Strimmer Wire

Our strimmer had run out of nylon cord. Visiting the local Homebase today to get new cord I was amazed that there appear to be hundreds of different varieties to choose from, depending on maker, model and age. My son and I had to ring home to check we were getting the right one.

Be warned, go armed with make and model number or you too will be confused. Thankfully I got 10%
off as it was a seniors day (Tuesday).

View of our house from the windmill next door

In my present (wobbly balance) state of health because of my stroke , I cannot climb up the inside of the fully restored windmill right next door to us.

This morning, our son managed a sneak preview and he took some photos of our bungalow  from the very top floor of the mill.

Our bungalow from the mill

You can see my V2000 vertical and 2m halo on the garage roof if you look at the blown up photo. You may JUST be able to see my HF Par end-fed wire too but you will need to look carefully at the  full sized photo.

For the second time this year, a party of school  children is visiting the museum, and windmill. The windmill has its official opening on Sunday April 13th.

See http://www.burwellmuseum.org.uk.btck.co.uk/StevensMill

The windmill,next to our bungalow, is the highest spot in the village. The church, about 400m away, is on the second highest ground.

Burwell Church from the top of the windmill

New PC due today

According to the tracking data, my new Inspiron 15R PC is due to arrive any time now. It has been dispatched from their factory so is ready. When it arrives I need to check for updates and install WSPR and Spectran software as well as CCleaner, Firefox and VLC media player. My old versions of Photoshop Elements (V2) and MS Office (2003) may not install? We'll see. With 1TB of hard drive there should be no shortage of space for apps,but it does depend on them working OK on a 64 bit machine.

I am using my wife's PC to write this and that is 64 bit Dell machine and both WSPR and Spectran installed OK with Win 7. Let's hope Win 8.1 is OK too.

Netgear WN1000RP Universal Wi-Fi Range Extender

Netgear Wifi Extender

We had intermittent internet coverage in our main bedroom so I invested in a Netgear wifi extender this week from Amazon.co.uk.  Price was just under £28. The unit simply plugs into a free 13A socket with no ugly wires.

The extender takes the off-air packets and regenerates them so the remote signal is considerably improved. I believe the speed is reduced but we have a very fast connection anyway. It does NOT use the mains wiring to send the signal over.

First impressions are good, with a strong signal now in the main bedroom. Setting up the extender was simplicity itself.  We'll see how it works over the next few weeks.

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009C9FQNQ/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 .

PCs

http://i.dell.com/das/dih.ashx/179w/das/xa_____/global-site-design%20WEB/e079f119-4427-7611-2582-9b07c3699d3e/1/OriginalPng?id=Dell/Product_Images/Dell_Client_Products/Notebooks/Inspiron_Notebooks/Inspiron_15r_5521/best_of/laptop-inspiron-15r-5521-touch-generic-bestof-500-ng.psd

As I have been having lots of issues with a very old Windows XP laptop and my little Asus netbook is currently refusing to start, today I decided to invest (we'll see) in a new Dell Inspiron i5, 15R laptop (1TB hard drive, 8MB RAM, touch screen, Win 8.1) with 3 years' hardware and software support. The machine looks like it should meet my needs well.

My XP machine was mainly used for digital modes and normally did not move. It was powered nearly always from the mains PSU. After April 8th Windows XP is no longer a supported OS by Microsoft, which is a pity as I liked XP.

Grass cutting

Well, my balance, walking and general stamina must be improving as today I cut about 40% of the rear lawn. Lis did the rest, but I was not totally exhausted, as I was last time.  I could probably have done the whole lawn with a few breaks.

Today I still feel a bit sick inside and giddy but definitely somewhat better. Also, I have taken NO pills today so far.

Anglesey Abbey

Another visit today to Anglesey Abbey near Cambridge (our 8th this year!) to enjoy the mild weather and the lovely walks. Today was quite quiet and all the lawn walks are now open. Plenty to see including lots of woolen bikes (yarn bombing) to promote the Tour de France which comes through Cambridge this summer. Snowdrops are dying fast but there are plenty of other flowers to see now and most trees are starting to bud.

Lis next to the bike wheels

Masses of daffodils

Penny Farthing

Small violet-like flowers - not bluebells I think