The BeenThere-DoneThat Blog

Yesterday the Blog started as normal and then, sometime later, I changed the look of it completely and for the better I hope. But then I realised that there were no smilies showing on the Comments Form. Whoops! So I tried a different set of smilies but they presented their own problems and I decided to go back to the original appearance until I could sort it all out.

Now, today, it’s all sorted and we’re back with the new look. Any snide comments will be dealt with severely.

I don’t know if anyone actually noticed.

I have recently added a translation option to the Blog although, having seen the results of internet translators when translating foreign languages to English, the results are probably amusing at best and gobbledygook (unintelligable) at worst but, possibly, better than nothing. This sample translation of Japanese to English gives an example of what the results can be like.

“Gate and they look like the photo above, and 2 are stool or are about to be overcome as people first photo, in farm animals has not been devised to get out. There are others, called cow Kyatorugado stop. In a cold roller to the ground, but cars and people are so Reru, horses and cattle, sheep and other animals is narrow in the legs outside the rollers, so they are not in Hasamatsu legs. Kyatorugado if you can keep the gate of the ranch Keppanashi.

Now, what would the horse walks.”

I hope none of you ever suffer from “Hasamatsu legs”.

The irritating part is that people who can’t speak English won’t be able to read this and I’ve no idea what this post would look like after ‘translation’.

I can choose what languages (country flags) appear except for the U.S.A. which is apparently fixed. I know that they can’t spell words like ‘travelling’ and ‘neighbour’ properly but I’m sure they can understand the content without having to have it translated.

We’re now into February and are glad to see the back of another winter month (January). One small step towards Spring.

We’ve had three consecutive sunny, but cold, days which brings thoughts of travelling to the fore and so we think about zooming around the country once again this year. But this means that, first, we go back to last year for the places that we planned to visit and didn’t because of the unsettled weather.

‘Stay Away’ trips:

Lincoln, Lincolnshire
Peterborough, Northamptonshire
Glastonbury, Somerset (We did visit but the weather was too bad for photographs)
Oxford, Oxfordshire
Swanage, Dorset
The Isle of Wight

The first two in the list have been carried over from 2007.

To those we have now added:

Inkpen Hill, Berkshire
Frome, Somerset
The Roaches and Lud’s Church, Staffordshire
Hathersage and Burbage Edge, Derbyshire
Hadrian’s Wall, Cumbria
York, Yorkshire

Day trips:

London
Dunwich Heath and Coast, Suffolk
Diss, Norfolk
Grantchester, Cambridgeshire

We don’t expect to visit all these places this year and for the long distance trips, such as Dorset and Cumria, we would want a forecast of stable good weather for at least five days. If this summer is anything like 2009 and 2008 then those long distance trips are unlikely to happen.

We plan to make numerous day trips to London by train this year as we’ve purchased a Network Rail Card which covers the whole of the south-east and cost £25.00. This card gives us 33% off all rail fares in that region which includes London. We’ve already used it once when we went up to London to meet Marie last November and when we use it again next time it will have paid for itself and we start to make a profit.

It seems amazing that we can now say “We start travelling next month”. We are hoping to meet our Italian friend Antonello who is staying in Constable Country at the end of March. That’s about the time that the Blackthorn blossom appears in the hedgerows in this part of the country.

We had a lovely Blackthorn tree on our front border and this is part of it:

However when we had a lot of snow recently the weight of it on the Blackthorn caused it to lean over to the point that it was blocking one of our gateways so it had to be drastically trimmed. It’s now no more than a tall stump but, hopefully, it will eventually re-grow.

I shall look forward to the time that our local Blackthorn hedges blossom once again. Then it will be Spring.

You may think that we do go on a bit about the white chalk cliffs on the South Downs Coast and, of course we do, but we aren’t the only ones who think that the’re pretty special.

Sussex Coast 1
Sussex Coast 2

We are not alone! Any more of you out there?

It started snowing around 7:30 this morning and it’s still going four hours later and it makes it difficult for a chap to get around when the snow comes up to the top of a chap’s legs.

I wouldn’t like to be a bird this weather having to sit out all night and the best you can hope for in the morning is a cold worm for breakfast. Not nice.

Birdie, our resident Kestrel, roosts overnight above our balcony and this morning she didn’t get up until nearly 8 o’clock. I can’t say I blame her as it was snowing quite heavily and it was late getting light. We saw her fly off but I can’t imagine how she’ll get on for food in this.

The weather forecasters have predicted snow over the next two or three days – but then what do they know?

This is for only those of you with thermostatically controlled heating.

December 2009 was, apparently, the coldest December for 30 years which doesn’t surprise me and now, in January 2010, it’s still just as cold although the temperature, occasionally, does go up to just above freezing before it drops again.

Let’s say you have your thermostat set to 70F which makes you feel comfortable indoors. Have you ever noticed that if the outside temperature rises significantly you begin to feel too warm and if the outside temperature drops significantly you start to feel chilly and want to turn the heating temperature up even though the set temperature of 70F is maintained all the time?

Why is it that a steady temperature can make you feel comfortable, chilly or too warm? Amanda and I have both noticed that but cannot imagine what the reason would be. It’s a bit of a mystery.

We had two cock pheasants walking together around our garden today which is a little unusual as they tend to be rather territorial. One of them we had seen before and had named him ‘Beaky’ because the top part of his beak was unusually long with a bit of a hook at the end.

They were rooting about for food together quite contentedly. I do like their fancy tails (second picture)!

Now where did I put that roasting pan?