Recent content by bobnewboy

Our rasps have just about finished, but we’ve eaten loads fresh and put a few kilos in the freezer. We’ve had a variety of wild and cultivated strawberries but we have to beat the wildlife (mice & voles) to them when they ripen. Not large crops… Our blackcurrants are ready but I’ve only...

Good job! :) We’ve found the prickly ones often have a slightly tough skin (better for pickling), and so we choose the Mini Munch smooth variety. We have 3 plants: one Mini Munch which is now producing its first few cukes; one massive plant with a minimum of 6 full size cukes on at any one...

31.5 C reported on my bike’s display. Riding into Taunton, post (successful!) MOT…..A bit too much with bike gear on if you’re in traffic

All broadcast TV and most radio is going online in any case, despite there having been a government ‘consultation’, where fewer than 3 in 10 of the public are aware of it. According to almost any paper online, Freeview and Freesat are currently scheduled to be taken off the air in 2034. The...

I get it on my Apple devices accessing BCUK. I also get it on a headphone/hifi forum I frequent. In that case the page states it’s a CloudFlare action.

In our raised beds I used gravel boards, as they are available in bulk numbers, are well treated for contact with soil, and are of dimensions that are exactly what I (and you) were looking for. I did give them an extra coat of Cuprinol Ducksback wood finish before assembly. They’ve been down in...

Now that the weather is more amenable, I took a long road motorcycle ride up, over and around Exmoor out to near Barnstable. It was very enjoyable and my destination was the Quince Honey Farm over at South Molton. I bought a small jar of the Exmoor Dandelion set honey, and a mid-sized jar of...

First proper gathering of raspberries today - about 2Kg. We’ll eat some of these fresh with a little cream in the next two days, then freeze the rest. Cukes are coming on in the greenhouse but will probably need a couple more weeks to fill out and attain their usual length. We have a lot of...

I use Nursem cream for any sore or irritated skin: Nursem website It seems to fix anything and everything on my skin.

In the garden, over the past few days: Fledgling Greater Spotted Woodpecker on the doorstep Another Mallard hen hatches 9 ducklings A couple of days later she’s down to 7

I’m lucky. For two of the three suppliers, I know what their birds eat, how they live, and how much forage they get, so I can be very confident as to what is likely to be in the eggs. They are from small flocks (<20 birds) as well, so I’m happy that they’re happy :emoji_thumbsup: [Edit: hmmm...

Exactly my point. Never anywhere near the disk itself in any circumstances.

Depends which side of the pads the AI recommends you grease, doesn’t it? A proportion of those needy enough to use AI for vehicle maintenance are likely to blindly follow whatever it suggests. Oil on belts is never a good idea. It might reduce an annoying squeak, but the belt won’t last long...

I only buy eggs from one or other of three smallholders / farmers in our village. But that gives me access to hens eggs from bantams up to large brown eggs, duck and turkey eggs. All of them freshly laid and cheap compared to the supermarkets. Food miles of between 400 and 1000 yards :) . Long...

They are riven or bandsawn (the horror :) ) to about 5mm thickness, and then thinned with a sharp drawknife to about 2mm overall, tapering even thinner at each end. The boards are supposed to be as evenly flat as possible to ensure uniformly smooth wet bending, but ‘near enough’ is thankfully...