Seemingly trivial things that intrigue you
Comments
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Yeah I was pleased that I could hold the form, ish, for the whole 400m. First time I've done that. Only way I found was really dialling back how hard I am pulling and pushing my arms through, which I suspect is not ideal technique wise.
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I came back to doing some swimming in the last year, I was never very good, and do about 2 min/100m. If there is anyone half decent in the fast lane, they blow me away.
I think it means you can swim, and your technique holds up over the longer distance.
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I'd like to get back into a good swimming routine. Used to be able to do 800m in 16 minutes on old-fashioned breaststroke (and once pushed myself to 1600m in 32 minutes), but work and the closure of my regular pool (after the pandemic, which also screwed things up) stopped the 4-times-a-week routine. Didn't feel too sluggish, but the properly trained swimmers are something else... feel like I'm stationary when they are in the next lane.
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I found this good, only 5 days (sessions) long. You do feel like a bit of a mug doing some of the drills.
https://effortlessswimming.com/test15-5dcc/
- Genesis Croix de Fer
- Dolan Tuono0 -
That's better than me - and probably not as good as Michael Phelps if that's anything like a benchmark for you.
Wilier Izoard XP0 -
Here's one for you conspiracy theorists - Pfizer make the COVID vaccine. Pfizer also make the COVID anti-viral treatment for when their vaccine doesn't work..🤔
Sometimes. Maybe. Possibly.
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What's the point in 'cultivated' wild flower verges? They planted some lovely ones along the main road into Exeter, but they were only lovely for one year, then they turned into mostly-grass-with-a-few-thistles verges.
Surely the whole point of wild flower verges is that they should be self-perpetuating, not needed annual replanting or careful maintenance. Otherwise you might as well just have pretty flowerbeds. But they fell out of favour because of the maintenance costs...
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Please elaborate on the conspiracy
- Genesis Croix de Fer
- Dolan Tuono0 -
Wildflowers grow in mown meadows. If you don't mow you won't get the wildflowers as the grass will out compete.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
The conspiracy that it's effective? I'm fully jabbed 8x and had covid twice and it's been really bad.
Sometimes. Maybe. Possibly.
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At the risk of being a bit blunt, this suggests if you hadn't been jabbed you'd be dead, so...
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
Genuinely surprised people still struggle with this
- Genesis Croix de Fer
- Dolan Tuono0 -
True, but whatever they are doing in Exeter isn't working. And as lovely as the one-year wildflower beds were, it looks artificial when surrounded by careully-mown grass around the beds while the wild flowers are allowed to grow and flower. Year 3 just looks like they've missed mowing bits of the verge by mistake.
I'm taking the alternative strategy in my (French) lawn, trying to get some wildflower mixes to take in amongst the rough grass that's my 'lawn', without cultivation, but not mowing till the end of May, when it would be hay-cutting time.
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They're probably also leaving the grass cuttings which will make the soil too rich. Poorer soil gives wildflowers a more level playing field with the grasses.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
You need yellow rattle to suppress the grass.
Monty Don said.
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Ah, well I am taking off my grass cuttings, not least as the 'mulch' wasn't allowing the soil to 'breathe' or any seeds to permeate through to the cracks in the soil. Time will tell, just like it has with Brexit 😜
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What they really need is a combination of daisies, clover and moss. Don't ask me how I did it but my "lawn" is fairly pleasant and near maintenance free. 🤣
The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
I am not sure. You have no chance.Veronese68 wrote:PB is the most sensible person on here.0 -
Correctamundo, and also for RJS above. Grasses are toughies, let alone those barsteward couch grasses et al which will outcompete flowers esp in high nitrogen soils.
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What we need is a gardening thread... @pinno will approve, for sure.
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There's an academic group at Exeter Uni who are helping people do this crectly.
Btw, grasses are under appreciated. For a couple of weeks every year for the past decade we had uncut grazing meadows in full flower by our house, and we'd watch the swallows skimming over them. And one of my best memories travelling in N. America was the grasses at Little Bighorn. Same thing, only actually wild there.
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This one? https://www.exeter.ac.uk/research/esi/research/projects/working-with-wildflowers/
I think the Exeter City Council verges bit has failed so far, but on more extensive areas of city grass, such as graveyards & cemeteries, No-Mow May seems to be more successful, from my unscientific observation, despite the protestations from heirs who moan loudly about their dead loved ones deserving beautifully manicured lawns.
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Or this version…
Open One+ BMC TE29 Seven 622SL On One Scandal Cervelo RS2 -
Mine is 90% moss these days plus some mushrooms in the autumn. I think it it is due to the large laurel hedge on the (southern) boundary blocking sunlight for large periods.
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really left wing oxford grad left the company I work at to join the spectator in marketing.
Bizarre.
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I don't think you really know what left wing really means until you have spoken to someone who grew up in Midlothian in the 70s or the Welsh valleys in the 80s.
You may be surprised by how much further left it is possible to go than an Oxford graduate living in London.
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Someone who has trans activism on their CV is not the typical spectator hire, I think we can all agree on that.
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I'm not sure that many left wingers would agree with trans activism to be honest. Wouldn't that sort of thing usually fall under liberalism?
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Well true, but is there a link between being left wing and trans activism? Liberal. I suppose.
But honestly other than the Greens in Scotland who have bundled together every wokey and virtue signalling concept known to snowflakes and made it their singular cause, I don't see that they are really all that much to do with one another.
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