hi stoke,

just want to let you know that catching up with your thread is stopping me getting on with work which I need to do urgently for return to work tomorrow.

so when i get into trouble IT WILL BE YOUR FAULT.

regards, ann

Sheeps are actually fairly ugly critters. Rams are ornery.

On another website (an offshoot of this) I mentioned that I was amazed that yanks are so suprised by the fact that Britain is full of sheeps. Apparently you don't have 'em.

Lambs are cute. Especially when the gambol.

In fact there is probably no finer sight than a field full of gambolling lambs.

CW - has "given birth" to a lamb (in a James Herriot way). Is still quite proud of it.

Ann and CW: I smile in delight. (Hoping in Ann's case, that I haven't been way too longwinded, and trusting that the pile of briefs or whatever has disappeared by now.)

CW's mentioning an offshoot website reminds me of the tennis group party we went to yesterday where there were two main gathering areas. Sometimes people would drift across, thinking the other group had to be having more fun.

A group up to around four people can have an interesting conversation. More than that, and yesterday anyway it tended to turn to

TV shows/movies/celebrities
Cats
Health concerns
Cats' health concerns
Celebrities' health concerns
Every once in awhile a guy would pull out his iphone and show it to another guy

After a few hours of that, I wanted to go home and alphabetize my spice cabinet.

Every once in awhile a guy would pull out his iphone and show it to another guy>>>>

This is the only time that men will boast to each other about who has the smallest.

Given birth to a lamb? Thought CW said he wasn't Welsh.

There aren't a whole lot of sheep anywhere I have ever lived, so when I go anywhere they are, I amuse the natives by taking pictures of the sheep. The tour guide in Greece was shaking her head and laughing about me with the shepherd when I turned my back on the scenic view we had stopped to photograph in order to catch the really beautifully backlit sheep.

Thanks for the report. Headed to London Tuesday, this is nice for inspiration.

I'm getting this commune idea. Ann takes care of the chickens and keeping us out of trouble. Patrick maintains our website in exchange for organic produce. CW does the Herriotty kinds of things and gives us something to gossip about. I'll be responsible for goat cheese. Anyone else? Spouses etc. can be worked in here and there, but no one too mean or bossy or slacker-y. Don't say no yet. I'll have to continue to telework so I can afford fancy London things sometimes, and trips to France for research.

Nikki, have a great time.

To be fair, though, the gossip generator chore should be rotated.

Anyway I'm only stalling now hoping MC will post her photos.

Don't really have anything to add, except we really enjoyed the Museum of London. Fire, plague, Roman wall, and all. Fun to think of elephants having wandered there.

Thanks to all for having read, or even skimmed, this far.

The pleasure has been all ours Stokebailey.

hi, stoke - love the idea, apart from keeping you all out of trouble. Am I THAT boring?

you all get into trouble, THEN I try to extract you from the consequenses of your iniquity - much more fun.

Thanks, Candidus, Very kind of you.

Ann, Candidus, a tough negotiator, has arranged for Wales to become part of the US in exchange for Florida, so I'll look for acreage there.

I think the chore of getting into trouble should be rotated also.

Had that same toasted cheese sandwich at Borough Market this morning. I totally understand the profound sense of well being.

Do they still have the model that sort of catches fire at the Museum of London - I loved that when I was a kid.

The only other thing I can remember was a big gaudy coach.....

Yes - sheep seem to hold all sorts of fascination for colonial visitors. Most folks I've taken on trips (not SCQ btw) have taken lots of photos of the sheep. And if it was lamb season -- scores of photos. Maybe some Welsh blood in there somewhere

My very first morning on my own when I moved to England (a wet/cold January day) a ram broke through the fence and led his entire harem into my (rented) back garden. Me a city girl from CA had not met up w/ roaming sheeps before and had no idea rams are mean. Well I can testify!

I did get them out of the garden but not before getting drenched, angering that ram and scaring the living daylights myself. Oh but the babies ARE cute . . . .

Nikki, hooray for Borough Mkt on a Thursday! Looking forward to hearing about your trip.

RM, yes, the model and the whole Fire exhibit is fascinating. The exhibits of the modern era (after the 1666 fire that is) are due to reopen next year.

We visited Ireland once with my Massachusetts-bred adult cousin along, and she kept exclaiming about the CUTE cows as we drove along. One day we visited an ancestral farm, and after an hour there the rest of us realized she was missing. When she rejoined us she admitted that she had gone into a pasture to get close to the dear cows, and the herd had backed her into a corner, she too frightened to push past them. They, no longer cute, eventually lost interest.

They're not valled "Rams" for nothing. It's what they do. BTW Where I come from they're called "Tups". That's the other thing they do.

Yes, RM67, the Museum of London has a dark cubbyhole sort of a space you squeeze into to hear a recording of Michael Hordern reading Pepys's diary description of the fire while the panorama lights up and flickers. And the Lord Mayor's coach is there most of the year, but is taken out for the Lord Mayor's Show in November.

Back in the safety of the Europe board, and having consulted further with the FO, who have forgiven me for in extremis foreign policy in the heat of battle, I am tasked, Stoke, to clarify the terms of the truce. Anglesea for Florida. Take it or leave it (in 199 years wen the lease runs out).

You think I want my username to become the trendy new word for appeasement? I'd be up for treason if I even considered those terms: a perfectly lovely state with beaches all around and Art Deco architecture, in return for a place I had to look up in wickipedia (roughly the method our State Dept. routinely uses), though it sounded vaguely familiar?

Ha. We laugh.

Hmm, don't want to repeat the mistakes of Versailles, look at the bother that caused, and certainly wouldn't want the name of Stoke to go up next to Quisling on the dart board of history - dash it, you've put up a fair fight, and when this bally nonsense is over I hope we can sit down and enjoy a proper drink. I am permitted to increase Her Majesty's offer to Anglesey, Bermuda, and Sir Antony Hopkins.