Hobbies Other Than Caving
- Thread starter The Old Ruminator
- Start date
langcliffe
Well-known member
Pitlamp said:
Probably, Pitlamp. It looks similar to this imprint of the bark of a Lepidodendrum found in fluvial sandstone near Craster, which dates back to that period.
pwhole
Well-known member
I found this one a couple of years ago in the same stream pictured above. This area has very thin beds of shale, sandstone, clay and possibly ganister, all stacked on top of each other in repeated sequences, with streams cutting through all the beds. It's the only serious piece I've found so far but I've seen a few impressions in the stream bed here and there. My feeling is that there are unlogged coal seams in the area, with potentially very old workings associated, but short of taking a shovel to the slopes I'm only able to collect circumstantial evidence so far.
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Duck ditch
New member
Yes that what I thought. I got it down to a tree fern. Looks like Pwhole found the same obscure area.
Thanks everybody. What about the shells. Any thoughts?
Thanks everybody. What about the shells. Any thoughts?
langcliffe
Well-known member
Duck ditch said:
Given the strata and their size, probably fragments of Gigantoproductus - a brachiopod.
pwhole
Well-known member
I came across this today, in the same site as previous. What do folks think? Plant impressions or just random surface texture? And whichever, what material is it? It seems too fine-grained, heavy and too 'rounded' to be sandstone (which round here is light-coloured, flaggy and fragile), too hard and solid to be shale (and it doesn't laminate), so my guess is ganister. There's one bed of this stuff that is dark grey to chocolate brown, about 60cm thick and capped by shale and then clay, but no sign of any coal.
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AR
Well-known member
Ganister would be my first thought, though I don't know whether you do get occurrences of it without a coal seam in association - I'm sure John Hunter would be able to tell you straight off. Otherwise, some sort of ironstone would be my next guess, maybe something that was originally deposited as bog ore and has now gone through the geological mill?
royfellows
Well-known member
Well as most people will know my other obsession in life is martial arts, also quite keen on electronics re the lamps. Another little sideline is my home and garden and in particular water features and keeping fish. I have a nice outdoor pond with a brick arch bridge, and inside an outbuilding a 25 foot kai pool which is 8 feet deep in the middle.
When I bought the bungalow I bought the haulage contractors at the back and used it as paint shops and vehicle storage for a motor company I was running. When I retired I converted it to domestic use and put in the pool. At the back I built in a small room with a smaller pool, about 1500 gallons, heated by a gas boiler. The room is insulated by 4 inch polystyrene and I kept a shoal of piranha in there. An interesting layout.
The pool was made up in concrete on top of the pre existing concrete floor, and the room gained by a couple of steps with the boiler at the side. Once in you would be standing on a board walk above the filer beds. Water was circulated from the end filter by a Grundfos domestic circulator up through a Certikin stainless steel heat exchanger gravity fed from the boiler which as at a lower level. The water then passed through a UV clarifier on into the pool. The pool had a bottom drain to a standpipe which fed a waterfall over rocks into the end filter. The boiler controlled by an aquarium temperature controller.
People would bring their kids to see the piranha, very little interest in the koi, always the piranha. I would warn them to keep their fingers outside of the parapet wall as the water level was only a few inches below the top on the other side, and the scouts used to swim up and down there.
It was doomed from the start. The shoal I bought, 14 in number were bought as Pygocentrus piraya, and impressive fish that can grow up to 50 centimetres. A single fish can take a hand or a foot off with a single snap of the jaws. As they turned out, they were ordinary common red belly?s, the Pygocentrus nattereri. When bought they were quite young and had not developed the colours, I was fooled as the heads were unusually blunt for common nats. Piraya have distinctive orange flame colouring looking as though their belly?s are on fire.
Other issue was getting vegetation to grow. I was keen on making the place into a sort of mini jungle but could not get enough light in there.
The fish eventually grew to about 10 inches, then things came to a head when the numbers started to deplete. They had become diseased and the sick fish would be taken out by the others, typical piranha behaviour. Eventually, they went down to 3, at that point I gave away the remaining fish and shut the pool down. I pumped out all the water and left it idle.
A few years ago I decided to refill it and found to my dismay that it had developed a crack and water was pouring into my garage which was the next section of the building. So that was that, until now.
What I have done is to give up on all idea?s of repairing the crack, best forgot about. But measuring things up I worked out that I can still support about 18 inches of water. So I have knocked an entry point into the parapet wall with the object of building a bridge across. Also, with modern LED technology, something I should know all about, I recon I can economically achieve near daylight in there. The idea is an array of Cree XHP 70s on a water cooled heat sink base which would be part of the circulation system. Interesting to see if any discernible heating of the pool. Easy option mains step down would be a 12V battery charger, but need one with about 10 amps current output to support 4 LEDs 2p X 2S. Alternatively, a 24V lorry charger running LEDs at 4S. I will have to see what the possibilities are for DC side current regulation.
Beats sitting in front of a TV set.
Pics show the pool as it was, and the heating system..
When I bought the bungalow I bought the haulage contractors at the back and used it as paint shops and vehicle storage for a motor company I was running. When I retired I converted it to domestic use and put in the pool. At the back I built in a small room with a smaller pool, about 1500 gallons, heated by a gas boiler. The room is insulated by 4 inch polystyrene and I kept a shoal of piranha in there. An interesting layout.
The pool was made up in concrete on top of the pre existing concrete floor, and the room gained by a couple of steps with the boiler at the side. Once in you would be standing on a board walk above the filer beds. Water was circulated from the end filter by a Grundfos domestic circulator up through a Certikin stainless steel heat exchanger gravity fed from the boiler which as at a lower level. The water then passed through a UV clarifier on into the pool. The pool had a bottom drain to a standpipe which fed a waterfall over rocks into the end filter. The boiler controlled by an aquarium temperature controller.
People would bring their kids to see the piranha, very little interest in the koi, always the piranha. I would warn them to keep their fingers outside of the parapet wall as the water level was only a few inches below the top on the other side, and the scouts used to swim up and down there.
It was doomed from the start. The shoal I bought, 14 in number were bought as Pygocentrus piraya, and impressive fish that can grow up to 50 centimetres. A single fish can take a hand or a foot off with a single snap of the jaws. As they turned out, they were ordinary common red belly?s, the Pygocentrus nattereri. When bought they were quite young and had not developed the colours, I was fooled as the heads were unusually blunt for common nats. Piraya have distinctive orange flame colouring looking as though their belly?s are on fire.
Other issue was getting vegetation to grow. I was keen on making the place into a sort of mini jungle but could not get enough light in there.
The fish eventually grew to about 10 inches, then things came to a head when the numbers started to deplete. They had become diseased and the sick fish would be taken out by the others, typical piranha behaviour. Eventually, they went down to 3, at that point I gave away the remaining fish and shut the pool down. I pumped out all the water and left it idle.
A few years ago I decided to refill it and found to my dismay that it had developed a crack and water was pouring into my garage which was the next section of the building. So that was that, until now.
What I have done is to give up on all idea?s of repairing the crack, best forgot about. But measuring things up I worked out that I can still support about 18 inches of water. So I have knocked an entry point into the parapet wall with the object of building a bridge across. Also, with modern LED technology, something I should know all about, I recon I can economically achieve near daylight in there. The idea is an array of Cree XHP 70s on a water cooled heat sink base which would be part of the circulation system. Interesting to see if any discernible heating of the pool. Easy option mains step down would be a 12V battery charger, but need one with about 10 amps current output to support 4 LEDs 2p X 2S. Alternatively, a 24V lorry charger running LEDs at 4S. I will have to see what the possibilities are for DC side current regulation.
Beats sitting in front of a TV set.
Pics show the pool as it was, and the heating system..
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The Old Ruminator
Well-known member
I started this thread as a joke. The pebbles are on a wire but related to diving. I picked them up along Chesil Beach on days we were " blown out ". Oddly they all have natural holes through the middle.
Deep wreck diving was a passion for 20 years. We lost about 8 of our deep wreck group. I dived on Heliair and mostly solo.
nick by Nicholas Chipchase, on Flickr
I identified many important wrecks and still help compile data here on wrecksite.
https://www.wrecksite.eu/wrecksite.aspx
I am a local historian and study photographic history.
A few books I have done.
P5120021 by Nicholas Chipchase, on Flickr
I love cave digging. Not only is it a physical challenge but also you need a good understanding of what you are looking for. On my last trip before Covis-19 we found the biggest chamber at Fairy Cave Quarry for 50 years. ( Oh to return ). Oh for some better images.
P3170089 by Nicholas Chipchase, on Flickr
I have 4,000 caving images .1965 to now. Perhaps its a record. For fun I put 1,000 images on The Mendip Diggers Facebook Group. Why? Well just because I could.
I have collected old bottles for many years but specialise.
Victorian Fire Grenades.
P5020003 by Nicholas Chipchase, on Flickr
My old office at home.
BeFunky-collage by Nicholas Chipchase, on Flickr
I love marine antiques. Some from wrecks I have dived.
This a reconstructed WW1 ships bridge in the garage.
P3310002 by Nicholas Chipchase, on Flickr
A hobby combination.
BeFunky-collage by Nicholas Chipchase, on Flickr
Old tins with ships on.
P3310009 by Nicholas Chipchase, on Flickr
Another area I collect. Victorian pot lids.
BeFunky-collage by Nicholas Chipchase, on Flickr
My reform flasks 1830's
P2140004 by Nicholas Chipchase, on Flickr
Landscape and events photography.
PB240096 by Nicholas Chipchase, on Flickr
PB240133 by Nicholas Chipchase, on Flickr
I also like walking, Family History.
If I had any claim to " fame " it would be this. I have been rescued by just about everything going.
Lifeboat, Helicopter, , Fire Brigade, Hazard Response, Cave Rescue, Ambulance. Para Medic , A well known caving Doctor, One vet and several well know cave divers.
My other hobby is splodging photos all over social media. Stay safe.
Deep wreck diving was a passion for 20 years. We lost about 8 of our deep wreck group. I dived on Heliair and mostly solo.
nick by Nicholas Chipchase, on FlickrI identified many important wrecks and still help compile data here on wrecksite.
https://www.wrecksite.eu/wrecksite.aspx
I am a local historian and study photographic history.
A few books I have done.
P5120021 by Nicholas Chipchase, on FlickrI love cave digging. Not only is it a physical challenge but also you need a good understanding of what you are looking for. On my last trip before Covis-19 we found the biggest chamber at Fairy Cave Quarry for 50 years. ( Oh to return ). Oh for some better images.
P3170089 by Nicholas Chipchase, on FlickrI have 4,000 caving images .1965 to now. Perhaps its a record. For fun I put 1,000 images on The Mendip Diggers Facebook Group. Why? Well just because I could.
I have collected old bottles for many years but specialise.
Victorian Fire Grenades.
P5020003 by Nicholas Chipchase, on FlickrMy old office at home.
BeFunky-collage by Nicholas Chipchase, on FlickrI love marine antiques. Some from wrecks I have dived.
This a reconstructed WW1 ships bridge in the garage.
P3310002 by Nicholas Chipchase, on FlickrA hobby combination.
BeFunky-collage by Nicholas Chipchase, on FlickrOld tins with ships on.
P3310009 by Nicholas Chipchase, on FlickrAnother area I collect. Victorian pot lids.
BeFunky-collage by Nicholas Chipchase, on FlickrMy reform flasks 1830's
P2140004 by Nicholas Chipchase, on FlickrLandscape and events photography.
PB240096 by Nicholas Chipchase, on Flickr
PB240133 by Nicholas Chipchase, on FlickrI also like walking, Family History.
If I had any claim to " fame " it would be this. I have been rescued by just about everything going.
Lifeboat, Helicopter, , Fire Brigade, Hazard Response, Cave Rescue, Ambulance. Para Medic , A well known caving Doctor, One vet and several well know cave divers.
My other hobby is splodging photos all over social media. Stay safe.
royfellows
Well-known member
That is just so impressive!
In truth, my place is a sh---hole of clutter. You must have it well organised where you store all your gear.
In truth, my place is a sh---hole of clutter. You must have it well organised where you store all your gear.
Boy Engineer
Active member
The OR wrote
I would have thought your other hobby was dusting.....
I would have thought your other hobby was dusting.....
pwhole
Well-known member
AR said:
I just had a long and very detailed reply from John H on ganister (as you might expect), but the nub of it is - yes, it can be found without a coal seam, though that may be as the coal seam is very, very faint - he quoted an example of a 'pencil-thin' seam of coal on top of a relatively thick bed of ganister with visible root patterns in it. So now I have to go back with a brush and trowel
Boy Engineer
Active member
