lousmith

Thanks kristymac1. Yes, i was really hoping I was going to get a smooth run at life for a bit. Appreciate your effort.

It's funny that toads never spawn in my pond. One or two males may arrive, but they never meet mates ...

I've got masses of frogspawn which I am happy to safely share. I take a portion of it to hatch and grow in tanks away from the predation of newts who will eat every last one of the tadpoles I leave in the pond even before they can swim. Spawn and tadpoles don't carry ranavirus, so it isn't a problem on that score. My breeding program is so successful I have reached overcapacity. Happy to share it about. Frogs generally need our help. This week would be good.

The issue is that as a leaseholder of LBS they own the garden despite several attempts by myself to buy it. Yes the shed is of a size that would fall below the need for planning permission, but despite the complaining other leaseholder having a shed, the Council have at their discretion disallowed mine. The resident services officer stated that he didn't object to my having a shed, nor to its placement, but thought 'it was just too big' It is a subjective decision, not an objective one.

Thanks so much. If you are the siousxiesue of legend, we met a couple of years back at an art show in Space @61. If not, I'm still happy to have your support.

Thank you Alice. The council has actually not even seen it. It's so lovely the little vixen has set up home in the cat basket on the stoop.

Hi EDF readers. My name is Lou Smith, formally of Captured on the Rye creative party business which, like many other businesses, has been decimated by the Covid Pandemic. I am writing to ask for support to help persuade Southwark Council to reverse their decision to force me to take down the shed which has been my creative sanctuary for nearly two years and is threatened because of a single complaint from a neighbour. I have enlisted the help of local councillors and MP, and have created a petition which has already raised nearly 1200 signatures in just a few days. I would be grateful if you could take two minutes to read more about the petition and consider signing it too. At 1500 signatures it will qualify to be heard at Council Assembly, the highest tier of local government. Thank you for reading. https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-our-shed-do-the-right-thing-southwark

A lot of it about. Three in my bit of Barry Road, near the school including mine a 20 year old Bimmer.

Bang on time for frogspawn. Loads in my pond since yesterday. Trouble is a freeze is coming. May be worth putting it in a bucket in and outbuilding until it passes. Nature knows best of course, but sometimes a helping hand goes a long way.

Hi All. Yes Captured on the Rye is still trading. We have a purpose-built garden studio at my address in Barry Road where we are now hosting parties for up to 12 guests. In addition, we continue to provide our mobile service where we will come to your home or to a venue of your choosing, bringing all our ever popular activities to you. Please contact us via the website https://capturedontherye.com/

The link doesn't link to a specific machine, but any of them would be fine. Main choice is corded or cordless. I have used and rate makita and hitachi, but unless you are going to be grinding all day every day, you're not going to notice much difference in use.

We have now rolled out our creative science parties to include several interactive activities. The children are invited to don lab-coats and goggles to help with the In The Lab feel. The activities are: 1) Make a batch of fizzing, foaming bath bombs. Children work in pairs, choosing colour and fragrance, learning a bit about the science behind the fizzing reaction, then mix and mould their bath bombs into a variety of shapes to take home. 2) Make a batch of slime in pairs again. Colour and type of slime can be chosen to make a pot of slime to take home to each guest. 3) Fizz-powder poppers. Children each get a popper that they load with fizz-powder and water to make loud pops and shoot off the lids. They can repeat until the fizz-powder is all used up. Shrieking levels usually peak during this activity 4) Milk and pigment mesmerising mandala. A neat experiment using intense dyes and milk to make self-generating rainbow patterns. A demonstration which can be repeated at home safely with milk and food dyes. The last fifteen to twenty minutes is taken up with food if you wish to serve party snacks, cake etc. We can do a cool trick where the birthday child gets to ignite a line of tea-lights for the number of years and then extinguish them with a glass full of carbon dioxide instead of blowing them out. (fizz-powder makes the carbon dioxide) 5) Candy Floss Finale for everyone, including siblings arriving at pick up time. Kids all take home a party bag containing their creations. Feel free to add party bag items, a slice of cake etc. into the bags. Message me for more details or to book your party.

Sri Lanka is great. I would definitely hire a car with a baby. Public transport would be noisy, hot and fretful. Maybe take your own car seat. Be prepared for some pretty hectic driving experiences, especially the newer wave of large 4x4s Food is the best there. Large hotels usually have mixed buffet style food halls with choices of S L (Curry breakfast, lunch and dinner) and euro fayre. They do a mild coconut curry for breakfast with string hoppers (like a rice noodle pan-scrub ) which would be ok for an adventurous baby and a sort of stodgy sweetened rice. Pretty hot there, so Hill country offers some respite ( and giant fruit bats ) and is gorgeous. Beaches are variable with a lot of plastic waste on the less touristy ones. It is possible to find very nice guest houses if you are prepared to stray off the starred hotels, with super-hospitable hosts and top notch home cooking. Pretty child-friendly. Egg hoppers (dish-shaped rice-flour pancakes with an egg poached in the middle) are a must-buy street food. Hopper huts are often called hotels for some reason. eat with spicy seeni sambol. Generally decent levels of hygiene, water etc, especially compared with much of India. Never had food poisoning in 4 visits. Watch out for monkeys. Thieving so and so's. I love them though.

Hi, Gebbjane. I would be happy to tailor a party around some simple science experiments, slime/ snot making, baking powder poppers, foaming volcanoes etc. We could easily host it at our shop in ED and throw in a couple of our party favourites, spin painting and green candy floss! DM me for details.

Hi Fergju, glad to hear your twins enjoyed the screen-printing party last year. Captured on the Rye is also hosting Bath Bomb making workshops to add to our repertoire of parties for children in the East Dulwich area. Here's a video of a recent party, do get in touch if you'd like more information.

Ivy is a great food plant for late and early insect pollinators too, so win-win!

Definitely DKH adventure playground. We've had a few parties there, brought our own food and entertainment, candy floss etc. Reasonable rates and huge.

Hi, Admin. I have a thread of recommendations for my business here: http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?29,1694555,1872572#msg-1872572 the last two of which appear to have been deleted today. One was added today, the previous one back in November I think. Was this intentional? and if so, could I learn why? They were both Bona fide comments from happy customers.

Hi Capitals. Happy to discuss options for a creative party for your son and friends at Captured on the Rye. The older children can really get to grips with the design aspects of the sessions and is a great solution for what can be a tricky age to cater for. Thanks Cactus for the recommendation.

Aww. Thanks, Guanaja. It was a pleasure to have you and your family return. It makes me happy when I see tee shirts printed at our parties being proudly sported around and about in ED and beyond. There were no less than three being worn at the recent BBC Proms in Peckham! Come again.

Thanks again Delanie. I am starting a stage two complaint via Southwark as I can get free assistance with that, they should have acted to help the situation, but have done zilch. I am out of town for a week from today, so won't be able to reply to any further post until then, but I thank you and the other posters for your words of support.

Thanks Delanie. It sure has been awful. We can't even sell up and move out as a survey would flag the damp and its cause. Been here 20 years. And yes, I also have been sorely tempted to lump him, getting myself arrested in the process. I fact he has threatened me on at least four occasions, saying i'm going to f**k you up you inbred c**t, once coming round with his brother, forcing entry to my flat and chasing me through neighbour's gardens. The police allowed themselves to be manipulated into believing them when they flatly denied it. It almost feels like a weird conspiracy. Maybe it is.

You'd think right.

The main trouble is the pipe is all original cast iron, which doesn't lend itself well to modification. All the above could be achieved in plastic, but it would require removing the entire stack, including excavating it from the walls and the sewer and re-plumbing all the toilets. it would be far easier to remove the offending toilet and make other provisions for it. The council would have most likely rejected permission to do the work as LHs are not allowed to affect the structure of the building or allow works to negatively affect other occupants. Although I seek a pragmatic solution, the main point is that I tried to get the council to intervene before it went ahead, and they actively failed to do so, which gave their tacit approval to a contravention of building regulations, and one that has caused me considerable distress. If it was the only cause I had for distress concerning the LH, then I would probably just wear it, but there is a history of vile abusive language, threats, intimidation, appalling building methods, workmen defecating in by passageway, you name it, I have suffered it. Three contractors have so far come and looked at the pipe and thought it beyond their ability to fix. When they do finally get round to fix it, I will be charged half of the cost, effectively subsidising his shoddy work. So mainly I am furious, and want someone to do something about it. The council refuse to answer my reasonable questions, even to respond to my request for the building insurance provider's details to make a claim for damages incurred. Rant over. I am trying the CAB route, stage two complaint, then the press if that doesn't work.

Unauthorised by the council. They are leaseholders, as am I with LBS being the landlord. All alterations that affect the structure of the building need prior written consent. "The lease says that you must ask the council?s permission if you want to make any alteration to your home. This includes things such as changing the bathroom or kitchen fittings, because they are the landlord?s fixtures and fittings ? although the lease makes you responsible for looking after them. "In general we will not refuse permission, provided that what you want to do is done to that part of the premises demised to you, and does not affect the structure of the building..." The cast iron toilet stack, which is definitely considered part of the structure has been smashed off above the existing first floor toilet and replaced in plastic into which a new second floor toilet has been plumbed. The issue is that a pressure balancing pipe exists which nowadays terminates in our bathroom wall somewhere but is now subject to brown water seepage when the second floor toilet is flushed. I phoned the council as the guy was about to heft the sledgehammer to smash 100year old perfectly serviceable soil stack to try to get them to intervene. They didn't want to get involved. The upstairs LH verbally threatened me whilst I was on the phone to the extent that the council, on hearing it, recommended I call the police. Later when I tried to get the promised witness statement, they went silent, refusing to answer my questions or return my emails...