every christmas thing comes to he who waits

That shop loved and hated by all and saturday had Tunis Cake in before Christmas with a shocking sell/use by date on it and at quite a price. Now its half price and with a much better sell/use by date. Yippee love Tunis Cake first had it at my paternal grandmothers many many years ago.

Might have to find another.........

I found another cracker joke...ho ho ho

Why did no one bid for Rudolph and Blitzen at the auction.








Have you got it yet







Well all right






Because they were two deer!

What a difference a day makes..........

Went back down to Burwell Fen yesterday for another walk to try and get to know it more. Lovely weather again but a lot more of the shallow water frozen and Reach Lode or that bit against the fen.

Still some nice birds about and the Roe Deer scattered all over. But no Short Eared Owl to be seen in the few hours we were there, mind you Little Owl and Barn Owl sort of made up for that. Saw a lovely female Hen Harrier and three Marsh Harrier and up to five Stonechat which was nice.

So thats two nice walks in lately, suppose I better get on with some work...............

lovely afternoon for a walk in the fen and then.............

Nice walk this afternoon down to Burwell Fen, lovely bit of sun and just a tad of cold but not too cold. Amongst the sightings were a dozen or so Roe Deer and a nice Hare, then at least 200 Golden Plover a 100 or so Lapwing, 3 Kestrel and to round it off  3 Short Eared Owl. Very nice.

A piccie of 4 of the Roe Deer, a buck and three does all be it a tad out of focus.

Also saw something that sent a shiver down my spine and reminded me of the James Wentworth Day comments about being in the Five Miles from Anywhere at Upware one night and asking who wanted to walk back along the footpaths to Wicken....... Non one did , why....

He still lives and is obviously still following people.

ho ho ho

Crackers and not me well almost perhaps...

Why do fish live in salt water.........................because pepper makes them sneeze

Why did the man keep doing the backstroke....................because he didn't want to swim on a full stomach

What do you get when you cross a computer with an elephant................ a computer with lots of memory

And finally

What makes pirates such good singers...............they can hit the high C's

Do they get better or worse, does it depend how much you pay, are they really made up by MP's sitting on the benches bored by speeches!!!!!!!!!

This made me laugh

Just bought some new lights for me bike, a rear one that is shall we say bright and a front one that is brighter.

I was reading through the pamphlet that came with the front lamp and there's a section titled Precautions.

(1) Please dont irradiate the light at human eyes directly to avoid harm to eye, especially children but except enemies.

Can/could I use this as an excuse if I shone this in one of my enemies eyes I wonder, it was in the instructions Judge.........

little and large or how not to drive perhaps

I was driving north on the M11 this afternoon close to Cambridge and saw a wonderful piece of driving.

One HGV passing another HGV and then giving right amount of room when past it before pulling in.

Behind the overtaking lorry there was a white Ford Fiesta, quite a new one, it does that usual rush up behind the overtaking lorry and braking hard as if the lorry has no right to overtake which it started to do well before the Fiesta appeared. Then I couldn't believe my eyes as the Fiesta then flashed the lorry as it wasn't pulling over quick enough for it, and it was that close at the time they must have blinded themselves with the reflection.

Did the lorry pull over immediately, what do you think, he was making sure he was past the lorry he was overtaking then he pulled in and the Fiesta was off like a shot. Bless em.

so whats this then eh..............

Its stone or is it, that's a penny next to it to give an idea of size and I found it among some gravel. There is a good half of it there and looking at the shape all my silly mind can come up with is a fossilized hazelnut shell but then I am silly.......

lovely old trees

I went along to along to a training workshop last Sunday out Wisbech way on Restorative Pruning of fruit trees, well apples and pears. After a bit of a chat it was off to look at some Bramley apple trees well over 100 years old and they were spectacular. Looked like wood pasture.

And what image came to mind straight off, Staverton Thicks. And if you dont know where they are or what is there it will mean more if you find out for yourself.

Then another reminder of veteran trees which these Bramleys have to be. First a Pheonix tree, in this case an old apple tree that fell over but stayed rooted and has regrown from the top of the laying down trunk. Then an apple tree that doesn't want to die and its not a willow. Another apple tree with most it well rotted away and gone, all there is is a thin tube or a small part of it and a branch coming of and its still solid and I hope it goes on for a few years yet.

All in all a great few hours in the fens on a cold day looking at some lovely old apple trees and finding out how to care for them, yes I know sad git, and doing a bit of pruning to try and help a few live longer.

frosty morning 9th december

A crisp one this morning and while working in one of my regular gardens I found this old friend a bit frosted.

A confusing week so far

Oh yes it is and taking a turn for the cold as well. Blimey might be time for me thermals at this rate.

So there I was working in this garden in Cambridge yesterday 8th December 2014 and as I clear up the last of this years leaves I see this lovely mix of colours, Gingko and variegated Lamium, nice contrast.

Still clearing leaves I carry on and I get a surprise, Snowdrops, on the 8th December. No doubt someone will say they have loads out.

Lovely none the less.

Internet shopping is fine but.........

Is this a story or the truth you make your own mind up, oh what the ............. its true.

Its great isn't it you push a button on your keyboard and then you get an email telling you when your delivery will arrive, this time it was bait blocks for rats.

So you wait and you wait and then you contact the seller who says its not my fault its the delivery company. We will resend it and you happen to be in when the postman arrives and gives you this gray plastic wrapped package that feels like it contains square sweets.

You have an idea whats in it and open the package carefully, inside is a black plastic package, you open that carefully and its the bait blocks, well it could be them but there is no label telling you what they are, there are no usage instructions, there is nothing about what chemicals the blocks contain or what precautions you should take when using them.

You contact the seller again who says if you can use them we will give you some money off. Sent them back they were no use, not even sure if the supplier is abiding by UK sales law.

Yes I got my money back but what about the time it took when in the first place I could have done what I did next which was........................go to a local shop, Mackays in Cambridge, and bought the product in a sealed bag with all the info on for a few quid more.

Should I have done that in the first place.

And you know what I dont think I have had so many problems with goods ordered that way than I have had this year. I'm also hearing of other folk having problems and guess what the delivery companies get blamed a lot for those problems with the sellers saying its nothing to do with us.

But you use them and surely the goods are the sellers until delivered, so how are the delivery problems not your fault.

Worryingly a friend has told me they ordered something a week before Black Friday which was not delivered when it should have been, on querying why no delivery they were told that the new scheduled delivery might now be held up because of orders received on Black Friday.

Perhaps there should be less internet shopping and more buying local, or perhaps internet sellers should treat the buying public with a bit of respect and use good delivery providers.