Symptoms

Keith ... I'd forgotten the 'plank'; wouldn't be allowed that method today because of 'elf 'n' safety ... ankle-biters tumbling to the floor. I also remember display boxes of 'rubber-jonnies' in the place ...

Some local farmers near to me have grubbed-out their apple orchards and planted willow sticks to serve the biomass market ... this is for domestic (household) pellet hot water/cenral heating boilers. It's really bizarre driving on country roads that intersect these plantations - tall, swaying single stems 10' high ... it seems like you're driving across a Russian wilderness, then it ends and you're into rolling arable and ancient wooded land. It would make a great backdrop for those bleak, subtitled black & white films from Scandinavia. Anyway, I don't think there's enough scope for the domestic and the power-generation markets to be supplied 'locally', so most of it's going to be imported. Bonkers, truely bonkers!!!! Burn coal I keep saying!

Don't forget to create hedgehog highways at garden boundaries. Whilst the Tiggywinkles are decent climbers they can't get over fence panels, thick hedging or similar barriers so create a series of tunnels on all aspects of the garden so they can get through to feast on your slugs. I've used loads of 6" & 8" plakka plantpots lying on edge and jammed through the bases of all the hedging to create the tunnels and once the undergrowth has covered the pots you don't see them ... I had to use this method as I've got half-a-dozen free-range chucks and a woof wandering the garden so I lined the base of all the hedging with wire mesh (chicken wire) to prevent escapes; obviously the mesh stopped the hedgehogs so the tunnels are helpful to them.

Eggs - I have Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection ... Photoshop is an integral component of the suite. I use a A3 Summagraphics digitizing tablet with it so all actions are via the connected pen so that precise control can be achieved (something that's difficult with a mouse). Cheepo digitizing tablets are available but much smaller, something like Bamboo would be OK for the casual user. If your Photoshop version is Elements or a giveaway there may be some functions disabled when comparing with the full version, but I'm not sure as I haven't used these crippled versions. If you want to manipulate Wilf first open the file in Photoshop, there are lots of ways to manipulate but a good way is to use the Lasso tool (in your toolbox) to outline that bit of the image you want (tip: if the image is complex enlarge it with zoom-in so it's easier to outline with Lasso). Once you're happy you can copy or cut your selected area. Open the image (another file) you want to put Wilf into (don't bother to close the original Wilf file) then you have a number of options, the easiest is to paste Wilf in. You can now move Wilf to position and then further manipulate him by right-clicking on him then selecting resize, flip, rotate, etc. When you're happy with his position you'll be prompted to 'apply the transformation' - answer yes. Another tip - if you intend using Wilf again and again save the cut to a transparent background so it's easier to use in future by using 'place' to insert him into another pic.

When Barton Rafie asked the original question: "I understand women actually worked down the Bedlington pits ???" back in post #21, I replied: "Official accounts suggest that women were not employed underground at any pits in the Northumberland and Durham coalfields but I'm sure they must have done so in the very early days." JDJ55 confirms this with his reference to the Coal Mines Act of 1842 in his post #41 but of course they continued to work above ground. So to summarise for Barton .... Yes, women probably did work down Bedlington pits before 1842 but not after this date, however they may well have continued to work in above ground jobs when employed at the Bedlington pits.

Where's all the biomass going to come from? Monster ships with their gigantic belching diesel engines hauling the stuff all the way from South America. Stuff that's been grown on cleared virgin rainforests. Burn coal I say!!!!!

Our reporter in Afganistan has just sent this image of Abu AlWilf's joyous return to the North West Frontier after he had been on a 9 month long undercover mission to the viper's nest that is Betty Windsor's base. His mission was to impregnate some concubine called Katie so implanting a future Manchurian Candidate into the centre of the evil Yankee's running-dog-jackal poodle-state.

My "true beliefs" are a synthesis of life's experiences and being widely read (from Adolf's Mein Kampf to Mao's Little Red Book and all stations in between). Plenty of stuff in the Guardian I don't agree with, including what Polly Toynbee advocated just before the last General Election GGG will be pleased to note. Ah, now I remember Ena, Minnie & Martha, but wasn't it milk stout? I think I watched the first ever episode ... never again!

Oh dear! The Yankees will be after you now for some obscure offence under The Patriot Act.

Straight, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, any dog owner, all welcome. Never a Liberal (latterday crutches for those vile, vile Tories) but certainly one who exhibits those worthwhile, tolerant, generous, so called liberal values to all bar those nasty, reactionary scumsuckers at The Daily Mail and their legion of like-minded, zenophobic zombie fellow travellers. "Ena, Minnie & Martha" - ?

KeithL - Did you stop star gazing, put down your bins for a moment and wave? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23419543

Eggs - I remember most pubs had a snug bar for the 'ladies'. These probably morphed into lounge bars later; you always had to pay a bit more for your drinks in the lounge than the blokes in the men only 'front bars'. I have a room in my house which is called the snug ... a small room behind the morning room & kitchen area; I take my breakfast and read the paper in it. GGG, just imagine the scene every morning ... a cup of Earl Grey tea in one hand, the woof under the other arm, and my beloved Guardian on my knee

Latest photo in from the Palace showing the new parasite/bloodsucker/freeloader baby having its first meal courtesy of one of the under-housemaid wet-nurses:

What was Wilf doing in London 9 months ago?

A snug. I hope you weren't being rude Micky ... snook?

Blimey, I've just been to my local Tesco megastore and discovered you can still get bags of dried 'farter peas' (labelled 'Marrowfat Peas').. Read the instructions and it's the same as Granny used to do only they say to plop-in a teaspoon of bicarb for the soak; Nan was much more efficient ... she use a bicarb tab.

Right again Foxy. A brilliant place.

GGG I know what tax breaks are, maybe I should have put that phrase between inverted commas to hint at any additional financial benefit derived, however obscurely, from anywhere other than private finance. I'm sure you'd agree that License Payers' shouldn't be supporting, however obliquely, any private club; I'll not be suprised at the vast, additional shed-loads, of income to be generated for that club being linked to the venue being televised. I agree with you GGG that the Beeb are chickenshit scared of giving offense to anybody and as a result their output has become bland, just like ITV. I think they should challenge and stir-up a debate but they always appear to 'run scared' of poor headlines in the Daily Mail (and similar organs) and the bile honked-out by backbench MPs. So I'm not sure that it's the once powerful NUJ that dictates what goes on there, I blame the ex-business and ex-political 'suits' for determining what we see on the box.

Eggs wrote: "Today's teachers would not entertain a class this size - 43 pupils." Give Mr Gove, the Tory Education Minister, time and a teacher/pupil radio of 1:43+ will become standard in state schools.

Navigation much beyond Bedders relied on the AA gazetteer (the yellow handbook) ... I don't know if they still do these??? The white gauntletted saluting AA patrolmen on their motorbike/sidecar combos, the big yellow AA phoneboxes, the AA phonebox key. The gazetteer had a ton of stuff in it; my favouite was the list of numberplate registration districts as one of the games we played whist on the journey was to see where various cars came from, for example, YNL 919 was registered in the Toon as was NTY 756 (NL for N/cle & TY for Tyne). By the way both those numbers belonged to various vehicles my Dad had over the years and I still remember ALL the reg nos. These car spotting games were easy to play because there was so little traffic on the roads back then. Town info could be sought in the gazeteer for all those little places that you had to pass through, early closing days, locations for filling stations, distance planning, hotel stuff, camping sites, etc. The book was the only source for this info ... no web searches or phone helplines back then. Other favourite places we went camping for weekends in Northumberland was up Ingram Valley and beyond Alwinton. The waterfalls and deep pools in the river at Alwinton were great places to swim and slide ... but cold!!!

After additional thought I'm not even sure that the Beeb (a 'publically-owned' corporation) should have televised it. Years ago in the late 70s I was invited to lunches at The Royal Blackheath Club and another time at The Shooter Hill Club (in SE London) by my old neighbour Maurice Bowyer ... he owned Castle Golf Equipment in Borough (south of the Thames) ... he was a member of both clubs. In The Shooters Hill bar there was a white line painted on the floor and women weren't allowed to cross it to get anywhere near the counter and at Blackheath entry to the premises (even for lunch) for women was by invite only.

I don't have a problem with Private Members' Clubs determining their own membership rules. However, if these same clubs receive any financial support from 'the public purse' IN ANY FORM WHATSOEVER* then they must open their membership books to all. * Charitable status, tax breaks, funding from Sports Council (or similar public bodies), grants for infrastructure and other facilities, and so on.

In 1953 my Dad bought a pre-WW2 Armstrong Siddley 15HP car from his childhood friend Stan Burke for £5; Stan had a breakers yard at Shiremoor. The car looked like a gangsters' car from one of those old American movies ... spare wheel strapped to the side, running-boards, etc. This old beast ran well for maybe another 3 years until the engine block split going up the A1 bank north out of Morpeth. We had our first family holiday with this vehicle ... a rented caravan at Beadnell; I have clear memories of watching sand lizards on the dunes. When the Armstrong Siddley died my Dad then got a Vincent Black Shadow (1000cc) motorcycle & sidecar combination on/in which we went down to Brighton. The following year we went to Devon and Cornwall with it ... we went camping. I've got a photo of us at Weston-Super-Mare aerodrome about to get into a plane for a flight over the town and beach. This was all in the pre-motorway days ... memories of going through all those old towns on the old A1, now by-passed. It was the height of the Cold War in the late 50s and I have a very clear memory of going past RAF Wittering (right next to the A1 in Lincolnshire) and seeing dozens of big rockets ready on their launchers .. I suppose they must have been anti-aircraft missiles waiting for Ivan to fly over to nuke us.

Gideon have just given the prospectors a big tax-break to look for and develop the stuff http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23368505

I was thinking about that last post I did and the ref to baked beans; on reflection I can't recall having many baked beans as a kid but do remember 'farter' peas. Many here will remember these beasts ... dried peas left to soak overnight, with a bicarb of soda tablet chucked-in for good measure - the peas would be cooked as part of the meal the next day.