"You are old," said the youth, "and your jaws are too weak
For anything tougher than suet;
Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak-
Pray, how did you manage to do it?"
"In my youth," said his father, "I took to the law
And argued each case with my wife;
And the muscular strength, which it gave to my jaw,
Has lasted the rest of my life."
Lewis Carroll
What a difference a day makes! - early yesterday morning walking along the Elwy it was hot and sunny with just a pleasant breeze to cool things.
We stopped at the style onto the river bank at the back of the St Asaph allotments to speak to the owners of a brown Labrador/Poodle cross we know through meeting while walking the dogs.
This friendly affectionate pooch looks for all the world like a German Wire Haired Pointer!.
As we chatted, a stunning looking 'Dragonfly' fluttered by and settled on a clump of yellow Monkshood growing out of the river bank.
I walked as slowly and quietly as I could to get a better look and it obligingly stayed put as I leaned over for a better gander, that's when I realised it was a large Damselfly and not a Dragonfly as its wings were folded back along its body.
What a beauty! about 2" long with a wingspan slightly longer and an iridescent blue and metallic green body, Soddes law dictates that we left the house very early to beat the heat and forgot to bring a camera!
I was able to get a good observation of the Damselfly as it seemed quite at ease with people moving about on the river bank and when I got back home I looked it up on t'internet.
Its called very appropriately, the 'Beautiful Demoiselle' Damselfly, Latin; Calopterix Virgo with a 45mm body and a 65mm wingspan its quite big and a real stunner.
It's habitat is described as liking fast flowing well oxygenated rivers with gravel beds in an open river bank environment which exactly describes the Elwy here.
Saturday morning I must have eaten at least a pound of cherries on my perambulations across The Common, I mentioned these before on here, and they vary greatly in colour from bright yellow and red to almost black.
I noticed that the red and yellow cherries are larger and sweeter than the very dark cherries, some of which are distinctly sharp!
What a change this morning though, after last nights torrential rain the river was up and coloured and running fast and a distinct chill in the stiff breeze, ideal for walking all three dogs this morning but with my coat back on.
Sadly the local high school broke up last night and to celebrate there were six tents camped on the sheep pasture early this morning with beer cans and bottles and packaging scattered everywhere and worse they had used bushes by the river for a toilet and just left their disgusting mess including a wet bog roll behind for everyone to see; or walk through as some was on the path!
How do you get through to the youth of today that its our earth, our environment and we are all of us, responsible for it.
Spring is nearly here!
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!
How I wonder what you're at!"
Up above the world you fly,
Like a tea-tray in the sky.
Lewis Carroll
We are into August! will we get a summer yet?
On our dog walking trip down to the river on Sunday morning I noticed that the mature Rowan trees on 'The Roe' have a huge crop of berries on this year. A lovely display in the bright morning sunshine they are now showing bunches of berries in various shades of vermilion red to brilliant orange.
As August kicks into gear this week in the wind-down to Autumn you can't help but notice the changes.
It approaches subtly at first, fast swelling apples acquire rosy cheeks, the bounty of late summer fruits abound, the cherries I ate last week being replaced by ripening elderberries, the blackberries along the hedgerow are starting to show colour.
It's preparing for the Autumn bonus, the harvest to come, fields of ripening wheat and barley yellowing up, plump hazelnuts starting to show, yes its all happening so we have to make the most of it while its here! -----------now; where's my wellies and mac?
How I wonder what you're at!"
Up above the world you fly,
Like a tea-tray in the sky.
Lewis Carroll
We are into August! will we get a summer yet?
On our dog walking trip down to the river on Sunday morning I noticed that the mature Rowan trees on 'The Roe' have a huge crop of berries on this year. A lovely display in the bright morning sunshine they are now showing bunches of berries in various shades of vermilion red to brilliant orange.
As August kicks into gear this week in the wind-down to Autumn you can't help but notice the changes.
It approaches subtly at first, fast swelling apples acquire rosy cheeks, the bounty of late summer fruits abound, the cherries I ate last week being replaced by ripening elderberries, the blackberries along the hedgerow are starting to show colour.
It's preparing for the Autumn bonus, the harvest to come, fields of ripening wheat and barley yellowing up, plump hazelnuts starting to show, yes its all happening so we have to make the most of it while its here! -----------now; where's my wellies and mac?
Re: Spring is nearly here!
How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!
How cheerfully he seems to grin,
And neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in,
With gently smiling jaws!
Lewis Carroll
Last of the 'home visits' for our Koi Club meets tonight!
Colin has posted directions to Majdi's in the August newsletter.
It's remarkable and quite varied how things have performed fruit-wise for me this year, the cherries overall from six different trees in my garden have been poor. Not as bad as 2012 which was a disaster for me and others locally and also nationally with up to 70% of British crops lost particularly in Kent.
This years culprit was the dreadfully long cold wet spring that led to poor pollination of most early flowering fruit trees in the UK, particularly us up North.
The only exception was the Summer Sun cherry that's in a tub in my greenhouse that never fails, but!
Compounding my problems this year was I discovered a heavy infestation of vine weevils in the cherry, peach and apricot tubs in my greenhouse around April/May, critically just as the fruit was forming.
The end result is I had smaller cherries, but the worst affected was the two peach trees, the Peregrine has ripe peaches on this week less than half their normal size (some the size of golf balls!)
The Redhaven peach just threw off about 90% of its fruitlets and eventually ripened about 5 peaches; all with split stones!.
The apricots, of three different varieties, which were the least affected were mostly just smaller than normal.
The apples have done quite well but the pears, four varieties which flower earlier than the apples have a very poor crop this year, again lack of pollination due to cold weather.
The Williams pear hasn't got a single pear on this year and its a large mature tree that we inherited.
The plums and blackberries seem to have done the best by far but they too are quite late ripening this year like everything else.
The Opal plum I have in my garden would normally be ripe in late July but mine are only just starting to show colour so should be ripe in mid to late August, the time when the Victoria plum normally starts to ripen.
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!
How cheerfully he seems to grin,
And neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in,
With gently smiling jaws!
Lewis Carroll
Last of the 'home visits' for our Koi Club meets tonight!
Colin has posted directions to Majdi's in the August newsletter.
It's remarkable and quite varied how things have performed fruit-wise for me this year, the cherries overall from six different trees in my garden have been poor. Not as bad as 2012 which was a disaster for me and others locally and also nationally with up to 70% of British crops lost particularly in Kent.
This years culprit was the dreadfully long cold wet spring that led to poor pollination of most early flowering fruit trees in the UK, particularly us up North.
The only exception was the Summer Sun cherry that's in a tub in my greenhouse that never fails, but!
Compounding my problems this year was I discovered a heavy infestation of vine weevils in the cherry, peach and apricot tubs in my greenhouse around April/May, critically just as the fruit was forming.
The end result is I had smaller cherries, but the worst affected was the two peach trees, the Peregrine has ripe peaches on this week less than half their normal size (some the size of golf balls!)
The Redhaven peach just threw off about 90% of its fruitlets and eventually ripened about 5 peaches; all with split stones!.
The apricots, of three different varieties, which were the least affected were mostly just smaller than normal.
The apples have done quite well but the pears, four varieties which flower earlier than the apples have a very poor crop this year, again lack of pollination due to cold weather.
The Williams pear hasn't got a single pear on this year and its a large mature tree that we inherited.
The plums and blackberries seem to have done the best by far but they too are quite late ripening this year like everything else.
The Opal plum I have in my garden would normally be ripe in late July but mine are only just starting to show colour so should be ripe in mid to late August, the time when the Victoria plum normally starts to ripen.
Re: Spring is nearly here!
It's a funny thing about life, if you refuse to accept anything but the best; you very often get it!
W. Somerset Maugham
Last Friday I spent eight and a half hours driving through horrific traffic conditions to my sister in laws home near Tonbridge in Kent.
It never stopped raining from 9.00am when we left North Wales for the whole horrid trip starting with the M6 completely blocked with a HGV crash at Birmingham then ensuing hold ups (further bumps and snarl ups) on M42 due to sheer volume of diverted traffic.
This delayed us sufficiently enough to land us on the southern end of the M40 trying to get onto the M25 and merge with 4 solid lanes of crawling traffic as London emptied out for the weekend.
We finally arrived ( in a torrential cloudburst) at our destination at 6.00pm, with just a half hour break in the Midlands and not quite half a tank of diesel fuel used!
But, Nature was kind to us and relented for Saturday morning dawned bright and clear.
We had a warm sunny day out at nearby Hever Castle former home of Anne Boleyn) also former home to Viscount William Waldorf Astor.
The third Viscount Astor has a family link to North Wales, his Welsh wife Lady Astor (nee Bronwen Pugh) was educated at Dr Williams School in Dolgellau were my other half and her sisters went.
The large moat around the castle has got some huge healthy Koi carp in, they are fed daily by the tourists but there is some fierce competition for food between the many fat ducks and the Koi. Throughout the acres of grounds are several further ponds fed by a meandering river (Eden I think) that eventually feeds a large boating and wildlife lake then eventually on to the Medway.
These smaller ponds scattered through the beautiful gardens and well tended flower beds and walkways are absolutely teeming with great shoals of Rudd and Roach, thousands of them!
Luckily for them the many diving ducks and Great Crested Grebes on the nature reserve that's part of the big lake cannot get access to them. It was such a lovely day we hired a boat and ventured out in search of the aquatic wildlife.
I got the closest I've ever been to a Great Crested Grebe with two chicks, we just slowly, quietly, drifted by them to within 6 feet in a reed bed and my nephew got some good pictures of them.
I also found crawling on my arm one of the most peculiar bugs ever dropping out of an overhanging weeping willow as we brushed through it.
Bright almost fluorescent green, a sort of cricket or short legged grasshopper about an inch long with antennae almost as long again. Never seen one before and neither had the four guys at the boat hire when we showed it to them on our return. I put it back into a willow tree to continue to enjoy its summer.
Sunday we had a leisurely nostalgic trip on the Bluebell Line Railway, It's a steam train enthusiasts Mecca with a 2 hour trip from Sheffield Park to East Grinstead and back, in a first class compartment, followed by a visit to the large museum full of restored working loco's from small tank engines to a huge mainline 4-6-0' with a close-coupled 3 axle tender-------------- a greasy coal dust covered heaven!
Returned home on Tuesday to find a Heron has stabbed one of my two remaining Rudd in the shoulder near it head badly damaging it and leaving a large hole, despite treatment it's touch and go now whether it survives, obviously it was too heavy for the heron to lift out.
Soddes law is still alive and well it would seem!
On the positive side the warm weather produced a superb crop of sweet Opal plums this week, I picked the last couple of pounds last night, next crop looks like the Victoria plums, with one or two ripe already.
W. Somerset Maugham
Last Friday I spent eight and a half hours driving through horrific traffic conditions to my sister in laws home near Tonbridge in Kent.
It never stopped raining from 9.00am when we left North Wales for the whole horrid trip starting with the M6 completely blocked with a HGV crash at Birmingham then ensuing hold ups (further bumps and snarl ups) on M42 due to sheer volume of diverted traffic.
This delayed us sufficiently enough to land us on the southern end of the M40 trying to get onto the M25 and merge with 4 solid lanes of crawling traffic as London emptied out for the weekend.
We finally arrived ( in a torrential cloudburst) at our destination at 6.00pm, with just a half hour break in the Midlands and not quite half a tank of diesel fuel used!
But, Nature was kind to us and relented for Saturday morning dawned bright and clear.
We had a warm sunny day out at nearby Hever Castle former home of Anne Boleyn) also former home to Viscount William Waldorf Astor.
The third Viscount Astor has a family link to North Wales, his Welsh wife Lady Astor (nee Bronwen Pugh) was educated at Dr Williams School in Dolgellau were my other half and her sisters went.
The large moat around the castle has got some huge healthy Koi carp in, they are fed daily by the tourists but there is some fierce competition for food between the many fat ducks and the Koi. Throughout the acres of grounds are several further ponds fed by a meandering river (Eden I think) that eventually feeds a large boating and wildlife lake then eventually on to the Medway.
These smaller ponds scattered through the beautiful gardens and well tended flower beds and walkways are absolutely teeming with great shoals of Rudd and Roach, thousands of them!
Luckily for them the many diving ducks and Great Crested Grebes on the nature reserve that's part of the big lake cannot get access to them. It was such a lovely day we hired a boat and ventured out in search of the aquatic wildlife.
I got the closest I've ever been to a Great Crested Grebe with two chicks, we just slowly, quietly, drifted by them to within 6 feet in a reed bed and my nephew got some good pictures of them.
I also found crawling on my arm one of the most peculiar bugs ever dropping out of an overhanging weeping willow as we brushed through it.
Bright almost fluorescent green, a sort of cricket or short legged grasshopper about an inch long with antennae almost as long again. Never seen one before and neither had the four guys at the boat hire when we showed it to them on our return. I put it back into a willow tree to continue to enjoy its summer.
Sunday we had a leisurely nostalgic trip on the Bluebell Line Railway, It's a steam train enthusiasts Mecca with a 2 hour trip from Sheffield Park to East Grinstead and back, in a first class compartment, followed by a visit to the large museum full of restored working loco's from small tank engines to a huge mainline 4-6-0' with a close-coupled 3 axle tender-------------- a greasy coal dust covered heaven!
Returned home on Tuesday to find a Heron has stabbed one of my two remaining Rudd in the shoulder near it head badly damaging it and leaving a large hole, despite treatment it's touch and go now whether it survives, obviously it was too heavy for the heron to lift out.
Soddes law is still alive and well it would seem!
On the positive side the warm weather produced a superb crop of sweet Opal plums this week, I picked the last couple of pounds last night, next crop looks like the Victoria plums, with one or two ripe already.
Last edited by pollygog on Mon Aug 24, 2015 2:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Addition to above post is I looked up the curious green insect I found crawling on me in the boat on Saturday in Kent.
It's a female Southern Oak Bush Cricket (Meconema thalassinum) first recorded on south coast in UK in 2005 so a relative newcomer to Britain.
Males attract a mate by stamping on a leaf!
The females must have remarkably good hearing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's a female Southern Oak Bush Cricket (Meconema thalassinum) first recorded on south coast in UK in 2005 so a relative newcomer to Britain.
Males attract a mate by stamping on a leaf!
The females must have remarkably good hearing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that around the thatch-eaves run.
Ode to Autumn by John Keats
Keats through his rose tinted specs concentrated on the positive aspects of a warm bountiful autumn and obviously deliberately missed out the negative side to the season.
I'm talking of;
WASPS!
That horrid aspect of the insect world that make each Autumn a hazardous and often painful occupation in your average British garden containing flowers and/or fruit that he so eloquently describes.
This is particularly so if you grow the fruit that attracts the little buggers or if you simply wish to eat Al Fresco in your garden this time of year.
Four times I've been stung so far picking fruit, the last one a particularly painful one on the back of my neck last Saturday on a step ladder picking plums.
This year I have had to net everything fruit-wise except the apples and pears and even they have been under constant attack, from blackbirds and bluetits mainly, the ubiquitous wasps and flies furthering the initial damage done by the birds.
It seems a particularly bad late summer plague this year wasp wise yet I haven't found a single wasp or bee nest around my garden throughout this past year.
Revenge is sweet though, it gives me grim satisfaction in daily inspecting the jam jar traps a third full of a home made sweet liquor I've placed around my plum trees.
The fatal attraction liquid is a combination of jam, sugar and boiled plum juice that has lured dozens of hungry wasps to a sticky death over the past three weeks, the problem is the traps are very efficient and the liquor quickly clogs up with the bodies of wasps and flies so I have to strain them out and refill the jar.
A couple of really chill nights will put paid to them for this year though.
First club meeting since the summer break back at The Farmers this week and Colin has appealed for lottery prizes, I've got one that will please 'King Ken of Rhyl'
The water lily in my pond is now looking 'end of season' and putting out less flowers just lately but the Koi are hungry as ever and up to meet me in the mornings looking for their breakfast.
My heron damaged Rudd is holding its own still swimming around strongly but doesn't appear to be feeding despite putting their favourite food of mealworms in.
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that around the thatch-eaves run.
Ode to Autumn by John Keats
Keats through his rose tinted specs concentrated on the positive aspects of a warm bountiful autumn and obviously deliberately missed out the negative side to the season.
I'm talking of;
WASPS!
That horrid aspect of the insect world that make each Autumn a hazardous and often painful occupation in your average British garden containing flowers and/or fruit that he so eloquently describes.
This is particularly so if you grow the fruit that attracts the little buggers or if you simply wish to eat Al Fresco in your garden this time of year.
Four times I've been stung so far picking fruit, the last one a particularly painful one on the back of my neck last Saturday on a step ladder picking plums.
This year I have had to net everything fruit-wise except the apples and pears and even they have been under constant attack, from blackbirds and bluetits mainly, the ubiquitous wasps and flies furthering the initial damage done by the birds.
It seems a particularly bad late summer plague this year wasp wise yet I haven't found a single wasp or bee nest around my garden throughout this past year.
Revenge is sweet though, it gives me grim satisfaction in daily inspecting the jam jar traps a third full of a home made sweet liquor I've placed around my plum trees.
The fatal attraction liquid is a combination of jam, sugar and boiled plum juice that has lured dozens of hungry wasps to a sticky death over the past three weeks, the problem is the traps are very efficient and the liquor quickly clogs up with the bodies of wasps and flies so I have to strain them out and refill the jar.
A couple of really chill nights will put paid to them for this year though.
First club meeting since the summer break back at The Farmers this week and Colin has appealed for lottery prizes, I've got one that will please 'King Ken of Rhyl'
The water lily in my pond is now looking 'end of season' and putting out less flowers just lately but the Koi are hungry as ever and up to meet me in the mornings looking for their breakfast.
My heron damaged Rudd is holding its own still swimming around strongly but doesn't appear to be feeding despite putting their favourite food of mealworms in.
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Strange sequel to my wasp traps is I went out early this morning to feed my Koi and routinely checked my wasp traps. To my amazement I found that the 2 wasp trap jam jars I placed in the Victoria plum tree have been drained dry of every drop of liquid? Just dead wasps were left in the bottom of each jar!
Something small has a very sweet tooth!
Something small has a very sweet tooth!
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Where the bee sucks there suck I,
In a cowslips bell I lie;
There I couch when owls do cry.
On the bat's back I do fly,
After summer merrily.
Merrily, merrily shall I live now;
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.
Ariel's song/soliloquy to Prospero
From 'The Tempest'
Well, it's official; it's a crap summer this year, as if we need telling!
Just thought the above quote would cheer us all up for the summer we never quite had.
Where the wasp stings is more appropriate to the above quote from Shakespeare's play as Sunday morning I was stung again and swelled up so alarmingly I had to go to my GP Monday morning for a strong dose of anti-histamine. I reacted quite badly this time to my 5th sting, on the palm of my hand of all places!
Revenge is sweet though as my honey traps are working overtime killing the wasps (and bluebottles) every day; particularly these last couple of warm sunny days.
I came home from our club meeting about 10.30pm Wednesday night and checked my wasp traps and I discovered that it was mice draining the slightly alcoholic sweet beverage, three nights on the trot actually. So; I cured the problem by putting the jar lid back on with a 2cm hole in centre and actually made the traps far more efficient as once in the wasps rarely escape back out.
I saw the positive side to wasps though this morning, as I was inspecting my standard gooseberry bushes I noticed a branch with a small attack of gooseberry sawfly that was displaying the typical skeletonised leaves.
As I was standing there in the warm morning sunshine a wasp flew down and crawled about the attacked area, it appeared to be biting the heads and then gathering the tiny black headed green caterpillars into a bundle in it's legs then flew off with them as a further wasp homed in on the attacked area and continued the good work.
In a cowslips bell I lie;
There I couch when owls do cry.
On the bat's back I do fly,
After summer merrily.
Merrily, merrily shall I live now;
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.
Ariel's song/soliloquy to Prospero
From 'The Tempest'
Well, it's official; it's a crap summer this year, as if we need telling!
Just thought the above quote would cheer us all up for the summer we never quite had.
Where the wasp stings is more appropriate to the above quote from Shakespeare's play as Sunday morning I was stung again and swelled up so alarmingly I had to go to my GP Monday morning for a strong dose of anti-histamine. I reacted quite badly this time to my 5th sting, on the palm of my hand of all places!
Revenge is sweet though as my honey traps are working overtime killing the wasps (and bluebottles) every day; particularly these last couple of warm sunny days.
I came home from our club meeting about 10.30pm Wednesday night and checked my wasp traps and I discovered that it was mice draining the slightly alcoholic sweet beverage, three nights on the trot actually. So; I cured the problem by putting the jar lid back on with a 2cm hole in centre and actually made the traps far more efficient as once in the wasps rarely escape back out.
I saw the positive side to wasps though this morning, as I was inspecting my standard gooseberry bushes I noticed a branch with a small attack of gooseberry sawfly that was displaying the typical skeletonised leaves.
As I was standing there in the warm morning sunshine a wasp flew down and crawled about the attacked area, it appeared to be biting the heads and then gathering the tiny black headed green caterpillars into a bundle in it's legs then flew off with them as a further wasp homed in on the attacked area and continued the good work.
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Forgot to mention in all the excitement; it's our return pond visit to Liverpool Koi Club a week Sunday- i.e. 13th September.
Re: Spring is nearly here!
He thought he saw a Buffalo
Upon the chimney-piece;
He looked again, and found it was
His Sister's Husband's Niece.
'Unless you leave this house', he said,
'I'll send for the Police!' "
From 'Sylvie and Bruno'
by
Lewis Carroll
I enjoyed our pond visit on Sunday to Merseyside immensely, it turned out to be one of the nicest pond day visits for ages and in good company to boot.
We started off from North Wales in a shower of rain, but, the sun shines on the righteous allegedly; and also the unrighteous apparently for when we arrived at the first pond in Lathom West Lanc's the sun was shining; and it stayed out for what turned out to be a glorious day.
Stan the first host and his charming wife Sandra gave us a lovely warm welcome with a plentiful supply of bacon and sausage barm's washed down with an unending supply of tea and coffee, in fact he did us right proud.
Nice one Stan!
The warm autumn sun also brought out some old acquaintances of mine who joined us at the breakfast table to enjoy the generous hospitality on offer; unfortunately they brought lot's of equally unwelcome relatives with them!
WASPS!
The little buggers were everywhere! trying to eat our bacon butties, crawling on the sauce bottles, attacking the sausages, drowning themselves in the cups of coffee, in fact doing what they do best, making a buzzing bloody nuisance of themselves.
We resorted to grabbing a butty quickly and retiring back down the very large garden to the pond side to eat it.
Stan's pond is eight thousand gallons and in superb order with a walled surround about four foot high, roundish oblong in shape with a very substantial pergola built over and some stunning fish swimming in crystal clear water, one of them is a stunner, a monster Chagoi!
I'll bet that takes some feeding.
On to St Helens for the next three smaller but immaculately kept ponds followed by a larger pond in Knowsley Village Merseyside then the fifth a larger pond which was well designed and extremely well built which was in Childwall Liverpool.
All of the ponds visited were new to me and all were well kept and maintained, a great credit to their owners Stan, Alan, John, Ian, Dennis and Peter.
Thank you all for a pleasurable, excellent day out.
Childwall was our final destination and a big thanks to Peter and his wife for the tasty barbecued ribs, Pizza's and delicious cake and cream followed by; the ubiquitous raffle.
Ah, yes, the raffle!
Yours truly bought £5 worth of raffle tickets and won a coffee maker at our last club meeting and not wanting this particular coffee maker I donated it back to the club.
Unbeknown to me, Sue, our treasurer won it next and also donated it back to our club.
Dave, our club chairman had then offloaded it to Merseyside Koi Club to be raffled again and not knowing this I'd won it again.
As I was walking away from the raffle prize table Majdi very mirthfully pointed it out that it was the very same coffee maker I'd won previously at our club meeting but it's now cost me ten pounds.
I don't know how many times this particular coffee maker has been recycled through the North Wales Koi Club's raffle system but I will now break the chain and donate it to our local charity shop the St Kentigern's Hospice!
It cannot spirit itself back from there surely?
Upon the chimney-piece;
He looked again, and found it was
His Sister's Husband's Niece.
'Unless you leave this house', he said,
'I'll send for the Police!' "
From 'Sylvie and Bruno'
by
Lewis Carroll
I enjoyed our pond visit on Sunday to Merseyside immensely, it turned out to be one of the nicest pond day visits for ages and in good company to boot.
We started off from North Wales in a shower of rain, but, the sun shines on the righteous allegedly; and also the unrighteous apparently for when we arrived at the first pond in Lathom West Lanc's the sun was shining; and it stayed out for what turned out to be a glorious day.
Stan the first host and his charming wife Sandra gave us a lovely warm welcome with a plentiful supply of bacon and sausage barm's washed down with an unending supply of tea and coffee, in fact he did us right proud.
Nice one Stan!
The warm autumn sun also brought out some old acquaintances of mine who joined us at the breakfast table to enjoy the generous hospitality on offer; unfortunately they brought lot's of equally unwelcome relatives with them!
WASPS!
The little buggers were everywhere! trying to eat our bacon butties, crawling on the sauce bottles, attacking the sausages, drowning themselves in the cups of coffee, in fact doing what they do best, making a buzzing bloody nuisance of themselves.
We resorted to grabbing a butty quickly and retiring back down the very large garden to the pond side to eat it.
Stan's pond is eight thousand gallons and in superb order with a walled surround about four foot high, roundish oblong in shape with a very substantial pergola built over and some stunning fish swimming in crystal clear water, one of them is a stunner, a monster Chagoi!
I'll bet that takes some feeding.
On to St Helens for the next three smaller but immaculately kept ponds followed by a larger pond in Knowsley Village Merseyside then the fifth a larger pond which was well designed and extremely well built which was in Childwall Liverpool.
All of the ponds visited were new to me and all were well kept and maintained, a great credit to their owners Stan, Alan, John, Ian, Dennis and Peter.
Thank you all for a pleasurable, excellent day out.
Childwall was our final destination and a big thanks to Peter and his wife for the tasty barbecued ribs, Pizza's and delicious cake and cream followed by; the ubiquitous raffle.
Ah, yes, the raffle!
Yours truly bought £5 worth of raffle tickets and won a coffee maker at our last club meeting and not wanting this particular coffee maker I donated it back to the club.
Unbeknown to me, Sue, our treasurer won it next and also donated it back to our club.
Dave, our club chairman had then offloaded it to Merseyside Koi Club to be raffled again and not knowing this I'd won it again.
As I was walking away from the raffle prize table Majdi very mirthfully pointed it out that it was the very same coffee maker I'd won previously at our club meeting but it's now cost me ten pounds.
I don't know how many times this particular coffee maker has been recycled through the North Wales Koi Club's raffle system but I will now break the chain and donate it to our local charity shop the St Kentigern's Hospice!
It cannot spirit itself back from there surely?