Théière

[quote user=" YCCMB"]We had pyracantha at our last house, growing up by the side of the front door. All I can say is that the flowers smell like dead people. I guess if your hedge is far enough away from your house, it's not a problem.[/quote]Definitely don't want the smell of dead people but farther away sounds doable. We already have a yellow flowering bush that smells of sperm!

[quote user="Flaneur"]I'm not a gardener, so treat my suggestion with caution, but what about hawthorn? It's nice and thorny, so makes a good boundary. And anything thorny makes a safe refuge for nesting birds, and birds eat insects, so everyone's a winner![/quote]Just ripped out loads of ugly hawthorn at great expense, not likely to put it back!

Thank you both, looking into them now. Just how spikey nasty are pyracantha thorns, been looking at Google images but can't really see the prickly bits.

Massive garden clearing going on. Lots of ivy and bramble removal. Now the garden is all open, we need to re plant but what with? Don't want privet or conifers as too many biting insects and they are boring. Any suggestions?

[quote user="Chocfish"]What I'm wondering is whether there is any easy way to convert them to something that will take a modern lampshade? Would the old cabling need to be replaced or can it be incorporated into a more modern fitting? And could this be removed if we ever leave, presuming that the owners actually like the old style fittings? Cheers for any info.[/quote] New light fittings are required to be fitted to a removable fitting, that means it's easy to take away your light whilst leaving the modern fitting as a plug in for who ever comes after. Whether you feel confident and it doesn't sound like you are. Then an electrician should be able to fit this easily for you.

You won't really live 1.2 years longer but it will feel like it ?

UV from sunlight will damage the wood so one of the widely available oils, luberon etc may well have a UV block in the mix. Varnish will as already said stop the absorption of oil, and any varnish product would also need a UV block to allow the timber to last longer.

Why should you be paying for a soil sample? The Foss is non conforming so it would effect any purchaser.

It's easy to get ones connections to swap platform. Just ask if they are all fed up with the advertising. This site is bad enough. Blooming screen jumps around until the last ad has finally finished loading.

Awesome

[quote user="Gardengirl "]Happy New Year everyone, and especially Hoddy, who does an excellent job - it must be awfully difficult at times with some unruly posters! A light hand on the reins is appreciated.[/quote] Seconded, happy new year everyone.

Not off the top of my head but I would warn you away from ever considering using the Vendée supplier.

Not wishing to disagree with you Betty, where I currently hang out during the day is predominantly a young persons place.  They are very heavily into PC and diversification (or what they perceive that to be)  This is, as discussed before, taken to extremes with shared toilets so no one "given a sex at birth" can be offended if they now "identify" as something else. This long winded and drawn out consultation about accepting others no matter what and not causing any embarrassment, except by some trying to find the correct new term to describe the being, has resulted in one group being completely left out! Anyone over the age of 50!

Providing the plumbing was installed correctly that would be true. I have seen builders chuck all sorts down toilets and also mix plaster in the customers brand new bath! Completely clogging the waste system.

[quote user="Tancrède"] [quote user="Bonnie"]it is gritty…[/quote] Aaaah. I think that this might be the crucial detail. The first time I had Gritty Lavatory Syndrome I was totally baffled for a couple of days - until I finally worked out what had occurred. There was no one in the house at the time whose digestive products were likely to be composed of grit to any significant extent, neither could it reasonably be attributed to 'backing up'. But, a painter and decorator had been doing a bit of work in a room not far away. He was an impeccably tidy worker but, having left for another chantier he entrusted the final sweeping up to his young assistant. The said assistant decided that these insignificant sweepings - dust, dirt, fragments of paper and other debris - would make a worthy offering to Cloacina and consigned it to the lav, neglecting to notice that it also contained a quantity of brick-dust, decomposed mortar etc. Everything else duly disappeared, leaving only a puzzling sandy and gritty residue which I didn't in fact notice until several days later. I wondered briefly what to do about it, and concluded that the best thing was to ignore it in the hope that it would go away spontaneously - which it did (until the next time it happened). [/quote]so you employed wankers, has the OP employed similar in the previous month's?

Or a minor fractured pipe! Interesting that it's running back (uphill) into the bowl.

Yep, they are real swines aren't they

Whilst jamming of radio signals per say is without a legal permission. This would most likely be seen as a possible act of terrorism so an awful lot easier to get permission. Too out of touch to know about the jamming effect on the latest tech

[quote user="You can call me Betty or Queenie if you prefer"]Nick P says "call barring doesn't always work in the UK if the calls are from a foreign country" We had to replace our phone a while back and bought one of the BT ones that screen ALL your calls. Anyone who rings is advised that we are using BT call screening and that they need to say their name before we get to hear who it is and decide if we want to accept the call. Since we got the phone, we haven't had a single nuisance call. And it doesn't disturb us, because the phone won't ring at all our end until the caller has identified themselves. We can list those numbers of friends and family that we are happy to let through without screening, so it's now pretty much guaranteed that if the landline rings, it will be someone we want to hear from.[/quote] +1

Cold calling

If all you had was brexit morning, noon and evening with the plot and characters far less entertainment, you to would turn to strictly although I draw the line at East Ender's!

[quote user="Gardian"] The EU states won’t make any further concessions, other than a bit of flowering up the text a bit here and there. Our negotiating position is a busted flush - [/quote]That could well set the precedent for a no deal leave, I have picked up from others that they feel the EU is now not for them and would give it the 2 fingered salute.  The public vote to remain is weakening.

Watched re-runs of Yes Minister, still so relevant.

Paul my post was related to the Newhaven Dieppe crossing not the tunnel.

My post was from July