my patch

[sam]

This one was trapped thanks to his little horns, which kept getting hooked behind the wire. I pulled him out because I'd want to be rescued, too, if I got my head caught in a fence.



This one was dying. I heard wheezing outside my window this morning and called the shepherd. Kept her company as the flies crawled over her.

[sam]

The day ends with a huge amount of commotion. The lambs must have been separated from the ewes. Nothing else is that loud.

[sam]

Nice of them to airdrop a picnic basket.

[sam]

On 19 September 1783 the Aerostat Réveillon was flown with the first living beings in a basket attached to the balloon: a sheep, called Montauciel (Climb-to-the-sky), a duck and a rooster. The sheep was believed to have a reasonable approximation of human physiology. The duck was expected to be unharmed by being lifted aloft. It was included as a control for effects created by the aircraft rather than the altitude. The rooster was included as a further control as it was a bird that did not fly at high altitudes. This demonstration was performed before a crowd at the royal palace in Versailles, before King Louis XVI of France and Queen Marie Antoinette. The flight lasted approximately eight minutes, covered two miles, and obtained an altitude of about 1,500 feet. The craft landed safely after flying.

[sam]

Update on the stoat issue referenced upthread:



Pity, as resident ermine raises property values.

[sam]

[sam]

Threat level orange



Lit by the fires of hell, which conveniently run on triple A batteries

[sam]

[sam]

[sam]

It is a meteorological curiosity that if the forecast shows rain, it will often hold off until the end of our long (but not posh!) driveway. It will then pour the two miles to the station, abating only when shelter is reached.

Madness.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s2Ufu5Xidc" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s2Ufu5Xidc</a>

This post is dedicated to my wife, who gets the worst of it.

[sam]

Yesterday's ride. 51 miles, apparently. I don't use a computer till I get home. That flat section was not unwelcome. Had I known I was passing through the habitat of the endangered fen raft spider I might have paused to observe a moment of silent shuddering, but I flew nonstop across the Levels, wind at my back, former Royal Greenwich Observatory at Herstmonceux visible for miles at 11 o'clock.

Those locals not involved in the manufacture of boutique bikes survive by handcrafting trugs, which are like baskets but more expensive, and reportedly useful for bodgers, though I have yet to employ one in that context.