We moved to our new house at the beginning of the year, it’s only got a small garden but we are blessed with having the River Blackwater conservation area on the other side of the fence.
A few weeks ago I built a pond, not particularly big, but quite deep, terraced and stocked with aquatic plants, as the season is only just starting, we haven’t been able to fill it with the appropriate wild life yet, I did this at my previous house and it flourished, with a healthy population of minnows, sticklebacks, snails etc etc.
There’s a small pond next door which has contained the most amazing number of frogs for a while now, the racket they make is unbelievable.
Only one bothered to visit us so we imported some frogspawn from the in-laws pond. Unfortunately the cold snap last week didn’t do us any favours, but the frogspawn has survived it. It is now a dirty brown floating lump with a big black wriggling mass in the middle of it. Do I leave the tadpoles to get on with it, they look trapped to me, and assuming they survive, what do tadpoles eat, as the pond is not properly established yet.
I did buy some freshwater shrimps, dafnia and bloodworms from Wyevales in the hope that they might get established, presumably they will form a food source as the tadpoles get bigger. Any suggestions.
Incidentally, the bird life here is amazing, it seems to be a balance of rural and urban, I was surprised to see a reed bunting pecking around the pond yesterday.

You could ask this bloke. 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀

I’ll get me coat shall I.

Mark

The incident that made me feel sick to the stomach came at an early Greenham Common airshow.

As one pilot was flying a low-level aerobatic display, I heard a videocamera user who was filming the routine mutter “Go on you b*****d – crash – crash”.

What made it worse was the sounds of assent from some nearby photographers, such as “Yeah, go on – crash”.

I suspect they were members of the general public rather than air enthusiasts, but the incident was still a disturbing one.

Mercurius Cantabrigiensis

In my younger days I used to skydive and at Sibson airfield we used to get the vulture squad with their picnics waiting for someone to go in. I heard something similar from a video camera to***r who commented “no failures….. sh*t”.

I’ve only been on a hunt for wreckage on high ground once and regardless of how I looked upon it I felt very sad for quite a while afterwards. I had visions of these young men flying along and then they were either snuffed out or there was a few seconds of blind stark terror as the canopy filled full of mountain and they had nowhere to go. I still feel those feelings even today when I think about it so I’ve never ever gone back.

Mark

64.16 so just slightly a silly old fart.

😀 😀 😀

Setlist:

01. Good Times, Bad Times
02. Ramble On
03. Black Dog
04. In My Time Of Dying
05. For Your Life
06. Trampled Under Foot
07. Nobody’s Fault But Mine
08. No Quarter
09. Since I’ve Been Loving You
10. Dazed and Confused
11. Stairway To Heaven
12. The Song Remains the Same
13. Misty Mountain Hop
14. Kashmir

Encore:

15. Whole Lotta Love
16. Rock and Roll

more pics:

http://www.gettyimages.com/Search/Search.aspx?EventId=78261929#

clip of Black Dog

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8v_Rqi4B-E

Were they doing this for “Help the Aged”? 😀 😀 😀

Another theory is that whilst the russian probably did kill Crabb, he might have looked at his meagre pension and decided to sell his story and in the process larged it up a bit by the inclusion of the Limpet Mine element. My humble opinion only. 😉

Wasn’t there some books that came out with photographs of Russian Naval Officers and one of them was identified as Crabb?

Mark

Nothing near a complete one. There is a nose section on display at Yeovilton, and substantial wreckage in store there as well. I’ve had a quick Google, but haven’t found good pics – you might have more luck than me.

So, in short, possibly enough wreckage for a composite – one day!

Adrian

It’s such a shame that the military scrapped them after the war. I must admit that they’ve done quite a splendid job of the restoration of the nose section in the museum.
😮 😮