Tea lights – shiny things, or food?

But for some chance sighting, I might still be wondering how I come to have tea light appearing in my garden.

I’m not sure of the exact guilty party, but I suspect the magpies that seem to have declared some sort of war on me to be the source.

I used to wonder where banging noises came from inside my house, and had once been concerned that it was some tactic by individuals to get me to open my door and come outside (just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you), but I never found anyone nearby, even if I watched for a while afterwards.

Then, I heard the same banging, but clearly from the wall of the room I was in, and headed to the window. Not sure what I expected to see, but had not anticipated the sight of a magpie clinging on the roughcasting, and banging away on the wall like a woodpecker!

I’ve since spotted them doing this on a number of occasions, and arriving carrying various objects in their beaks.

That said, I’ve seen birds like gulls and flying rats (pigeons) arriving and departing with assorted food, sometime even whole rolls they’ve found somewhere.

And that’s why I wasn’t too puzzled when I started finding the odd tea light lying around, since I don’t use them.

I’m guessing the magpies grab them because the thick tinfoil containers are shiny, while the other have a go because of the wax, which they peck out of the base.

This pair is currently moving around the back garden, one fairly fresh, and one which is now empty.

Today’s exciting electrical resurrection

As I was resurrection and old electrical tool I appear to have developed a need for, it occurred to me that much old electrical hardware has become rare enough never even to have been seen by some people.

I have an ancient Remploy soldering iron that lives at the back of a cupboard, on the basis that I might need it one day. I probably wouldn’t, but for the fact that large soldering irons, even gas powered, seem to have become almost extinct today. Between all the big trade sheds, and even the mighty Amazon, I could only dig up one of the size I was looking for, and intended for soldering seams in copper roofing material.

There are plenty of gas blowtorches, but none have a soldering tip, making things much harder as the bare flame tends to vaporise flux on contact, unless you have access to the right stuff, and probably need to use in conjunction with acid – WAY too much hassle.

So, it was off to the dark reaches of the back of my cupboard, and recover one big soldering iron, 150 watts worth. I only found one larger online, at 300 W. These are not cheap either.

It works!

I had to check it out before even thinking of using it, and was amazed to find the mains lead appeared to be almost like new. It’s not unusual for such old cable to have gone hard, and just crumble when flexed, but this was hardly showing its age.

The real problem was the plug, the original round pin 5 A item was still fitted, and I no longer have the 13 A converters I made up years ago, or any matching sockets. They had to go when the cable they had been made from began to rot, and the insulation started to split, so I dumped them, having not needed such things for years.

However, I do have safe connectors for powering up hardware with no plugs fitted, so the 5 A one came off, and I was able to test the old iron. Thankfully, it worked first time – I would not have been in the least surprised if there had been an extremely loud bang, and sparks!

The only issue seems to be that it’s leaky, although the wires still show tens of megohms. That may be residual damp from where lived.

Here’s the inside of the plug that was fitted, which I would have to guess as 1950s, but probably earlier in terms of manufacture, maybe 1930s.

These are still on sale today, and can be bought new, but these are modern versions, and quite unlike this original.

At this point, I’m just imagining all the ‘Internet Electrical Experts’ grasping their chests as their hearts fail, and their last effort to type out a list of the compliance failures they can think of before they curl up and die.

I actually like a lot of the early electrical hardware, and have a big box of the stuff ferreted away in the loft, taken from kit I was updating.

What about the iron?

Apologies for not including a pic of the big old soldering iron, but it’s on test, and needed for the job in hand.

However, I’ll do my best to remember not to forget to take a pic when it’s available, and include that in a short follow-up post.

I’ll try to take a view that shows the power on neon in the handle.

Just think, a neon lamp that’s probably around100 years old, and STILL working perfectly.

💡 😊

A couple of late night sign catches

We recently gained a truck stop along the road, promised many years ago but never arrived, then opened on a different site.

The original site has seen a few giant signs being erected over the years, promising not only the shifted truck stop, but also a number of prestigious retail outlets. The never appeared on that land either, but we did get a Wickes, and another ‘big shed’ that has mutated into The Range. I’m afraid I’ve completely forgotten what it was before that.

The truck stop’s proved interesting, with some sort of “Trucker’s Party” being held there some weeks ago. I’d been out for a late night walk and heard music wafting through the air, but couldn’t place the location. It got louder as I walked along the road, and when I looked in the truck stop, the place was packed, and the trucks were making the place look like a disco, with all their various decorative lights doing their party pieces, looking as if they were being controlled by various sequencers and controllers.

That would have been an interesting video – IF I’d been carrying a camera 🙄

I’ve taken a look during a few walks since, but never caught the same goings-on going on.

Passing the place while I was looking for some late night Christmas stuff, which was a complete failure, I noticed its illuminated signs, and decided to give them a try.

The diner was the obvious one, although the only option was an oblique view.

Bland but bright, I did have to fiddle slightly with the exposure to avoid the lettering being burnt out, or all running together as an illegible blob.

Since the pic was so plain, I decided to try some different filters to process it as the original was ‘soft’. It’s hard to tell if they’re better than my usual toys, but they did make a big difference to the contrast, and one completely removed the burnt out white area where the floodlight was shining straight into the lens.

This could have been brighter, but I prefer to keep the processing down, so the view looks more like that seen by the eye.

This was the view with the floodlight, which would normally result in a burnt out white area surround by glare. In this case, a filter I don’t usually use (and had little documentation or description) completely removed that, and matched the area to the surrounding light.

Pity about the railings in front of this sign. I’m not aware of a quick and easy way to remove it.

There are offers of free online tools for fence removal, but all tried so far demand online registration.

Another look at the Indian Place

I still keep reading this as ‘Indian Palace’, after getting it wrong the first time I saw it a long time ago.

I took a few pics, then lost them, and ended up with these pics in a post

Food fit for a king (2018)

I should add, there’s another one after that

Food NO LONGER ‘Fit for a king‘ (2021)

I finally came across the first couple, not as old as I thought, and coming from 2016.

This was the used pair from 2018.

The Indian Place Door Sign

The Indian Place

And the originals from 2016, to see how things aged after a couple of year’s neglect.

No real difference.

But it looks like it was a nicer day the second time, with a bit of sunshine.

Interestingly, the new owners kept that triangular canopy over the door.

Maybe they like the pyramid.

Nice to see my Rainman Curse remains in full effect

While I wouldn’t try to convince anyone it hasn’t been raining recently, it has been dying out over the past few days, and I’ve even seen dry road surfaces.

So, when I spotted a nearby trade supplier had a few big cans of propane in stock, and I happened to be in need of some propane, I decided to have a couple set aside for collection (their two cost only a little more than everyone else single can, now almost a shocking £20).

The only real decision was walk, or cycle.

Silly me, given the weather, and time saving, I decided to break out the bike from its winter confines – having completely forgotten about my Rainman Curse. I should have realised that would negate the option of taking it by surprise and doing something spontaneous and unplanned, which sometime defeats it.

Within a few minutes of leaving home, I noticed dark spots on my light grey cargoes, and yesterday’s rainfall chart show how it was sent back – JUST FOR ME!

I should have turned back.

Suffice to say that by the time I was about ⅖ of the way there, the rain had arrived, and that had become a pointless option.

The only good thing was that it was what I call ‘normal rain’, and not the stuff that magically penetrates everything you may be wearing, and gets down to your skin. This stuff only soaks the outer layer.

I wouldn’t even have bothered moaning, but for the fact that it’s winter, and that means just one thing – the gritters are out!

This hadn’t occurred to me until I got back home, when I have to lift the bike over obstacles around the house to put it away.

That was when I discovered I had been caught, and my hands were filthy black from the finely ground road grit, together with the fresh coarse grit that had been laid down last night, in case of frost. The bike/wheels were completely covered in the stuff, even from just this short outing.

The only good thing was that although not finished, I had laid out all the pieces, and the necessary connections, to hook up a hose to a cleaning area for the bike, which I’d lost last year when I changed the type of hose I was using, so had ended up pulling back some of the old stuff.

I think I’d have been more than a little ticked off if I’d had to end this outing with a session of bucket brigading, since I dared to leave the bike uncleaned just once during a past winter, and the damage unattended road salt can do was shocking, and took quite a while to clear up.

The fact that I hadn’t had to walk through that rain for over 2 hours also helped.

Follow up to: I forgot

I can now close out the outstanding rechargeable cell mystery posted in I forgot.

Recall that I was having recollection pains, having managed to ‘lose’ two AAA rechargeable !.5 V lithium cells, similar to the type seen below.

I found them a few minutes ago, while dealing with a recurring seasonal problem that now arrives every winter.

I have a couple of remote controls that simply activate selected 13 A mains sockets, and save me having to mess around with numerous power switches on common items, or distant items.

While these are more or less excellent, they suffer one major issue – once the temperature falls below something between 5-7℃, the damned push buttons begin to stop working, and no amount of pressing will get the remote to issue its commands.

This is so predictable I’ve given up dealing with the problem, and just open one up, and use a metal link to bridge the contact areas on the PCB. Much simpler and far less frustrating.

It’s truly weird – the problem can be corrected by cleaning the elastomer/conductive buttons, but that generally only last for a few days, then things are dead again. I’ve hunted around for anyone that might have analysed this failure mode and explained WHY the falling temperature might cause some sort of contamination to stop the rubbery little button from conducting, but haven’t seen anything being discussed.

I’m not sure, but it does look as if something migrates out of the elastomer pad, as the contact area on the PCB seems to need to be cleaned before reliable operation fully returns.

As regards my missing lithium cells.

Seems I thought it might be a good idea to check if falling cell voltage on the ordinary AAAs in the remote might lead to early onset failure, so decided to throw in the lithium goodies, since they regulate the lithium power source’s voltage (over 3.7 V) to a constant 1.5 V.

Sad to say, this made NO difference, and the remote was still dead to it own keypads.

And, of course, I promptly forgot I had put my shiny new rechargeable lithium AAAs in that remote.

🙄

Daldowie Crematorium – Garden of Remembrance

Some years ago (I’m not sure when, but it was one of those years when Glasgow was hit by a particularly violent storm over the Christmas season), as I made my traditional walk to, and around, Daldowie Crematorium, it was apparent that the fairly flat and open area had been hit hard by the wind.

Many of the tributes in the Garden of Remembrance had been blown away from the memorials they once decorated, and were randomly distributed around the garden area, and surrounding grounds.

Unfortunately, many were new, as families seem to make special visits to the garden around this time of year, and place seasonal tributes.

Many of those which had managed to remain in place, were often badly damaged.

With no way of knowing where these items belonged, or identifying their original locations, crematorium staff had been collection them, and could only place them in piles for collection and removal.

Ever since then, I’ve tended to walk through the garden a little slower, just to appreciate the sentiments of those who chose make this effort. Previously, I’d preferred to stay a little distant as I’d headed down towards the banks of the River Clyde, and make a quick visit to a few of the more interesting remains and features which can be found there.

However, I’ve often toyed with the idea of making special visits, just record some of the more intriguing tributes left in the garden. But, for various reasons, that’s never happened, although this 2023 post was close:

Lost tributes from Daldowie Crematorium’s Garden of Remembrance

This year, things were quieter, and I had more time, as evidence by my eventual success at locating the icehouse, after a number of failed attempts in previous years.

I wasn’t even thinking about this, until I emerged from the woods straight into a couple of these views, located almost next to each other – and was inspired to look out for some more as I made my way out of the garden.

The last one’s a little different, and was a ‘fail’, but included to show how your camera might work a little too hard, and spoil the view you had in mind.

While the pic is fine (apart from my cutting bits off), it’s nothing like the scene I saw.

There, the candles provided interesting pools of light around themselves, leaving much of the scene in deep shadow, although still visible.

I know my camera has internal fiddling to level up such areas of darkness, which is normally just fine, but in this case was definitely NOT what I wanted.

Finally fixed my seized stopcock – only took about 30 years

The recent cold snap managed to cause me a major, if unusual, issue with my hot water system – by major, I mean the first look suggested a cost of well over £1,200 for just ONE part.

I think I’d have the gas disconnected first, or find something a LOT less expensive.

On the plus side, it re-introduced me to my waterworks, last seen about 30 years ago, when I had to replace all the water storage tanks (surprisingly easy).

However, a little later I had to make some changes, and discovered the stopcock used to isolate that section had decided to seize solid, and wouldn’t move no matter what I used. Eventually, the shaft just sheared completely, complete with the handle, leaving just the round shaft without the shaped part to take the handle (mini Mole grips are always handy to have). If it’s not obvious, it’s the valve at the bottom of the pic.

Above it is the gate valve I had to quickly fit, so I could get on with the actual job I had started. I left the old one alone, assuming it was so old it would be using ancient imperial sizes, rather than metric. Some fittings will cross fit, but others won’t, and I was too busy to play that game.

30 years later, I know a little more, and while I was there, I decided to exercise my wisdom on that oh so seized valve.

I couldn’t believe it – it took all of 15 seconds to free it and get it working again!

Wish I’d been able to do that the first time, when it had clearly just been pretending to have seized.

Now my problem is deciding between an arm or a leg 😟

Daldowie Icehouse – but no house

This year’s slightly more casual and relaxed walk to Daldowie Crematorium yielded a welcome find – the Daldowie Icehouse (or ice house), not seen for some years.

I have to confess that I managed to misplace this feature, having not bothered to wander along to it while at the crematorium for some years, and discovered it was not where I thought it was when I finally did make the effort a few years ago.

After a number of tries, I was even beginning to wonder if it had been lost, and someone had decided to remove it! Given the sort of historic vandalism some people can get away with, I would not have been surprised.

Thankfully, the real problem was my memory, and I had just been heading for the wrong part of Chuckie Hill and always completely missing it. However, this year I decided that if it wasn’t where HAD been looking, then it must be where I hadn’t. Buried in the side of the hill, to avoid direct sunshine, there are no visible clues to its location, and undergrowth also helps hid it, so you have to walk past it, and turn back toward the crematorium to find it.

It has no connection to the crematorium, which it preceded by some years, and was connected to nearby Daldowie House, unfortunately long gone, along with many of the ‘Big Houses’ that were built along the banks of the River Clyde for wealthy owners of the time.

Daldowie was built around 1745 by George Bogle, a Glasgow merchant, but was replaced in the 1930s by Daldowie Cemetery.

While records of the house can be found in historic references online, the icehouse seems to have been missed, making it harder to find once it’s slipped your memory.

It is symmetrically divided into two similar rooms. The only difference seems to be that the floor level of the one on the right is rising, as earth accumulates inside.

Having thick stone walls to help preserve the ice, it seems odd to have windows as well as doors, since these would both serve to reduce the effectiveness of the insulation.

Maybe it was a nice place to go later in the year (cool in summer), once all the ice had been used.

This is the ceiling of the room on the left, and is one of my rare flash pics, necessitated by the need to avoid kneeling on the wet ground to take the upward looking view, and negate the wobbling camera caused by my being off balance and unable to hold it still.

During winter, icehouses would be filled with ice taken from frozen ponds, or any other source, and it could be used for as long as it lasted during the following months.

The former petrol station on Mount Vernon Avenue keeps shrinking

This former petrol station seems to be providing a never ending source of occasional posts, and that’s not counting the ones I never dared make about potentially dubious businesses/organisations there as I searched on the address.

This might have been one of the first I took after noticing the place again, back in 2013.

Petrol station closed 2

But, I’m not sure when that closed, and it could have happened years before.

It’s resurfaced as a secondhand car sales site a few times, but I’ve never understood the logic as it’s hardly a location that’s going to attract passing sales, at least not to my mind.

They’ve never really lasted, and now it looks as if even that option is going, as the site has been largely cleared, and the canopy has gone.

Just before this change: Aaaaand… It’s closed again

Now, sans canopy.

I used to dig into planning applications, but have given that up.

The site is now enclosed by temporary perimeter fencing, so I’ll just wait, and see if anything develops.

And, yes, that IS a couch in the distance, but it’s wrecked.

I forgot (AGAIN)

After awarding myself the meme shown below this morning, I within a few hours I had managed to ‘win’ a stunning BONUS AWARD 😩

Even I was seriously impressed by my own ability to forget what I was doing this time.

There was this trapdoor

I have loft access via a drop down ladder, and the opening becomes a potential trap door opening while the ladder is down. That said, I’ve been walking around up there all my life, and have yet to even come close to stepping into the opening.

However, it’s sometimes a nuisance, and I get fed up dancing around the open trap if I’m busy, and wanted some way to close it (for years).

The opportunity arose some years ago, when I was gifted a piece of steel plate, roughly 2×1 m×1 cm thick, and thought it would be ideal, probably unlikely to collapse under my weight 😉 or move about.

Being rather heavy, I came up with a rolling solution, allowing the plate to be slid over the opening when wanted. It seemed to be fine for a while, but the rollers eventually parted company from the plate (the loft gets extremely cold and extremely hot, and humid) as every adhesive I tried failed under the load. The plate is not simple mild steel (it has never shown a spot of rust) and too hard for me to drill for any fixings, so adhesive was the only option.

I gave up the idea of covering the opening, too much hassle, and just went back to never getting near it – until recently, when some plumbing issues meant having to be up there a lot, with a fair amount of work to do.

It made it worthwhile revisiting the cover, and looking for a better/new way to move it.

I started by looking at ways to redistribute the supports, to make sliding it back and forth easier. While this change did make it a little easier, the improvement was minimal, and barely worth the effort. Rather than making a real improvement, it was really just organising the same things a little better.

However, these changes led me to noticing that what looked like a square opening was actually rectangular (it was square, but the layout of the rafters affected the thickness of the frame), and the steel plate turned out to be a better fit over the opening if turned 90°. This hadn’t been obvious before, or considered originally, since there was really only one practical place for the plate to lie when not in use.

Things are different now, and there is now a storage option for the plate if it rotated 90° – something I wish had been possible years ago, as it makes things a lot simpler.

What has this to do with “I can forget what I’m doing while I’m doing it”?

This morning, I got up and changed the supports around the opening for the plate.

The only problem was that I did it to suit the original orientation of the 2×1 plate, NOT the 90° rotation I’d discovered was a better fit yesterday!

I got lucky though.

The support I’d altered for the original orientation was just the same as the one needed for the 90° rotation of the plate.

I might have been slightly upset if I had NOT found that to be the case.

However, when I realised what I had done, and forgotten about the plan to rotate the plate before finalising the revised instal, I just couldn’t believe what I had done, and finished, before I noticed the mistake.

ESPECIALLY just after awarding myself that meme.