Jack Daniel’s & Ginger for a change. Am disproportionately tired considering that we haven’t actually done that much today, so we are ordering a pizza & cooking can wait until tomorrow. #ConfinedCocktails

I love your arrangements - very cheering. Thanks for sharing them with us.

I still know my gran’s phone number, though she’s been dead 20 years. She was one of that generation who reeled off her phone number when she answered the phone rather than giving her name, so I must have heard it a lot. I can still ‘hear’ it in her voice.

Today has been nice (I was too warm in long-sleeved T shirt & coat for skiing) but I wouldn’t have contemplated sandals - or going into town without a coat. That’s Edinburgh, though - a bit further north than London!

The fishmonger is still there. As is one of the butchers. But the GOOD game butcher with a popular sideline in haggis went into haggis full time & the shop is now (after several changes) a Costa.

I am currently on a bus on a route I have known for most of 40 years (route between home & school). I’m constantly looking out for which shops have changed (and the few that have stayed the same). Just realised the chippy we got chips & brown sauce from at lunchtime has gone 😢

A Betty’s order is never needless ❤️ Which somehow reminds me that it feels like a long time since I have been to Northallerton 😂

I’d kind of assume these might be indoor shoes, rather than something intended to be worn outside.

At the very least, it would have put His Majesty in a very difficult position. Which is an extremely ungentlemanly thing to do to your host, especially on a diplomatic visit.

Some of us fairly regularly do Globe in October… 25th, this year. For us Northern folk, London stands a chance of being a civilised temperature (ie not Too Hot) this end of the year 😂

A shame about Fountains, but best to be safe with all the trees there.

Highland Stoneware (as are almost all my nice mugs). I don’t use the pint mugs that often, but they’re perfect for large quantities of mint tea.

Sticking with peppermint tea for now as I’m feeling slightly off colour after ‘flu jab this morning, but dinner is in the oven & hoping I will feel up to something a little stronger later. #ConfinedCocktails

A Dark & Stormy seemed appropriate this evening (though we don’t have it too bad compared with further north & west).

I mean it would be even better if they stopped sending appointment letters at all (unless actively requested by the patient) & used modern & hopefully more reliable methods like email, WhatsApp & the NHS app instead. I’ve missed at least 2 appointments through not receiving letters.

Railway-themed #UnconfinedWalks today, from Shildon to Heighington along the Stockton & Darlington Railway. Replica ‘Rocket’ (steaming) & original(ish) ‘Locomotion’ at the museum; abundant hips & haws along the line; world’s oldest station (in dire need of TLC, sadly) at Heighington.

“Husband strength” in this household (i.e. when Himself is playing barman) starts somewhere around 60ml. I suspect tonight’s may have slightly exceeded that…

I’m enjoying the first ‘normal’ weekend in quite a while, between holidays and visitors (excellent though both are, obviously). I have my feet up with stitching and a G&T. There is a bottle of white in the fridge to go with dinner when I get round to doing it. #ConfinedCocktails

Is there a complete transcript of the list of subscribers, and has any systematic research been done to identify them all? I had a go at it a year or so back from photos taken by our Conservator (we were hoping for some Tyne/ Wear connections), but didn’t get very far.

Ringers’ privilege, those photos - it’s a great opportunity to explore interesting churches.

Not sure what age has to do with it. We both remember how it used to be, before the internet made it an armchair hobby. Like getting the night train to London in my teens to spend a day searching English census & GRO indexes that weren’t available locally (as far as I knew then, anyway).

And military records are in at least 3 different places. I’m grateful I don’t have much need for those.

Multiple portals are always a problem though. eg some Yorkshire records are on Ancestry, others on FMP. I can never remember which are where - even when I’m not looking for families in the bit which moved from West Riding to North Yorks in 1974, for which the originals aren’t even held consistently.

Don’t get me wrong - I’m not intrinsically opposed to the commercial model. I both use, and have worked with, commercial sites. In many cases they are digitising records which the custodians simply wouldn’t have the resources to do themselves. That can be a good partnership. Compulsion isn’t.

I can’t speak for the value for money of Scotlands People as I haven’t needed to use it much. I do know that it’s good to have a Pay Per View if you’re only looking for a few records. Maybe a subscription option would be good for more frequent users - I can’t say.

Most Scottish records are available through a single portal. No constantly trying to remember which of the rival subscription sites actually has the records you need (and/ or, the most accurate indexes). And any profit goes back into caring for the records rather than lining shareholders’ pockets.

Maybe you’d prefer to go back to the way we had to do it back when I started doing family history in the 1990s, before the internet? Like - actually going to the appropriate archive in person, and either scrolling through microfilm, or searching the original record page by page.

Archivists as well as genealogists. I am glad to see this blog standing up for NRS and their right to decide how they make the records they are responsible for available.

Complain.

Will see if I can find it later. I know it was early 19th century Middlesmoor (West Riding, now N Yorks) & I think the surname was Teal. Collateral, not my direct line, but it’s a useful example.