Off Topic The Goodhand Arms

So sad.

 

What a good idea Kaits its's, 6pm + here in The Hague. Mrs Jab bought home a bottle of robust red I'd better do a bit of QA whilst dinner is in the oven. It's chicken so.
A chicken and an egg walk into a bar. The barman says, “Who’s first?

 

I’m in Lyon (lucky to get here as the next flight was cancelled due to the strike)... not sure if I’ll get back though.

Gastronomic capital of France. I can think of worse places to get stuck.

Looking forward to a glass and dinner tonight.

 

Lucky bugger. My daughter would recommend the snails!

 

Oh yes, to start escargots farcie

 

Here’s a lovely Christmas ad from Poland:

 

You're right in the heart of British snail country in Somerset, at least as far as eating them goes Chilco. They used to call them Mendip Wallfish.

http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/wallfish.htm

Apparently it was a speciality in the Miners near Priddy, when it was still a pub

 

Blimey, I had no idea! Trouble is I could never bring myself to kill them, however nice they might taste. Can’t even harm a slug!

 

You're too good for this world Chilco, I'll kill most things if I'm going to eat them, but you can make the process a bit less traumatic with some creatures. I'm hoping to start catching decent numbers of crayfish in the spring, and I always pop the crayfish in the freezer for an hour or so before I boil them - they don't thrash around in such an alarming way when you drop them in the pan. The cold sends the crayfish into a state of suspended animation and I expect it would be a similar thing with snails.

 

Which bit of water are they coming from Rorch? There's plenty of the invasive species in the Lee and Stort where my daughter is living on a Dutch barge.

 

The invasive American Signal Crayfish are in 85% of our waterways now, and are destructive to the river health in all of them. If they are in any waterway, it is a good thing to catch as many as posdible. The environment agency give out free licenses, so all you need are a few nets, some knowledge to ensure that the nets are the correct legal dimensions and the landowner's permission to catch them.
If they are in a river or stream in numbers, they will either out compete our little native ones, or kill them with a virus that they carry. They also eat everything else, from fish eggs, small fish, tadpoles and insects.
I watched a stream being dammed and drained, and Signal Crayfish were there in enormous numbers 50+ per square meter. There was nothing else left other than the crayfish so they are an ecological nightmare. They eat each other too, if they run out of other food and breed like crazy so they are really hard to shift once they are in a water.

**my nets cost me £4 each, and I then modded them slightly to make them legal. I catch them in a little Brook near me in Wiltshire **

 

Bastards. I think I could probably bring myself to kill them!

 

I found this StJ

"Hertfordshire’s aquatic world consists of the two tributaries of the River Thames; the Colne and Lee as well as the upper tributaries associated with these two rivers. Two small tributaries of the River Ivel start life in the north of county before flowing into Bedfordshire eventually meeting up with the Gt. Ouse. Add to this a number of gravel pits, reservoirs and ponds and the county boasts an enviable range of aquatic habitat supporting a rich diversity of aquatic organisms.
Many of the rivers in the county start life as upwellings from chalk aquifers; this provides a internationally important habitat for a range of species that have adapted to take advantage of the cool, calcium rich water. One such species is the White-clawed crayfish (Austropotomobius pallipes), the only crayfish native to the United Kingdom. The white-clawed crayfish was once prolific throughout all of the waterways in Hertfordshire, not only in classic chalk stream headwaters but in sections of open canal used for transporting goods to London. During the last 30 years the white-clawed crayfish has become effectively extinct within Hertfordshire, and in many cases has been replaced by the North American Signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus). If this wasn’t enough to worry about we now have a second North American crayfish species, the Virile crayfish (Orconectes virilis) making its way slowly but relentlessly up the River Lee in the south-west of the county."



That bit in bold shows that it would probably be no problem applying for and getting a license as the only real concern that the EA have is that the now rare native Crays might be caught.
Water voles in an area can sometimes stop licenses being granted, but that's one reason why the nets are tightly regulated to try and stop things like voles and otters swimming in and getting caught.
I bet your daughter could just drop a couple of nets off the side of her barge at night, and bring them up the next morning.
Signal Crayfish are tolerant of brackish water so you'll even find them in tidal stretches of rivers

 

Invasive flora and fauna of all sorts a world wide problem more publicity and action required. At least the crayfish are good to eat.

 

I nearly got knocked off my bike by a road salting lorry today.

"you asshole" I shouted through gritted teeth

 

Thanks Rorsch I think nets and lines are deployed. They're continuous cruisers, I'll have a chat soon and see how that affects licensing.

 

I can't help loving this. In the USA, several FF owners are so gormless they bandy together and block acess to EV charging parks. The blocks are called being "ICE'd" [internal combustion engine]. So, some EV owners retaliated. The better person in me says that they shouldn't sink to the level of those ICE owners. But it's really just a token payback. All of the cars are full battery electric:

​

 

I bought my wife a mannequin leg for Christmas.

It wasn't her main present, just a stocking filler.

 

What did Santa say to Mrs. Claus when he saw a thunderstorm?

Looks like reindeer.

 

The wife and I went to a wife swapping party at the weekend.

I managed to get a new battery drill.