Snow on Snow on Tarmac

It has been a long winter and still the snow is falling. The residents have put in some hard work this year clearing the road and it does make you wonder what would happen if there was no one - or less than there are - fit enough to do the job. The park would probably have been inaccessible at times as some of the falls and partial thaws were followed by very hard frosts.
The park owners say they can't clear the snow as if they did, they would be liable if someone fell. The council don't as it is a private road. Yet we pay the park owners for staying here and we pay full council tax. If one of the emergency services has to get in and can't what then?

The snow building up one evening

 

One of the residents out with the gritter after a hard frost

 

Quiz night was very enjoyable and won by the "Flowerpot Lady's" team (34 points) from Park Village. They were presented with the Mill House Quiz trophy this year as well as a prize each.

Second was 'The Quartet" (32 points), Third "Bacon Bottoms" (27 points), Fourth "Adam & Friends" (25 points), Fifth "Scrambled Eggheads" (24 points) and wooden spoon went to "4 - 1"

All went well with the organisation other than the designer of the answer sheet who put two lines for question 14. Not clever and Prickly is denying all responsibility!

Here are the questions if you want to have a go...

1.Name Tintins dog.
2.Name first plane to drop the Atomic Bomb?
3.Oscar wining actress married to “Colplay” frontman Chris Martin.
4.T.S.Elliott wrote “old possums book of practical “....what? 
5.Name Crieff’s emblem, from the Gaelic “Craobh”.
6.Which Ford car of the 1970’s is named after Italian ski resort?
7.Scottish actress played “Margaret”,  Victor Meldrews wife?
8.How many years married is a “Crystal Anniversary”? 
9.Which planet in our Solar System is 2^nd closest to the Sun?
10.Which American gangster was known as “Scarface”?
11.On which racecourse is “The Grand National” run? 
12.What is the surname of Dickens family in “A Christmas Carol? 
13.A Swede is a cross between which two vegetables? 
14.What is the fastest running bird recorded?
15.Which composer wrote the opera “Carmen”? 
16.What is the largest single Scandinavian country? 
17.In which Russian city is “The Winter Palace”? 
18.From which plant is Linseed Oil produced? 
19.”Chromophobia” is the fear of what? 
20.which country produced the dance “The Lambada”? 
21.Which instrument does the “Leader of the Orchestra” play?
22.Who is the Roman “God of Fire”? 
23.Which South American country is named after an Italian City?
24.What is the fastest animal recorded on land? 
25.What does a “somnambulist” do? 
26.Which fruit has the highest calorific value ?(calories) 
27.On Pencils, what does “HB” stand for?
28.What material is “The Taj Mahal” made from?2
9.What vehicle would you find on the Cresta Run? 
30.Which common food item  literally means “twice cooked”? 
31.Which mythological creature has the body of a lion? (top is eagle) 
32.Which paper is Britain’s oldest Sunday Newspaper? 
33.Which “F” would a Vexillologist be an expert on?
34.Which Scottish Liqueur combines whisky & heather honey?
35.Branch of which tree is on “The United Nations” flag? 
36.What does “pm” stand for, meaning “in the afternoon”? 
37.How many President’s heads are carved on Mount Rushmore?
38. Actor changed his name, was already a Michael Douglas?
39.On Bottles what does “ABV” stand for? 
40.What year was The Berlin Wall pulled down? 
41.What is the World’s longest river?
42.Greek mythology, who shot Achilles in the heel with an arrow? 
43.An alternative name for The Mountain Ash tree? 
44.On British Streets what does a “costermonger” sell? 
45.What year did” Making Your Mind Up” win Eurovision? 
46.Which animal was the croquet ball in “Alice in Wonderland”? 
47.Who was the first non-royal on a British stamp?
48.In Russia, what are Matryoshka? 
49.Who designed St. Pauls Cathedral?
50.What name is the skin hanging from a turkey’s neck?
 

Time Passed

Aye, well it has been a very long time since the last post on this Blog!
No excuses other than too many other  things going on. Anyway, with the re-launch of the Mill House Park Web Site I thought it was time to get to the keyboard again.

What has happened here? Well for the past year the residents (those that agreed to do it) have been carrying out the general maintenance - the gardening type. The site has looked well for it and much better than the previous intermittent work (and mostly only if we moaned about it). This was a trial for a year and it is likely to continue. The Residents Association get a payment for this work.

A few falls of heavy snow over the winter and again (much) the same team were out clearing this. Hard work on occasions but it still seems that if we don't do it then nobody will and we would be left with some very dangerous conditions.

Not many other communications to report from the owners, just the usual notification of the annual increase (based on RPI) in their usual brief and brusque manner - they all go the same charm-school.

The electricity price has stayed at a reasonable price and thanks to our RA Chair it will stay reasonable for the next year or so, to be pro-active in this was certainly worth while.

The Quiz night tonight so there may way well be a post tomorrow with the results.

Good Office and bad Offices.

We have now been moved from cards to pay for our electricity to a periodic billing from readings. No official notification (of course) and no details of cost per unit or how (and how often) we will be billed. Can't understand why the policy is not to notify. It is almost like this would be an admission of weakness, rather than the opposite where we might begin to respect the owners or at least to understand the problems and reasons for making changes. More later on this I am sure.
On a completely different subject I have moved my email solution from Alentus to Microsoft Office 365. This is the online 'Cloud' version of Microsoft Office that includes an online version of Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Onenote - and Outlook of course with ActiveSync to sync to your phone. Storage is now 25GB and at a cost of £4 a month compared to my previous £8 a month for Outlook only and 300Mb. An interesting and easy to use development in Office that is easy to use and set up.

Joint Efforts

All tidied up from the removal of the little office, the park is looking good now. A lot of work by the residents themselves though with the neighbour of the old office site even power-washing the empty pitch. There was a meeting with our MP (nice chap) to bring him up to date with all the happenings. There has been a great spell of summer weather and this encouraged the sporty types and a badminton net appeared. There was a lot of activity that was probably regretted the following day. I hear there may be a site tournament when the sun returns and the winner will have proved themselves fit for snow-clearing duties this winter!

Office & Fur

The little office has trundled away with a bit of debris left behind. Hopefully tidied up soon. Superb few days weather and time to enjoy a coffee on the patio - where we spotted what we thought was an otter but turned out to be 3 mink. Seems there is some project at the moment to reduce the numbers of them in the area.

No mates for Bill and Ben

Weeds removed by the Team on Friday so the park looking much better now. Also their boss saying good things so we feel a bit better. Superb sunny weekend and a superb place to be beside the river, ducks and folks floating past and peace and quiet.