Insignificant Things That Make You Happy.

[Yorick]

Walking the dog on a cold crisp winter morning

I do miss them sort of morning walks. But they're too few to make me want to return

[Yorick]

Recently I was ill and lost about 9 kilos and all strength in my arms and shoulders

I'm now getting the strength back, slowly

I've got 10 kg dumbells in the garage and use them a lot to get strong enough for the 5 hour enduro rides and Trackdays

I started 2 weeks ago and was surprised.
On the exercises I was using 10 kgs before, I struggled to use 6 kg.
And on the 8 kg reps, I was down to 4 kgs.

But over last 2 weeks I've doubled the number of reps on the lower weights.
Soon I'll be upping to 8 & 6 kgs.

I won't be booking any euro Trackdays until I'm back up to the levels I was before.

Ya can't chuck a 200 bhp missile round Portimao with rubbish arms

[Bustaspoke]

First Snowdrops of the year,I get obssesed with looking for signs of growth & the begining of Spring every year.
On a walk on monday I spotted the first Snowdrops of 2025



Soon be Spring!

[Noggin]

First Snowdrops of the year,I get obssesed with looking for signs of growth & the begining of Spring every year.
On a walk on monday I spotted the first Snowdrops of 2025



Soon be Spring!

I bloody love snowdrops. No idea why I like them so much. Rarely see them where I am, but I do love it on the odd occasion I do see them

[gremlin]

Those little clips that let you join your gloves together.

[Count Steer]

First Snowdrops of the year,I get obssesed with looking for signs of growth & the begining of Spring every year.
On a walk on monday I spotted the first Snowdrops of 2025



Soon be Spring!

Yay! Just looked down the garden. Ours are out too. Will take a pic this afternoon. They're very cheery-uppy.

Useless Factoid - snowdrops pop up all over the place 'cos ants carry the seed off to their colonies and not all of it gets eaten by the young ants (they just eat a part called the elastome). (This factoid provided by Mrs 'Greenfingers' Steer).

[gremlin]

Snowdrop in Italian is 'Bucaneve', which kind of translates to 'snow hole', which makes sense as they make a hole in the snow.

Only know that as I stayed in an 'Hotel Buvaneve' and they had pictures of them everywhere.

[Count Steer]

Spring is sprung,
The grass is riz...

[Count Steer]

The helibores are looking Springy too.



But for winter long colour (and scran for hardy bees n' insects) you can't beat a bit of winter-flowering heather.



(The daffs are well on their way too).

[Noggin]

Snowdrop in Italian is 'Bucaneve', which kind of translates to 'snow hole', which makes sense as they make a hole in the snow.

Only know that as I stayed in an 'Hotel Buvaneve' and they had pictures of them everywhere.

Here they are called "un perce-neige" - snow drill or snow bore!

[Sunny]

Spring is sprung,
The grass is riz

I wonder where the birdies iz?

<Literally have only ever heard that from my dad until now >

[Felix]

I have a customer that has a lone Daffodil that comes up every Christmas. We can only think the bulb is over a drain from the three surrounding houses and appreciates the extra heat.

[Saga Lout]

Spring is sprung,
The grass is riz

I wonder where the birdies iz?

<Literally have only ever heard that from my dad until now >

Is that a birdie on the wing?

(Who wants to finish it? )

[Count Steer]

Spring is sprung,
The grass is riz

I wonder where the birdies iz?

<Literally have only ever heard that from my dad until now >

Is that a birdie on the wing?

(Who wants to finish it? )

I know it as -

The little boyd iz on the wing
How absoyd...
...the little wings iz on the boyd!

[Saga Lout]

I wonder where the birdies iz?

<Literally have only ever heard that from my dad until now >

Is that a birdie on the wing?

(Who wants to finish it? )

I know it as -

The little boyd iz on the wing
How absoyd...
...the little wings iz on the boyd!

I know it as:

• Is that a birdie on the wing
  Don't be absurd, you know the wing is on the bird

[Count Steer]

The Burma Shave version is quite good.

"Spring has sprung, the grass is riz, where last year's careless drivers is." - Burma Shave

(For them that know not wot Burma Shave was...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma-Shave )

PS a dig around shows several variations, probably regional or associated with particular people. The origin is hazy and disputed, some say Ogden Nash, some say e e cummings but neither seem to be verifiable.

[Taipan]

I wonder where the birdies iz?

<Literally have only ever heard that from my dad until now >

Is that a birdie on the wing?

(Who wants to finish it? )

I know it as -

The little boyd iz on the wing
How absoyd...
...the little wings iz on the boyd!

How it should be said, in a strong NY accent. My Cousin is married to a New Yorker and she puts this on her FB page each year.

I need to see the catkins on the hazel...

[Noggin]

Randomly made me laugh rather than happy!!

Was talking to the driver that was out with me this morning and he said it was about time I got to drive a bus as it's better to "Mettez vos pieds dans les étriers" - put your feet in the stirrups!!


I did giggle as, whilst it's similar to out "get back in the saddle", telling a woman that she should put her feet in the stirrups when there are no horses nearby has slightly different connotations!!

[Count Steer]

Generally, they're getting better and betterer as each successive year tries to rise above the previous year's bar.

Although personal favourite was 2018, With Profs Alice Roberts and Aoife McLysaght

Just watched the second one. Info on calorie burn was a bit surprising.

(I note that the company that took over one of my employers is the supporter/sponsor of this year's events. I'm glad they're spending all that money I made for them on good things ).

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/1 ... tures-bbc/

More than half of the experts on the Government’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition have links to the food industry, including Nestle, Tate and Lyle and Unilever, according to a recent investigation by the BMJ.

The British Nutrition Foundation (BNF) is majority funded by ultra-processed food companies that include Coca-Cola, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Mars, while their healthy eating week was funded by Coca-Cola in 2023.

In 2023, university experts on a panel organised by the Science Media Centre in London suggested that ultra-processed foods (UPFs) were being unfairly demonised. It later emerged that three out of five had ties to junk food manufacturers.

Just listened to an absolutely fascinating The Food Programme on R4. 'Food and Exercise: A Puzzle'. Hallelujah! Someone finally explains why a) exercise is really good for you and b) why exercise is almost irrelevant when it comes to weight loss.

(Basically if you burn a lot of calories doing exercise, like the hunter gatherers, you save a lot of calories by doing stuff like resting better and not creating inflammation etc. They had a chap kayaking around Greenland living on the local, traditional diet. When he went back to Greenland, living on the same diet, but living in a hotel and not doing the equivalent of a half marathon every day his weight change was the same).

There's lots of other info in the programme too. They say that the 'science' that links weight and exercise directly is almost all sponsored by the food industry ie you can eat all this delicious junk we make, you just need to exercise. It's bolleaux. Yes, exercise is good for you but it's not any additional resulting calorie burn that shifts the weight.

Also why, when we're overweight the signals (leptin hormone produced by fat cells) that tell your brain that you don't need to eat get swamped by signals via insulin. So we're hungry when we don't need food.

If anyone is interested in this sort of stuff it's all a bit of an eye opener. I've always said 'diet/food intake for weight control, exercise for shape'. Now I know why it's true.

[Count Steer]

Just for balance cf ^^^ the programme above. This dropped in the daily newsletter this morning.

https://theconversation.com/exercise-do ... ght%20hope

So, exercise can increase your calorie burn but not by as much as you might expect. That fits with my observations too eg My regular yomp around the hills ~ 140-150 minutes of aerobic exercise/elevated pulse = about 500kcal, 140 of which I'd have burned sitting still, so 360 difference*. Over the 24h the difference in my calorie burn total is usually up about half that or less. So, 2 hours+ of exercise = ~a cappuccino (no sugar)!

I guess also, if exercise is improving muscle density/mass the weight change will be reduced too.

So it looks like the radio prog and the article are both right...up to a point and, obvs, may not apply at the extremes eg Olympic athletes like marathon runners.

* All measured with a Garmin watch so all a bit '-ish' but remarkably consistent.