Author Topic: The Good News Thread (Read 1165134 times)

clarion · « **Reply #5325 on:** 13 July, 2012, 11:26:42 am »

I thought someone would trot out this sort of joke

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #5326 on:** 13 July, 2012, 11:30:00 am »

Don't make me stop now, I'm just getting the bit between the teeth.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #5327 on:** 13 July, 2012, 11:30:34 am »

Do you really want us to reign it in?

clarion · « **Reply #5328 on:** 13 July, 2012, 11:32:17 am »

I bridled at first, but I guess we're saddled with it now.

mrcharly-YHT · « **Reply #5329 on:** 13 July, 2012, 11:35:44 am »

please, can we bring it to a halter?

clarion · « **Reply #5330 on:** 13 July, 2012, 11:37:03 am »

I'm not the mane culprit.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #5331 on:** 13 July, 2012, 11:49:29 am »

You've always been a dark horse.

Gaston Lagaffe · « **Reply #5332 on:** 13 July, 2012, 02:27:08 pm »

Are you telling tails? I thought he was on a high horse.

Regulator · « **Reply #5333 on:** 14 July, 2012, 08:25:06 am »

My nephew got his apprenticeship!

He'll be starting as an apprentice stonemason at Salisbury Cathedral in August. It's a fully funded four year apprenticeship backed by the Worshipful Company of Masons.

Arch · « **Reply #5334 on:** 14 July, 2012, 09:06:20 am »

Well done him!

Canardly · « **Reply #5335 on:** 14 July, 2012, 09:36:28 am »

+1 nice to see traditional skills being kept live and well.

Arch · « **Reply #5336 on:** 14 July, 2012, 09:43:53 am »

The York masons have a shelter set up on the grass by the East End (under renovation at the moment), and in the summer three of them work out there, and can be watched, very interesting. Plus there's the lovely musical sound of stone being chipped.

Peter · « **Reply #5337 on:** 14 July, 2012, 09:49:45 am »

Where does your interest lie, Arch? Do they "work out" there, or do they work "out there"?!

Arch · « **Reply #5338 on:** 14 July, 2012, 10:00:12 am »

Quote from: Peter on 14 July, 2012, 09:49:45 am

Where does your interest lie, Arch? Do they "work out" there, or do they work "out there"?!

My interest lies purely in the aesthetic and techincal aspects of their work. As does that of my gorgeous other half....

In other good news, and speaking of MFWHTBAB, last week I remarked that if we were going to do baking and cooking on a regular basis at his place*, we really did need some handles on the kitchen drawers and cupboards instead of having to tease them open with finger tips.

I arrived this week to find each door and drawer neatly fitted with a loop of string to do the job....

*having parents in the granny flat who produce delicious meals does make one a bit lazy about cooking!

Peter · « **Reply #5339 on:** 14 July, 2012, 10:12:41 am »

I'm glad it's "worked out"!

TimO · « **Reply #5340 on:** 14 July, 2012, 10:13:33 am »

Quote from: Gaston Lagaffe on 13 July, 2012, 09:23:55 am

Quote from: ferret on 08 June, 2012, 05:00:29 pm
just started working a 3 year old, last raced beginning of this year, I am pleased to say that after an initial fit of bucking, rearing and farting she soon calmed down and went round like she'd been doing it all her life, looks very promising.
just need to get some one to get on her back,
SOLD.....

to M. Gaston Lagaffe

That was a long day in the lorry, but nice to meet Mr & Mrs Ferret.

We are now the proud owners of a youngster to bring on for Mlle Lagaffe. I must be mad

Is this the first horse to be sold via YACF

One for the Gratuitous Horse Photo Thread I think.

I don't really know what to appreciate in an equusian quadruped, but I like seeing the photos of them. Horses mostly seem like friendly characters, which is I guess what we've bread them for, but they're a lot more effort than a cat to do the equivalent of clearing out the litter tray, so I'm quite happy to let someone else deal with that, and I'll look at the pretty pictures.

Kim · « **Reply #5341 on:** 15 July, 2012, 05:08:13 pm »

Went for a bike ride (along with Basil of this parish) and didn't get rained on!

SteveC · « **Reply #5342 on:** 15 July, 2012, 06:08:31 pm »

Quote from: Regulator on 14 July, 2012, 08:25:06 am

My nephew got his apprenticeship!

He'll be starting as an apprentice stonemason at Salisbury Cathedral in August. It's a fully funded four year apprenticeship backed by the Worshipful Company of Masons.

Good career choice. They've been working on that building pretty well continuously since about AD1300 and there's no sign of the work running out any century soon! I've had one, very quick, go at stone carving. I suspect it can be pretty addictive once you get the hang of it.

S

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #5343 on:** 15 July, 2012, 07:16:55 pm »

Quote from: Regulator on 14 July, 2012, 08:25:06 am

My nephew got his apprenticeship!

He'll be starting as an apprentice stonemason at Salisbury Cathedral in August. It's a fully funded four year apprenticeship backed by the Worshipful Company of Masons.

That does sound very satisfying indeed.

Arch · « **Reply #5344 on:** 15 July, 2012, 07:54:06 pm »

Quote from: SteveC on 15 July, 2012, 06:08:31 pm

Quote from: Regulator on 14 July, 2012, 08:25:06 am
My nephew got his apprenticeship!

He'll be starting as an apprentice stonemason at Salisbury Cathedral in August. It's a fully funded four year apprenticeship backed by the Worshipful Company of Masons.
Good career choice. They've been working on that building pretty well continuously since about AD1300 and there's no sign of the work running out any century soon! I've had one, very quick, go at stone carving. I suspect it can be pretty addictive once you get the hang of it.

S

I was told a story about York Minster, that after the Reformation, the Catholics were loathe to give it up to the C of E. They said, you can have it until it's finished, then give it back.

There's been a bit of scaffolding on it somewhere, ever since.

The same may apply to Salisbury, although of course with a building like that, it's decaying as fast as it's being repaired...

Bledlow · « **Reply #5345 on:** 16 July, 2012, 11:29:33 am »

The Catholics weren't offered a choice. The entire church organisation, with all its buildings & other property, was snatched out from under the pope, and most of the clergy (including those in charge of York Minster, headed by the dean, & the archbishop at the time) went with it, so it's hard to see who the Catholics were who might have been reluctant to hand it over.

Just one of those little impossible stories made up to 'explain' something which already had a perfectly good (& true) explanation, like a lot of folk etymology.

mrcharly-YHT · « **Reply #5346 on:** 16 July, 2012, 11:37:30 am »

The truth about York Minster is simply that it is built of limestone that weathers seriously in about 70 years. So the external detailed bits of carving never last longer than that.

A friend put in a good decade or so working as a carver (not a mason - masons do fixing and simple shaping). There is quite a bit of his stuff on there - one of his last pieces is a cowled monk - but the monk's face is actually Ralph's son's face when he was a baby.

Arch · « **Reply #5347 on:** 16 July, 2012, 11:39:02 am »

Yeah, but it's a good story!

As is the one that one of the carvers who worked on the new West Door surround was a Trekkie, and hence tucked among the foliage and animals are a Klingon and a Ferengi...

Bledlow · « **Reply #5348 on:** 16 July, 2012, 11:48:06 am »

Originally, the carvers could & did put whatever they wanted in the more obscure corners (hence the lewd carvings sometimes uncovered), & nobody was bothered about who or what they used for models, so Klingons et al are perfectly in line with tradition. That's a story I'd like to be true.

Andrij · « **Reply #5349 on:** 16 July, 2012, 11:59:01 am »

I've seen photos of Darth Vader on in some new church carvings, but don't recall where.