June 27, 2008
Leather & willow
The English are very fond of a game they call cricket. For this purpose they go into a large open field & knock a ball about with a piece of wood. I will not attempt to describe the game to you, it is too complicated: but it requires agility & skill and everybody plays it, the common people & also men or rank
Cesar de Saussure. 1764
June 10, 2008
May 2, 2008
New header
Thanks to the sterling efforts of The Englishman, this morning dear readers, we have a new header. I hope you like it ... I'm back out to the fields now
April 24, 2008
April 23, 2008
Happy St George's Day
Now order the ranks, and fling wide the banners,
for our souls are God's and our bodies the King's,
and our swords for Saint George and for England
from The White Company, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
April 10, 2008
This is just a test to see if I can post from my BlackBerry
If you are reading this, then it is purely down to the wonders of modern science & some clever programmers
This is just a test to see if I can post from my BlackBerry
If you are reading this, then it is purely down to the wonders of modern science & some clever programmers
Lack of posting
Apologies for the lack of / rather thin level of posting over the last couple of days.
Sometime between turning my laptop off in Dallas & trying to turn it on again in London, the hard drive suffered a catastrophic failure of a similar size to Gordon Brown’s failure to manage the UK’s economy properly. Hopefully it will all be repaired by later on this morning – unlike our economy.
March 23, 2008
March 4, 2008
London, yesterday morning
This picture was taken yesterday morning on my way to a meeting. From where I was standing, it I was no more than 150 yards from Buckingham Palace & was looking down along St James's Park to the back of Whitehall.
Given the amount of wildfowl about, I feel sure that I am not the first person to have stopped & thought that this would make an excellent spot for a duck blind.
March 3, 2008
Monday Morning Coffee
Coffee & nicoteen - its they only way to start a day. I am currently on my 5th cup this morning
In real terms, that means hyper active & incoherent until long after lunch
February 27, 2008
The nerd in me
It was the nerd in me
It was the nerd in me
Well it’s the nerd in me makes me do these things
(with apologies to John Wesley Harding)
I grew up seeing you in the hands of rich elite men of finance, men so powerful they could choose any model to calculate bond payments or whatever it is exactly people use financial calculators for these days. And yet they all chose you. Your gilded metallic head and your firm tightly constructed box conveyed elegance. You were refined yet sleek enough to look good in your leather case. I wanted to be a man so I could press your buttons and create binary reactions in your core logic.
Pictured above, for anyone that is still reading by this point, is my Hewlett Packard HP 12C – it’s a ‘financial’ calculator that I have had for years. I fact, I would go as far as to say that it is the only calculator I use.
Yes, it can do things all sorts of things, the overwhelming majority of which I cant even begin to comprehend, but notwithstanding this, the reason that I have had one for so long is because no one ever pinches it because of the way you enter data.
On your common or garden calculator, to add 2 & 2 you press 2 followed by a plus sign, followed by 2 & then the equals sign. If you are my broker this will give you the answer of 5 & you need to be buy now as apparently stocks are about to rise sharply.
To do a similar sum on an HP12C, the sequence is 2, enter, followed by 2 & then +. & that is why no one ever pinches them which is more than I can say for every other calculator that I have ever owned.
February 25, 2008
A Food Meme to start the week with
Where & what did you eat last night?
At home; beef in ale stew with new potatoes, carrots & cabbage
Are you a good cook?
I like to think yes - it’s possibly part of the reason that I am so fat
What’s currently in your fridge?
Marmite?
Its OK served on hot crumpets but I prefer Bovril
Do you have a comfort food?
White toast, lots of it -thickly cut from a fresh farmhouse loaf, with lots of real butter & even more of chunky peanut butter. Another reason I am a bit porky
What’s your favorite restaurant?
I don’t really have one - anywhere with decent service. Lots of places produce good food but very very few of them seem to be able to manage to serve it well
What was your memorable meal?
Christmas Day evening in Hua Hin (Thailand) – the seafood buffet to end all them all
Do you have a favorite food scene from the movies?
The Goodfellas 'prison dinner'
What’s your favorite cinema snack?
Raw fish?
Yep, I regularly have sushi for lunch
What would your last meal be?
No question … curry
Which TV cook irritates you the most?
This man
I tend to refer to him as ‘thrush’ - the old jokes are the best
February 18, 2008
Maintenance
Thanks to the sterling efforts of The Englishman who when not pondering the Ages of Man
there was a time when 3 in the morning was a reasonable time to go to bed, then there was a time when it was a reasonable time to be getting up to catch some business flight, now it is just a time where I might look out the window as I shuffle across the landing as old men do in the middle of the night
has been repairing the comments section of this blog. It should all be up & running this morning, rather like the great man himself
February 7, 2008
Blogroll Updates
This morning dear friends we welcome to the bloggieblogroll ... Double Trapper for stuff like this & in a more capitalist vein, Long or Short Capital. How could it have taken me so long to discover a blog that describes itself thus...
At Long or Short LLC, we leverage our superior intellect and extensive investing experience to recommend explicit Long or Short positions and related abstract trades, which may or may not be possible with real world financial derivatives. We use science to improve the lives of the rich.
Enjoy
January 17, 2008
Its grim up north
Today, Mr FM has been to Manchester & sadly, I dont mean this Manchester. He is pleased to report that he escaped (just) with both his life & wallet however has had to seek solace in G&Ts of ever increasing ferocity, in an attempt to expunge the whole ghastly experience.
Normal service resumes at midnight.
January 11, 2008
As one or two of you will have noticed
this mornings early posting has all been firearms related. May be I am more naffed off about the latest nonsensical piece of proposed anti-gun legislation than I thought I was.
The Tech Dept ( i.e. The Englishman ) has been making a few tweaks - so I will be buying him pints of finest foam this evening by way of thanks. Anyway, that is why when you now put your cursor over a link, it turns into a set of crosshairs. Neat, eh?
January 2, 2008
George MacDonald Fraser dies
George MacDonald Fraser died earlier today. What, no more Flashy?? It is truly a dark day.
Now just in case there is anybody out there who hasn't read of Flashman before, Harry Flashman was the bully from Tom Brown's Schooldays. George MacDonald Fraser thought that the character was so good that he should develop him further ...
"What kind of man grew out of the foul-mouthed, swaggering, cowardly toady who roasted fags for fun and howled when he was beaten himself?"
If you dont have all twelve books already, go buy them now. Never has such poltroonary been seen in print.
I recently re-read Flashman on the March which saw our (anti) hero in darkest Abyssinia about to go cavorting behind enemy lines dressed as Ali Baba. This chapter of Flashman's life had started in Mexico & in his own words
For me, the business began in the summer of '67, on the day when that almighty idiot, the Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, strode out before a Juarista firing squad, unbuttoned his shirt cool as a trout, and cried
"Viva Mejico! Viva la independence! Shoot, soldiers, through the heart!"
Which they did, with surprising accuracy for a platoon of dagoes, thereby depriving Mexico of its crowned head and Flashy of his employer and protector. I was an anxious spectator skulking in cover on a rooftop nearby, and when I saw Max take a header into the dust I knew that the time had come for me to slip my cable
Flashman, after being expelled from Rugby School in drunken disgrace, returns home to his father, who is less than overjoyed to see him. Harry, however, has a plan. he desires his father to buy him some colours, so that he may embark on a career in the Army. Has he learned his lesson? Is he about to turn over a new leaf? Not likely! This tale is related in Flashy's own words, from papers which were discovered in a midlands sale-room and which were later verified as authentic.
Flashman has decided to join the 11th Light Dragoons because they
"were at Canterbury, after long service in India, and were unlikely for that reason to be posted abroad". His father is happy to oblige, especially since it will get young Harry out from under his feet as he suspects what his son has been up to under his own roof, with his own mistress no less.
Soon Flashman is serving in the Dragoons & making himself generally popular, especially with the Earl of Cardigan, his CO - not universally popular though. He has managed to estrange himself from fellow officer Bernier, a noted swordsman and a dead shot with a pistol. this is surely of little importance to Flashman though, with his position as one of Lord Cardigans favourites secured. So he continues to cut a dash, in the new uniforms of their re-named company, the 11th Hussars, now under the patronage of the young Queen Victoria's husband.
Life is easy for Flashman. He has plenty of money, drink & women. So it could of course only be malice, which prompted him to turn his attentions to Bernier's mistress. The result of this 'jolly jape' is the duel which first establishes Flashman's (undeserved) reputation as a hero. Prince Albert however is less than impressed by such actions (or at least, the reason behind such actions) and Flashman must leave the Hussars, temporarily at least.
So our 'gallant hero' is sent to Scotland to instruct local militia & deal with Chartist riots. Here is where he lays eyes on his wife-to-be. And not only his eyes, I might add. Which is pretty much how she came to be his wife, at her family's insistence. Not that they particularly wished for Flashman as a son-in-law. They'd much rather he'd fought the duel they offered. But without the means to cheat on this occasion, unlike the last, our Flashman is not going to risk actually being shot.
Ah, but all is not running smoothly for poor Flashy. Lord Cardigan does not approve of his new bride, her father being only a mill owner. This is considered much too lowly for the wife of a Hussar and since wife she is, it is the Hussars who must bid farewell to Flashman.
Leaving Elspeth (his bride) behind under his father's care, he embarks for India, where he has been posted. And thence to Afghanistan, armed with his talent for languages and horsemanship, to play his ignominious part in one of history's greatest military blunders.
Let me however, point out at this stage that Flashman is a fictitious character. Despite GMF's claims to have merely edited The Flashman Papers, the same which turned up in a Midlands sale room, he is entirely responsible for the work within these pages. Much of his humour is ironic, but the crowning irony must have been when at least one American professor believed the papers and Harry Flashman really existed. As a Borderer, with a Borderer's sense of humour, that must have tickled him immensely. One wonders also, if the Cohen brothers had not been reading Flashy when they proclaimed Fargo, as being based on a true story, which of course it wasn't.
Flashman may be fictitious, but the historical events he recounts are not. GMF has researched these events extensively and all are represented as accurately as possible. Where Flashman's account differs from the official version, we are given notes by GMF explaining what those differences are. These are few and unobtrusive.
There are some laugh out loud moments within the book, but as I say, much of the humour is wry and ironic. Non more ironic than Flashman himself. The hero, who is no hero at all. An anti-hero. Between these pages he is cruel, cowardly, treacherous, despicable and an incessant philanderer to boot . All in all, he is rotten to the core, yet relates his appalling actions with aplomb, and a disarming honesty.
Do we empathise with him? Not exactly! It's more that we warm to his style, as he relates his tale of a charmed life and we follow his adventures with morbid fascination, wondering all the while if he can stoop any lower. He usually doesn't disappoint.
Even in this first instalment, he casts up with some famous and infamous characters from the Victorian age, meeting as he does, the aforementioned Lord Cardigan, Dr Arnold of Rugby School (at the risk of showing my ignorance, this one meant nothing to me), Elphy Bey (General Elphinstone) and even Wellington himself, not to mention his being presented to Queen Victoria. Flashman carries it off with all the finesse of the true cad, modestly accepting accolades to which he has no right.
December 24, 2007
Happy Christmas
The drawbridge is raised & the portcullis lowered. Logs are roaring happily in the woodburner & the overwhelming majority of this evenings entertainment will be provided by a bottle of Laphroaig Quarter Cask that I have just opened.
Please spare a thought for those that are in harms way during this season of peace.
Now, let the feasting commence. A Happy Christmas to you all.
December 17, 2007
Has it really been 10 years?
The word "weblog" celebrates the 10th anniversary of it being coined on 17 December 1997. The word was created by Jorn Barger to describe what he was doing with his pioneering Robot Wisdom web page.
December 10, 2007
& another one bites the dust??
Theo Spark is throwing in the towel (at least for now)
I will be taking a break until the New Year and for obvious reasons relocating. I would like to thank all my readers for their support over the last three and a half years. Without you there would be no Theo Spark. Special thanks also to my team of contributors who have made finding things to post so easy.
November 27, 2007
It isn't about the cars anymore
Down here at FM Towers, we are great fans of BBC2 increasingly politically incorrect Top Gear Programme – indeed Clarkson has practically achieved deity status in the Nipper’s eyes.
With every episode, the programme becomes less & less about cars & motoring and more & more about three rather grumpy blokes chatting about things that amuse them … like the piece on Kate Humble’s badger that reduced our three presenters of fits of schoolboy giggles. After all, Top Gear is probably the only programme where you could find Steve Coogan explaining how exactly he ended up in a Jacuzzi, in a Schwarzenegger-Chan sandwich…
November 22, 2007
November 19, 2007
The mighty fallen
Last night I cleaned up the Blogroll – names sadly to be deleted including…
Bretters, Caught in the Crossfire, Henerd, Shots across the Bows, Something Fishy &
Vote Franco
Gone but not forgotten
October 31, 2007
Trick or treat
Happy halloween to those that do & to those that don't, when there is a knocking at the door this evening ... set the dogs of 'em! If you haven't got your pumpkin yet, try this - it amused me for a good couple of hours.
The one upside to all of the pagen nonsense is that by Friday, the supermarkets will be trying to get rid of that unsold stock - I feel a pumpkin shoot coming on this weekend
October 29, 2007
Loss of Service & Birthdays
Sorry to the 3 or 4 of you that tried to drop by here either & couldn't. After a brief exchange of emails with my webhost's tech support dept, it transpired that my domain had expired. Swift use of my already completely overloaded credit card & hey presto, all was suddenly better. Funny how money is usually the answer, but we knew that already didn't we dear readers.
So, if it was the annual expiry of my domain name, that must mean that today is my blog birthday ... & a swift review of my Awstats & yes I do know that they are not the most accurate measure but they seem to indicate that over the last 4 years, a little in excess 2.8 million of you have stumbled into this dark dank little corner of the internet at least once.
Golly! Finally proof that googlebombing really does work.
October 1, 2007
The pain of new laptops
So you replace your old coffee damaged laptop with an updated version of the same model ... but with the external disk drive connect ?? Will it ****! So I cant even upload my OEM version of Office. Looks like our IT Dept will be busy today getting my kit sorted out (again) !
Not having a working copy of Word makes posting a little difficult, so sorry about the re-posts
September 27, 2007
There wasn't must posting today, because of this ...
What the picture doesn't show is the cup of coffee that went on to the keyboard & from there, down into the gubbins ... chug chug chug ... fizzle ... whirrrrrrr ... & then nothing! I know that they say that IBM laptops are indestructable, well they are wrong
September 26, 2007
A Wednesday morning thought
'Reality' is the one word in the English language that should always be used in quotes - Anon
September 25, 2007
Luck
I suppose they'll say his last thoughts were of simple things,
Of April back at home, and the late sun on his wings;
Or that he murmured someone else's name
As earth reclaimed him sheathed in flame.
Oh God! Let's have no more of empty words,
Lip service ornamenting death!
The worms don't spare the hero;
Nor can children feed upon resounding praises of his deed.
'He died who loved to live,' they'll say,
'Unselfishly so we might have today!'
Like hell! He fought because he had to fight;
He died that's all. It was his unlucky night.
September 22, 2007
The Great Firewall of China
I have just checked The Great Firewall of China
looks like I'm banned. I can't for a moment think why, its not like I got up to very much when I was working in Shanghai
September 17, 2007
Colin McRae (1968 – 2007)
I don’t suppose that there can be anyone who isn’t saddened to hear the news of Colin McRae's untimely death. If motorsport can be characterised by a preponderance of towering egos, McRae always came across as decent, refreshingly normal & down to earth … aside from having balls the size of Jupiter. However he never let the fame or the sucess go to his head - an example that quite a few 'drivers' would do well to learn from.
Tiz a great shame.
September 6, 2007
Mr FM has been AWOL for the last 48 hrs ...
... & up to his whatsits in crocodiles (i.e. bottom feeding scum sucking spaw lawyers)
If he doesnt run out of ammo he might well be back a little later on
July 27, 2007
Just a collection of GIFs ...
... that have been kicking around in my pictures folder for far too long
& theres more
July 25, 2007
July 24, 2007
July 14, 2007
You only live twice. Once when you are born and once when you look death in the face
More from Clarkson
I am not a jealous man. I do not sit around all day coveting my neighbour’s helicopter or your new hair system. Some people are fortunate and others are not, and anyone who fights that truism is on a path that leads to madness and communism.
That said, however, I fell to my knees and wept with envy and rage last week when I opened my morning newspaper to discover that Ian Fleming’s estate had asked Sebastian bloody Faulks to write the next James Bond book.
“Nooooo,” I wailed, in the manner of someone whose daughter has just fallen from a cliff, as I learnt that the manuscript has already been blessed by Bond movie producer Barbara Broccoli.
Getting Faulks to write a Bond book is like asking Polly Toynbee to write the next Die Hard film. It’s like casting Vinnie Jones as Mr Darcy. In the whole history of getting things wrong, this is right at the top of the list.
I know that we have done this before, but given the impossibly vast sums of money that they get paid, why can’t the film industry leave anything alone?
This chap had been there & done it ...
where as chap is an author ...
Yes, Faulks might well be a fine author, however aside from the fact that his surname shares the first letter with Fleming, that is where the similarity ends. Period. What ever next? A re-make of The Dam Busters?
P.S. I walked into the playroom earlier on this evening to find the nippers watching The Pink Panther – no not the original one, the Steve Martin remake. Now at times Steve Martin can be very very funny but sure as sh1ts brown, he’s no Peter Sellers
July 10, 2007
This is your life
Ever wanted to write it all down but you just dont have the time?? Well, why not out source your own biography to a professional. I will give you a little hint here, if there a chapters on shooting & hanging liberals, you might just get a deal on rates.
Road Movies
This morning, in the lamentable absence of our common or garden Islamic terrorists dangling from a length of well oiled hemp rope, we take for our topic ‘road movies’
Now it is my humble assertion that you can forget Badlands, Easy Rider, Thelma & Louise & even Mad Max II, when it comes to this particular genre there is one film that stands head & shoulders above all others & that is Ice Cold in Alex … & errrrrr come to think of it, as road movies go, it doesn’t have many roads in it either. Minutiae my darlings, absolute minutiae.
Stout bulldogs, battling against the desert in a blood riddled ambulance (Katy), the Hun snapping at their heels with all the while, treachery afoot. Oh & I almost forgot, actors that could act. What more could you ever ask for?
Now the BFI might characterise it thus …
Although recently described on Channel 4 as the "the ultimate British war film", Ice Cold in Alex (d. J. Lee Thompson, 1958) was, in fact, attempting to break the mould of the genre in several ways. First, a German is sympathetically characterised: Van der Poel (Anthony Quayle) may be arrogant, but he is also very brave. Second, a female character, nurse Diana (Sylvia Syms), is given a prominent role, in sharp contrast to most other 1950s war films. Finally, John Mills' performance as Captain Anson is worlds apart (and deliberately so) from his usual star persona, defined by film historian Brian McFarlane as epitomising "reliability under stress".
In Ice Cold in Alex, Anson is anything but graceful under pressure. He is on the verge of cracking up due to exhaustion and incipient alcoholism and frequently lashes out at his fellow travellers. At times, he seems the least competent member of the group, and physically puny compared to big, robust men like Van der Poel and Tom Pugh (Harry Andrews). Add the fact that the film depicts one of the Allies' most difficult periods of the Second World War, as the Germans made apparently unstoppable advances in the North African desert, and it seems that the film is deliberately testing notions of English masculinity and heroism. Ice Cold in Alex shows the archetypal English hero at his lowest ebb, but it also shows his gradual recovery: not only does he succeed in his mission to get all four of them safely to 'Alex' (Alexandria), but he also wins the admiration of his enemy.
… however, I was watching an interview with Sir John Mills on Saturday, talking about ‘that scene’ in the bar.
Apparently it took 8 takes & hence Mills had had to down 8 beers in 1 & ended up being varied back to his bed to sleep it off. As Mills went on to comment, it was the best mornings work he even had! Sterling stuff.
July 4, 2007
4 July
To all you readers on the left hand side of the pond, a Happy Independence Day. In the words of Thomas Jefferson
I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.
June 29, 2007
May 25, 2007
Normal service has been resumed
Many apologies for the site crash earlier on … service provider issues don’tya know. It seems that this shabby little corner of the internet now occupies about 663.90 MB & so far this month, has burnt 53,893 MB of bandwidth (what ever that might be when its at home). Upgrade time!
Anyway, thanks to a quick call from Gremlin to advise of the problem, everything seems to be back & running as well as its ever likely to
May 21, 2007
She's back
On Friday, 5389 people visited this site. Why? Because back in 2004 your humble corrspondent started reading a blog written by a lady called Rachel Lucas. From there I followed a link to Kim du Toit & through a mist of booze, I thought that I would give it a go as well.
Anyway, back to the lady in question - like her? Hell, I've even got the mug ...
Anyway, now she is back. Go read & enjoy
(Asshat anyone?)
April 23, 2007
Spam-a-lot
Having just deleted a little over 1650 unpublished ‘spam’ comments leaving us free to enjoy little gems like this …
Most of you people have less then half a brain, must make you fell manly inside macking humurous comments about children trying to kill themselves?? (at the same time showing off your knowledge of war tactics, combat weaponry etc.) some of you should pay less attention to what is being said, rather than how it's beeing said. I hope a great deal of you wake up one day and find yourselves on the receiving end of their bullets, maybe if these were pictures of your 5 year old son you would ask him to reevaluate his serious attitude western nations have towards weapons and war, soldier man!!
... left over the last few days on the Liberian Infantry Tactics post of January 2006.
So with a little trickery & the help of The Englishman, all comments will now need a soooooupa secret password, which is cunningly hidden in the comments box. I am sure that you dear readers will work it out soon enough & join me in the giggle factor that every GFW tofu munching liberal has to type it to leave a snotogram
Happy St Georges Day
to all stout bulldogs. However as Mrs. Susannah Centlivre asks in Cruel Gift
Where are the rough brave Britons to be found
With Hearts of Oak,
So much of old renowned?
April 11, 2007
More commenty fun
Following on for Uni Student yesterday, Chey graced us with the following comment …
YOU FREAKIN PEOPLE NEED TO DIE. HAILEY I AM SOO WITH YOU I WILL HELP YOU STRANGLE PEOPLE LIKE THAT THEY SHOULD DIE AND I WILL BE THE ONE TO KILL THEM.
If you recall dear readers, Hailey was objecting to my historic posting of anti-hunting bill protests & the dead ‘orse in particular.
Not only do I simply love people that comment in ‘caps’ – the electronic equivalent of thick green crayon – but I always enjoy the thoughts of those who threaten humans in the name of errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr animal welfare! Simply no sense of humour, or irony come to that
March 9, 2007
The end of the week
We haven't done one of these for a while ...
... but a wave of the fat capitalist cigar to LtJ for the pic. As for this weeks lack of posting, sorry about that dear readers - sometime wealth creation just has to come first. I am not going to say too much about what the weekend involves at the moment other than gun & BBQ smoke. Pics, links & my usual rambling commentary on Monday
February 13, 2007
Lack of Posting
I would just like to take this opportunity to make a swift apology for the lack of posting over the last week – sometimes work / keeping “the Jews & moneylenders” as bay needs my undivided attention - & little indulgences like the blog have to take a back seat. Anyway – crisis seems to have been averted (for the time being), so normal service should just be resuming … just about!
January 4, 2007
The reason for the slow start to 2007
A very belated Happy New Year to you all. Family Free Market is back from its sojourn in the glens – tales of snow, whisky & deer will follow later, but just a little taster for now ...
December 25, 2006
Merry Christmas
I am currently filled with the Festive Spirit (well in this case, Compass Box Whisky's Peat Monster). All that is left for me to do is on behalf of Family Free Market, to wish you all a very very Happy Christmas
December 22, 2006
The Shortest Day
Today is the shortest day & it is also St. Lucy's Day. So for all of you lovers of the metaphysical poets, I thought a little bit of Dr. John Donne might be appropriate:
A Nocturnal Upon St Lucy's Day, Being the Shortest Day
Tis the year's midnight, and it is the day's,
Lucy's, who scarce seven hours herself unmasks ;
The sun is spent, and now his flasks
Send forth light squibs, no constant rays ;
The world's whole sap is sunk ;
The general balm th' hydroptic earth hath drunk,
Whither, as to the bed's-feet, life is shrunk,
Dead and interr'd ; yet all these seem to laugh,
Compared with me, who am their epitaph.
There are a load more verses, but I thought I'd spare you.
December 7, 2006
IT Hell
If you can read this, as least some of the IT problems that I have been having have been solved not by me you understand, but by those that know about such things. However, I fear that all will not be well for some time to come. Your perseverance is appreciated.
December 1, 2006
Songbirds (or the lack of them)
There was a time meadow, grove & stream,
The earth & every common sight,
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light,
The glory & the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it has been of yore,
Turn wheresoe-er I may,
By night or day,
The things which I have seen I can see no more
From the Ode on Intimations of Immortality
William Wordsworth
There are approximately 32,000 breeding pairs of sparrow hawks in Great Britain plus approximately 11,000 single non-breeding birds scattered throughout the land. A breeding pair requires 55 kg of meat per year to live on. This breaks down to approximately 3,200 sparrow sized birds or 600 blackbird/thrush sized birds … or if you like … multiply these numbers by only the number of breeding pairs, sparrow hawks consume 44,600,000 sparrows or 25,800,000 blackbirds each year. & people wonder why songbirds numbers are plummeting. Its a shame that the RSPB wont face reality.
November 29, 2006
Bl**dy great bangs
The largest piece of flying debris produced in a blast will always hit the most expensive or irreplaceable bit of kit within range. With typical modesty, I call it the Remittance Law of Collateral Damage.
from the Remittance Man & well worth a quick read
& while you are about it Maggies Farm on The Growth of Wisdom has raised a chuckle this afternoon, as well
November 26, 2006
A Sunday evening booze related thought for you
When I was younger I made it a rule never to take strong drink before lunch. It is now my rule never to do so before breakfast
Winston Spencer Churchill
November 23, 2006
Thanksgiving Day
To all of you on the left hand side of the pond, who will be starting to wake up shortly ... a very Happy Thanksgiving Day to you & yours from this little part of Blighty.
We hope that your harvest has been good & we wish you well in the months ahead. May your God go with you
November 15, 2006
& now for something really important...
Michael Vaughan believes England still have a "great chance" of retaining the Ashes in Australia despite the loss of opening batsman Marcus Trescothick.
Really? Looks like Vaughanie is tampering with reality rather than the ball, for a change. When one of your opening batsmen pulls out of the tour before the first ball is even bowled in the First Test because of "stress-related illnesses" ... for that read "has lost his bottle", the chances of retaining The Ashes are starting to look a little slim. The Aussies are definately not noted for a lack of self-confidence, are they?
This afternoons test ...
| You Are a "Don't Tread On Me" Libertarian |
 |
October 29, 2006
October 26, 2006
October 10, 2006
Happy birthday to me
I see that on Saturday this blog had its third birthday & The Englishman has been posting in similar vein (or is that vain). So in the last three years my awstats tell me that 1.1 million visitors have dropped by & I know for a fact that at least 7 of you aren’t spambots. Anyway, frankly who cares … happy third birthday to me
October 9, 2006
Monday evening thoughts
Posting has been slow today … mainly because after last weeks ‘week from hell’ today has seen your humble correspondent, not going to work, not reading his emails & instead spending a little bit of time here, before doing some gamekeepering duties around the farm in preparation for the commencement of pheasant hostilities in a little over two weeks.
As for various bits of comment over the last few days about the lack of American content (& especially American War of Independence content) in the On This Day section… I do try. The either section is normally cobbled together from various sources, normally late at night. If there is a similar American military source that I can use – please let me know.
There colonials, happy now?? & now please stop pouring tea into the harbour, you are upsetting the environmental lobby
Given that wild boar are are now to be found in ever increasing numbers in the UK, Tricky wonders if your humble corrspondent is properly tooled up?? Tsk tsk - I can assure you that I am