and the first of 2 sets of signage for the railway networks,
the stamps are copies of posters that were used to promote rail travel at the time,
one more folder completed, only another 7 or so to go,
Diana arrived home just before 7.00 in the evening, so time for a sherry and a read,
'Cheers!',
for our starter tonight Diana made a smoked mackerel delight, using mayonnaise, peppers and a few other spices, with toast and gherkins, delicious!
then it was eyes down for bangers and mash, we finished off the meal with a apple and cream turnover, for the evening we watched one from Lewis, and rounded the night off with 3 from Red Dwarf back to back, and with the end of those we were off to bed.
and find myself asking questions that I have no answer to, for instance is a brown egg more healthy for you than a white egg? if one is better than the other why sell the one that is not so good for you? and what about strange coloured ones like the blue naturally occurring egg above that we saw on our trip to Rudwick steam fair in September 2010? when we holidayed in the UK,
or pink eggs that we saw when we lived in Thailand, these at a market in October 2014, well I am happy to say that the colour of an egg is dependent on what breed of hen a farm
has, white eggs are usually laid by the leghorn hen breed, and brown eggs are
laid by a breed related to the Rhode Island Red, if you want to be 100% check the chickens earlobes, then you will know as I now do after reading this article, I also found out that the look of
egg whites from an egg can give you an idea of how fresh the egg is, strangely enough egg
whites that are cloudy are very fresh, while egg whites that are clear indicate
an older egg, I would have thought it would have been the other way around.
seem to be bigger than most, and this moth is no exception, photographs from PamTaylor/Facebook page, Pam posted
the first photos of the frighteningly large insect on the Amateur
Entomology Australia group, on February 23, the photographs showed a huge
grey moth clinging to a tree branch. To show just how large the moth really
was Pam also photographed it next to her open palm. Obviously, the photos got
a lot of attention from the other amateur entomologists, many of whom
recognized the insect as a specimen of the Giant Wood Moth, (Endoxyla Cinereus),
the name is
pretty self-explanatory, apparently, this is the heaviest moth species in the
world, with some specimens weighing up to 30 grams, and can have a wingspan of
up to 25 centimetres, “Holy cow that’s spectacular!” one member of the Amateur Entomology Australia Facebook Group commented,
Pam later updated her post, adding new photos that now showed two of
these giant moths, apparently, despite a rough, stormy night, the
gigantic moth managed to find a mating partner. Interestingly, the larger
specimen is the female, they are also known as “storm moths”
or “rain moths”, apparently, they have no mouth and only live for a short time
after hatching, so to increase the chances of finding a mate they rely on
weather to coordinate, as I mentioned the creepy crawlies grow big in Australia.
although there was a slight frost first thing, it was a nice day with clear blue skies,
my first stop, Pearl Fisheries, we had decided on two dressed crabs as our starter for Sunday's lunch,
a look at what was on offer today, it is great to see local shops making a comeback despite Bromley council's trying to ban cars from parking in the High Street,
remember to use your local shops or lose them, and here are the happy couple helping you to keep to a healthy diet, Wayne and Collette, who demasked for the photograph, two crabs purchased and I was on my way,
to Sainsburys, for the usual bits and pieces,
I mentioned Bromley council trying to stop cars from parking in town, much to the determent of local shops, this is what I mean, at huge expense the council cobbled the parking bays at the edge of the road, when the pavements were made wider, this meant that traffic could only travel as fast as the slowest car, or when one of the 4 buses that use the High Street stopped at a stop all of the traffic stopped as well, but only a few days ago these planters arrived,
so now where people could park for 20 minuets or so and pop into a shop or two, in one of these parking bays,
now there is no parking, Bromley councils efforts to drive cars and customers from small shops in the High Street is working, I am amazed at the money that the council has to be able to afford projects like this to destroy local businesses, but wait a second it is our money that they use for ill conceived projects like this!
walking home back into the park still nice blue skies, hopefully spring is really here,
shopping put away I spent the afternoon playing with some of my stamps and taking them out of their envelopes and putting them into stock sheets,
by now some of the new sheets had arrived with three sections, so I could complete the blocks of stamps I had for the 1947 Royal visit to South Africa,
so that is my first album, the stamps now housed properly, only another 8 or so to go!
in the evening a sherry, and a read,
for my starter chicken liver pate and dry toast,
'Cheers!',
liver, bacon, onions and mash for my main course,
eyes down and tuck in!
Diana was asked to work for a few extra hours, so it was not until just before 10.00 in the evening before I walked to the bus stop at the station and home again, then a bit of fun,
Diana decided to see what she would look like with a moustache, and here it is, we watched one episode of Lewis where mention was made of a couples favourite piece of music, which got us thinking for Diana to myself it is a song by Double,
Captain of My Heart, for myself to Diana it could only be a song by the late great John Robert "Joe" Cocker OBE, and his song,
You Are So Beautiful, we continued watching Lewis, the butler did it, and with the end of that we were off to bed.
"the most dangerous combination ever in the Second World War, one that could get you killed, an officer and a map!" well I have a new contender for that dangerous combination, a junior officer and a almost hand held nuclear warhead, I kid you not! the Davy Crockett is a miniaturized nuclear warhead capable
of being launched from a recoilless rifle by a single man or a tandem team. The
warhead itself was an Mk-54 which weighed only 50lbs. This allowed a single
dedicated operator, or pair, to setup, aim and fire a nuclear warhead at the
tactical level, the Davy Crockett Weapon System was a recoilless gun that was
just as likely to kill the user as it was to kill the enemy. A single shot from
the Davy Crockett Weapon System also known as the M-28/M-29 was almost
guaranteed to lead to dozens of friendly fire casualties, hundreds of enemy
casualties and the outbreak of a world ending thermonuclear war, as the enemy retaliated with its own nuclear weapon, above a tripod
mounted Davy Crockett (Public domain),
nuclear
equipped Jeep (Credit: Army
Historical Foundation), the miniaturization of nuclear weapons shifted
their use to people lower and lower on the chain of command. While it would
take a world leader plus a handful of high level military officials to launch a
nuclear weapon today, in the 1960s it was possible that a field commander or
platoon leader could order a nuclear strike via the use of a Davy Crockett. The
Davy Crockett Weapons System came in two variations, the M-28 and the M-29. The
difference between the two was the effective range at which they fired. The
M-29 had an effective range of 2.5 miles while the M-28 had an effective range
half that at 1.25 miles, this range is extremely short for the use of nuclear
weapons and immediately put the operator and surrounding friendly forces in
danger of getting exposed to lethal doses of radiation,
a tandem
aiming a Davy Crockett tripod (Credit: Army
Historical Foundation), it also did not come with a kill switch or abort
function. If the warhead was fired, it would detonate. There was no going back
from a mistake and no room for error. The only option the warhead gave to the
operator was to choose at which height it exploded at. There was no way to
deactivate it mid-flight and no way to fire a round which was not primed to
detonate, despite the inherent danger to using such an inaccurate nuclear
weapon, the United States manufactured around 2,100 units of the Davy Crockett
Weapons System. This was not a weapon system that sat in a warehouse as an item
for potential use, NATO forces deployed to the field with these weapons in the
1960s, now it might be me, but when you get down to the level of an individual
soldier the risk of error goes up massively. Orders can get misinterpreted,
orders can get passed down wrong, orders can be cut off. The confusion and
terror of battle could cause someone to fire a nuke without proper
authorization. These nukes could be fired by a single person. Nuclear war could
have come down to an accident, an itchy trigger finger or poor judgment from a
low level officer, still one member of the NATO leadership openly advocated for
their use, West Germany Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauss claimed deploying
the M-28 and M-29 nuclear weapons on the bridges linking West Germany with East
Germany would be the ultimate deterrent and would cut down on the need for mass
artillery batteries, as I mentioned, what could possibly go wrong? the Davy Crocket, more dangerous than an officer and map or not?
the
white-chocolate treats are produced from cocoa beans grown on a farm in
Sulawesi, Indonesia, and then dyed naturally with fruits, teas, and other
edibles, all photographs Little
MOTHERHOUSE,
shifting
from lemon balm to mint or more dramatically from chestnut to beet-soaked
maroon, Little
MOTHERHOUSE’s sweets are infused with elegant gradients that permeate both
bar and packaging,
opening one of the bars this is what you will see, this one Blueberry x
Ginger,
or how about Matcha x
Raspberry?
there are so many combinations to chose from including black pepper yuzu, matcha raspberry, and cassis brandy, all of which
coincide with one of Japan’s four seasons, you can pick up a single bar, or more
realistically try all 12, by heading to the designer’s shop, they sound and look delicious!
can be made into this chain, but it can, and this is the artist that can do it, Mr.
Shiroi (@shir0003), creates these almost impossible pencil lead carvings, photographs @shiroi0003/Twitter,
he took up pencil lead carving seven years ago, after watching a segment on renowned Japanese pencil carver Toshiyuki Yamazaki on TV, as it happens there are a number of posts from how pencils are made to other pencil lead artist here, blown
away by the level of detail the master lead carver could achieve, and decided
to give it a try for himself,
over
the years, Mr. Shiroi honed his pencil lead-carving skills to a point where he
is now able to carve almost anything out of a pencil, from tiny swords,
to replicas of famous landmarks and even chains or car maker names and brands,
one
of Mr. Shiroi’s most impressive creations is a pencil lead carved into all the
letters of the alphabet, from A to Z,
it took several days to complete, and the Japanese artist recalls that by the time he reached the letter Z, he was so nervous that his hands were shaking. He managed to finish his artwork, but it was so fragile that after managing to take a few photos of it, the lead broke, what an amazing talent he has.
