At the Corsley Fayre – see below. Press ctrl and + several times for an enhanced view.

Teaching nudge: At the beginning and end of each lecture I ask students “What questions do you have?” rather than “Do you have any questions?” The former elicits significantly more questions than the latter. I love the way that little gems pop up  when you are not looking for them. This one I noticed in Twitter. How much better is the former because it is more encouraging, assuming that ‘of course you have questions. How could you not after such an interesting talk’.

At least the Brits make the best of rain – Chilcompton

Yesterday we went, briefly, to a rain soaked and mud spattered  so called Literary and music festival in Chilcompton. All praise to the organisers who arranged for most of the events to be under cover. Music in tents was going on all day (two stages) plus a small tent where literary matters were discussed and people were selling their locally themed books.

Today Bank Holiday Monday we went to a show at Corsley, just a few miles shy of Warminster in Wiltshire. Entry was £8 which I thought a bit steep but after an hour or so realised that I was getting value for money so I stopped my curmudgeonly moaning.

We had experience of the usual suspects:

antique car show
ferret racing
Horticultural society plants and art
Lawn Mower racing (at a national level)
Dog show
Horse trials
Miniature steam engine rides
Amusements for the children
tug of war
and of course – the beer and cider tent

But what are mere words when you can see the imagery in front of your very eyes <fanfare of trumpets>

The soap bubbles were just pure magical fun for children and adults. To enlarge any or all of these images, use Ctrl and +

A faux cake made out of flowers and greenery

and finally, a lawn mower race (all engines have to be from lawn mowers)We stayed for about three hours and then made a small diversion to the Longleat wood outlet to add to my pile of winter supplies for my compact but efficient Squirrel wood burner (Morso).  The advantage of buying ‘out of season’ is that the wood is dry. In any case, wood should be given at least a month to be at its best. It sits happily on the right of our wood burner in the living room.

NB I have a meter for testing moisture. Although wood may feel dry, it can in reality be very damp. I have just tested the wood ; the average piece has 50% extra moisture.