Well the rain has arrived today, torrential too for the last few hours so hopefully some of the rivers will start to run a little again, they look so sad just rocks and sand.
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Slight correction - it’s from the Little Greene Company!
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I’ve been having consecutive days of cold spells indoors due to local electricity maintenance works, and EJP days, over a few weeks, and with a bare minimum of heating from other sources – but I find now that I can bare the cold. I feel cosy deep inside of me, but cold on the surface areas of the body, despite being well wrapped up. But that skin coldness doesn’t seem to bother me now, surprisingly. Something has balanced out. So long as I move about from time to time, I find it reasonably bearable.
But when the central heating started working again recently it really was very welcome!
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Little Greene, as @AngelaR points out.
But a tip about F & B paint, the default paint of the GB haute bourgoisie/Interiors/Home & Gdn mags.
It’s very soft. A pal who shops for wine at Berry Bros & Rudd and night attire bespoke from Saville Row handed me cans of F & B to paint the exterior woodwork of his house.
It never seemed to ‘go off’, remaining soft and very easily marked/scratched/dented. This made their front door look a mess chop-chop, esp where given a swift kick to open when they arr carrying stuff.
It’s also at the opposite end of the consistency scale to non-drip, very liquid, a paint for the pros.[I’ve paid my dues as a painter/decorator]
So, an excellent paint for anywhere that will not take any contact and with skillful application - and Saville Row prices.
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From 1940-44 also known as “Panzergrau” 
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A grim description of the scene around the building where the Paras were holding out in Arnhem [A Bridge Too Far]
“The ground in front of the building was littered with field grey bodies. There was blood running down the stairs from the floor above me”
I was on the 2008 commemorative tour. A platoon of 1 Para was standing easy waiting for the ceremony to begin. I got chatting to them. It emerged that they had little or no idea of the story behind the event!
They were a young bunch but still … Putting on my battlfield guide hat I was able to fill them in.
I had the same problem with ‘E’ Battery Royal Horse Artillery. With help from my pal, Battlefield Bob, I identified conclusively the position that ‘E’ Battery were holding on 22/08/1914 when they fired the first rounds of artillery by the B.E.F. of WW1.
The only company which would transport 6 x 13-pounder blank rounds across the Channel charged £5000. Battlefield Bob, retired police officer and Captain in the T.A. said he’d have taken them in his car for nothing 
I was asked to give a talk to the battery before we went to Belgium for the 100th anniversary commem. It comprised of 1] Reasons behind out break of WW1. 2] Outbreak of hostilities 3] Deployment of armies 4] Deployment of 3rd Cavary Brigade, including R.H.A. …
I submitted my talk to the Battery Captain i/c this event.
“Chris, this is all very good but we are dealing here with men of very limited intelligence.”
"But this is the Royal Horse Artillery … "!
“Yup. That’s who we get, these days”
I didn’t see how I could dumb this down to ‘limited intelligence’ level . I finally came up with a sort of cartoon show. The Battery Commander was very pleased.
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I think that’s going a bit far, you’ll catch a chill.
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That’s called being Scottish 
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Or Yorkshire/Public School cold baths every morning 12/12
I have Scottish roots on my father’s side, and French on my mother’s. I’m pretty tough, still! I have camped in snow somewhere high up in Switzerland and in sweltering heat in Italy. A tepid French house isn’t so bad. Makes me think of those in much less fortunate circumstances, out in the cold.
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Not likely. I don’t get chills, colds or the flu. The worst part of being in a cold house is getting out of a warm bed! But once dressed all is well…
Hopefully the central heating will be up and running properly soon.
One of the reasons that military historians often overlook is that politicians of that generation were unused to making snap decisions in the new age of instant communication by telegraph and telephone. Consequently many old alliances and treaties were triggered on the spot without the period of reflection that had previously been the case. (Paul Virillio)
Sadly it seemed that no explication to the rank and file of ‘E’ Battery, R.H.A. at a level above comic book would be understood. I was stunned …
What kind of belts are they, do they buckle at the back? 
I have noticed the RHA buckle their stable belts on the side. We buckled ours on the front but each to each. Mine’s in the dressing-up box now
Never been in the army, but I was in the Terriers many years ago and I don’t even remember being given a belt at all. Maybe as it was the RE they expected us to make our own. 
Back to the RHA. Obviously that is the way they must be, but do most buckle at the front, and then slide it round?
But a double buckle, that’s very swish, I bet their motto is ‘They can take our lives but they will never take our trousers’.
The story I like best to illustrate the wonderful way we Brit have with humour [“The French have their wine. The British have their humour” M.Macron] concerns soldiers’ belts.
In WW1 German soldiers’ belt buckles were thus
On the front somewhere, in bitter cold, the Germans hoisted a sign on a stick “Gott Mit Uns”
The Tommies replied with a sign of their own. Up went “We Got Mittens, Too!”
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Don’t they all have double buckles? Super comfortable and no big buckle to snag.
Bloody freezing here, I’m going to light the 2nd fire!
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