To date, controversial mining boss Bell, has managed 18 miles, 31miles and 3 miles (the last three). But on June 11th he will try to make it 4th time lucky and complete the 34miles Winchester to Woodlarks walk. He joins myself, writers Lucian Miers, Steve Moore, three of our readers Jonathan Price, Nick and Sam plus 80 year old Fleet Street Legend Brian Basham and his long suffering trainer. So that makes nine rogue bloggers so far.
Reader R and cousin P drool with envy at the size of my wood store currently. Though the wood-burning stove has kept us warm all winter, I have chopped more wood than I have used, and thus the wood store below has, I reckon, enough to see us through to early 2025. That middle section really is four rows deep, and more than five feet high. And the good news…
In the all-must-have-prizes way our kids are taught nowadays, there are two finals in US college swimming championships. One for the fastest eight swimmers from the heats – what we used to call “the final” in the old days – and one for the 9th to 16th fastest swimmers: they, too, have a “final”. Reka Gyorgy missed out on a “final” place in the recent 500 metres freestyle, as her qualifying time was the 17th fastest. And now she has also been banned from Twitter, as you can see below.
I am not sure that it made economic sense but I headed to Shipston yesterday to pick up the lawnmower of my late father. I also found a sharp saw so that might have improved the maths a bit. The house is meant to be sold within days so this was my last trip.
Lia Thomas is the“woman” swimmer who was a man until two years ago and so naturally is winning all sorts of college competitions. The real women who she beats do not dare speak out about this farce as that would be deemed transphobic and thus risk them being cancelled and shunned. But the photo below from the winners podium shows what they really think. As ever, George Orwell foresaw this sort of nonsense in 1984:
As ever I am indebted to the admirable @BurnsideNotTosh for this photo which some may find tasteless but which raised a, grudging, smirk even from the Mrs. Enjoy
My pal Matt is over from New Zealand and suggested a gentle seven mile Saturday stroll along the Sandstone Trail in Cheshire followed by lunch at the Pheasant. I thought that sounded easy enough and so said “why not” and that I would carry Jaya, a chunky sixteen month old, on my back. I had never encountered the Sandstone Trail before.
I am not a Russian asset and I deplore the Russian invasion but we are not looking at the whole picture and we are being lied to by all sides. I invite you to consider a number of very uncomfortable truths you will not see discussed on the BBC or in the deadwood press.
The map below is fascinating. It shows the first year when each country in Europe reached its population in 2021. In the case of Ireland it was 1825. Then came the famine and mass migration took place. For Northern and Western Europe, with the assistance of mass immigration, the answer is 2021. But look further East and what you see is explosive and might be one explanation of events in Ukraine and Russia.
This is a title which is always hotly contested but today’s winner is actor Hugh Laurie as you can see below.
At the bottom of the pyramid of victimhood are women and at the top are folks with pensises who demand that we call them women. And so the total waste of space that is the Vagina Museum, in East London, will celebrate this day by celebrating women who don’t have vaginas. How very 2022. Meanwhile in Ukraine
Having parted company with the chap who managed the garden I am now in sole charge and I know that I shall make blundering errors and will just have to learn from my own mistakes. In fact, as a kind reader pointed out, I made one with my early radish planting, something I have started to correct today.
Natch, some folks, like Darren Atwater, leap to the conclusion that Joshua headed to school dressed as Harry Potter. Au contraire. He is, of course, a Welsh wizard who even as a boy performed miraculous feats. That is to say Myrddin ap Emrys or, as thee infidels over the river In England might say, Merlin. And, yes, that is a home made wand made by yours truly.
Since 2011, I have been urging Warwick School to do something about historic physical and, latterly, sexual abuse of young boys. Two headmasters of Britain’s third oldest school swept the matter under the carpet but, to his credit, the new headmaster, James Barker, himself an OW, has done something. Barker, myself and governor Ruth Weekes had a long Zoom chat today and Warwick says that it believes my allegations against Eve, apologises for what happened and for its 41 years of failure in doing something about it. That was welcome. But that is not enough for Warwick is sitting on far worse secrets.
The flood waters are now more or less static at c9 metres down at the bridge so that is high but not at record levels. Here at the Welsh Hovel the first three photos are from the garden. Inlast year’s record high floods the waters reached right up to the back doorstep. This time they are merely in the bottom reaches of the lawn but they stretch for miles.
