sime42

As Dan's comments above, but I'd add a 4th compromise that might have to be made; Money. Probably obvious but might be worth saying. Nobody will pay very much when you're just starting out, with little experience and part-time, so you will face some drop in income whatever happens There is a large element of "right place, right time" I think. I was lucky by indirectly finding a guy who needed some help with some manual forestry cutting work, thinning. (To be blunt about it; he needed me with my recently acquired tickets to be able to get the job. As his had expired!) I worked my socks off for 6 weeks and got paid bugger all at the end of it. Wasn't too p*ssed though as it was invaluable experience of using a saw in anger and I wasn't doing anything else much at the time anyway.

Here's some good news. It was a p*ss poor proposal in the first place. The rail network is bad enough as it is. Went into our local station the other day to find some train times for the local service, and found that they don't have the big printed timetables posted up on the walls anymore. I must have been lucky as I did find a real person in the ticket office, but she said they don't even have the TTs on printed leaflets anymore either. I feel sorry for a lot of the older generation who don't have smartphones or internet access. Plans to close rail ticket offices in England scrapped WWW.BBC.CO.UK The government tells train firms to ditch the controversial closures, sparking anger from rail bosses.

Here's the answer; Roast Squirrel stuffed with Chestnut! Sounds good to me.

Looks like some are a bit too early but they're dropping now anyway. Hopefully they'll keep as well as last year. We had more than that and barely a couple of handfuls that went mouldy or wormy.

Things are about to get a whole load more confusing for the hard of thinking as well;- Boris Johnson to join right-wing broadcaster GB News – POLITICO WWW.POLITICO.EU The former PM will join Nigel Farage and Jacob Rees-Mogg on the broadcaster’s roster.

Wrong type of rain, that's all. Therese Coffey Blames Rain Coming From The Wrong Direction For Flooding Failure WWW.HUFFINGTONPOST.CO.UK Environment secretary says Britain has got dealing with downpours from the west down to a "fine art". Less so from the east.

Sounds good. Comfort food as well. I'm a big fan of the rarer, (these days), cheaper cuts of meat. Loads of flavour, just need a little longer to cook.

A hearty winter stew. Made with a nice, respectably sized slab of Beef Skirt.

It's not unduly heavy, I've never felt it on my neck. The one problem I have found though is that most of the weight is at the front. So it has a tendency to slip forward and down at the front of you're leaning over for a prolonged time. I was wearing it whilst working in the loft, replacing all the rubbish old glass fiber insulation, and I kept having to push the face shield away from my nose. I was kneeling down, looking down most of the time.

Another vote for Trend Airshield Pro. Absolutely nothing gets into mine. Plus you've got eye/face/head protection all bundled in, and it never fogs up. Only downside is that is a slightly noisy, but that's nothing major.

Moving on from this particular detail of the hospital, and back to the wider picture of the whole situation. What's the endgame? Setting aside for now the inhumanity of what's happened, and is still happening, what's the strategy of the Israeli government, aside from its immediate objective? I'm not sure that they've really considered it. Say they do succeed in erasing Gaza, which I'm sure they can, given enough time and collateral damage. They'll kill some or most of Hamas and the general (innocent) population and the rest will escape the country. (Though I heard somewhere that the Hamas top dogs don't actually live in Gaza anyway). What happens then? The best case is a whole new generation of jihadi fighters is spawned, hell bent on carrying out more terrorist atrocities. Worst case is more Islamist groups and maybe countries in the region get drawn into the conflict with unknown consequences for the rest of the world. Israel is surrounded by Arab, Muslim countries and there are still more Muslims all over the globe; it can't fight them all forever.

I'm very surprised. I'm sure the Raki I was really enjoying back in the summer was near the 40% mark. They were serving it in pretty small carafes, but I'd feel it the next morning if more than a few were consumed! Yep, good for the digestion, apparently. I much prefer it to Ouzo. Lovely part of the world, southern Crete. We travelled right past Rodakino, stopped off just west of there for a swim and a very good lunch of pork and beans. Spiaggia di Polyrizos

Robinia pseudoacacia, (Black Locust)?

And it will definitely end up as Ash.

That's looks a bit over pruned to me. As little as possible is best with Birch in my experience, as they don't respond well to pruning, they over compensate with new growth. That bit in the middle at the top looks odd too, not been thinned at all. What was agreed on before work started?

It sure looks like Israel is carrying out collective punishment, despite assurances to the contrary. Not sure how things like this can be anything else but. 'Hundreds of people killed in Israeli strike on a hospital in Gaza with more trapped under the rubble', Hamas claims - as the Israeli military says it is investigating incident | Daily Mail Online WWW.DAILYMAIL.CO.UK Photographs out of Gaza showed fire engulfing the hospital halls, shattered glass and body parts scattered across the area... A sure fire way to fast track recruitment of the next generation of jihadi fighters, not to mention the obvious; untold suffering to innocent people. Looks like there'll never be an end to this horrible mess.

Good rant, spot on. As a note; Bison have been reintroduced somewhere in Kent. Time will tell how that pans out. Wilder Blean Bison Project | Kent Wildlife Trust WWW.KENTWILDLIFETRUST.ORG.UK We have introduced European bison to help restore UK wildlife and tackle the climate crisis. From that article;- """In the UK, lack of woodland management is one of the eight biggest drivers of species decline. """

Cheers for those photos Doug, interesting to see something like that. You're lucky to be involved in the job. I wouldn't have imagined that they'd raise and lower the blade like that, though it's obviously necessary given the length. It must have been a particularly wind free day I assume? Otherwise it looks like even that huge trailer could be flipped over fairly easily, even with its 96 wheels!

I thought mine was a considerable pile of black pudding. Not sure I could face a whole plate of blood by itself!

Interesting dinner tonight.

MOD surplus Gortex. Cheap and hard wearing.

Yeah, that's pretty grim. Surprising that the agents agreed to sell the place in that state. Not sure I'd recommend Iffracombe though, in case anyone's tempted.