Today's News

[Gemini]

Disgusting despicable man.

[Daisy]

Fleet is a small town in Hampshire, probably best known by travellers as a Service Station on the M3. But if you asked a resident of Fleet about a local point of interest they might well point to W C Baker - a traditional family-run ironmongers shop.

It has traded in the town for 112 years, but is now closing. Started by Wyndham Baker in 1908, it has been run by three generations of the same family. The current owner, Geoffrey, has run the store since the 1970s, and has judged that this is the right time to bow out. Closing date - yesterday - would have been emotional for many of their customers who have depended on Bakers to stock most things, and give advice as well.

I imagine to the good people of Fleet this was like Woolworths closing down was to many of us - losing a place where you could get certain things that didn't seem to be available anywhere else.

We are lucky in our village to have a similar old-fashioned ironmongers where you can buy anything from one screw to a central heating unit and most things in between - all served with a smile and good advice.

[Plantaholic]

We are lucky enough to have a shop that sells everything n our local parade, a short drive for me. If they don’t stock it they will get it for you. It is now run by the son of the man who started it many years ago. I hope they will keep going for a long time.

[Daisy]

Plant - I agree. I hope these shops go from strength to strength.

It's been difficult to find some news I'd like to share with you all today. I don't know whether that's because it's been a wet, miserable day, or I've just not found anything that isn't all doom and gloom. But I've just read an article about the first pictures of the planet Mercury returned to earth via the Euopean BepiColombo mission.

I can never remember which planets are where, apart from earth that is, but I think Mercury is closer to the sun.

The photos which have been filtering back so far are low resolution 'happy snaps' but are still clear enough to see the craters on the surface as well as areas which have been smoothed out by volcanic lava. Brighter area show where there have been volcanic explosions and other areas where some of the surface is dissipating to space.

Once the probe is travelling in the same direction as Mercury the powerful high-resolution cameras will be put into operation. This should be in December 2025, and full scientific operations are due to start in 2026.

The European element of the mission will map Mercury's surface, and collect data on structure and composition. The Japanese part of the operation will study Mercury's magnetic field and how it reacts with the solar wind which whips atoms into a tail that reaches far into space.

I've checked! Mercury is the closest to the sun. Then Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. I'm not sure why Pluto was downgraded from being a planet but that would come after Neptune.

[Plantaholic]

Well done Daisy.

[Daisy]

Today's news is a little late. But this caught my attention:

Electric cars are being heralded as the future, the way to save the planet from devastation by air pollution from traffic fumes. But if you're a fan of classic, vintage or veteran (I don't know what the difference is!) cars what will happen when you can no longer buy fuel for it! A gentleman with the memorable name of Matthew Quitter has a solution. Working out of a garage under a railway arch in Vauxhall his company replaces the old-fashioned combustion engines of classic cars with electric engines. He gets these from crashed Electric Vehicles (EVs) such as Teslas and Nissan Leafs (Leaves?)

One of the lesser known downsides of EVs is that they don't have to suffer a lot of damage to be written off by insurance firms. He acquires motors and batteries which haven't been damaged and fits them into classic cars, like his own 1953 Morris Minor. Conversions are not cheap - currently about £20,000 per conversion, but Mr Q hopes to get that down to about £5,000 eventually.

Steve Drummond, another 'converter' agrees. He says the incentives are to buy new EVs but that's throwing away a whole car when you could just change the engine.

Classic cars converted to electric have some financial incentives. All classic cars (those built before 8 January 1981) are exempt from road tax for private use. Classic car insurance is also cheap if the vehicle doesn't do a high mileage. Of course your insurance company may see things differently if it knows your 1960s Mini now has a Tesla engine powering it!

[Daisy]

Amazon is about to open its first non-food store in the UK. It already had six grocery convenience stores with checkout-free technology, but this venture at the Blue Water shopping mall near Dartford will only sell its best-rated products - those which have at least 4-star approval by online customers.

The range of products will reflect what its customer buy online, items like books, electronics, toys games and homeware. There will even be a "Most Wished For" section made up of items from customers' wish lists.

I can't decide whether this will become a very popular place to visit, but think it might be a bit like Lidl-in-the-Middle aisles.

[Daisy]

During Covid the daily commute to work became a thing of the past for many people, and it has stayed that way for quite a large proportion of the workforce. They aren't keen to go back to the daily scramble for train seats, buses that don't turn up or the inevitable traffic jams twice a day.

But surfboard instructor, Reuben Mellor-Clark found a new way to tackle his journey home.

A high spring tide and a big swell created a Bore at Perranporth in Cornwall. A Bore is created when waves are squeezed into the river channel leading to the beach - the Severn Bore is one which attracts crowds of onlookers.

Twenty-one year old Reuben was about to go home when he spotted a large wave going his way. He did what most keen surfers would do and jumped in to get an easy ride home. The ultimate zero emission commute!

[Gemini]

Wow, fun ride home!

[Daisy]

Gem, it caught my eye because I remembered years ago there was a lot of flooding in Lymington, near to two sailing clubs. One of DS1's friends sailed his dingy the length of the road alongside the river, and someone sent a photo to the local newspaper!

[Daisy]

If you live in or around Blackburn in Lancashire you may have noticed a couple of unusual crops - a field of flax growing beside the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. (Was this the one Gem has recently been exploring?) Harvested in early August, the flax has been processed and woven to create the fabric linen.

The other crop - woad - was harvested and the leaves were heated and then cooled in water to create a natural indigo dye, just right for your new jeans - or the home-grown linen fabric.

A portion of this linen will be displayed at the British Textile Biennial 2021 festival being held in various venues in east Lancashire this month.

The flax and woad were produced by a fashion consortium called Homegrown Homespun.

The Lancashire area used to be the centre of global textile manufacturing, but the industry moved to countries that could produce textiles more cheaply after World War II. HH is aiming to rebuild the supply chain and flax, sometimes called Britain's forgotten crop, used to be grown all over the UK. At one time it was law that all landowners had to grow a flax crop.

Flax, currently grown for their seeds and oil productions, is a hardy crop, needing no watering, pesticides or fertiliser, and the delicate blue flowers create a haze of colour over a field sown with this versatile plant.

[Gemini]

That was the canal we were on Daisy yes

We live near a village named Flaxton. Fields of flax grow nearby!

[Daisy]

Gem - I think a field of flax in flower looks beautiful.

[Plantaholic]

Terrible news of the killing of Sir David Hermass. Why are they targeting MP’s?

[Gemini]

Awful Plant