The Fox Inn

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  • #51478
    winston @winston

    @mudlark    Leaping about like a moutain goat,  sounds like fun! Glad you have your date and plenty of time to prepare.

    #51487
    Anonymous @

    @to those from the music thread, I was mentioning the stories I’d heard (and seen) in hospital regarding tatts and piercing. One straight guy (who showed this to me whilst on a morphine drip -when off it, I said zilch to him or his girlfriend) had his anal area pierced and tattooed.

    It caused a bleeding rectum and poisoning of the large colon for which he stayed 6 weeks in the hospital – 1 week in intensive care (for stupidity presumably). It was done by a mate who had done ‘time’ with the guy who was in hospital. In fact, he spent only a week or so in the final stages of recovery in the private hospital and most of the time annoying the shit out of the male nurses in the public hospital where his girlfriend and other mates were bringing in beer and burgers (he was supposed to be on a light and gentle diet) which interfered with his healing time and meant his mates and girlfriend, Maxine (always an “ine” in the name somewhere and there’s trouble), had to be searched. When they still managed to bring some more beer in, all his friends were off the ‘visitation’ list.

    He loved being in hospital. In fact, the dickhead said he’d do it again just so he could get a decent bathroom and new sheets daily as well as three squares (even if it was jelly and egg white!).

    I have more stories: some not quite so grotesque.

    Puro

    #51488
    Anonymous @

    @mudlark

    Dearest one, I hope the hip operation isn’t too awful. If I was in England I would come and visit you and read to you! I love a live reading: sometimes better than telly. Well, often better than telly!

    I hope you are not in too much pain and that part of your recovery can involve watching the Summer days develop and perhaps lying in your beautifully tended garden, seeing the birds happily at play amid the blossoms.

    Kindest to you and sending wishes of wellness and recovery.

    Love, Puro and Son

     

    #51497
    Mudlark @mudlark

    @winston    It might have been slightly more accurate to say ‘leaping about like a slightly geriatric mountain goat’ , but I am determined to return to a state where I can leap, in however creaky a fashion  🙂

    @puroandson  What a lovely idea!  It would be delightful to be read to whilst I recovered.  The procedure itself and the immediate aftermath shouldn’t be too bad an ordeal, judging by past experience, although the following weeks of restricted activity may prove tedious.

    The weather was foul today, raining and blowing a gale from early morning onwards, with the wind roaring around the building and wuthering in the chimney, and although the skies cleared later in the afternoon it was another day lost as far as gardening was concerned.  Very frustrating, as there is a lot to do before spring really gets going, and in my present state I can only manage a little at a time.  Fortunately the forecast is better for the rest of the week.

    As for your story of the guy with the anal piercings and tattoos, I can only say that I am thankful that I did not read it before eating 😮

     

     

    #51503
    Anonymous @

    @mudlark
    It might have been slightly more accurate to say ‘leaping about like a slightly geriatric mountain goat’ , but I am determined to return to a state where I can leap, in however creaky a fashion 🙂

    Sounds good! May your recovery be speedy and strong. 🙂

    #51505
    janetteB @janetteb

    @mudlark, Best of wishes for the coming op. I trust you also have a good stash of books laid by.

    @Wiston. Your spring sounds lovely. We don’t really get spring here. It goes from cold wet and dismal to blistering heat overnight.

    @Puroandson I have a friend who worked in Social Service for years and she tells some amusing stories about Tats too. They used them to identify people, often from prison records, only as people age so do their tattoos. And ah those fifties Aussie names, Nolene, Doreen (ine een, it is all the same.)

    Cheers

    Janette

    #51535
    Mudlark @mudlark

    @StitchinTime   @janetteb     Many thanks to you both, also, for your good wishes.

    There should be no lack for reading matter to occupy me.  There is a growing stack of recently purchased books – fiction and non-fiction – which I have been adding to against the day, and once I have finished these, my personal ‘library’ includes at least 1400 novels and collections of short stories as well as an assortment of biographies, works on social history, popular science etc .* if fiction should pall, so that I can revisit old favourites, or perhaps open books last read so long ago that it will be like discovering them afresh.

    *not to mention a great many archaeological tomes and periodicals, of course,  but somehow I don’t think that I will be cracking any of them open in the coming months.

    #51538
    janetteB @janetteb

    @mudlark. You are about to embark upon a reading holiday. From my experience the best thing about being an invalid was having oodles of time to read. It was however just my luck to be confined to a sofa for a month’s convalescence when on the opposite side of the planet to my book collection. I had a few books with me but quickly ran out and was not able to get to a bookshop (and English books were limited anyway) to replenish. I wish you well with your reading.

    I used to buy the English Archaeology Magazine which was interesting for the casual reader like me. I was annoyed to discover recently that my old Uni now has archaeology courses though, to be honest, there just isn’t very much “buried history” here. When I was a child I visited a river island which had been a burial ground and picked up some interesting artifacts. Sadly my mother thought that grinding stones were just “rocks” and persuaded me to throw them out into the garden. I do wish I had kept all the bits and pieces i have dug up in our own garden, mostly broken china and glassware. We tend to think that because nothing is really more than a hundred years old it isn’t of interest, especially after watching docos on British archaeology where finds go back potentially thousands of years.

    Cheers

    Janette

     

    #51546

    For those in need of a little drama while The Doc is taking a breather, you may enjoy dipping into the live webcam of the Dyfi Osprey Project at Cors Dyfi(1) in Wales. Today, for example, has been a day of sex and violence.

    Live feed (24×7 and will come to real life over the next few weeks as more birds return fro wintering in Africa). As I type this (at night, obv), it sound like there is engineering work on the nearby railway line and the featured nest is empty, but it was pretty lively today.

     

    (1) For the benefit of non-UKers, Dyfi is pronounced Dovey (’tis a river)

    #51554
    winston @winston

    @pedant Thanks for that link. We have osprey that nest near by and fish in the creek that runs through our yard.They are awesome to watch like all wild things. Thankyou also for the pronunciation of Dyfi, I would never have got it right.

    #51557

     Thankyou also for the pronunciation of Dyfi, I would never have got it right.

    That’s Welsh for you!

    Yesterday was another day of sex and violence – and the two usual residents haven’t got back from Africa yet!

    #51558
    Anonymous @

    @pedant

    awesome video -the clarity is incredible. How they tell the ospreys apart is interesting: Dai Dot has little clusters of dots around the iris: magnificent. I even had the night cam on to watch. It was pretty windy!

    #51561

    @puroandson

    Most of them are ringed, but there is a post somewhere about how hard it can be to ID individuals. Dai Dot is, I think, a regular but unringed. The bird he’s been shagging is known as Blue 24, while Blue 5F is the interloper (iirc from Rutland in central England). Blue 24 got her arse kicked by Glesni last year (she yet to return). I think she’s earned a name by now.

    Only 30% of first year birds make it back from migration.

    Dai is a Welsh diminutive for David.

    The HD night cam is a new addition this year and will be awesome once the pecking order is firmly established and the nest occupied with mini-opspreys. Apparently they are due to get fibre soon, so can stream even more.

    Very windy – the wind whips straight up the Dyfi estuary, from Cardigan Bay and across salt flats and reed beds. What my dad used to call a “lazy wind – it’s doesn’t go around you, it goes through you”.

    By the way, if you want to buy a bit of Wales, then just up the coast, in the next estuary up (the Mawddach) is Fairborne. You can probably get it for about a fiver. You just have to find the £3-500m for sea defences that the Welsh Government is not going to spend. My family are really pissed off about that. Lots of lovely memories.

    Some pix I took last year (I want to go back with more lens).

    And from Ynys-hir, a huge RSPB reserve about 2 miles down the road.

    #51562
    Anonymous @

    @pedant

    incredibly beautiful pics. I loved Wales -I never remember being so cold, though 🙂

    Those are your photos? Magnificent light and colour on the insects and the birds

    #51565

    @puroandson

    Yeah, the insects were unexpectedly cooperative (although I think the black darter dragonfly was just having a post shag rest – if I still smoked I would have offered him one).

    The robin was amazing – he followed me for 50 or so yards, hopping around my feet and even onto my shoe. I think he thought I had food, bless.

    Both days were a bit awkward for light from a landscape POV (loads of milky sky) but I learned to fiddle in post and turn blue luminance down (which beefs up blues by making them shine less).

    #51566
    janetteB @janetteb

    Lovely description @pedant and photos. I particularly liked the shots of the cows and the robin.You have some very nice lenses already I am guessing from the quality of the shots. You captured the skies well. They look quite dramatic in the landscape shots so turning down the blue luminance clearly worked.

    I loved Wales too. The first time I was there was in February but we had a car. I returned with the boys again in February but a considerably warmer Feb in 2007. After walking the walls of Conwy we were all in tee shirts. We travelled by local bus which was brilliant and Youth Hostelled, playing different version of Monopoly every night and recording it so we could continue the game. One of the highlights of the trip was in Cardiff. Having spent a week visiting castles down the coast we planned on visiting yet more castles the following day but then saw the Dr Who exhibition posters on the YHA walls and there was an instant change of plan. We did still manage to fit in a castle visit though.

    Cheers

    Janette

    #51567
    winston @winston

    @pedant   Thanks for sharing your pics of Wales and some of it’s inhabitants. I would love to visit some day. In Canada the bird we call a Robin is actually a thrush and about the size of a starling. It is brown with a rusty red chest and they have just returned to our area hungry for worms. I guess some early pioneers were home sick.

    #51568

    @janetteb

    I like the water buffalos. They use them to merrily chomp through the reed beds to stop ’em getting clogged. They winter elsewhere (the whole area used to be overwhelmed by rhododendrons, which are epically invasive – took a few years to clear them). The Osprey project are consider adding a reed bed hide, so we should be able to watch the otters doing their “Look at us! Aren’t we so otterly fucking cute?” schtick. Which is fair. Otters are cool.

    The cows were in the RSPB reserve. In the time I spend in one of the hides, they wandered over from half way along the flats – I think I may have been the most excitement they had had all day.

    You should do mid-Wales. The hill walking is superb and landscape practically a place of pilgrimage for geography students. U shaped valleys, truncated spurs and roche moutonée everywhere. Base in Machynlleth of Dolgellau(1).

    @winston

    Yes, I’ve seen the “everything’s bigger in America” North American style robins ;). Seemed to have a pretty similar temperament, iirc – quite bold and pugnacious.

     

     

     

    (1) pron: mack-un-cleth; dol-geth-ly (well, sort of – the double-L pronunciation can’t really be written down.)

    #51569
    Anonymous @

    @pedant @winston @janetteb

    I was in Wales in 2004 and again in ’09 and ’11 but it was in October all three times and so very cold. But I honestly thought it was gorgeous: the nature of the UK countryside really amazed me. I felt very different there compared with South Australia. In the latter, the sky seems so far away and vivid with brightness, almost like an over done oil painting -insanely colourful; vain and mad. A big palette for a large continent: fantastic emerald, sapphire and citrine splashes. But in the UK, I found the sky more subtle  – dark greys, dusky blues and a light rose to accompany the morning. It seemed like the sky was so close: if I reached up a bit I could touch it? The green of the hills north of London and also in Wales was particularly beautiful -clear and gentle, touching the sky as the hills swelled. It felt more intimate than the vastness of our country which I find humbling.

    I like your pictures Mr Pedant and the delightful descriptions alongside. Water buffalo are wonderful creatures. A friend of mine (a young vet) nearly got crushed by one and sustained a nasty broken leg in three places. She considered herself lucky -eventually she graduated. Before this, we all thought this accident would hinder her. Her parents certainly tried to persuade Brit into another ‘safe’ career. Her dad was a metropolitan police officer (not exactly ‘safe’ in anyone’s opinion!).

    Back to this -spurs, I think I know from geography! Roche moutonnee, not so much? 🙂

    @winston -I love the robins too. I saw a few in Canada many years back. I know you told us where you are from in Canada, but I don’t remember! Is it BC?

    @janetteb and @pedant your discussions about cameras/lenses remind me of my bro and his darkroom. One hobby when he was restoring his own home and had no cash for contractors that he continued to pursue and many ‘experiments’ are mounted beautifully on his Sydney walls. He’s into colour photography now (after scores of years working with B&W). I still don’t know what blue luminance is!

    Eerk!

    Kindest to all,

    Puro and Son.

    #51570

    Meet Monty. This could start getting lively now…

    #51573

    @puroandson @winston @janetteb

    Since you seemed to like Wales, so here’s some more

    Cregenan (This one I have as a 60x90cm canvas on my living room wall)

    Borth

    Also, Glesni is back and has reclaimed her nest after a short but intense squabble with Blue 24.

    #51575
    winston @winston

    @puroandson Your descriptions of the sky in South Australia and the UK were so lovely I could almost see them. I live in Ontario, Canada surrounded by classic rural farmland.Lots of trees and cows and barns.
    @pedant Our Robin is a very friendly,busy bird and fairly bold. They will be building their first nest pretty soon. They often build 2 or 3 nests and lay batches of 4 eggs in each one (not at the same time) through the spring and summer season. No wonder they are so busy.

    #51576
    Anonymous @

    @pedant

    absolutely stunning! I agree -some pics “scream to be B&W”. But the colour pics of those huge rolling mountains with the mist steaming across the tops were charming -there’s a mystique to the countryside that’s hard to unravel. Seems to put all our problems into proportion. To be away from the hustle and bustle of cities with their concrete and garbage and to see a calming environment instead is a privilege (not that I don’t like cities sometimes). Beaut.

    #51618
    Arbutus @arbutus

    @pedant     Your photos are lovely. The Borth sunsets remind me of ones that I saw over the Saint Lawrence in south eastern Quebec. We were almost to the Gaspé Peninsula, and the river is tidal at that point and as far as the eye is concerned, simply looks like the ocean. The sunsets were some of the most amazing I have ever seen. Some of the Cregenan shots look very much like parts of the western Canadian arctic. My wish list of places to visit in Britain just keeps getting bigger!

    #51631
    ichabod @ichabod

    Helen Mirren on the Graham Norton show spoke a bit about Alan Rickman’s last film role, which is a movie called “Eye in the Sky”.  Anybody know whether it’s been released yet?  Has anyone seen it?  Sounds very SFy.

    #51638
    Mudlark @mudlark

    @ichabod    “Eye in the Sky”  is showing in the UK from this coming Friday (15th)  – I don’t know about the US.  From what I have gathered it is about a drone attack, examining the legal and moral issues from the viewpoint of the various people involved in authorising and orchestrating it – politicians, military officers and the drone pilot etc..  The theme and the fact that the cast includes Helen Mirren and Alan Rickman augur well.

    #51639
    ichabod @ichabod

    @mudlark   Thanks.  A drone attack — so, current reality then, not SF.  Sounds worth the wait, over here.

    #51676
    XAD4 @xad4

    Oops, sorry, messed this up. Wanted to post a picture…

    DSC02866

     

    #51677
    XAD4 @xad4

    Ah, great, now that it’s working I’m past edit time.

    Anyway, the one above (below?) is for @pedant

    Look where I was on Tuesday! 😀

    #51679
    Anonymous @

    @xad4 @pedant

    There’s some birdy noises on the live streaming right now. But it’s not as windy as yesterday.

    Great stuff.

    #51680

    @xad4

    Nice! The live cam currently shows a snoozing osprey, which is quite the sweetest thing I’ve seen for ages. Glesni is looking very…eggy.

    It occurs to me that I only live an hour or so from the Rutland project (which is where all the Welsh birds originate). Must get that longer lens…

    #51681
    Anonymous @

    @pedant

    when I hit my ‘live feed’ button under history all I get is the Osprey page -not the live cam, darn it.

    Any ideas?

    Puro

    #51682
    Anonymous @

    @pedant

    as you were: I found it!

    The Osprey aint snoozing at the mo.

    🙂

    #51703
    Anonymous @

    @pedant checking out the RSS feed on the Osprey project is becoming a daily occurrence for me. Even if there’s no sign of birds, I hear other interesting sounds of the night -some spooky, some quite funny.

    I’m thinking of giving a small donation.

    On the subject of donations, when I’m on various web sites the amount of pop up advertising which really gets in the way of the actual material is driving me a tad nuts?

    @fatmaninabox @craig @phaseshift

    If there’s a need to a contribute to this site to keep it working as well as possible without resorting to ‘attractive’ advertising about “10 ways to keep stomach fat at bay” and “6 texts to which a man will  respond” then I’m very happy to assist. I know this was mentioned before, but still, the idea is still percolating in my head (and no, very little pain meds on board at the moment. Well, when I write “little” I might mean ‘moderate.’ LOL).

    Cheers,

    Puro and Son

     

    #51716

    @puroandson

    Well, at least we know who the celebrity threesome is 🙂 …

    #51717
    lisa @lisa

    Hiya !   Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying some fine moments.  I have been anxious

    for news about anything to do with the new Who season.   I was wondering if the cast that

    was announced for the new ‘Class” series was to be the students or the teachers?  The

    kids at my school don’t look that mature — just saying.

     

    So   @Puroandson   I have many many favorite flicks    🙂

    For your consideration here ya go with some

    Anything Kubrick

    Kiss Me Deadly 1955  and Murder My Sweet 1944

    Invasion of the Body Santchers 1956

    favorite Hitchcock is still !    ‘Shadow of a Doubt’

    Diva 1982

    Harold and Maude

    Altered States

    Blow Up

    Manhunter 1986

    Quartermass and the Pit from the 60’s

    “That’s what comes to mind presently.    As for music over the past weekend I pulled out

    the Cowboy Junkies ‘Trinity Session” , Sinead O’Connor’s  “Fire on Babylon’

    and   ‘Am I Not Your Girl’   then Miles Davis since they got a new film about him

    coming out.    I especially like  ‘Kind of Blue”.

    Hope you enjoy some of these   and I will definitely catch you later!!!

     

    PS and BTW       @everyone         Totally love reading all your postings!

     

    #51722
    Anonymous @

    @lisa oh boy I forgot Kind of Blue (Davis) how dumb am I? The best album ever made, imo.

    Body Snatchers…wonderful. Thank you.

    @pedant

    It’s the birds! the celebrity wotsits.

    Blue, the one with the number and the …other one….

    Oh, hang on….

    #51763
    lisa @lisa

    What are we to make of the fact that Missy/Michelle Gomez and Queen Elizabeth

    share a birthday?         It occurs to me that there is the possibility of a conspiracy theory here!

    Haven’t we all seen online the thing about the Royals being descendants of aliens

    and of course  the net is never wrong.  Maybe the Queen is a Missy/ Master alias?

    Or………

    Who nose?      🙂            What say you all?            lol

     

    ( The series break is way too long!)

     

    #51767
    Anonymous @

    @pedant @cathannabel

    and others who have or haven’t liked Walking Dead.

    Has anyone watched YMS (Your Movie Sucks) ? This dude does a pretty good job of nailing some of the problems behind this series from its 2nd season when Darabont disappeared and AMC, being the only owner, cut the budget in half and added an extra 7 eps all on Hershell’s Farm (in Darabont’s comics the farm was in two episodes only).

    They mention an Adagio in D minor and I realise this piece is also from The City of Bones?

    I don’t know the film? Some of the quotes look funny and clever. Is it good-ish?

    @ichabod would you know? @jimthefish you are wonderful at movies/themes etc..

    Kindest, Purofthequestions

    #51770
    ichabod @ichabod

    @puroandson  Wish I did know, but I don’t, luv.  Thanks for the info on AMC.  It’s useful to learn about what causes the causes of the sudden fuck ups that fuck shows up.  I don’t know the adagio you mean — but I mightily respect the form for what it can add to a film story.  Thinking of the adagio in the film “Barry Lyndon” that cued the audience to this story as a version of the reality of  an 18th c picaresque novel might be — brilliant work.  Long, sad, full of Saturnian power.

    #51772
    Miapatrick @miapatrick

    @janetteB- I live near Conwy now! Never made it onto the walls though. Scared of hights.

    #51798
    Missy @missy

    HAPPY SAINT GEORGE’S DAY TO ALL WE ENGLISH.

    Cheers,

    Missy

    #51803
    Craig @craig
    Emperor

    For a rare and very funny insight into Prince I’d recommend you watch this. It’s long but it’s good.

    I’m hoping to resume normal service on this site next week. Have a conference in Barcelona on Monday and Tuesday that I’m preparing for (I know, poor me) then my life returns to almost normality.

    #51839
    Missy @missy

    Thank you Criag. Oh dear, Barcelona what a drag! *grins*
    Isn’t that the place that Doctor 10 was going to take Rose?

    Cheers,

    Missy

    #51875
    XAD4 @xad4

    @pedant

    Did your cousin go to the Wales ComicCon this weekend? Did you?

    And did she/you like it?

    #51876

    @xad4

    No, in my case (Cons aren’t really my thing) – don’t know in cuz’s case, but I don’t think so.

    #51916
    Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip

    Twenty seven years.

    That’s a long wait for justice.

    Like pretty well everyone who was living in Liverpool in 1989, I’d like to thank everyone who fought so hard for justice for ninety six innocent people – who died when they were supposed to be enjoying a football match.

    #51920
    JimTheFish @jimthefish
    Time Lord

    @bluesqueakpip — It will be very interesting indeed to see how The Sun handle tomorrow’s front page…

    #51921
    Mersey @mersey

    @jimthefish @bluesqueakpip haven’t you seen this cover? This is such an amazing day for Liverpudlians. Shame not all from Hillsborough families lived to see this.

    #51922
    JimTheFish @jimthefish
    Time Lord

    @mersey — yes, it’s been a long time coming. Too long.

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