Squaredy

Every time I come to the Scillies I love the Elms everywhere.  Today though I was totally blown away by the Monterey Pines.  This is my 12 year old with one, and a remarkable rope swing that has been set up on another.

Well I am not much of a gardener, and only nature can take the credit for these; but the wild strawberries on my site this year are laden with fruit.  My dogs were loving these today (right level for miniature dachshunds!).  This lot were growing just behind my office.

1 hour ago, Steve Bullman said:

I couldn’t not screenshot this video when i saw it 

 

 

This one is totally lost on me.  Maybe someone can explain...?

8 hours ago, polish pete said:

 I provide mobile milling services.  I use bandsaw mill, chainsaw mill and most recently swing blade Lucas.

 One of my regular clients asked for RAMS and qualifications.  I can write risk assessment and method statement but is there any recognised qualification similar to Nptc?

Don’t forget qualifications are not always written.  Not everything can be proven in a test environment.

If they are the type of organisation that is going to want everything on paper they might not be worth having as customers.

Changing the subject a little, how do you Arbtalkers feel about the de-criminalisation of late abortion?  

For those who don’t know, the amendment passed yesterday does not allow the UK medical profession to assist in late term abortions; it just allows a mother to order pills by post, and carry out her own abortion at any time before birth.  What she does then I have no idea.  Take the abortion pill then call an ambulance?  

37 minutes ago, Mark J said:

Funny this should come up.  Apparently the only reason that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction as the west claimed in order to justify the war, is because Israel had taken them out.

8 hours ago, Mark J said:

don't think that calling out a predominantly Pakistani rape gang is racist. Who told you it was?

Well our Prime Minister for one.  Look back to the reaction of the government at the beginning of the year on this issue.  

And as has already been linked in this thread, finally we can stop being called racist for pointing out that the rape gangs are overwhelmingly Pakistani men.  After years of denial this is now acknowledged.  In some cases young girls were convicted of child prostitution whilst rapists got off scott free.  It makes me ashamed of my country.

24 minutes ago, tree-fancier123 said:

Israel has taken better care of the Palestinians than Hamas?

I dont doubt Hamas steals some  of the aid, but Hamas has not bombed Palestinian cities into the ground.

Israel have repeatedly cut off water and electricity.

The American Indians got a lot of bad press at the time, journalists trying to justify gunning the savages down.

 

The mainstream media tend to portray the Palestinians as the victims.  When Hamas slaughtered over a thousand Israelis on 7 October Israel were hardly going to just demand an apology. 
 

To be fair ordinary Palestinians are of course the victims, they need to overthrow Hamas and learn to live in peace with their neighbour.  Hamas do not want peace - they want to totally destroy Israel.  That is what they have said for decades.  But the BBC will not tell you this.

4 hours ago, tree-fancier123 said:

With no one to stand up to Israel they will continue murdering and stealing land. What Israel has done in flattening Gaza and placing a perimeter blockade, starving people, seems to me one of the worst war crimes in recent years. You talk about Iran being the one with genocidal intentions - the IDF are nicer than the mullahs?

The number of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank is ramping up, Palestinians being murdered and pushed out all the time. Not all Jews are bad, but plenty of Israelis are. 

I feel that nearly all western news feeds the narrative of Iran must be stopped, no one says Israel must be stopped from their slow motion wiping out Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

 

 

As I said I don’t condone everything Israel are doing, but it is probably fair to say they take better care of the Palestinians than Hamas.  It is Hamas who stop the aid reaching the people in need.  Yes, they steal aid from their own people and then accuse Israel of causing famine.  They use the aid to fund the war.

On 14/06/2025 at 14:56, tree-fancier123 said:

what gets me is Israel and US are allowed to have masses of nuclear weapons, but they dont want Iran to have any.

You do know that the ruling regime in Iran wants to carry on where the Nazis left off don't you?  I don't support all Israel are doing, but I struggle to see how anyone could voice support for wiping out all Jews.

42 minutes ago, eggsarascal said:

MOT first thing in the morning, leave my mates place earlier, he says, ya know the reverse lights aren't working.

 

Changed fuse, new bulbs, shorted out switch, still no reverse lights. I'll clean the earth's up after ive fed. Failing that it's a break in the loom?

 

 

It looks to me as if reversing lights not working is NOT an MOT failure.  I suggest you check, but that is what a quick Google search suggests.

6 hours ago, Treehelp81 said:

Hello everyone,

 

please help me here. I think this is an oak tree? Well over 100 years old and absolutely massive.

 

is it at risk of dying or falling over anytime soon?

 

should I worry about the base of the tree being black? 
 

any general tips? 
 

thanks!

Well you can’t see the leaves close enough in the picture to confirm if it is an oak.  The general form looks nothing like native UK oak trees.  Am I right I’m guessing that this tree is not in the UK?

1 hour ago, Mark J said:

Palestinians gunned down while trying to reach food aid site in Gaza, hospital says | Israel-Gaza war | The Guardian

WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM

---

Witnesses say Israeli forces opened fire on people near distribution point run by Israel-backed foundation

 

From what I hear there is now a new method of distributing the aid.  The Americans are doing it directly.  Finally the people who actually are in need of food may actually get it.

I find it difficult to criticise the Israeli government for not allowing aid through knowing that it was not distributed by Hamas but sold to raise money to fund the war.  Why should Israel go to lengths to look after the Palestinian people when their own government don’t?

18 minutes ago, Mark Bolam said:

 

Just to give some idea of the scale of the problem, the Allies landed 156000 men on the beaches at Normandy 81 years ago.

 

At the current rate of invasion that’s 141 days, less than 5 months.

 

And it is an invasion.

 

48 hours warning plastered to every corner of the planet, in every language, so the whole world knows.

 

If you try and cross illegally you will be sunk and drown.

 

The message would get through very, very quickly.

 

To all the bedwetters who disagree, it’s no different to a ‘danger of death’ sign on a pylon.

If you’re stupid enough to climb it and touch a wire, you die.

 

Time to take the gloves off.

Whilst your suggestion is probably unnecessarily harsh, I suspect the majority of people now finally agree with you in principle.  What used to really annoy me when the wife and I watched the BBC or ITV news (we no longer bother with main-stream media) was that no-one ever said ‘But they are coming from France’.  We were expected to buy the narrative that they were escaping persecution and war.

What a stupid thing to do: cross a dangerous busy shipping lane in a totally unsuitable boat.  No wonder the government at one point wondered whether they could just ‘push them back’.

29 minutes ago, AHPP said:

 

Not this time. It broke down into dog numbers quite nicely and they need the meat more than I do. Might have done if the Rayburn was going.

 

 

Lucky dogs!

I like that you got the butchers block to use as a butchers block!  They usually get turned into a trendy island these days from what I gather.

5 hours ago, AHPP said:

 

Dry

Wet

Wet

 

I’m seeing very prominent medullary rays. 
 

Just done a muntjac on it. Four meals for two dogs.

 

 

Sailor had the head for breakfast. Ran up to the gate to bark at someone with it in his mouth, his tongue hanging out one side, muntjac tongue the other. Artful PR.  

It’s beech.  The medullary rays are what I wanted to look for.

I trust you also will be having some of the muntjac?

3 hours ago, AHPP said:

 

 

 

Previous owner used it to drill things on. 
 

Beech?

It does look like beech, but if you get a sharp really close image it will be easier to tell.

4 hours ago, slack ma girdle said:

Here you go @Squaredy a couple of pictures. There isn't going to be enough to make up a lorry load from the windblow, but we will thinning here this winter.

Thank you for that.  By all means keep me posted of the winter thinning, but it is only going to work if a lorry load can be made up, and even then I would have to see pictures to assess the quality.

36 minutes ago, slack ma girdle said:

Never managed to sell them as saw logs in the past.

The logs will be stacked here

Google Maps

WWW.GOOGLE.COM

Plenty of room for a lorry to turn around in.

I am there tomorrow, i will take a couple of photos of what is cut so far.

 

OK great, thank you.

57 minutes ago, Stere said:

Whats the end usages out of interest once milled?

Many and varied.  Alder is very pretty timber if allowed to spalt a little.  Lime is mainly used by carvers.  Beech has all sorts of uses, all small scale and indoor.

5 hours ago, slack ma girdle said:

We Are just starting storm damage and windblow here, there is definitely saw log in lime and beech. The transport from Angle may be a killer through.

Well you could always work out a price for logs including haulage, see if it sounds feasible.  I guess from there everywhere will be a fair old treck?!  My yard is near to Usk.

Or did you already have someone lined up for the sawlogs?

12 minutes ago, Canal Navvy said:

Angle is South side of the Milford Haven oil terminal, went on Holiday there last summer and rather liked it 🙂

 

Ah so it is.  Looks lovely doesn't it?

8 minutes ago, Steven P said:

That's the interpretation of the written law, though the law makers update the laws as necessary if case law does not do as they want (which is the fault of the law makers for not describing the law properly first time round of if society changes). The judges aren't making the laws and if they aren't fit for purpose they can repeal them either.

No; quite wrong.  Refer to 

Common law - Wikipedia

EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

Common law is a vast and ever increasing body of law that is also referred to as "judge-made law".

19 minutes ago, slack ma girdle said:

We Are just starting storm damage and windblow here, there is definitely saw log in lime and beech. The transport from Angle may be a killer through.

If you are in Pembrokeshire this might work.  I don't know where Angle is though.... or was this an auto-correct type error?