Recent content by Toddy

Add in seasonality and tourism, and it's often a nightmare for local young folks who do want to live where they grew up and rear families there......and for older people who need access to social resources but half empty villages don't have enough resident population to have those.

I wish it were nearer. @bobnewboy Thank you for sharing :) places like that, that come with happy personal reviews, are gold :)

My next door neighbour lives alone in a three bedroom house. No hobbies, two of the bedrooms are literally mothballed. She did have a friend staying for a couple of years, but decided she wanted her own space, so friend had to go. She lives in a studio flat now miles away from where she grew up...

I know you love working there, but there are a lot of Heritage sites in England, a fair number near where you live. I realise that that's perhaps not quite your experience of 'near', but here if I want to work a commute of over a hundred miles each way was fairly common. M

Ah, cultural and political (sorry, that's verboten) differences. We don't really 'do' medical debt here, do we ? Thankfully :) I live in a fairly affluent area (we're local, not posh) and while I know a lot who choose to go privately for health care, that's always backed up by the NHS if...

Biggest worry for most folks is mortgage payments. That's actually another want/need situation. Everyone seems to want their own place these days, but there are actually an awful lot of empty bedrooms in houses. I'm not saying homelessness isn't an issue, but well, that's a social construct...

We're spoilt for choice these days. Any history of our food shows how very seasonal, and how very unvaried it was for most people. There's an awful lot of waste in the system now, an awful lot of 'I want' and not 'I need' too. I know, I'm an optimist, I think we'll manage.

Am I the only one who's suddenly understanding why a too light hatchet could 'bounce' off the kindling at times ?

I've been reading. I was told, and believed, that it wasn't for use on agricultural land, but was fine for forestry. Lo and behold..... https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/-/media/ScottishWater/Document-Hub/Careers-and-Education/All-About-Water/110918WasteWaterTreatmentStages.pdf...

Some Indian villages built digester tanks....everything goes in there, from food waste to 'nightsoil', cow dung, etc., It ferments and gives off gas; gas that they use to cook instead of constantly foraging and burning wood....and the left over resultant fermented and used up mulch is brilliant...

:happybirthday: Happy Birthday Cliff :) and many more of them too :cool: M

I was a tiny child. I knew every nest in our hedges because I could see them. I mind feeding the blackbird worms as she sat on her nest in the hedge. The robin sat on my shoe expecting me to feed him crumbs. I still feed the birds :) these days I have woodpeckers and nuthatches competing with...

They come with a five year guarantee for all that they're cheap. I admit mine do not have the easiest life, but they've been rock solid reliable, and I'm not fretting about the pair that cost £450 getting damaged. We didn't have Lidl's when my sons were little, I bought them Praktico...

I bought a pair of pocket carryable binos from Lidl's a few years ago. Cost me something like ten pounds, iirc. Small, lightweight, easy to use, no fuss to carry, inexpensive, and suprisingly good. They just focus in and out, no adjustment between the sides to accomodate vision issues, and no...

That looks blissfully peaceful :D Thank you for sharing :cool: