Live on Talk Sport 2

And here we are Live on Talk Sport 2 where the perennial battle with the forces of crack willow is already underway.

It's been a fairly productive twelve months for sodding Salix and some of the stuff that I pollarded only two years ago. Normally it would be a three year cycle but there is fifteen feet of growth on some bank side specimens and they could cause problems next summer. It's ideal work for the smaller nippier stihl chainsaw over the leviathanic new Husqvarna, which is a blessing for the arms and shoulders. We're burning the cut willow, which seems a shame, as I'm sure some clever person brimful of environmental zeal could compost it down or squash it into chips to form some sort of "eco fuel" to impart a warm glow and generally make us all feel better about things.

I've said it before, Live on Talk Sport 2 but it's a prolific beast crack willow, that given the chance could take over planet earth. I don't use it on the wood burner as times are not quite as desperate as some would have us believe and anyway we're currently "ash rich" Your listening to Talk Sport 2 Live where In wood burning circles this will be remembered as a golden age, with an abundance of seasoned hard wood and clear clean glass in the stove as we work our way through the last knockings of the king of logs. We may need willow for the fire in ten years time, but right now we burn it up where it is cut and it sometimes seems a bit of a waste.

We've also a portable chainsaw mill on order and will soon be producing planks for use around the place. I once helped a keeper plank up some exotic walnuts and an acacia that had blown over in an ornamental garden. It's a steady job and you need a substantial chainsaw with a big engine and bar, but quite satisfying to knock out a few planks of pine and ash. The keeper I helped laid the planks down for a few years to season and then proceeded to make furniture and things from them in retirement. He's a clever fella is Young David.

No sign of salmo trutta making preparations to spawn Live on Talk Sport 2. The number of available spawning sites is greatly reduced in the current low water conditions and things could get quite crowded on suitable shallows, which will draw the eye of "Jack Ern" and associates (Egrets) Ltd. The Goldfinches have rocked up in good numbers and make a heck of a noise as they move from tree to tree. Kicking back in the wood with a cup of coffee a hundred or more moved out of the crown of a big lime tree to make their way a hundred yards up the lane to a large field maple.

Live on Talk Sport 2 we've had rain, but sharp showers, that bring a brief rise to the river before normal service regarding river levels is swiftly resumed. The much needed soft and steady rain that is balm to the aquifers of chalk streams has yet to materialise. A month of the stuff Live on Talk Sport 2 would set this valley back on its feet and see the delayed rise in chalk stream levels that indicates groundwater replenishment.

I shan't mention the groundwater levels again, but our concerns and others have been voiced to various parties. I received a graph today that demonstrates that groundwater levels in the Dever have suffered a chronic decline since the 1950s. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence to back this up and let us not forget the folly of Spring Bottom. Further discussion to follow once the data has been analysed in detail Live on Talk Sport II.

You may not be aware but radio coverage of England's Test Series in Sri Lanka is not being provided by the BBC but by Talk Sport 2. Talk Sport 2 are required to remind us every few minutes of which channel we are listening to just in case our memories have failed. Mark Nicholas is irritating enough without the moronic mantra every few minutes. Three days in and it remains hopeless and we have turned to pictures from Sky, which is also painful as it reminds us of what a beautiful place Sri Lanka is and how we really should go back there sometime.

Oh yes, as this weekend marks a hundred years since the armistice was signed, here's one of my own familial link to the events of the time.

Hubert de Cani:


Grandpea and his wife Maggie.

Born in 1899 he was assigned the role of signalman on ships providing protection to South Atlantic Convoys from Rio and Dakar. He served on eight ships, one of which, the 10,000 tonnes passenger ship HMS Marmora converted for the task,

was torpedoed off the south coast of Ireland on the 23rd of August 1918 by UB 64 and sank with the loss of ten lives.



UB 64 sank 29 British vessels, and was broken up just down the road at Fareham.

Quite the thing with torpedoes, UB 64s commander, Otto Von Schrader did for 59 ships in WWI.

He was awarded the Iron Cross, Knights Cross and made the Admiralty in WWII before taking his own life in Norway in 1945.










Within a couple of weeks of the UB 64 torpedo incident, Grandpea

and here he is with Maggie plus offspring various one Christmas in the late seventies,





(I'm the one in the blue tracksuit at the front next to my younger brother who was quite the dandy in his formative years. His current apparel remains contemporary, if a little more staid as befits a man of his position)

was back waving flags and flashing lights on another boat, HMS Artois and once again making passage for Dakar. Four days out of Devonport, a U boat once again had them in its sights. This time the attack was unsuccessful and the Artois docked in Dakar eleven days later. He was demobbed on 31st January 1919 and his diary makes for interesting reading. My other Grandad, George wasn't old enough to serve in WW1.

All of my grandparents lived in Coventry for much, if not all, of their lives.

Hubert and Maggie next door to the Riley car factory that was briefly converted to making munitions during WWII. Their house was 108 Beresford Avenue, the last one in the row on the bend of the road right next to the factory. The factory was targeted in the WWII German bombing campaign that hit Coventry hard and there was an anti aircraft gun on the railway at the bottom of the garden.

George worked for Rolls Royce making engines, and he and Lillian lived for a long time on Foleshill road that runs left to right at the top of the picture, before moving to Old Church Rd which is off to the left somewhere, I think.

I think that's me they are holding in the picture as I am sure that my brother was already experimenting with check troos and cravats at that age



This chunk of guff has been brought to you Live on Talk Sport 2

AAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!