Not taking biking into account, I really like Glenshee/ Braemar area, i like the solitude and lack of people. And all the deer and fungus! I also spent a week near Fearnmore on the West coast, loved it there but the weather was shite, but no more shite than Wales’ West Coast. Snow in November made up for it though, as does the night sky, when you do get a glimpse. That would make the extra hassle of travelling 14 miles to the nearest shop worth it, in my book.
I cant think why someone would move to Scotland and not take advantage of the riches you can only get there, like the sheer scale of mountains and low pop density outside of the big cities, but thats just me, im very solitary by nature.
Mate ,I wish I had the option to go, but my trade and family ties keeps me grumbling in the (warm) rain for a few years yet. Good luck with wherever you choose.

Whatevers in the big red drums supplied by safetykleen. Get someone who works in a factory to get you a bottle full. Magnificent drivetrain cleaner. Even better if you put it in an ultrasonic cleaner.
The absolute best stuff I ever used was the alkali floor cleaner that comes in big IBCs. Warning though, it changed the colour of the black anodising on my XT hubs. Great for chains though.

Pretty sure it was cerium oxide powder.

What about pop rivetting a piece of stainless or chromed mesh over the air holes to prevent embers escaping? Just an idea…

Seiko sapphire glass is amazing, im very impressed with how hard it is, nothing has scratched it, except one thing.
Unthinkingly wore mine whilst mig welding and the drop of molten steel which hit it gave it a little crater in the crystal. Other than that, i work in a toolroom and nothing has scratched it all. The rest of the watch is scratched all to hell though.
I had a seiko with mineral glass which was so scratched you legit couldnt read it once. I bought some kind of powdered glass polish and polished the crystal, it was like new after an hours work.

Alicia Keys – This Girl is on Fire.

Amiens Polka – the Dreadnoughts
Carbona not glue- Ramones
No Good – Prodigy
Flower of Scotland sung by the crowd at some sporting event , absolutely amazing.

Do not rotovate!
Now if you were to, say, accidentally mix glyphosate and ammonium sulphamate in a sprayer and douse the area, because accidents can happen in modern horticulture, then you might find that the foliage turns a crispy grey colour in not too much time and you will have controlled it for that year. Note how I said controlled , not eradicated.
Apparently exposing the vascular tissue in the stem by giving the stuff a damn good hiding with a whippy stick works to get past the problem of the waxy cuticle protecting the outside of the plant from aforementioned accidental spillage of ammonium sulphamate. Pay attention, not Sulphate, but SulphAMate.
Of course it would be highly irresponsible to recommend a substance not ratified for horticultural use as a weedkiller ( something to do with Irish Beagles, if memory serves), so I wont. Just know that it works.
I accidentally bought some from a company called Mistral , i think, via Amazon, comes in a big silver pouch. Must be more careful in future.

I accidentally mixed a kg per 10 litre in my sprayer, that was a happy accident cos thats the dosage recommended. Bloody stuff accidentally murdered my marestail. Be careful out there.
I may have got the dosage wrong there, i know it dissolves pretty readily. I thi k I accidentally added it until it wouldnt dissolve any more.

Oh, and someone i know shot one, then took a photo and sent it to me. I had the ohoto examined by the big cat fella, Rick Minter, but his opinion was that it was just a very large domestic cat. This cat was shot whilst this person I know was out shooting foxes during lambing season and this cat was in the fields too.
Just remembered I saw one about 3 years ago too in a local country park, but I smelled it before I saw it, it reeked of catpiss.

Oh I’ve got a few of these, used to spend hours out at night in the middle of nowhere as a teenager, i hated towns then and still do.
First uo, I have had 4 encounters with big cats in the UK. First time, i came around a hairpin bend on top of a mountain and there, on a dry stone wall, sitting on its haunches, was what I can only describe as a puma, about 15 ‘ away from me. It looked at me for about a second or two, then took off and in one leap cleared the single track road i was on ,over the dry stone wall the other side and was off into the bracken.
Second time was about half a mile from the first encounter, my beagle suddenly went mental and tore off towards a wooded verge. There in the field above was a big cat,drinking from a stone trough. i couldnt see it but i could hear it hissing and growling at the beagle.
Third encounter was whilst out on a bike ride with a mate, a few of you have probably ridden this way too. This was in the forestry near Pelenna, on the other side of the hill to Afan. We were riding along and I had promised him a view of something cool as I had seen some hares running in the distance some time before. We were riding along when out of the forestry , 10’ in front of us , shot a big black cat. I mean BIG, not farm moggy size, I’m talking labrador plus a bit.
Fourth time was just a pawprint in a cricket field, the size of my palm with no claw marks. Covered it with a plastic bag of the stuff they use on the wicket (marl?) but it was gone next morning.
Have found weird things like half a terrier stashed in a forest, sheep bones up trees, but that could be general scavengers.

No idea how to get rid of them, but i was lifting some bulbs on the weekend and noticed they had colonised some plants, as in totally taken them over and built small nests around the corms, complete with eggs and larvae .
Also watch them farming aphids on my plum tree which keeps dropping leaves every summer due to aphid infestation.

Very much depends what time of year. Absolutely a rainstorm after a dry hot period, but when youre into your 5th month of seemingly non stop grey skies and everything is perma wet, it gets really soul destroying. Living on the West coast can eat your joy some times.

I have a million questions and challenges for you, but have absolutely no intention of meeting up and being filmed.
Am very interested in a priests take on why , when religious people talk of their god, its a god of love, equality, and peace, when all around I see the exact opposite.
Am also intrigued because the majority of truly religious people appear selfless and well intentioned, almost to a fault.
Feel free to PM if you want, I would be happy to help you with your research, if you feel you want it.

Saw a newish Kona FireMountain outside the gym yesterday, thought it looked a really nice bike, not sure of the spec though. Always had a soft spot for Kona since my much beloved 1994 Fire Mountain.
No idea what the new ones ride like though.

Dunno if this helps, but all the tourniquets i used to have were branded with drug company logos. Might be worth asking around drug companies or reps to see if they have spares. They were used as promo items but they were real tourniquets.

If ever there was a thread that needed pics, this is it…

Yo Gabba Gabba used to have proper bands write little musical ditties for the show. My fave was probably Rocket From The Crypts” He’s A Chef”.

Cannondale Scalpel softail mk.1
Rocky Mountain Slayer
Cannondale hardtail in the Volvo colours
Saracen Kili Cromo in powder blue
Milk bikes belt drive prototype with the bendy top tube- All Day Long?
Saracen Clever Mike with the stickers decals
Genesis Ioid
Ibis BowTi
Corratec RaceBow
Kinesis Maxlight AluCarbon thing . In Red.

Single use plastic razors- the actual shaving component is miniscule compared to the rest of the assembly. Seems old Gramps had it right back in the day with DE razor blades.

Interested in this, Mrs.Marone has plantar fascitis and am wondering if anyone has any experience of arch support insoles relieving this problem?

Forgot all about this thread, what ,if anything, did you end up getting, OP? You say youre South Wales based, coastal or mountainous?
Just had a thought too, was there any signs of fruiting fungus bodies on your tree stump? I lost an apricot tree and a beautiful flowering cherry (okame) both to honey fungus. Dont know if I’m just unlucky, or whether its a local thing. None of my other trees have had it, and you do see it quite regularly on old stumps here in my part of South Wales.

ETA another option is an ornamental plum. My neighbour has a very attractive one with dark purole leaves and pink / purple flowers in abundance, been there for years and is about 7′ tall and nicely bushy. Might see if I can get some twigs/buds off him in July for a bit of propogation.

I had an old 70s Yamaha bike whuch used 6V battery. I bought a spare, connected them both in series and used my 12v charger on them no bother.

Have had two Ti frames, a Rock Lobster and one of those custom made-to-order jobbies which i got off ebay. Setavento, maybe?
Anyway, the Rock Lobster was bombproof, but the other one cracked all the welds on the rear triangle when i hit a tiny pothole at low speed.
Theres Ti and Ti, apparently.

I fitted a set of TRP cable hydraulics to my Genesis Vapour. I’d not bother next time, I found a set of good V- brakes much better, and if you had to slam on with the cable hydros, you could steel feel the cables stretch, which to my mind kind of defeats the point of hydraulics.

I see them on ebay some times, those and the 853 tig models. Not much money either. I’ve had dodgy ti frames which cracked at the welds, but my Rock Lobster was bombproof. Sorely tempted to get another, thinking about it.

*thinking about it, was there an 853 version, or am i talking shite?

Bought a Ti Rock Lobster from them in 2003, i think. Best MTB i ever had, no problems with it whatsoever, and the wheels, which I assume were hand made there, were fantastic, mavic rims on XT hubs, cup n cone.
As for being miserable, no idea as I never went into tbe shop, but when I offered to buy some replacement decals for my Rock Lobster a few years back, they sent them to me free of charge, along with a jaunty email,and a free pack of Haribo if memory serves. Would deffo use em again, theyre my go to first port of call for online bike bits.

Looks like its designed to hold flexible sheets maybe? Push them past those two wedges and theyll expand out and not come back out?

Beautiful piece of history you have there.
I always wanted an SMLE mk4 , my father was a marksman with one and always said of all the rifles he shot that was his favourite. He would tell me of putting holes in man-shaped targets from 6-800 yards repeatedly.
Despite the rights and wrongs of private gun ownership, most people who have an appreciation of functional mechanical engineering can appreciate the form and function of classic firearms.
I had access to a welded -up MG42 at one point and despite the carnage those things dealt out , by people on the wrong side of history, it would draw attention like no other item of war memorabilia and booty there.

What about using “Jedem Das Seine”, from Buchenwald camp?
Literal translation is along the lines of “we get what we deserve”.

*engaged typing finger before engaging brain.

Quite a few around by me, also seen ( smelt) a lot of what we call ,probably incorrectly , chives, and a lot of forget-me-nots. Weird thing is though that a lot of the flower seeds I’ve sown which ordinarily would have come up by now, have yet to show. Must be a mix of unusual dryness and low temps.

Had a mate who worked for INA bearings in their factory. He told me The bearings came off the line, got split into the packaging line. All the bearings were tbe same identical spec, the price you paid for them all depended on whose brand was on the packaging
Not suggesting that every single bearing is the same quality across the board, I’m just saying that it does hapoen and paying more for a known brand won’t necessarily get you a better bearing.

100% the Wildhearts. Absolute genius band.

LPG still available locally to me at the moment, have only seen an i crease in pumps if anything. Sad to hear it might not be the case nationally then. Im assuming you wouldnt be able to run 100% LPG, some normal petrol must be required at some point. Im thinking maybe til tbe engine heats up tben switch over to lpg? Can it be done on the run like that?

Oscar is a little cracker.

You might be able to eke some extra months out of it by repairing it with a dutch key or similar. Depends on the design and material.

Backyard babies in a co-headliner with the Wildhearts (RIP). Wasnt expecting much, was so impressed went home after gig and checked their back catalogue out for days. Seriously good live, loads of effort given.
Took mrs Marone to see Robbie Williams once, was expecting him to be shite. Would gladly go watch him vo!untarily, consumate showman, cracking show.
Elvana were fantastic live too, cant wait to go see em again next month.
Also Henry Rollins when he opened for RHCP a million years ago (1990?) . Blew em clean off the stage.
RHCP were, conversely, the absolute most overhyped live band I ever saw. They looked bored and simply couldnt be bothered , too interested in having cliquey little in jokes with themselves onstage.

As an aside, happened across an awesome recording of a Rocket From the Crypt show at Alexs Bar on youtube this week, cant stop playing it , its really rekindled my love for them. Fantastic show.

The big 12 ton press tools that make volvo A-pillars. Absolute **** of a job too.

Boxes by Ginger Wildheart.

American badger? Ive seen pics of red coloured ones.
Could it be a reddish earth-stained eurasian badger? Dunno if thats possible, from my experience of highland soil it tends to be dark.
Doubt its a polecat, have seen a few run over i dividuals this week,they are a very slender, graceful animal, and quite a dark coat Also got a good length tail.

Not so outlandish to suggest a suposedly foreign animal. My mother woke up to find an escaped capybara in her garden once.