pumpkinstrokemarrow

Must write to the National Trust about the disgraceful state of the exceptional signal box at Dawlish Warren railway station. Shut up, as far as one can see, just rotting away, propped up by two props the terminal concrete blocks of which take up about three car spaces in the not very large car park. Given that the signal box may date all the way back to that illustrious engineer Brunel, I think someone should do something about it. Another peice of national treasure in danger of sliding down the pan.

Must also write to Mr Google about the dreadful state of his clocks (maybe also mentioning the fact that Exeter Library does not seem to care for some of his security certificates. Rejects them a fair proportion of the time). The time stamps on my posts give the unfortunate impression that I blog in the small hours of the morning - which I presume to be the time in the Mountain View (a guess. But I have a soft spot for the name having once met a Finn who was going there) bunker which houses the relevant server farm. I wonder if they do tours of what must be a very impressive bit of kit. I think the Amazon do tours of their very impressive warehouse, somewhere in the South of England, provided you can drum up some interest beyond the casual and don't try around Christmas when they have a lock down or something. So maybe Google with their very public service ethos do something of the sort too.

Yesterday I became more closely acquainted with the workings of plastic bell compost makers - the big black plastic things, roughly the shape of a bell, but with a lid on the top and sometimes with a hatch at the bottom. I dare say one can get them from the council these days. Getting more closely acquainted involved emptying two of them and digging the compost into FIL's potato patch - this year's that is, not next year's. The compost had been made from a mixture of garden and kitchen waste, was very dry (despite there being a reasonable supply of the little red worms which do the business) and was not as good as the stuff I get out of our rather larger brick compost bin. So the considered view is: whereas 1) despite being four feet or so high and taking up a lot of space, they do not hold a great deal; 2) they are reasonable awkward to load and empty; and, 3) they do keep the rats and mice out, I conclude that they are not as good a deal as the brick compost bin. I can live with putting out the traps.