Wiltshire Warrior Dragon

A fascinating story that was a pleasure to read. I have never heard the phrase 'scrum worker' for scrum half. Does anybody know anything more about it?

For no particular reason, earlier today I played on YouTube, by no means for the first time, two pieces which have in common that they both represent musically a wish for either more independence or full autonomy for the places from which they come. I was reminded that, regardless of whether you sympathise with the autonomy/independence aspirations or not, it is hard (for me, impossible) not to be moved by the raw emotion invoked merely by passionate performances of them. The first is a hymn to the Virgin which has long been considered the 'national anthem' of Corsica, Diu vi salvi, Regina e Matre Universale ('God save you, Queen and Mother of All') diù vi salvi Regina - YouTube The second is the Catalan 'national anthem', Els Segadors. It is, of course, the Dragons' club song too, and a few members of the London Catalan Choir sang it at Wembley before the club's Challenge Cup success. ELS SEGADORS (Himne nacional de Catalunya) (HD) - YouTube

So, to put it another way, Futtocks, a transport crisis!

I bet you never thought, ckn, when you began this thread with the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain that it would get to baked beans on Weetabix 77 pages later!

First things first, Happy New Year, Rocket. Second things second, apologies for not catching up with your comments on this matter till now. Third things third. Now, Rocket, me young lad, careful what you say! "...body shape of the player and he doesn't look particularly young..."? It is the great Billy Boston, no less - 571 tries and 7 goals in a career of 564 games, ten of those tries for GB against you Aussies, I should add. Seriously though, I know what you mean. He didn't necessarily look the great athlete that he was. When I began watching live RL, and Wigan in particular, in the early 1960s, Wigan had, stylistically, two very contrasting wingers. Boston tended to run straight (though he could sidestep)with an exceptionally high knee action which, given his thighs were like tree trunks of some centuries in age, put tackling him somewhere on a scale between extremely difficult and life threatening. By contrast, the other winger was a more 'traditional' type; Trevor Lake, a Rhodesian, had phenomenal pace and a wonderfully jinky sidestep. As outsandingly great though Boston undeniably was, it was handy for him having a centre of the calibre of Eric Ashton playing along side!

If it was a flood plain, I expect they would have built houses on it by now!

Slainte mhath!

All birds will need to work hard to get enough food at this time of year and, of course, unlike us, cannot switch lights on to see what they are doing after dark. So in winter, they will be particularly active when daylight conditions suit. The other thought I have in answer to your question is to wonder whether you were walking your dog shortly after some rainfall. The pitter-patter effect seems to bring worms up towards the surface of the ground, thus making it easier for them to be located and pulled the last inch or two completely out of the ground, and eaten. I would guess that looking under leaves is to locate insects and possibly, again, worms. I am always both amused and amazed by the volume of noise a single blackbird can make while leaf-turning, especially if the leaves are dry. Walking in the woodland of the New Forest, you hear this large amount of rustling noise and think it must be something the size of a squirrel at least, but it turns out to be a blackbird!

I agree.

A real sound of spring this morning at Hale Purlieu in the New Forest. There were two great-spotted woodpeckers drumming, the first I have heard this year. Also, there was a brief 'yaffle' from a distant, green woodpecker. I think I have used 'yaffle' correctly. If I remember correctly, it is the old country word (certainly in the south-west) both for the bird and its descending, laugh-like call.

It's probably a bit of early Spring romance. However, if it is raining heavily. your owl will be silent. Well, it will be too wet to woo!

My theory, No 16, is that they both didn't want to go to a rugby match and weren't expecting to be taken, hence the decidedly glum faces. I remember an old school friend, now aged 70 like me, and hence recently obliged to retire as a high court judge, telling me that his dad, who was from West Cumbria, in the early stages of courting his mum, took her to a match. Apparently - and some might say, inexplicably - she didn't see this as the highlight of their courtship, but saw enough in the man to persevere with the relationship, hence, in due course, marriage and my friend's subsequent arrival!

Happy to report, CF, that Santa did the biz, and I am reading the Tony Collins book now!

Incidentally, folks. The '#' sign can be avoided by using the old-fashioned name for this family of birds, namely 'titmice' (singular 'titmouse')

I really would like to get to Orkney, but, so far, my two visits to the northern isles were both to Shetland, which is maybe not surprising, given that my paternal grandfather was born and raised on the island of Fetlar. Here is the link to the island's own website, in case it is of any interest: Fetlar - The Garden of Shetland On our last visit to Shetland, we went to Jarlshof; I seem to recall it was next door to our hotel for our last couple of nights before flying south, which was the Sumburgh Hotel. My other memory of being there, which was in late June, was of being able to read the local newspaper, The Shetland Times, inside at midnight with no lights on! That time of year is known as 'The Simmer Dim' in the local dialect. The sun just about sets...for a few minutes at least!

Odstock is the nearest village to Salisbury District Hospital. When the Yew Tree Inn at Odstock got some Christmas dinner cancellations due to the pandemic (or maybe more precisely, the government's handling of it), the landlord and his staff didn't let the food go to waste. They took enough for 17 dinners to the hospital for on-duty staff - each contained smoke salmon and cream cheese roulade, turkey and trimmings, Christmas pudding and mince pies. In the hospital itself, by just after 9am on Christmas Day, two baby girls had been safely and successfully delivered. Sadly, four more Covid related deaths occurred in the hospital over Christmas. In Downton, the village down the road from me, a bungalow was severely damaged by fire on Christmas Day. For the longer term - 'this one will run and run' - campaigners opposed to the recently announced Stonehenge Tunnel approval say that they have almost raised their initial fighting fund of £50,000. (In my humble opinion, Stonehenge, at least visually, is somewhat overrated; we tell visitors to WWD Towers to go to Avesbury, at the northern end of the county - much more spectacular!)

Sorry, Bleep, but that's in serious danger of being an interesting trivial fact!

Thanks for that, Futtocks. I know of the Schwebebahn in Wuppertal, but have never been there and I think this is possibly the only moving picture footage I have seen. In my time dealing with visiting choirs at Salisbury Cathedral, I confirmed a week's residency for a choir from Wuppertal. They were technically good singers, but with no first hand experience of Anglican cathedral liturgical practice. So I went way beyond the call of duty (and my job description!) both before and when they arrived. I wrote a simple guide to Anglican psalm chanting for them, and went through each day's music to help with their understanding and pronunciation. Sod's Law, they had to sing one of the more obscure psalm texts at one day's evensong, psalm 60, which includes the gem that Stephen Fry used for his autobiography's title, "Moab is my wash-pot". Needless to say, I was asked what it meant; I said the psalmist wasn't being very polite about the land of Moab! By way of a 'thank you', they sent me a few little Wuppertal trinkets on their return, including a mega-pencil depicting the Schwebebahn. Apparently, it still functions, albeit round about the time of their visit it was closed for some months for extensive repair and renovation.

One swallow spotted today down on the Solent. I hope it makes safely to its destination.

I am intrigued to be reminded of how long the southbound migration 'season' for swallows and house martins seems to last. There are still penny numbers of swallows being reported on most days passing through Hampshire, usually seen at points on the Solent coastline.

Thanks for the reminder, Futtocks. I, for one, had completely overlooked the anniversary. I seem to recall reading somewhere that the Australians only agreed to take part if France either subsidised or underwrote their costs. Is that right, or do I imagine it?

He lives in one of the villages near Fordingbridge, itself about twelve miles from Salisbury. He once came up to me in the Salisbury Railway Station car park to ask about arrangements for paying to use it. It's quite strange when you come across somebody, of whom you are specifically familiar from a particular, high profile role they have, comes up to you in this way! I had a colleague whose family lived next door to the Walkers, so as a little girl she just knew him as 'Uncle Murray'!

Delighted to learn that Angela Douglas, the actress who featured as the 'romantic interest' in quite a few "Carry on" films, is still with us and 80 today.

Same down here in the New Forest. I didn't see very many at all last year, but in previous winters have seen some massive flocks. The biggest flock I ever saw was in my days working in Skipton. I had been to a meeting in North Lancashire and was going home to Long Preston, the village south of Settle. From Gisburn, I headed up the A682 and, for the entire seven mile journey to Long Preston, a flock of fieldfares, no doubt with redwing amongst them too, was moving at right-angles across the road I was on. There must have been thousands and thousands!