GD4ELI

You should see the e-bikes the oldies are buying round here - £5,000 very much the bottom of the range. I agree about computer gaming, it's eating its way into many hobbies especially mine (Amateur Radio). The new RTX 3080/3090 graphics cards (GPUs) are amazing. A friend is into hill climbing, he's remarked that it's becoming and old man's hobby.

Really?

The mountain section makes the TT unique.

The TT faithful would steal from their grannies to ensure the TT runs.

Or Holyrood.

Really? Every project I've encountered round here has been finished on time and on budget. I've never come across a cock-up on the epic scale seen on Douglas prom, have you?

Very probably.

"Even if money were no object we lack the staff". That's the biggest problem.

Planted in the forests. Back to Glen Auldyn - they self seeded onto Sky Hill from plants in gardens, my mother had this variety as did many people as it was so easy to grow. Aside: down here with the specialised gardens we have the oldest examples in the country, absolutely staggering. ETA: After some thinking, the old forestry board may have actually planted some Rhododendrons 'cos they looked nice, this would have been 40+ years ago.

In Glen Auldyn JK came down the river, so someone either planted JK further upstream in Victorian times when it was popular or it may have come in compost. A worry here is the previous local farmer could have moved it around the fields with his tractor, sadly he died a few years ago and his brother who has taken over is much more clued up.

Not all rhododendrons though, just those growing wild on the rock and in Wales (Rhododendron ponticum). Also Rhododendron ponticum attracts the bees away from other plants I think. Cornwall council paid a local large garden to remove these bad ones.

We have JK on Trebah farm because a farmer took the sediment from a pond in Trebah gardens to use as fertiliser. There had been JK at Trebah gardens many decades ago. The sediment soon started sprouting...

And it can stay dormant for decades.

A small cutting just 2mm x 2mm will grow roots, so never use a strimmer as some builders did down here a few years ago... Seed - very difficult, also I believe there are no males (so no seeds), just one female which has reproduced from its original home at Kew by cutting.

Network Rail Infrastructure v Williams & Waistell [2018] EWCA Civ 1514 (dacbeachcroft.com)