Picture No 151 + 4
At work we have a selection of second-hand books. Gaynor asked me to get her a book to read. I found a copy of 10 Rillington Place in the bookcase. I remember watching the B/W film of the same name. We have both agreed that we will have to watch the film in the near future.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10_Rillington_Place
Picture No 150 +3
It’s Tuesday night I’m out for a pint and a chat with a very dear friend Ricard at The Two Brewers in Chipperfield.
https://www.chefandbrewer.com/pubs/hertfordshire/two-brewers/
Leaving the pub we both admired a very old house built with flint stone, which although is now a private residence, we think in the past it was the local school house.
Picture No 149 + 2
Bank Holiday Monday see’s me stuck in traffic on the M1 motorway. I had arranged be be at the club at 3pm, only to arrive an hour later at 4pm after being virtually stationary on the M1 for over an hour. My scores made-up for all the frustration of the M1 !.
Picture No 148 +1
Probably one of the oldest plants in our garden is a Blue Moon rose. I planted it in memory of my mother.
Picture No 147
Down in Dorset again this weekend. More lawn edging for my Dad, but this time it resulted in blisters for me !.
Interestingly I have now posted as many pictures as I did when I tried to post a “A new photo every day for a year” few years ago.
Picture No 146
Today (Friday) is a very very sad day for me.
Picture No 145
More BMW R1250GS bike problems.
Written on the dealer’s Google page.
Picture No 144
The clematis I planted at the weekend (picture No 141) is now in flower only after a few days.
Picture No 143
Just before I left for work this morning I took a quick photograph of the rhododendrons in the garden that are in full bloom.
Picture No 142
A lot of the time I use an old Olympus XZ-1 compact camera to take my pictures. It’s 10 megapixels, which by today standards isn’t very much. So just as an experiment I thought I would try and take a picture of the Moon. The picture has turned out to be an epic fail.
https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/olympusxz1
Picture No 141
So after spending Friday and Saturday at my Dad’s doing some gardening it’s to the local garden centre to get some more plants for our own garden. I’ve just finished planting my absolute favourite a Clematis. This particular one is called “Acropolis Boulevard”
Picture No 139
Weymouth beach yesterday (Friday) before the thunder storm later in the afternoon.
Picture No 138
Tonight I’m getting ready to drive down to Dorset to visit my Father.
Picture No 137
A few weeks ago I started to suffer from up during the night and not being able to get back to sleep. Someone suggest that I take Magnesium to help me sleep. I think that I ordered the wrong Magnesium. I think that I won’t be taking Magnesium Citrate anymore !.
Suggested uses: Occasional constipation, depression and anxiety
Picture No 136
Every morning I take a Vitamin C tablet, supposedly to build up resistance to colds. I’m not convinced that it works but it’s become a habit.
Picture No 135
In the Christmas sales, I bought a cheap HJC motorbike helmet to fit a GoPro camera mount on the helmet. I because of all the bad weather I hadn’t had a chance to try out the helmet. Tonight was a lovely evening so I went out for a ride to test the helmet. Now all that I have to do is fit the GoPro camera to the helmet and adjust it, then start videoing some of my journeys.
GoPro camera mount glued to the HJC helmet
Picture No 134
One of my favorite office gadgets is a Staple Wizard. A battery powered automatic stapler. It jams up every now and again, I fix it and it still keeps going.
Picture No 133
I don’t know what’s happened over the Winter, but we have lost three shrubs in our garden. I have hoped that they might recover, but no they haven’t. Time to dig them up and replace them.
Picture No 132
Out for a walk this evening and the Bluebell’s were out in flower.
Picture No 131
I enjoy shooting old rifles and as a result I’m a member of the Historical Breechloading Smallarms Association (HBSA). The Association was founded in 1973. Today a badge came in the post celebrating that the Association is 50 years old.
Picture No 130
Today (Wednesday) both my daughters came over for lunch. Dim sum, noodles and spring rolls were the main meal, followed by funny duck things filled with custard. The noodles were very spicy hot, can could only be tamed by adding peanut butter !.
It was really nice to have lunch with both of them and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon together.
A selection of Dim sum and the nuclear hot noodles.
Dessert little duck filled with custard
Picture No 129
A starling enjoying the morning sunshine.
Picture No 128
Why are cats attracted to carboard boxes ?.
Picture No 127
Invited to my eldest daughter for my Sunday evening meal. Steak, chips and salad. What could be better ?.
Picture No 126
I felt really sorry for everyone involved in the coronation of King Charles III today, especially all the spectators standing out in the rain. I managed to grab a couple of photo’s of the Rhododendron in the garden in between the rain.
Picture No 125
It’s Friday night, no Gaynor and I’m having to fend for myself, so it’s Chinese take-away. Unusually my take-away came with two Fortune Cookies. I opened the blue Fortune Cookie and this was the message inside
“Surprising gift very soon” and “Lucky numbers 36, 7, 19, 40, 34, and 27”
Well if if you know me I haven’t been lucky for the last two months, so the red Fortune Cookie went straight into the bin !!.
Picture No 124
This is the picture that I wanted to use for my birthday last week. It’s a picture of a picture of me at London Zoo with my Nan (my Dad’s Mum). I’m holding the monkey to have my picture taken wit it. This story doesn’t end very well because I let go of the monkey and it ran off…………
Picture No 123
Relaxing with a beer and my novelty bottle opener, a .50 calibre round.
Picture No 122
I’m sorting out some stuff in the garage and I found a very old Elton John badge. The badge is from the “Jump up Tour” which I saw at the Hammersmith Odeon in December 1982. Apart from seeing Elton John play, the most memorable thing was when he lost his temper and threw his piano stool into the audience. I have tried to Google it but the only reference that can fine is below.
“Unfortunately there was an incident towards the end of the show where Elton threw his piano stool, during Benny and the Jets, it flew up and hit a lady in the front row! Big argument ensued. Elton stormed off. Some of the audience left believing that was it, but eventually Elton returned and completed the show.”
Picture No 120
Today (Sunday) I’m at the Mother-in-Laws edging her front lawn for her. What a straight edge !.
Picture No 119
Today I spotted in the garden a very tame Field mouse. So tame that I could get close enough to take a picture.
Picture No 118
As you know it was my birthday yesterday. Today (Friday) my youngest daughter popped home to bring me my birthday present. Her present to me was two books. Todays picture is of one of the books, Secret Spy Radio Stations by Ronald Milione.
There is a lot of information in the book about Numbers Stations, Government radio stations that send out secret coded messages.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station
Picture No 117
Yes today (Thursday) is my birthday. I apologise for the poor quality of the picture of when I was very young.
As a youngster
Today 27th April
Picture No 116
Tilly has a fascination with climbing up a tree in our garden hoping to catch a bird.
Picture No 115
The Rhododendron’s have started to flower in our garden.
Picture No 114
A couple of people commented about picture No 113.
Picture No 113 ~ The broken automatic fill valve
The picture No 113 is of a broken automatic fill valve, the same type of thing that is used in your toilet cistern at home. We use our automatic fill valve to fill and maintain the water level of our Hydrotherapy pool.
The new Automatic fill valve fitted and working
The Hydrotherapy pool
Picture No 113
Called into work this morning (Sunday) because of problems with the Hydrotherapy pool. I quickly traced the problem, it was with the automatic top-up valve, the diaphragm inside the valve had perished. Off to Screwfix to buy a replacement, but that’s another story.
Picture No 112
Saturday morning finds myself and Gaynor taking a trip into Watford town centre. I haven’t been shopping to Watford for ages. Walking back to car we noticed on the side of Watford Central Library a mural of our local celebrity Elton John.
Picture No 110
After a succession of moggies, we discovered the Bengal breed of cats. Tilly who you have seen a picture of recently is our third Bengal female cat, I found a picture of our second Bengal female cat Afrika. I will see if I can find a picture of our first Bengal female cat Lulu.
Afrika and her spotty paws
Picture No 108
I’m not 100% convinced that I have cured the battery problem on my motorbike. The weather looked fine today (Tuesday) so it was off to work on the bike. Unusually for me I put the the top on the back, as I normally fit the two panniers if I need to carry stuff.
Picture No 107
Tilly has a new basket to sleep in, thanks to my eldest daughter.
Pictures No 106
Sunday lunch at my eldest daughter’s, after lunch out came the expensive Godiva Truffles, what a lovely way to finish a lovely lunch.
Picture No 103
My eldest daughter bought some blood oranges from Costco for me to try.
Picture No 102
I promise tonight’s picture is last one of my BMW R1250GS battery replacement. The empty battery holder waiting for the new battery to be fitted.
Picture No 101
The battery for the bike has arrived, Gaynor picked it up from Halfords in St Albans this morning. I didn’t get a chance to fit tonight, hopefully tomorrow night after work.
Picture No 100
So after putting the bike’s battery on an over-night charge, it’s out with the tools. Only to find that the battery isn’t holding a charge. Sill it was a good excuse to try out my Christmas present for my youngest daughters boyfriend. Then on the internet to order a new battery.
Picture No 99
Easter Sunday, wheel the bike out of the garage to go out for a ride. Get ready to go and the bike won’t start.
Picture No 98
In the space of two days I have had two stones hit my cars windscreen. The car is only a couple of years old and I have already had the windscreen replaced because of stones chips turning into a crack on the windscreen.
Picture No 97
I was visiting my Father in Dorset at the weekend for a couple of days. On the Friday there were a number of Paragliders flying off the local hill.
Picture No 96
Today’s picture of me operating from on top of Holyhead Mountain in Wales a few years ago.
G4UEM operating in Wales as GW4UEM
G4UEM operating in Wales as GW4UEM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holyhead_Mountain
For those interested I was using an Elecraft KX3 on 40M (7MHz) in a dipole antenna.
It was a Summits on the Air activation (SOTA) NW-069, I made 5 contacts.
Terry Baldwin's Blog 