On Wed, 16 Dec 2015 10:01:55 +0000,
Stephen Wolstenholme wrote:
On Tue, 15 Dec 2015 20:21:21 -0000, "Phil L"
wrote:

They don't like onions or citrus fruits.

One thing I don't understand is that lemon peel rots away in compost
heaps within a month or two but orange peel doesn't. I suppose it's
the same thing that makes them taste different.

Where were the fruit grown? I will not venture to guess, but much that
comes from italy originates from biological farming without being
certified as bilogical, while most that comes from spain may be
certified as whatever but is none.

In view of the treatments that most fruit are subjected to, an easy
explanation comes to my mind.

(I am reading Henry Fielding, so my English will improve before long).

Michael

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In article u,
Michael Uplawski wrote:

(I am reading Henry Fielding, so my English will improve before long).

Indeed, it will - most native English speakers avoid that sort of
thing! Which one, incidentally?


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Following up on the potato line, I was turning this years heap
into the next container, and came across 2 small, perfectly
sound potatoes about half way down. My guess is that they must
have got there about 3-4 months ago. How I wonder. They could
have come from some stray peelings that got in and grew,they
were to small to be commercially bought from a shop, and I do
not grow potatoes any more.

Strange


In article -
september.org, says...

In article -
september.org, says...

We recently had an ammount of cooked green veg, cabbage etc
left over from a dinner party.I wanted to put it on the compost
heap, but, swmbo said that you can not compost cooked food. Who
is right? To my mind whilst the texture may have changed and a
few additives like salt included basically raw & cooked are the
same!


Thank you for all the response, I'm glad I was right!

Strangely I never compost potato peelings, my mothers advice
some 55+ years ago. She said that potatoes would grow from
them. I'm sure it is one of those old wives tales, but such
long held habits are hard to break.



--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales

On Wed, 16 Dec 2015 18:57:44 -0000 (UTC),
Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article u,
Michael Uplawski wrote:

(I am reading Henry Fielding, so my English will improve before long).

Indeed, it will - most native English speakers avoid that sort of
thing! Which one, incidentally?

Joseph Andrews.

I just finished John Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat and could choose between
Essais by Michel de Montaigne (in French), Stories and Poems of
Thomas Hardy and Henry Fielding's novel.

Just peeking in at some random spots is enough to be glued to Fielding.
It always astonishes me, how the English from that epoch is so catchy
and comprehensible while our old german authors often appear to have
written in a “foreign� language, that I find terribly flowery or
stilted. Already the preface (by Fielding) is a joy to read.

Michael


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.


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In article u,
Michael Uplawski wrote:

(I am reading Henry Fielding, so my English will improve before long).

Indeed, it will - most native English speakers avoid that sort of
thing! Which one, incidentally?

Joseph Andrews.

Ah. Not one I have read, but I mean to, sometime.

I just finished John Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat and could choose between
Essais by Michel de Montaigne (in French), Stories and Poems of
Thomas Hardy and Henry Fielding's novel.

Just peeking in at some random spots is enough to be glued to Fielding.
It always astonishes me, how the English from that epoch is so catchy
and comprehensible while our old german authors often appear to have
written in a “foreign� language, that I find terribly flowery or
stilted. Already the preface (by Fielding) is a joy to read.

literary English hasn't changed all that much since then, but the
reason most native English speakers get caught out is that colloquial
English has. It gets a bit trickier as you go back, but not all
that much, until before Shakespeare et al.

One of the things I intend to do in my retirement is to relearn to
read French - I shall never speak it, because I can't hear it, but
I used to be able to read up to Pierre Boulle (not Camus, though).
I can hear northern German, but my knowledge is very limited.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 14/12/2015 22:51, Roger Tonkin wrote:

We recently had an ammount of cooked green veg, cabbage etc
left over from a dinner party.I wanted to put it on the compost
heap, but, swmbo said that you can not compost cooked food. Who
is right? To my mind whilst the texture may have changed and a
few additives like salt included basically raw & cooked are the
same!

Given that composting is a form of low temp cooking why would anybody
think that?

--
Chris in Dublin but not Irish

Nick Maclaren wrote:
One of the things I intend to do in my retirement is to relearn to
read French - I shall never speak it, because I can't hear it, but
I used to be able to read up to Pierre Boulle (not Camus, though).
I can hear northern German, but my knowledge is very limited.

How can you hear German but you can't hear French?

In article ,
Phil L wrote:

How can you hear German but you can't hear French?

Auditory cues are learnt, not innate, and that includes the recognition
of the basic sounds of language. I have been severely deaf almost all
my life, though it was diagnosed very late, and the auditory cues I
use are highly unusual. They are present in northern German, but not
French - I can't distinguish most of the latter's vowels, and a few
(when spoken by most French women) actually come across as silence, no
matter how much I amplify them.

This phenomenon isn't rare, but it is rare for it to be as definite
as it is with me.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 17/12/15 17:47, Phil L wrote:
Nick Maclaren wrote:
One of the things I intend to do in my retirement is to relearn to
read French - I shall never speak it, because I can't hear it, but
I used to be able to read up to Pierre Boulle (not Camus, though).
I can hear northern German, but my knowledge is very limited.

How can you hear German but you can't hear French?

Supposedly 70% of basic English is derived from the
teutonic languages, whereas French is derived from Latin.

If you have an electronic or computer background, the
RPN nature of German won't bother you. Exception:
German to English simultaneous translators can't begin
their translation until they've heard the verb at
the end of the sentence

On 18/12/15 11:33, Martin wrote:
On Thu, 17 Dec 2015 23:58:46 +0000, Tom Gardner
wrote:

On 17/12/15 17:47, Phil L wrote:
Nick Maclaren wrote:
One of the things I intend to do in my retirement is to relearn to
read French - I shall never speak it, because I can't hear it, but
I used to be able to read up to Pierre Boulle (not Camus, though).
I can hear northern German, but my knowledge is very limited.

How can you hear German but you can't hear French?

Supposedly 70% of basic English is derived from the
teutonic languages, whereas French is derived from Latin.

If you have an electronic or computer background, the
RPN nature of German won't bother you. Exception:
German to English simultaneous translators can't begin
their translation until they've heard the verb at
the end of the sentence

The separation between words spoken in German is very clear. In spoken French
the words blur into each other.

As in
"Hoechsgeschwindigkeitsbegrenzung",
"Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenüber tragungsgesetz",
"Freundschaftsbezeigungen",
"Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften"
and all the other German portmanteau words?

But I know what you meant!

In article ,
Martin wrote:
On Thu, 17 Dec 2015 23:58:46 +0000, Tom Gardner
wrote:


If you have an electronic or computer background, the
RPN nature of German won't bother you. Exception:
German to English simultaneous translators can't begin
their translation until they've heard the verb at
the end of the sentence

That is the sort of English up with which I will not put :-)

The separation between words spoken in German is very clear. In
spoken French the words blur into each other.

That is one of my problems - I rely a lot on word breaks. And it
is also a reason that I said northern German - it's a lot less clear
in the south of Germany.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On Fri, 18 Dec 2015 17:14:10 +0000,
Tom Gardner wrote:
As in
"Hoechsgeschwindigkeitsbegrenzung",

Höchs t geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung

But that word is constructed for the effect. Even in German it does not
make much sense, as “Speed Limit� (Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung) is
enough. You would not say “Maximum-speed limit� or for a closer
translation “Limitation of the maximum speed�, would you?

"Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenüb ertragungsgesetz",
"Freundschaftsbezeigungen",
"Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften"
and all the other German portmanteau words?

But I know what you meant!



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On Fri, 18 Dec 2015 17:50:59 -0000 (UTC),
Nick Maclaren wrote:

The separation between words spoken in German is very clear. In
spoken French the words blur into each other.

That is one of my problems - I rely a lot on word breaks. And it
is also a reason that I said northern German - it's a lot less clear
in the south of Germany.

You put that gently.

On the other hand if you like music, you prefer a language that allows
that the structuring effect of the consonants be diminished. That
capacity appears to exist in any language, but I find the songs in
southern German dialects much more melodious.., when they want to, that
is.

Michael (from in-between)

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"Tom Gardner" wrote in message
...
On 17/12/15 17:47, Phil L wrote:
Nick Maclaren wrote:
One of the things I intend to do in my retirement is to relearn to
read French - I shall never speak it, because I can't hear it, but
I used to be able to read up to Pierre Boulle (not Camus, though).
I can hear northern German, but my knowledge is very limited.

How can you hear German but you can't hear French?

Supposedly 70% of basic English is derived from the
teutonic languages, whereas French is derived from Latin.

If you have an electronic or computer background, the
RPN nature of German won't bother you. Exception:
German to English simultaneous translators can't begin
their translation until they've heard the verb at
the end of the sentence

I lived in very rural Germany for 3 weeks. No-one except my friend spoke
any English so I know the German for hens, dogs, bees, hedgehogs. that sort
of stuff. Nouns only. Couldn't hold a conversation though. and even if did
speak what is called "high german" (equivalent of posh) no one there would
understand it much, they speak a dialect.
I asked my friend if should learn German, she said "don't bother"
I loved it there, miles from anywhere. Sat by a pond listening to bats
sweeping over the water, ran for the house when the wild boars came.
Amazing place.
Gardening is difficult because of voles. They eat everything. they look
like water voles but they are all over the place.
My friend traps them, but they are quite crafty. Her cat catches one or
two, but they are quite big for him. my own cat would say hmm, I think not.
Never seen anything like them in the UK.

On Thu, 17 Dec 2015 23:58:46 Tom Gardner wrote:

On 17/12/15 17:47, Phil L wrote:
Nick Maclaren wrote:
One of the things I intend to do in my retirement is to relearn to
read French - I shall never speak it, because I can't hear it, but
I used to be able to read up to Pierre Boulle (not Camus, though).
I can hear northern German, but my knowledge is very limited.

How can you hear German but you can't hear French?

Supposedly 70% of basic English is derived from the
teutonic languages, whereas French is derived from Latin.

If you have an electronic or computer background, the
RPN nature of German won't bother you. Exception:
German to English simultaneous translators can't begin
their translation until they've heard the verb at
the end of the sentence

But that happens only in subordinate clauses! ;-)

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK