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All the very best to your grand daughter Carni. It's an adventure to go to uni, new surrounding and new friends all in one day. My granddaughter starts her new school and is to say the least a bit nervous. None of her friends are going to that school so she will feel alone she's so shy.

Like your bike rides , when you go off the beaten track you find all sorts of interesting things. We live in the country and use the car to get anywhere and you don't take much notice of your surroundings, but last night coming home and passing a farm house further down the road ( we don't pass this way often) I noticed a beautiful goose with about 4-5 young ones. I must walk down later when it's cooler to have a good look at them and appreciate what we have around us. Who needs to go to Spain, Croatia,Malta and other places and bring back what we don't want. In UK you have so much beauty it's silly to go elsewhere.

Breakfast at bar with my eldest grandson, came back and we made a sticky marmalade cake together, so snack at teatime with all 3 grandchildren. Might make some crisps again, I made some the other day too and they went down well. Mum always used to make them and I'd forgotten about them. I don't buy them because for what they are I think they're very expensive.

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Just got back from QMC again........the last eight days have been a bit Traumatic to say the least,,...blood tests,,X-rays,,and today a visit to a Consultant........cut a long story short......problem

Result........CT Scans all clear......just got letter..been sweating for a fortnight......

Two years ago today..........my life changed forever,,,about this time i was on my way down to the operating theatre for what turned out to be a ten hour operation...........its been life changing in

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Thank you Nonna. We can have a lovely day out, a little bit of cycling, strolling, just sitting having a sandwich in the quietness of the countryside. All for nothing, if I pack a picknick.

 

We have a special place by the canal just of the beaten track where we sit, and the cows across the water always walk from the far side of the field to see us. If only they knew what their destination is likely to be, I'm sure they wouldn't be so keen to be near us humans!

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Carni there are many beautiful walks around here. We are in the Langhe region ( hilly part. The Monferrato is the flat part) so there is always an unexpected view. But during the summer especially during the day it's far too hot to walk. I will start walking again when it cools down a bit . When the sun haze disappears we can see the whole range of the alps especially Monviso which is directly opposite.I love the summer but hate the excessive heat and the mozzies. Last night we went for a meal in a town about 12 km away finished we came  and drove past our road to go home and drove another 25 km to another town and sat outdoors with an icecream. We'd  only sat for less than a minute when I felt the mosquitoes biting so finished the ice creams in the car. I have to remember to bring something with me when we are out in the evening. When we got home I had 8 bites on my ankles and feet.

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It sounds like a beautiful place to live Nonna, I can just picture the mountains. If it is hot there, I would have a problem as my AF would hit new heights.

 

You have Ice cream for dessert, you can count me in anytime. As for the Mozzies, I get away with it now. I think they don't like the Warfarin, they go for Chris instead these days. I think our climate is better for me these days.

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Had my grandson and his friend to visit me, they both had big smiles on there faces. This morning they had gone to school to get the GSC results, and yes they have both done well. I am so pleased for them both, Jenson grandson had an apprenticeship lined up in enineering but due to virus this went by the board same for Dillon (no not the rabbit from magic roundabout) Jenson's friend. So they are both going to study at college for a year, then hopefully things might have sorted them selves out.  

PS Is the Magic Roundabout still on TV?

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10 hours ago, carni said:

Today we saw a not so pleasant sight, a Pike, dead on the side  of the canal, hubbs reckons it was about 2ft6in, a fisherman says that some people hit them on the head to kill them, something to do with them having teeth? It was an ugly looking monster, but didn't deserve to die just because it had teeth?

 

For reasons I've never quite understood they hit and kill them with something called a priest...

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Thank you Brew,  I decided to Google a priest after reading your post. Quite interesting, it could have been given that title to denote giving the last rights to what ever is being killed. 

 

The Pike is quite a ferocious fish it seems. No wonder we haven't seen so many Moorhens,ducklings and such like this year.

 

What with all the Herons we see daily, our stretch of canal at least is quite a dangerous place to live if you are one of the wildlife that dwell in the waters and banks.  That's without mentioning some of the shady looking  people we occasionally encounter lurking in the hedges and remote areas, for no obvious reason. I know..............they could be looking for Pike?:Shock:

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How's Beekay? I see you are on line but not posting I'm sure we are all wondering if you are feeling better. Keep us updated.

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I don't know much about fish.. but I recall reading somewhere that Pike was eaten in former times.. though described as having a somewhat 'earthy' flavour.  Pike has its place in the natural order of things and is I assume 'top predator' among British freshwater fish.  Why kill it?  Maybe some 'Sportsmen' don't like it eating the other fish they want to catch?  If so.. then they are as misguided as those who band together in their dozens with shotguns to kill grouse, or pheasant in large numbers,.. but resent the presence of the odd Raptor which may take many fewer birds.

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Quite agree DJ. The person on the tow path, who enlightened us about the killing of the Pike was himself a fisherman. He told us about the act of hitting the Pike on the head to kill them, he himself thought it was wrong and didn't condone the act, but apparently it is often practised by some fisherman for the reason you have written in your post. Not very sporting,when you have to kill to make your catch more likely. :(

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Windy here.  Well windy in a lot of places but we have the added fun of being high up and exposed to the full force of winds off the sea.  My green beans which were only just recovering from the last storm.. are taking a battering again.  I'm going to cover them over with fleece one last time as the wind is forcast to get much worse for a couple of hours this afternoon.  Yesterday I had to add more support to my outdoor tomatoes as the wind blew over 2 out of three.  

On the plus side, I'm looking out at my garden and the main feature for the moment is a group of sunflowers waving at me from the back border.

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/oaiKMLZ1opdJCuZu7

 

In other news.. today I take the plunge, turn off the water, (mixed metaphors ?  :blink:) and cut into the house water supply.. the 'rising main' in the garage.  I have a new outside tap to connect and there's also a very slow leak which needs fixing.  I'm always nervous about plumbing, though none of my projects has leaked yet..  wish me luck!!

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2 hours ago, nonnaB said:

How's Beekay? I see you are on line but not posting I'm sure we are all wondering if you are feeling better. Keep us updated.

Many thanks for your enquiry Nonna. Yes, I'm still here albeit very tired, progressing though. Only recently started perusing NS properly, but as most of it is none of my business, I don't interfere. The reason it shows I'm always online is because I never sign off. (Did it on one tablet but was still online on another device).

There are some on here with a lot more ailments than me. My deepest respects to them. I remember a saying that was once told me....."I  complained of having no shoes....until I saw a man with no feet"!

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Good to hear from you BK.

The sign on thing is funny.  If I leave my tablet unattended for a few minutes while on NS it signs me out.  It has even signed me out while I was writing a longish post.

Part of the unexplained I guess.

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Well I asked you to wish me luck with the plumbing....  Did you listen? Clearly not..:angry:

 

I successfully soldered up the new piping for the outside tap and.... feeling quite proud of my efforts.. I went indoors to grab a coffee.

 

When I returned to the garage.. the stopcock was leaking very slightly around the packing gland.  No matter I thought..tighten it up a bit... but remember to get around to fitting a new one..

 

However.. as I was carefully tightening the stopcock packing... the compression joint below the stopcock burst apart. rapidly flooding the garage...  Mercifully I'd cleaned out the stop valve in the street only last week, so was able to cut off the supply in a couple of minutes.

I looked at the problem...  This was exactly what happened 40 years ago in the middle of the night..  The plastic main from the street had been poorly fitted when the house was built and just 'popped off'.  Back then the issue was a pipe end cut on an extreme angle.  I cut it straight, put it back together and all was well for the next 40 years... until tonight....

 

After a bit of 'yed scrattin' and a video consultation with a long time Plumber friend.. we decided that the real problem was the plastic pipe from under the floor was too short... and the solution was to slightly extend the pipe to which it connects.

 

I decided to shoot down to B&Q and get a new stop cock and a couple of fittings... also a new drain cock.  The idea was to cut away the old stop cock and drain cock and fit a new one, piecing the pipe in with a straight coupler.  Straightforward enough. B&Q were 'chucking out' when I arrived, but I got the stopcock and couplings.. and forgot the drain cock...

 

I decided the drain cock wasn't really essential as there are now 2 taps 'T'd off the rising main which can be used to drain down if needed.

 

So.. connected the new stopcock to the coupling which goes onto the plastic incoming... pushed the olive back onto the plastic pipe and tightened up.  One feeble pull from me and it came off again. Hmmmmm.  I realised that the olive needed to go further down the pipe. but couldn't get it to move over the pipe.. because it's been compressed.  It was also unlike any olive I've seen before because it was only tapered on one side... By now it was after 9:00 pm .. I was tired, very hungry and more than a bit 'p****d off.

 

I decided the only way to get water back on before tomorrow was to make the olive fit.... I started by heating it to red heat to 'anneal' (soften) it.  Next, I put it over the tapered steel 'chuck' of an Impact Driver and then placed a suitable sized socket, from a socket set. over it and gave it a whack... That worked.. it stretched out the olive so that it would now fit over the pipe.  Actually..it did so rather too well and I had to put the tapered side of the olive inside a conical fitting to reduce it slightly.  Next.. I was able to force it over the pipe with a bit of careful persuasion.. again using a socket spanner to 'drift' it down over the pipe.

 

Tightened it up as hard as I could and pulled very hard on it.  It stayed on.  Result!!

 

Next up was to cut a pipe to 'piece' between the stopcock and the cut end of the rising main.  Easy enough.  I wanted to put a bit of a bend in it to match the angle of the plastic pipe.. but I couldn't find my spring. (for non plumbers.. a spring is inserted into the pipe so it can be bent without kinking.)

Decided to go with straight... that's been good enough for 44 years..

So.. just needed to put a straight coupler in and solder up....  Piece of cake.... I've just made a dozen solder joints... I'm an expert!!! :cool:

 

But not this time....  For no apparent reason.. the classic 'ring of bright solder around the coupling'.. just would not appear.. despite a good few minutes careful application of the blowlamp.   On 'switch on' the couplng leaked.   So.. Heated again.. pulled that joint apart.. cleaned up and tried again with a new coupler. That one didn't seem any better, but on test. it didn''t leak.... Yippee!  I pulled, poked and prodded it.. but couldn't induce a leak...

 

So.. Finally got water back on at 10:30 and got to eat by 11:00 pm.  Having eaten.. showered etc.  Checked again in garage and no leak.

 

I'm going to bed.....

 

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Sadly.. this morning.. the offending coupling was weeping very slightly.. but not as much as me....

Have been to a proper plumbers merchants and purchased a new coupling and olive, a new draincock and a compression  coupling for patching into the main.  So.. with luck it should just be a 'bolt up' job.. no soldering..

 

...famous last words......

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1 hour ago, loppylugs said:

Hope you used a Birmingham screwdriver, Ben   ;)

AH i did Loppy...........Gwenith from Chelsmley wood showed me how....many years since....:wacko:

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