooning it into empty yoghurt cartons used as a mould until cold. It helps if you put a loop of string to hang it by before they set solid, tie a 6" loop of soft string and push knot halfway into mix while still warm.
Most birds particularly the tits absolutely love it
It's also very gratifying seeing the various birds flock to it and devour it this time of year
Phil
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Walked along Elwy this morning with the dogs before the forecasted gales hit us and its back up to running very high, fast and khaki coloured.
Good news is the stone monument to 2012 floods is still undamaged.
By 4.00 pm the trees in the woods at the back of our house were having the last few remaining leaves ripped off them as wind quickly grew to gale force. The small birds were having difficulty in feeding on bird feeders as they swung violently about on apple tree in our garden but a lot was scattered on ground for them early on so they won't go hungry.
Good news is the stone monument to 2012 floods is still undamaged.
By 4.00 pm the trees in the woods at the back of our house were having the last few remaining leaves ripped off them as wind quickly grew to gale force. The small birds were having difficulty in feeding on bird feeders as they swung violently about on apple tree in our garden but a lot was scattered on ground for them early on so they won't go hungry.
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Rainsoaked spent raiment
That branches can't keep
Windblown and trembling
The Autumn leaves weep
P.L
The weather hasn't improved much from last two days and the Elwy is higher faster and darker this morning; very close to the top of river bank after all this rain.
It's quite scary when you get close to river bank as if you slipped and fell in you would have precious little chance of getting out it's running that deep and fast.
Rooting about in my back garden yesterday trying to tidy up leaf litter I found the first tips of the snowdrops pushing out, it will be frogspawn next before we know it!.
Just trying to cheer myself up these miserable cold dark days of December; roll on Spring!
Tidied the last of the waterlillies and pulled a lot of side growths off so there are more spare waterlilly plants (about 10) for club members who read this (see Colin's pic posted from summer) they are yellow as well as pink
My pond is crystal clear this week so I can now see all the leaves on the bottom to net them out and surprise! my fish were all up and about looking for food this morning as I fished around with net.
They were all clamped on bottom around lilly tub last week.
That branches can't keep
Windblown and trembling
The Autumn leaves weep
P.L
The weather hasn't improved much from last two days and the Elwy is higher faster and darker this morning; very close to the top of river bank after all this rain.
It's quite scary when you get close to river bank as if you slipped and fell in you would have precious little chance of getting out it's running that deep and fast.
Rooting about in my back garden yesterday trying to tidy up leaf litter I found the first tips of the snowdrops pushing out, it will be frogspawn next before we know it!.
Just trying to cheer myself up these miserable cold dark days of December; roll on Spring!Tidied the last of the waterlillies and pulled a lot of side growths off so there are more spare waterlilly plants (about 10) for club members who read this (see Colin's pic posted from summer) they are yellow as well as pink
My pond is crystal clear this week so I can now see all the leaves on the bottom to net them out and surprise! my fish were all up and about looking for food this morning as I fished around with net.
They were all clamped on bottom around lilly tub last week.
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Trying to squeeze dog walking between the showers the last few days has been a juggling act and they have had to be content with our back garden on a few occasions.That's when they get up to mischief! I have been on my own over the last few days dog sitting and I let Hamish out for his last pee at about 10.00 pm Sunday night. 10.30pm and no sign of him so, knowing he'd been up to no good I went out to find him with a torch. He'd only found a rats nest in a compost bin and rooted through the smelly compost with his face and front paws! He was so filthy I had to wrap him in a bath towel and carry him into the shower to clean him, quarter past twelve I finally got to bed after drying him off
Hamish is also a fruit eating terrier who's latest fad is eating all the bright red berries off the herringbone cotoneaster shrubs. He has already stripped all the purple berries off the fuchsia bushes and outdoor tomatoes and through the summer has eaten plums, cherries, goosegogs, cape gooseberries,tayberries, strawberries, figs blackberries, pears and apples, he will also eat pieces of peaches or apricots and segments of orange or satsuma. Not a lot he won't eat really
Finally got down to the river to walk them at lunchtime and tired them out with a good run from the Roe and across the Common to the football pitches and back, they are now both fast asleep; knackered
The Elwy is still running high and very fast but a lot clearer today but no signs of the dippers by the bridge yet or the Mergansers at the back of Foxons
Hamish is also a fruit eating terrier who's latest fad is eating all the bright red berries off the herringbone cotoneaster shrubs. He has already stripped all the purple berries off the fuchsia bushes and outdoor tomatoes and through the summer has eaten plums, cherries, goosegogs, cape gooseberries,tayberries, strawberries, figs blackberries, pears and apples, he will also eat pieces of peaches or apricots and segments of orange or satsuma. Not a lot he won't eat really
Finally got down to the river to walk them at lunchtime and tired them out with a good run from the Roe and across the Common to the football pitches and back, they are now both fast asleep; knackered
The Elwy is still running high and very fast but a lot clearer today but no signs of the dippers by the bridge yet or the Mergansers at the back of Foxons
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Christmas-Greetings
(from a fairy to a child)
Lady dear, if Fairies may
For a moment lay aside
Cunning tricks and elfish play,
'Tis at happy Christmas-tide.
Lewis Carroll
Further to my post on Monday the 8th Dec about bird food.I have found another very cheap supplier of wild bird food on t'internet.
A company based in Leeds called Twootzltd I found on eBay are selling a good selection of bird food at very competitive prices, for instance, £27.49 for 25kgs of mealworm suet pellets delivered free P&P.
Just cannot be beaten at that price.
They are pretty fast on delivery too, my other half ordered food Wednesday morning and it was here Friday lunchtime.
If you think that 25kg is an awful lot of food to order, put some out on a bird table and see for yourself just how fast it disappears this time of year; particularly if flocks of starlings or rooks find it!
Hedgehogs love it too.
One bright spot to look forward to is our now annual Christmas Carol sing song this Fiday in the road with our neighbour Georges brass band friends accompanying him.
We bought the bottles of mulled wine and mince pies yesterday so we're hoping for a good turnout again like last year when we had a choir of twenty eight despite it thistling down.
(from a fairy to a child)
Lady dear, if Fairies may
For a moment lay aside
Cunning tricks and elfish play,
'Tis at happy Christmas-tide.
Lewis Carroll
Further to my post on Monday the 8th Dec about bird food.I have found another very cheap supplier of wild bird food on t'internet.
A company based in Leeds called Twootzltd I found on eBay are selling a good selection of bird food at very competitive prices, for instance, £27.49 for 25kgs of mealworm suet pellets delivered free P&P.
Just cannot be beaten at that price.
They are pretty fast on delivery too, my other half ordered food Wednesday morning and it was here Friday lunchtime.
If you think that 25kg is an awful lot of food to order, put some out on a bird table and see for yourself just how fast it disappears this time of year; particularly if flocks of starlings or rooks find it!
Hedgehogs love it too.
One bright spot to look forward to is our now annual Christmas Carol sing song this Fiday in the road with our neighbour Georges brass band friends accompanying him.
We bought the bottles of mulled wine and mince pies yesterday so we're hoping for a good turnout again like last year when we had a choir of twenty eight despite it thistling down.
Last edited by pollygog on Mon Dec 22, 2014 1:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Excellent night's entertainment last night at our annual Christmas Carol singalong with neighbours gathered from our estate with over forty singers to make up the choir.
We also had six of Georges brass band members in attendance.
Good to see more children along and it's a good opportunity to mingle, to socialise and speak to people you never normally see as they're usually out at work or too busy. I was introduced to a new neighbour a pleasant young chap named Anthony and toward the end of the evening he came over to say goodbye. He apologised for leaving early but he explained that couldn't stand for long as he had lost both his legs and had two artificial limbs fitted.You just could not tell!
Too embarrassing to ask how but it certainly put my shoulder pain into perspective, at least I still have my shoulder no matter how painful it is
Today is the Winter Solstice and the shortest day so it gets lighter every day from now unless you are a Christmas turkey that is!
Surprise this morning is my Koi are up and looking for food again and the pond is back to absolutely crystal clear, no signs of any frogs hibernating in the bottom of the Nexus this winter though
We also had six of Georges brass band members in attendance.
Good to see more children along and it's a good opportunity to mingle, to socialise and speak to people you never normally see as they're usually out at work or too busy. I was introduced to a new neighbour a pleasant young chap named Anthony and toward the end of the evening he came over to say goodbye. He apologised for leaving early but he explained that couldn't stand for long as he had lost both his legs and had two artificial limbs fitted.You just could not tell!
Too embarrassing to ask how but it certainly put my shoulder pain into perspective, at least I still have my shoulder no matter how painful it is
Today is the Winter Solstice and the shortest day so it gets lighter every day from now unless you are a Christmas turkey that is!
Surprise this morning is my Koi are up and looking for food again and the pond is back to absolutely crystal clear, no signs of any frogs hibernating in the bottom of the Nexus this winter though
Re: Spring is nearly here!
NADOLIG LLAWEN
It's here at long last and I'm going fly fishing at long last on Boxing Day with Nigel; even if it is half way up a mountain at Graiglwyd it will be good just to get out there again and wet a line.
It's four months too long!
So
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OUR READERS
It's here at long last and I'm going fly fishing at long last on Boxing Day with Nigel; even if it is half way up a mountain at Graiglwyd it will be good just to get out there again and wet a line.
It's four months too long!
So
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OUR READERS
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Spring; it's closer than you think!
Driving into St Asaph along the Old Denbigh Rd early yesterday morning we spotted our first lambs, they're in the fields either side of the Trotting Pony Stud located on the right hand side of the road next to the Elwy.
How nice it was to see them so soon; an early Christmas treat really. Still no signs of lambs in the field at the back of our house though, but then they are hardy hill sheep that stay outside all winter.
Ordered 25kgs Wheatgerm Koi food from Queni Koi yesterday at 10.00 am and it arrived this morning 11.30 am despite Christmas rush, thats fast service!
We had a jay at one of our bird feeders this morning after the suet pellets in a feeder we put out on Sunday in a pear tree, they are very shy birds that rarely hang around long at the feeders but a pretty bird to see. First bird to use the feeder on Sunday morning was a Nuthatch, now its a mass of tits calling all day, Blue, Coal, Longtail, Great, and of course the local Sparrows. No signs of any Greenfinch or Siskins yet, just three or four Goldfinches but they're in the garden all year long with the flocks of Chaffinch and Sparrows.
Driving into St Asaph along the Old Denbigh Rd early yesterday morning we spotted our first lambs, they're in the fields either side of the Trotting Pony Stud located on the right hand side of the road next to the Elwy.
How nice it was to see them so soon; an early Christmas treat really. Still no signs of lambs in the field at the back of our house though, but then they are hardy hill sheep that stay outside all winter.
Ordered 25kgs Wheatgerm Koi food from Queni Koi yesterday at 10.00 am and it arrived this morning 11.30 am despite Christmas rush, thats fast service!
We had a jay at one of our bird feeders this morning after the suet pellets in a feeder we put out on Sunday in a pear tree, they are very shy birds that rarely hang around long at the feeders but a pretty bird to see. First bird to use the feeder on Sunday morning was a Nuthatch, now its a mass of tits calling all day, Blue, Coal, Longtail, Great, and of course the local Sparrows. No signs of any Greenfinch or Siskins yet, just three or four Goldfinches but they're in the garden all year long with the flocks of Chaffinch and Sparrows.
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Well Christmas is just about done in for another year as we contemplate what to do with what remains of the turkey carcase!
Turkey stew looks to be favourite I think.
My fishing trip with Nigel was a successful venture although we where definitely certifiable on acount of the foul and inclement weather we fished in.
From 9.00am on Boxing Day when we arrived at the lake the weather was cold and blustery with intermittent sleet showers but as the day progressed it deteriorated by early afternoon into a very unpleasant howling blizzard. We were forced to abandon the lake two hours early as the snow was sticking fast and eventually we just couldn't cast into the increasing gale force wind , but then the lake is quite high up a mountain.
The fishing was fantastic while we could fish though.
The smallest rainbow I netted out of six was three and a half pounds and the largest was five pounds six ounces!
I was also broken off by a beast early on using 6lb tippet and went up to 10lb tippet and then snapped a size 8 fly at the bend on another unseen lunker after playing it for five or six minutes.
It was good to get out again though after such a long absence from fly fishing.
The jay seems to be a regular daily visiter to our garden now but never hangs aroung for long, my brother in law and his wife saw it along with a Nuthatch and two Greater Spotted Woodpeckers on the same morning over Christmas.
They were highly delighted as they are not visitors to their garden in Whitstable where they live.
This frosty weather the last few days has brought the long tailed tits out mob handed and a flock of about fifteen of them were working over the bare Acer bushes close to our conservatory yesterday morning. Just a beautiful sight against the white hoarfrost covered branches on a bright sunny day and they were right up close to conservatory window.
Turkey stew looks to be favourite I think.
My fishing trip with Nigel was a successful venture although we where definitely certifiable on acount of the foul and inclement weather we fished in.
From 9.00am on Boxing Day when we arrived at the lake the weather was cold and blustery with intermittent sleet showers but as the day progressed it deteriorated by early afternoon into a very unpleasant howling blizzard. We were forced to abandon the lake two hours early as the snow was sticking fast and eventually we just couldn't cast into the increasing gale force wind , but then the lake is quite high up a mountain.
The fishing was fantastic while we could fish though.
The smallest rainbow I netted out of six was three and a half pounds and the largest was five pounds six ounces!
I was also broken off by a beast early on using 6lb tippet and went up to 10lb tippet and then snapped a size 8 fly at the bend on another unseen lunker after playing it for five or six minutes.
It was good to get out again though after such a long absence from fly fishing.
The jay seems to be a regular daily visiter to our garden now but never hangs aroung for long, my brother in law and his wife saw it along with a Nuthatch and two Greater Spotted Woodpeckers on the same morning over Christmas.
They were highly delighted as they are not visitors to their garden in Whitstable where they live.
This frosty weather the last few days has brought the long tailed tits out mob handed and a flock of about fifteen of them were working over the bare Acer bushes close to our conservatory yesterday morning. Just a beautiful sight against the white hoarfrost covered branches on a bright sunny day and they were right up close to conservatory window.