Smile of the day - What is yours?

[Chris_SVS]

BPW is a week away!

[garynortheast]

Originally Posted by Chris_SVS

BPW is a week away!

[Adam Ef]

Originally Posted by garynortheast

Good looking bike Adam. You"ll not be wanting it to rain next weekend then!

No rain please.. more for my confidence with a new bike rather than wanting to keep it clean. Hopefully the ride up there will help me get more in tune with it. Riding it makes me realise how used to the SV I had become.

[Chris_SVS]

How are you finding the clutch lever? Even the 700 Tracer had really horrible throw to the point where I couldn't use it smoothly. Think I now use position 2/6 on my adjustable levers, have a quickshifter too so use the clutch a lot less over a ride.

[Adam Ef]

Originally Posted by Chris_SVS

How are you finding the clutch lever? Even the 700 Tracer had really horrible throw to the point where I couldn't use it smoothly. Think I now use position 2/6 on my adjustable levers, have a quickshifter too so use the clutch a lot less over a ride.

Terrible at first. Tried to adjust it out so it grabs about 2 cm out from the bar. Not ideal. Think some adjustable levers will be on the list of mods.

[garynortheast]

A couple of SotDs, both about similar things.

First the indescribable pleasure of standing quietly for 10 or 15 minutes and watching the bees working away on my front garden. I brought it back to where it should be this year by hoiking out the bloomin' pampas grass that had self set and was going for world domination, and then pruning the perennials (roses, hydrangeas, cotoneastor) and finally by densely sowing wildflower seeds in the empty spaces. It's now a fabulous looking area of flowers and the bees are loving it (and so am I!).

Secondly, walking 500yds up the lane. The second half of the walk is what makes me smile. I'll explain.

When I first moved to this village around 23 years ago the top half of the lane had verges with quite a lot of wild flowers in them, but over the years the bracken got in and starved the native wild flowers of the light they needed to thrive.

About eight years ago I started a little experiment and began pulling all the bracken out of a short stretch of one verge to see what would happen. The result the following spring was impressive so ever since then I have pulled all the bracken out of the whole length of the verge. Initially it was a lot of work but now, although the bracken does still show up, there is very little of it, and as soon as I see it, it comes out.

The results are spectacular and encouraged me three years ago to start doing the same thing to the opposite verge, which has responded similarly. This spring these two verges have been truly quite stunning to see. I've never seen them look so good and it really has made the effort so worth it. Huge smile.

[dirtydog]

Originally Posted by shiftin_gear98

I asked a 32 year old male colleague to drill a hole in a plastic container this morning. He came up to me and said it's not working. I asked him if he was using it properly. He said yes he was squeezing the button. A quick look and it was blatantly obvious that the drill was running backwards.

I'm 42, I used drills at school and at home helping out when I was younger. My kids have always "helped" assembling Ikea furniture and there has always been a willing helper when any job arises. My 4 year old helped me build my shed a few months ago drilling pilot holes etc (obviously my hand was on the drill too).
But she learnt about altering it to screw in and out. I couldn't get rid of her!

How can you get to 32 years old and never have used a drill before. It beggars belief.
Made me smile though.

Nice bike Adam.

You'd be surprised by how many people can't do the simplest of diy tasks, I've had a job where I've had to replace a bolt on a bathroom door also changing a couple of light bulbs

[admin]

Originally Posted by garynortheast

A couple of SotDs, both about similar things.



First the indescribable pleasure of standing quietly for 10 or 15 minutes and watching the bees working away on my front garden. I brought it back to where it should be this year by hoiking out the bloomin' pampas grass that had self set and was going for world domination, and then pruning the perennials (roses, hydrangeas, cotoneastor) and finally by densely sowing wildflower seeds in the empty spaces. It's now a fabulous looking area of flowers and the bees are loving it (and so am I!).



Secondly, walking 500yds up the lane. The second half of the walk is what makes me smile. I'll explain.



When I first moved to this village around 23 years ago the top half of the lane had verges with quite a lot of wild flowers in them, but over the years the bracken got in and starved the native wild flowers of the light they needed to thrive.



About eight years ago I started a little experiment and began pulling all the bracken out of a short stretch of one verge to see what would happen. The result the following spring was impressive so ever since then I have pulled all the bracken out of the whole length of the verge. Initially it was a lot of work but now, although the bracken does still show up, there is very little of it, and as soon as I see it, it comes out.



The results are spectacular and encouraged me three years ago to start doing the same thing to the opposite verge, which has responded similarly. This spring these two verges have been truly quite stunning to see. I've never seen them look so good and it really has made the effort so worth it. Huge smile.

I can equate to that. I'm tempted to sow some wild flowers at the end of my garden.

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[Seeker]

Originally Posted by admin

I'm tempted to sow some wild flowers at the end of my garden.

I did this and it's left me totally baffled:
The first year I got poppies, lots and lots of poppies (bees loved it).
Next year, no poppies - mostly cow parsley with a few oxeye.
This year mostly oxeye with white campion and a few poppies which I'd transplanted from the front garden. Bees are indifferent to oxeye but houseflies seem to like it (oh great! just what I needed). I also got 3 buttercups.

Last year I collected thousands of poppy seeds and liberally scattered them in another part of the garden and didn't get a single poppy. I did get an antirrhinum in another area. My foxglove is currently 4 feet tall with no sign of any flowers; I'm beginning to suspect it's a triffid.

I'm not what you could call an accomplished gardener. I read that if you plant daisies they'll be out of control in 3 years so I think I've checked that box.
My final comments about poppies - I started off with the plain red poppy - like the Remembrance Day variety, without any intervention I started getting pink ones, then purple and now I've got some that look like crinkled crepe paper. I think my house may be situated on nuclear waste.

[admin]

Originally Posted by Seeker

I did this and it's left me totally baffled:
The first year I got poppies, lots and lots of poppies (bees loved it).
Next year, no poppies - mostly cow parsley with a few oxeye.
This year mostly oxeye with white campion and a few poppies which I'd transplanted from the front garden. Bees are indifferent to oxeye but houseflies seem to like it (oh great! just what I needed). I also got 3 buttercups.

Last year I collected thousands of poppy seeds and liberally scattered them in another part of the garden and didn't get a single poppy. I did get an antirrhinum in another area. My foxglove is currently 4 feet tall with no sign of any flowers; I'm beginning to suspect it's a triffid.

I'm not what you could call an accomplished gardener. I read that if you plant daisies they'll be out of control in 3 years so I think I've checked that box.
My final comments about poppies - I started off with the plain red poppy - like the Remembrance Day variety, without any intervention I started getting pink ones, then purple and now I've got some that look like crinkled crepe paper. I think my house may be situated on nuclear waste.

Maybe I'll rethink that plan.

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