peds

Doesn't sound daft at all. Different people have different skillsets, and need to plan accordingly. I can't fly a plane, play the guitar, lactate... I could continue.

Don't know the costs involved for that specific pole, but it's possible you could cobble something together quite easily out of a clipstick intended for sport climbing. Edit: Like this one which telescopes to 6.5m Betastick Evo Ultra Long WWW.NEEDLESPORTS.COM An incredibly long clip stick - an absolute beast of a pole. It extends from 113cm to 648cm.

Haha, yeah, all good here, a lot of damage all over the place but we escaped quite lightly. Just doing a walk-around to assess the damage outside the house earlier, a few little trees down, nothing major... but then I saw our electric pylon leaning a good few degrees off vertical, and a stocky little goat willow fallen on the cable stay, with the top of the pylon swaying with each gust of wind... 800,000 homes in Ireland without power at time of writing, and I just about managed to stop it being 800,001 with a bit of careful snipping, then predictably enough the goat willow sat back down again once about 80% of the weight was gone.

Just watching Inglorious Basterds again. Such a good film.

Topped half a dozen cypress this morning, then rush job to get these two down before the storm arrives tonight... the beech wobbled a bit during the last storm and made the hole in the wall, I'd say today was its last day on the planet regardless of whether or not we pulled it down onto the lawn, and with the lean Eowyn would have put it across the road. Same with the spruce, too big, wouldn't be there tomorrow. Breaks my heart though... I had to knock over an apple tree that's probably as old as the house, 1830, to clear the path for the tirfor. So that's three trees that Eowyn can't claim!

He says that about a lot of things though, so I don't think he's really an authority on the matter. He said recently that sex with a woman, for enjoyment rather than procreation, is gay... so...

Well we only left a few feathers on them, but with 200kph winds (some say...), anything is possible! Some of the orange and slightly red warnings we've had lately have turned out to be a damp squib... which doesn't reinforce the faith people have in the forecast... but I think this one might get a bit exciting.

Anyone got anything fun planned? Schools closed tomorrow, and the fella I work for on Fridays has rightfully said we'll call it off... so in my house we'll probably have a lie-in, relaxed breakfast if we've got power, then I might take the dogs for a cautious stroll up the hill, observe the carnage. What's the threatened damage around your way?

Thank God they don't have to hire women anymore! Unpredictable, flighty creatures. Things will be more level-headed once they've left the workforce.

Brittas Empire... now there's a name I haven't heard in a long time. Would it be worth a rewatch, all these decades later? For the record, I think I'm LANTRA qualified for stumpgrinder. I don't know how to use one. I'm also LANTRA woodchipper, and I do know how to use one. So, yes, it's just like the Brittas Empire.

Lads! Hold your horses! I've been taming an escaped griselinia hedge yesterday and today. The homeowner, a builder, arrived midmorning to grab his trailer with, I think, a plumber's mate in tow. He, the plumber's mate, started chatting about the relative merits and complaints of the different species of hedge. At least you can bring griselinia back under control, I told him, after he complained about how quickly it grows. Not like leylandii which, as we well know, has to be removed if it manages to escape. You'll never get a hedge back, I tell him, because if you cut past the green and into the brown, it won't grow again. "Yes it will." He replies. Err... "I cut back a leylandii hedge with the flail mower, right down. It grew back fine." Umm, are you sure it was a leylandii? I ask. "Oh yes." So there you have it. Don't worry about going past the green, it'll grow back just fine.

Very thorough, you've got to give them that.

HUGELY annoying to walk away from a pair of boots in storage for a while and come back to crumbling soles. Not been working long enough for it to happen to chainsaw boots, but I've lost a few pairs of walking boots that way. Definitely something I'm aware of when purchasing chainsaw boots now.

Bruce Jenner? I wonder how long before he gets rounded up and... reassigned...

Sloppy is right! He's got a weird habit of spazzing out a bit when he's up on stage. I think he clocked it himself at the time, though. The second one was a lot more crisp. In case anyone missed the first one. Edit: would someone please put a sticker on Gareth's chart for sharing his fun history fact. Ta.

Yes please spud.

I was out. Considered using fresh statlers, but you'd need a crust of bread to muppet up with.

Gnocchi with roquefort, cream, broccoli stalk, apple, and celery leaf.