Diana Had Already Left For Work,

before I started on my walk to town,

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,

and the blocks for the 1946 Victory issue, 

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.

I Am Not Sure If I Read It,

or heard it from my father, it was the statement,

"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?

Chocolates,

with a difference,

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!

I Can Hardly Believe,

that the lead of a pencil,

 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.

I Had Not Seen The Fox,

for over a week,

but here he was back again, the wound on his head healing nicely, but I think he will have a small bald patch for sometime to come,

 a couple of magpies joined him eating some of the peanuts,

peanuts finished he waited for some more

which he soon ate,

it was Diana's day off today, which we spent at home, in the evening time for our meal, tonight Diana made a sardine and rice dish for herself, 'Cheers!',

for myself a steak with vegetables and fried potatoes with bacon bits and onions, 

later we snacked on grapes as we watched a Lewis followed by a New Tricks, rounding off the evening with a Have I Got A Bit More News For You, before we were off to bed.

Like So Many Of Us,

we shop from home, 

personally I prefer to see in a shop what I am buying, but there it is, going back to shopping at home every time I pay for something there is always a space for coupons, but I never have any, but that could soon change, here is a not-well-known feature of Amazon, it has an entire page dedicated entirely to coupons! These coupons are available in almost every product category Amazon offers, as BroBible who supplied the photograph details:

The coupons on Amazon are also broken out into categories.

For example…

There are also Outlet Deals, Warehouse Deals, Digital Deals, and Woot! Deals.

Right now, because this the season, there are also Holiday Deals,

The coupons don’t last forever, of course, but if you need some razor blade refills, some motion sensor lights, more smart light bulbs, a giant bag of candy, or any number of other products then you need to check Amazon’s coupon section out pronto, coupons as well as opened and returned goods on Amazon, I never knew!

At First Glance,

sushi,

but with a difference, all images courtesy of the artist, 

these sushi are the work of Hama, who is a graduating senior from art school who created this series of hand-polished sushi stones during the pandemic-induced lockdown and subsequent remote learning, yes they are all naturally occurring stones,

if you look carefully you will notice that among the sushi are body parts like ears, lips, nose and a finger,

he artist’s work is part of Join Graduation Exhibition of 5 Art Universities in Tokyo, 

taking place at the National Art Centre through February 27, 2021,

You can also keep up with the artist on Twitter, what an amazing selection of colours in natural stone.

Keeping To A Theme,

of natural stones,

here are a few more, but they have been panted by Rizzo, who is one of the world’s leading stone painters. Each one of his creations is hand-painted and therefore unique, and even though he can try to reproduce some of his popular past works, no two will be identical, all phototrophs by the artist,

he has been able to turn stones into living artworks of sorts, by turning them into photo-realistic animals,

 He has been creating his beautiful painted stones since 1996, and is an expert at hunting for special stones that can be used as canvases for his art,

mammals are the most suitable inspiration for the talented Italian artist, as their physical characteristics are well suited for bland river stones as well as for strangely-shaped ones. Birds, with the exception of nocturnal birds of prey such as owls, are generally more difficult, and require a lot of imagination,

“The mammals are the ideal subjects to be painted on the stones. Most of them have thick fur and have a habit of gathering in a crouched position,” the artist writes on his website. “Working with the imagination I can adapt them to even the strangest stones and thus obtain unique works.”

“Painting  birds  and  reptiles  on stone is a real challenge. With the exception of nocturnal birds of prey such as owls and owls which have a compact body and which are easier to ‘insert’ into the stone, for all other species, imagination and experience play a key role,” 

Rizzo adds. “Stones suitable for  fish  are quite rare, but when I am lucky enough to find one I can’t wait to get to work!”

Roberto Rizzo uses high quality acrylic pigments and paints that are very resistant over time, but he recommends that collectors keep his artworks away from direct contact with the elements, as no painted work can resist heavy rains or direct sunlight for too long, You can learn more about Roberto Rizzo’s art, and even order painted stones, from his official website, I have to say some of them look so cute.