civilservant

some good tips from ED folk here http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?20,284950,1884939#msg-1884939 happy browsing!

The Last Dog on Earth by Adrian J Walker i read it in a sitting. it's what 'The Road' would have been if Cormac McCarthy had had a sense of humour (or lived in Peckham with a dog!) too late in the day for me to start waxing eloquent, so here's a link to a review that begins: "Every dog has its day? And for Lineker, a happy go lucky mongrel from Peckham, the day the world ends is his: finally a chance to prove to his owner just how loyal he can be." http://www.theeloquentpage.co.uk/2017/09/14/the-last-dog-on-earth-by-adrian-j-walker/

red devil Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > civilservant Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > > so nothing to worry about. have i understood > > right? > > > Not really. The OP wrongly thinks they won't > encounter this particular behavior outside of > London... true, thanks RD - but something to worry about wherever, right?

kids letting off fireworks at people is ok because - they do it everywhere, not just in London - they used to do it when i was a kid - they're doing it in Eynella road so it's only affecting the posh-os so nothing to worry about. have i understood right? actually, the stats show that fireworks hurt nearly 5000 people in england badly enough for them to have to go to A&E in 2014/15

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-41444659 'Croydon cat killer': Surrey forensic lab probes deaths

hello, df, as another poster said, the rat may already have been ill and come into your house in search of peace and quiet. i doubt that you'd have spotted it or that it'd have hung around if it was a well rat. i wonder why pest control didn't suggest that. I've had a soft spot for rats since reading A Little Princess many many years ago. Do you know it - it was a best-seller in its day? The heroine's father has died a pauper and she's been banished to a freezing garret by her cruel headmistress, who's thinking of chucking her into the street. She has one friend and comfort, a rat she names Melchisedec, after the Biblical king: "She began to make a low, whistling sound?so low and coaxing that it could only have been heard in entire stillness. She did it several times, looking entirely absorbed in it. Ermengarde thought she looked as if she were working a spell. And at last, evidently in response to it, a gray-whiskered, bright-eyed head peeped out of the hole. Sara had some crumbs in her hand. She dropped them, and Melchisedec came quietly forth and ate them. A piece of larger size than the rest he took and carried in the most businesslike manner back to his home. "You see," said Sara, "that is for his wife and children. He is very nice. He only eats the little bits. After he goes back I can always hear his family squeaking for joy. There are three kinds of squeaks. One kind is the children's, and one is Mrs. Melchisedec's, and one is Melchisedec's own."

wahey! carp on, Jeremy!

Jeremy, you only get to carp on about it if you pay the piper - if your fun was free, it's only right to take it as it comes for five or six years, rain or shine, local bands played at our annual street party, courtesy of the Goose. They got little more than a couple of beers and our thanks. and the Goose got nothing apart from the warm fuzzy feeling of having done something for their neighbours. Live music makes a big difference to events like that, so good luck, gnulover, in your search for a live band for your street party.

thanks jaywalker, i will get a bit of the seaweed and iron stuff, and hope to cure the poor little hydrangea let's hope the wretched alkanet doesn't lap it up as well! Sue, i think parks do quite a lot of soil conditioning for their acid-lovers - i couldn't afford anything on the same scale!

Green Goose Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > jaywalker Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > And what do all the Conservative voters who > read > > this forum hope for Barry? > > > > To be clear, if the Tories win, his country > > cousins will be torn apart by packs of dogs. > > Get a life and spare us your boring > politicalisation of every topic you respond to. > It's so repetitive, infantile and boring. > > GG pot, kettle, spring to mind!

as it happens i'm also trying to discourage alkanet - it overpowers everything else in the garden i see that it is said to thrive in soil with high (alkaline) pH, so i thought that lowering the soil pH might make it harder for alkanet to do well and also help my chlorotic hydrangea any suggestions for reducing the alkalinity of soil?

oh no! we had a nest in the roof, with an entrance just outside my daughter's bedroom window we got a wasp man in and he sorted them out, but they came back the next year, and again the next... do keep an eye out, Sue!

that's such a good story, marleylover jaywalker, i do hope you aren't suggesting that what the foxes or the cat feel for each other is cupboard love?

direct your boss to this week's Time Out there's a piece by Charles Foster (Being a Beast) on urban foxes - and she just might be charmed into appreciating them

Bluetits very busy this morning scavenging our dog's combings (which I leave out in the garden for them) to line their nests. Flying off home with furry 'moustaches' tucked in their beaks - very funny!

my daughter was allocated her 6th choice school when we applied two years ago, but about a month before term started, we were offered a place at our 2nd choice school. it was a hard couple of months, but all i can say is, see how it goes. Do not turn your place down, though, as it means that you're completely out of the running when any vacancies at schools higher up your preference list become available, as will inevitably happen. i think that overall almost all applicants got one of their top 3 choices in the recent past.

>Sorry stringvest: > "It is far from ingrained - dogs that are used for hunting need to learn how to attack and often have to be trained up specially" that wasn't stringvest, that was me. this post was started by stringvest to warn about some dangerous dogs. sringvest showed an admirable level of compassion, and I am sure you kk would do likewise in the same circs going back to basics - this post was about unacceptable behaviour by dogs and their owners if that behaviour was routine, the forum would flag it - this is the forum which sees every fresh dog turd on the pavement as news to be flagged I do not for a moment disagree that dogs'll chase anything that runs away (including children and adults) but to attack and continue to attack to the kill - that is very unusual and is either learned behaviour, or a sick dog

all my dogs have been terriers with well-developed prey instincts. they have chased squirrels, mice and rats and, when i lived outside London some years ago, my dog was known to chase cats up trees and kill rats. however a sustained vicious attack of the kind that stringvest reports, of a dog against a fox, is out of the ordinary even for dogs with strong prey instincts. It is far from ingrained - dogs that are used for hunting need to learn how to attack and often have to be trained up specially. these dogs have killed a fox. no-one to my knowledge has reported anything like that in the life of this forum. This indicates exactly how abnormal this behaviour is and what a risk these dogs pose to other creatures around

Good luck, buddug! what i've been trying to find locally are cookery lessons during half-term for teenage daughter. there are none locally, and all those up in town are expensive/fancy stuff (Leith school type) i imagine that's a niche market as well, although it would involve quite a bit of prep and admin to organise!

Thank you for doing what you could. this is unfortunate, not just for that poor fox, but also for those dogs, that have been allowed to run out of control.

it's right that he's been hunted down, captured etc, zelig but agree that the double standards stink - and that's why a load of us joined the march the saturday after the US election