The Carl and Mark Show

rolls into Penyffordd 3 -4 pm Friday at The Institute. Carl Sargeant AM and Mark Tami MP will be holding surgery. Residents are seen on a first come first served basis. Ken Skates, Mark Tami's assistant is usually there as well.

keywords: The Big Picture

Hope Parish Church Magazine July 2009

Lisa has bought me a copy from the post office. In it you will find all things Hope and Caergwrle plus Penyffordd Community Council meeting minutes. Items about Penyffordd Women's Institute and Emmanuel Church Penyffordd. What you will not find is any mention of County Councillor Tim Newhouse who won the last Hope local election.

(Elected NEWHOUSE, Tim Liberal Democrat 480 SHONE, Cliff Independent 275 )

I think Tim is not liked by the Hope establishment. Not that I think Tim looses much sleep over this.

Postscript:

Comment from Cllr Tim Newhouse
"I asked the people of Hope to judge me on what I achieve for the village by 2012. I stand by that - and believe Hope will offer a better quality of life in 2012 than it does today.
"What you need to realise is that there is a vocal minority in Hope who are opposed to change, no matter what the benefit. Rather than going crying to the local papers or sending out leaflets moaning about my opponents, I continue to work quietly and tenaciously towards my goals for Hope."

Tim Newhouse.

Links Tim Newhouse

keyword: Moneysupermarkets

51 Accidents in Three Years at Nerquis bend.

An email to Cllr Tony Sharps Flintshire County Council's executive member for Environment.

Dear Cllr Sharps,

Hope the decorating at Shire Hall is going well.

I read in The Post that there have been 51 accidents in three years (can't add up six years) at a Nerquis bend.

I also read that FCC will be inspecting the road surface as is their normal practice.

51 accidents and little done, normal practice seems to have made little progress.

No sense of embarrassment or shame?

The lack of performance of FCC seems staggering, 51 accidents!

Is it not time for change? We have a stupid person with three children in the car

rushing to school. These people need protecting from themselves and so do we from them.

regards Colin Hughes

still over 1000 speeders through Chester Rd Penyffordd everyday.........................

copied to blog

http://penyffordd-district.blogspot.com/

Link The Daily Post

keywords: Carl Langland, Colin Everett, Dave Faulkner

The end of Microsoft is upon us

Google have developed an operating system for computers. I currently use Windows 2000. Lisa has Win XP it came with the machine. Microsoft's operating systems have just got more bloated with huge processing chips required with little new advantage

Link The FT.Com

90 jobs to go at Castle Cement?

Link The Evening Leader

Complaining to Flintshire County Council

If you have a beef about something Flintshire County Council should be doing you can go here.

Fix my Street

Flintshire County Council Problems All

Or you could contact County Cllrs Cindy Hinds or David Williams.
Email addresses are the following respectively with _ removed.

Hden_cin@aol.com

dwillder_w@yahoo.co.uk

If Flintshire County Council won't fix it try The Leader.

Penyffordd Carnival and Bonfire under threat from red tape?

Link The Telegraph

A Toadstool

Mark Tami MP supporting Penyffordd residents

Mark Tami MP today has written to North Wales Police to ask for fixed speed signs to be installed on the by-pass and Chester Road, as requested by residents. He has also asked for speed camera warning signs to be erected in the village as a deterrent.

This is most welcome

Penyffordd and District Community Council Website

http://penyfforddareacc.com/

Penyffordd Community Council meeting July 2009 Points

The meeting started early.

Cllr Colin Bithell and Cllr Joe Bell were absent.

County Cllr Cindy Hinds asked a representative of NE Wales National Health Trust to be present to answer questions from residents concerned about the Melwood Close Clinic site. It is currently unused.
Cllr Cindy Hinds will liase further with the above body.

CBM Howie Williams gave apologies for not attending meeting.

County Cllr David Williams has had a site meeting with Dave Faulkner of Flintshire County Council on matters relating to roads within Penyffordd district. David's report will be put on the blog when I have scanned it.

Penyffordd Community Council Summer Newsletter will be coming out shortly.
I understand it will include plans for Penyffordd Community Council's aims for Penyffordd and district. This will include proposed speed limit changes.
Cllr Stan Davies who has just been to Scotland told the committee that all Scottish villages have signs showing what speed you are entering the village. The sign says thank you to those doing less than the speed limit.

There has been vandalism in Abbotts Lane.

There are various issues with regards youth in the village. This sort of issue is happening in most communities and is not bad compared to some areas in Flintshire.

A gate was put across a footpath entrance near the Spar. This was errected to stop anti social behaviour and has worked well. Flintshire County Council have had a complaint about this gate and have ordered its removal. Cllr Stan Davies raised a good point as an argument against removal.

County Cllr Klaus Armstrong Braun has been seen in the area............

The meeting finished at 7.45 pm

Airbus sign their own death warrant

It is the Airbus "Wing Cooperation Agreement" with China that most worries workers at the UK wing plant at Broughton in North Wales. For the time being, Broughton is still "Big Brother". The Chinese parts are sent back to Wales for refinement – a costly way to do business. Under the next phase, the Chinese wing parts will never leave Asia. They will be equipped and tested in Tianjin instead.

Mr Enders is brutally honest. "The UK is the supplier of wings for the Airbus family but that doesn't mean the Chinese can't build a good wing. As long as the UK maintains competitive working conditions, Wales is OK," he said.

Link The Telegraph

Is Cllr Alison Halford having a go at moi?

Alison's blog says
"A letter was published recently ( The Leader) stating that the reason some members did not claim expenses was because we did not bother to attend meetings. How wrong the author was."

Link here
My comments at the bottom.

Alison continues to give a view of Flintshire County Council goings on that is unique.
One wonders what the Welsh Omsbudsman has found against her. Most probably something on her blog.............

Another Airbus down

Link The Telegraph

Penyffordd Community Council meeting July 2009

on Wednesday at 6.30 pm in The Institute. All are welcome to attend.

Tis the season of flies, to be eaten alive

Postcript. Covering up seems to be the best method of protection for us. Horse flies have an unusual slow flight pattern. Their body shape is longer than standard flies, they are easy to spot once you realise this. They first land on you very softly and just wait to move to an area of flesh. They will target the underside of a bare arm or hand. They seem to sense when you are distracted by something else. A customer of ours had her leg balloon in size after two bites on her leg. Our dog also gets bites. We walk the same walk a lot we know where they wait. I try to kill as many as possible as they do not give up they just keep coming back to bite you. I am of the opinion they target females in menustration above other targets available.

Extra Link Clegg

The fields are currently full of flies. Most flies just irritate but not the horse fly ( Tabanidae). The male of the species does not bite. The female however has all the necessary equipment to rip open your flesh. They seem to take great delight in biting Lisa. Eight bites tonight. The bites can swell the size of golf balls. I have a few as well. Future dog walking by the sea till September?

Diet
Adult horse flies feed on nectar and sometimes pollen. Females usually also feed on blood which aids in egg development. Males lack the necessary mouth parts (mandibles) for blood feeding. Most female horse flies feed on mammal blood, but some species are known to feed on birds, amphibians or reptiles. Immature or larval horse flies are fossorial predators of other invertebrates in moist environments.

Sight
The females' primary sense for locating prey is sight, and they have large compound eyes that serve this purpose well. The flies usually lay waiting in shady areas for prey to happen by. They are attracted to large, dark objects, and to certain animal odors and carbon dioxide. They are also attracted by motion, their eyes being well adapted to its detection. The eyes of horse flies are generally brightly colored, and this coloration is one of the means entomologists use to identify them to species, though the colors rarely persist after death. Sex in most species can be distinguished based on shape of the eyes relative to the frons. Male horse flies are usually holoptic, meaning that their eyes meet and take up the majority of the head. In females, the eyes are separated by a space called the frons.

Bite
The bite from a larger specimen can be singularly painful, especially considering the light, agile, and airborne nature of the fly. Unlike insects which surreptitiously puncture the skin with needle-like organs, horse flies have mandibles like tiny serrated scimitars, which they use to rip and/or slice flesh apart. This causes the blood to seep out as the horsefly licks it up. They may even carve a chunk completely out of the victim, to be digested at its leisure.

The horsefly's modus operandi is less secretive than that of its mosquito counterparts, although it still aims to escape before pain signals reach their mark's sphere of awareness. Moreover, the pain of a horsefly bite may mean that the victim is more concerned with assessing and repairing the wound, than finding and swatting the interloper.

Habitat
Horse flies are most active in hot weather, mostly in summer and autumn during the daylight hours. Most species also prefer a wet environment, which makes it easier for them to breed. The female lays eggs on vegetation overhanging moist soil. The larvae hatch and drop onto the soil, where they feed on smaller organisms until pupation.

Predators
Aside from generalized predators such as birds, there are also specialist predators such as the Horse Guard, a type of Sand wasp that preferentially attacks horse flies.

Reproduction
Eggs are generally laid on stones close to water or on plant stems or leaves. On hatching, the larvae fall into water or moist earth, feeding voraciously on invertebrates, such as snails and earthworms, and small vertebrates.

Diseases
Some horsefly species are known to transmit disease and/or parasites. Species in the genus Chrysops are biological vectors of Loa loa, transmitting this filarial worm between humans. They have also been known to transmit Anthrax among cattle and sheep.

A common problem in some animals, though, when large flies are abundant, is blood loss. Some animals have been known to lose up to 300 ml of blood in a single day, which can severely weaken or even kill them. "

New car found

With thanks to Sue at the Post Office. Picking it up Monday.

The car has died

Yesterday it broke down. We had to rely on our breakdown cover to get us home.
The injection fuel pump has failed at 290,000 miles.
Repairs exceed value.................................

German town goes car free

and asking friends around warms the house up. One of my targets is for a house that requires very little heating. The magic ingredient is Kingspan if you have solid walls such as ours.

Link Vauban

Thought for the day

It is said countries in Europe and North America have so far spent around $14 trillion, or 50% of their GDP to shore the banks up.

Link Citywire

Postscript: GDP being gross domestic product which is turnover and NOT profit

In future speculative adventures should be separate from savings and companies allowed to go to the wall.