Sunday's Spotlight - A useful tip and Chaos in Lincoln

BY GUEST BLOGGER PETE.

This week I'd like to start off the blog post with a tip. We have a winter jasmine plant outside our house. We've had it for well over 20 years and it covers most of the front of the building. It is just beginning to flower now - small yellow flowers - and lasts for some time giving a nice splash of colour during late autumn. Even in summer, when there are no flowers, its bright green adds to the summery sight.

However, the spiders simply adore this jasmine. They cover it with fine net curtains of web throughout the year. These spiders, who also like the warmth inside the house, from time to time, have managed to get inside and  indulge themselves.

Now here is where conkers come into their own. No health and safety rules apply for this usage of conkers!!!!  Just put a few along a window sill.  "Hey presto !" Your spider problem will be solved. Beware, though, you must change them each year -- conkers not spiders!!!(Editors note: check here for the truth about spiders and conkers!).

Lincoln was in chaos last weekend and the same applies this weekend, although, hopefully, not next weekend. The city has a number of railway level crossings splattered all around it; not least in the very centre itself. Here we have a level crossing going right over the main high street.

This causes quite a bit of chaos but nothing compared to what it was like last weekend and will be like this weekend.

Repairs are being undertaken on the main London to Edinburgh railway line between Peterborough and Doncaster. All the trains that use this busy  line are being diverted at Peterborough to go through Spalding, Sleaford and Lincoln before rejoining the main route at Doncaster. This adds about 1 1/2 hours to the normal journey time.  Chaos results in the city centre as the crossing gates close so many more times and traffic causes chaos as it snaking through the city's inadequate streets.

City centre shopkeepers complained last weekend that there was a 40% drop in the number of Saturday shoppers and that is likely to increase this weekend. We are fortunate because we are able to avoid the crossing but not everyone can enjoy this luxury. Other plans in the pipeline are to divert all goods traffic off the main route and run it from Peterborough to Doncaster viaLincoln, thus speeding up the mainline passenger transport. At one time Lincoln had a bridge taking pedestrians over the railway line. Some years ago citizens woke up to find this perfectly good bridge had been taken down. Now half the citizens are cut off from the city centre.  If you are a train spotter there is one bit of good news.  Normally you can gain access to Lincoln Central station only if you are a passenger.  Non passengers are kept off the premises.  For this weekend only, though, train spotters will be allowed on the station without charge providing they sign a note saying they are only there for spotting purposes!!!!!!!!!!!

Pam and I have had a couple of days with our elder daughter in London this week. More about that, though, next week. However the photos this week are from a trip I made to Covent Garden. More news of his trip next week.

Sunday's spotlight - This time of the year

BY GUEST BLOGGER PETE


It's about this time of the year that the garden has to be made ready for its winter sleep. It's been rather a mixed year from my garden -- some good features and some not so good.

Our lawns had become very weed and moss ridden over the past few years; so much so that I began to despair of ever being able to rescue them. Earlier in the year a friend of Pam's mentioned a firm who had rescued her garden and we decided to give them a try.

This rescue firm work under the name of "Green Thumb".  They don't cut the grass or dig up the weeds but four times a year they pay a visit and spray the lawn with various mixtures of food and, I suppose, weed killer. The result for us has been the most healthy lawn that we have had here for some years. The weeds and moss have gone and in their place we now have thick rich green grass. Mind you, the grass does grow rather quickly, which means more cutting but then you can't have everything can you!

 A friend of mine, who kindly mowed my lawns whilst Pam and I were in the US this year, mentioned that my garden looked a picture soon after we'd gone away. This was due mainly to the many bedding plants that we had planted in it. Unfortunately for us, but not for our fellow countrymen, we had two or three weeks of hot sun and no rain whilst we were away and so by the time we returned the garden looked a bit parched to say the least. We've just about got it back again now with the annual bedding plants having recovered and doing really well. Pity it has taken so long into the autumn to get it there - frost due pretty soon!!!!!!!!

Just lately there has been a city council, somewhere in the UK, who knocked down all the conkers from horse chestnut trees in case someone injured themselves whilst collecting them. When I was a boy knocking conkers off a tree was regarded as great seasonal fun with the prospect in the future of countless games of conkers with school friends.  Now children aren't allowed to play conkers at school -- another health and safety dictate or just a headteacher feeling it best to play safe?

 

We'll all be required to wear suits of armour soon!
This week's photos are of the beautiful wall tiles in All Saints Church, Lincoln.