August - peridots rain and bank holidays

[asymphototropic]

And here is a male Appalachian swallowtail. Interesting butterfly, formed at first by hybridization of Canadian and Eastern swallowtails, but now deserving it's own species name.

[merry]

scallops, Chateaubriand and millefeuille.

- my perfect menu!!! Hope it's just as good this time.

Is it ginger and prone to grumbling?

Eccles! pretty much!

Asy!!! how lovely to see you back! don't go! we need all the help we can get round here - I have been in thrall to a strange immersive theatre thing in Woolwich, and not around as much as I would have liked, though it ends in September so HF/the Mill will have me back yattering on as usual

[eccles]

WB Asy!
Monarch butterflies are amazing creatures. Well done for doing your bit to help them.

[OurCreature]

My old gentleman AT LAST has got his moving day to the all bells and whistles new Care Home in Winchester. They took him there in December last year to have a look and he's been wanting to move there ever since. I forgot to ask when I visited him today whether most of the residents are being moved on the same day, or whether it is a more gradual process. I'll find out on my last visit to him there on 6th September and I'm looking forward to seeing him in his new room etc. The new Home has some lovely views over to the South Downs, and also views over neighbouring woodland - everybody who has been there tells me it is lovely.

[asymphototropic]

OC, I'm so glad your old gentleman is going where he likes! [and you will get to visit him in his new digs].

Eccles, I'm somewhat torn as to whether my new milkweed site is a help or a hindrance to the monarchs. They appear to be overwintering at Virginia Beach, which is only 238 miles away. And there also is some evidence that some of the monarchs have forsaken migration altogether and are establishing permanently in Virginia. Lepidopterist lore says that this isn't good for the species. But I'm also unsure whether any human wisdom is relevant, considering rapidly changing climate, loss of habitat, etc.

So I come down in favor of supplying the milkweed, since it's a cinch starvation isn't good for the species.

[asymphototropic]

Merry, do you interact with the players in your immersive theater?

Our "Come As You Were" historic dance event has been postponed until January; this is a sure sign that we will have unprecedented snow and ice in January, closing roads, causing power outages etc.

[OurCreature]

I have pressed the buttons to change to the Next Pledge tracking tariff, and E.ON will start to charge me the new rate tomorrow. £50 is £50 so I might as well have that over the next 12 months.

[eccles]

Eon have a fixed rate tariff that is a little less but I don't know if it was created before or after the Ofgen announcement. The tracker has the advantage of having no exit penalty. The fix has a penalty of £150 for dual fuel which is far too high for a tariff that is only £1 or so a month less than the tracker. I think I'll still give it a couple of weeks to see if any other offers arise following the new cap.

[OurCreature]

I think the fixed rate tariff was there the other day before the announcement Eccs - I remember it being only marginally cheaper than the tracker tariff - presumably if the price of gas really wallops up in January (they will know in December) the present fixed tariff will be withdrawn.

[OurCreature]

I must be very lucky with my Yodel drivers. Every so often I read about one of them throwing a parcel into a wheely bin instead of delivering it properly etc. I've never had anything like that.

Today was a case in point. I ordered some wet food rations for Them quite late on Thursday, and they arrived today within the 2 hour time slot and carried all the way to my front doorstep by the Yodel driver who took a pic of it on my doorstep. And the driver was polite as well. I like that Yodel have a map on their tracking page to show where the delivery van is, so when there were only 4 deliveries before mine I opened my front gate so that the driver wouldn't have to fiddle with that while carrying a heavy cardboard box. He kindly tried to close the gate when leaving, but I said I'd see to that for him. And off he went.

[eccles]

They like you because you are an experienced yodel follower.
Having said that, I don't recall any problems with the courier either.

[OurCreature]

Eccs.

[Furby]

Air traffic control is broken so planes are stuck in the sky over UK. I looked on flight radars to see if one was above my house but they keep moving round. Until they run out of fuel I suppose. Can't they just land on a field or in a river like in the movies.

This is what will happen when everything is online great while it works then when it doesn't not enough capable people left to run the show and any way the tools they need will haxd been discontinued as not needed. News is saying they are guiding the planes down manually so hopefully they have enough trained controllers left to do that.

[merry]

I was in Woolwich over the weekend, got home at 10pm on Sunday night,up at 4am to bake previously frozen scones, sausage rolls, and choc chip cookies for the Winchcombe Show, which was today. It was quite mad I was picking apples and raspberries before the sun rose

Managed to get together a decent set of things for the show but sadly a rainstorm on Saturday mostly destroyed my Asters, so no Asters cup for me this year :( I'll do a separate post about my fruit and veg etc entries tomorrow.

Thank you to OC for wondering where I was I completely forgot to say I was going and to ask for the Toughs to get posted. I see Daisy did it so a big thanks to her too

Here's the haul of what I managed to get together to enter for the show:

[OurCreature]

I'd have been be very happy to have judged the cookies, sausage rolls and scones!

I hope they did well.

[Furby]

I think the one yellow carrot is the winner.

[eccles]

I've been wondering where you got to Merry so I'm glad to see you're ok. But it's a shame you fell on your aster.

Good luck at the show.

[merry]

Merry, do you interact with the players in your immersive theater?

Asy, usually not, we all wear white masks, which make us the Ghosts in this world, the performers act out their lives in front of us as if we are not there.

HOWever, some of the players (Hades, Polymestor, Polydorus, the Watchman, Kronos, Luba, Macaria, Eurydice for example) give what is known as a 121 - at a certain point in the story they will suddenly seem to 'see' a white-mask, and will reach out a hand to them to draw them into the (Under)world; and then the lucky chosen one is led off by the hand to a secret place and told Secrets, which enhance the player's story and give special insights into it. Sometimes you are also given a tot of whisky, or a little gift. These encounters are MUCH sought-after. I have had six, some of them were quite amazingly interesting (taken UNDERNEATH a Porsche car on a conveyor belt, lying next to Kronos, and a model of the minotaur maze passing over my head complete with tiny people and tiny minotaur, amid the more usual car underneaths! )

Here's probably the most special of my gifts (seeds from the Watchman were pretty lovely, too, along with the solemn injunction that the future of ruined Mycaenae now lay in my hands... I must plant them...)