Swam in the deep with humpback whales and dolphins
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Did the Roman Road walk up to the Cold Kitchen Hill beacon in the Deverill Valley, SW Wilts. Pretty quiet up there today.
By way of reward, a pint at the Bath Arms, Horningsham, afterwards. My feet are completely shot !
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I’ve been watching an ABC interview with Nick Cave on Australian TV. It’s included in this piece in the Guardian and is well worth watching.
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He’s certainly a very different man from the Birthday Party days.
Thanks for posting it, Nigel.
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Superb really moving what Nick said and how he has reavulated everything now.
His honesty and also talking about the Red Hand and the messages he gets
Thanks HH
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The interview was very sensitively handled, calm and friendly. Nick Cave is such an interesting person and such a brilliant songwriter.
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Thanks for the link… enjoyed the interview.
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I got the last bag of Bolivian El Archangel and a small sample of this Guatamalian La Benediction grown at 1900-2100 m. The beans are described as cherries. The production process is described on the Golden Sheep site, and is really interesting.
Very delicious. Coffee is taking over from wine for health reasons. It’s just as enjoyable.
Phil
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We don’t do loads of miles in our car so don’t fill up with petrol very often. I went to our local garage earlier and the price had dropped to 139.7p. It’s not been under 140 for a while. We passed a garage a couple of miles away, which was very competitive for a long time, and the price there is 147.9. It’s odd that the prices are so different, with only two miles between them.
My daughter fills up on the A12 at Capel St Mary near the Copdock interchange with the A14. Its an Esso site, currently 135.9p for petrol or 141.9 for diesel.
Within a few miles, supermarkets are 7p or so more. Get 10 miles or so into the countryside, you could pay 160p for petrol. Lots of studies……lots of moans, but so far teethless. Luckily we use very little fuel with a plug in hybrid🤞🏽
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Yes, plug in hybrids work very well. Especially if you plug them in at night and keep them charged up for the $2 or so that the electricity costs. It’s new for us, but I expect we’ll be filling the tank every few months, if that, instead of once a week. They also have a smaller tank.
The £62 I spent yesterday was the first on fuel since June, so about £10 a week. We are waiting for a full electric in a few years time. Plug-ins seem to combine the worst of both worlds - oily bits and weight.
We get 40 miles on electric, for us except for long trips its all we need. The last plug in hybrid went back with over 7000 miles. It had been to Scotland, Bristol, North Norfolk, the Lake District and returned an overall 85mpg. We pay just £1.30 p overnight to charge to get those 40 EV miles. For me a no brainer until the EV market matures, resale values on EV’s are very poor.
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We get 42 mpg from my aging diesel van. We don’t care what it costs to fill an 80 litre tank, and we drive whenever we feel like it without any regard to carbon footprint or what anyone else might think. Having said that, we do less than 8000 miles per year, including a three month trip to Spain each year, as we prefer to walk or cycle whenever we can. More for our health, and not so much for any eco reasons.
I must admit, I don’t think these electric vehicles are as good as we’ve been led to believe. I don’t follow their progress too much, but time will tell.
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A visit yesterday afternoon to the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle.
Edit: I forgot one…
A very pleasant walk through the lock’s area, lovely gardens, boating activity and people enjoying the day!
Life is Sweet!
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Is it really worth the generation of a new vehicle and the associated huge carbon footprint for so few miles per year? Your current Audi has already been made and aside from some small use is adding zero pollution.
Unless it dies beyond economic repair or is written off it’s the most environmentally friendly option.
Of course you may just fancy a new car…
You’re right of course, and it’s important to see things in the round. It’s a lovely car, nice to drive and pretty economical, with an engine that drops to two cylinders when cruising.
We are off to Provence in two weeks, so that will use a bit more fuel than usual!
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I wasn’t aware of the cylinder ‘cut’ feature. It’s usually more common on 6 or 8 cylinder engines. I wonder if it toggles between the two pairs (1 & 4, 2 & 3) 
I’ve no idea. I just get in and drive. Pumping up the tyres and adding screenwash is about my limit, though I did manage to change the wiper blades last year.
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Lovely! Whereabouts?