WTF-Beta

Small 7" serrated with a chunky handle, Waitrose however I think it's a Sabatier Pro made in France.
Serrated so cuts bread, turn it round and it butters. Cuts tomatoes, it's a paring and a utility chefs knife.

My cheese knife, yes, really. Zwilling unisex cleaver, obviously sold for other uses but the weight and another chunky handle make it a perfect easy cheesy slicer.

I gladly own up to being a Global fan with a few in the starting block(deba, chef). Their bread knife for the larger loaves works no better than others' versions, but is a quality design much imitated. Nowhere for food to get trapped between blade and handle (far Eastern bamboo handles are the worst) and the grip fashioned into the handle, its so easy to wash clean.

Today we awoke in a cloud, no rain but visibility about 50yards.

When we were house hunting 5 years ago we viewed a house remarkably similar to this, a pit managers house built around the same year, and the previous residence of Tony Blair PM. The large detached flat roofed garage was converted for his security team.
Certainly attractive for its spacious hallway & staircase, 4 lovely living rooms with period coal fireplaces, separate kitchen areas where the victorian staff would have been.
But it was showing its age, damp, roof maintenance needed, and then there was the fact Blair had lived in it.

Can anyone recommend a pocket whittling knife please. Folding type, small, robust, single blade is fine

I have only two planes.
A large Japanese benchplane that has to be assembled.
A Lie-Nielson No. 140b-r, a little block plane, low angled skew bladed, an absolute gem.

I've used some dreadful and average chisels over the years. Lidl specials, Flexi; and vintage japanese which are nice.
Without doubt the best chisels ever owned were this specific Irwin Marples set (10503421)

Marples do lots, but this set is outstanding, arrives sharp, does anything. Gave it away last year to a pro carpenter who borrowed & liked them so much, as a thank you.

@Steve-Miller said:

@AndyD

The internet is severely divided on the use of honing rods. Chefs swear by them, sharpening nerds not so much. I have two - the classic fluted steel one and a ceramic one.

I keep the steel one in the kitchen and it seems to work as advertised. Haven’t tried the ceramic one yet.

Severely divided...
This made me chuckle. People become amazingly entrenched and argumentative over the tiniest of first world viewpoints.
A newly flint-knapped axe is probably the sharpest thing I've ever touched.

I'm a complete amateur, for me a quality 'steel' is a quick way of putting the edge back on. However, at £130 the ceramic global steel is a world apart from the old steel my wife inherited from her parents (old steels on quality knives are like using 40 grit sandpaper on your walnut china cabinet). Use your ceramic!

I have various grit stones, never used since getting three US made ceramic 2x8" benchstones by Spyderco.
I indulged in a sharpener by Kakuri, it takes the chunkiest of Japanese plane blades and wide chisels.

Very nice knives, and that prefilled block with 24 wooden handled looks superb.
Once sharp all you'll need is a honing steel to realign the edge. Searching their site, Warther make a wood handled diamond one for $62 that looks much like my all metal/diamond Global... highly recommended purchase.

Except unexpectedly its suddenly snowing huge snowflakes

@wtg said:

The United States and its allies in the Middle East are seeking Ukraine’s expertise in countering Iran’s Shahed drones, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

There's irony. Heh!

I'd gladly share our rain if I could. We had three nice days this week, managed to seal our flat roof, paint a window, and mend a couple of drainpipes, then last night the rain set in again

I think very few folk could afford to buy & upkeep "Andy's grade 1 listed tower house with lift" or the beautiful estates mansions, rectories, that I link here.

Though I'm certain many would withdraw from the world, and pull up the drawbridge of their moated castle, as it were.
However, life is work, until age & retirement of some form beckons.

A tiny biting fly
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_midge

It is. Outside of towns it's often rugged, remote, windy wet and rainy much of the year and with midges.
But on a sunny blue sky day in the highlands with scudding cotton wool clouds on the mountains and their reflection on a loch, there's a wild beauty that touches your heart.
Ireland has a similar feel.

Crisp and fresh sunny spring day here. That's the transporter bridge in Middleborough btw

Lots of birds to see, rarer birds included Goldeneye, white fronted geese, water pipit.

Also a pair of stonechat, lovely birds...female

male was shy

The Tehran Times is probably the least trustworthy, along with many internet photos and videos of dramatic bombings on middle Eastern countries and your airbase. Disinformation is rife.

Watch
BBC: Verify.
Or
France24 Truth or Fake:
https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/truth-or-fake/20260302-disinformation-exaggerates-iran-s-military-successes-against-the-u-s-and-israel

It's that price because of the location.
Place it near a railway link ten miles out of London and you can add 3 million to the price.

Al jazeera propaganda, broadcast from Quatar which supports Iran and the spread of their 'clerical Islam'.
Makes me laugh at the crap they preach, then annoys how certain he is in his lies.

Trust BBC and France 24.
Not infallible but they double check stories/ai so are rarely first with news, and will correct themselves when needed.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m0023hc2/face-the-music

A delightful, timeless classical music quiz hosted by notable pianist Joseph Cooper throughout the 1970s. He poses puzzles to three personalities of the day.
Actually one of a very few programmes my father would watch. Entertaining, witty, with a star guest who I usually have never heard of.

Recommended watching!

Join you in ridding the world of a regime (& its proxies) that massacres its own people, that actively spreads terror and murder worldwide, that builds a vast arsenal to protect its nuclear ambitions, and smiles and lies at the UN while doing all this evil.

No one's declared war, not Iran nor Hezbollah, yet they've attacked our people on our land for decades, and most recently our RAF. So we're finally, just responding, from the moral high ground.

I have a neice living & working in Dubai. Just wondering if she'll leave at the first opportunity.