Archers thread #143: In the Bleak Midwinter, Ambridge Folk Make Moan. Best Christmas ever? Probably not! Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed. We don't all agree on all points, although we do mostly try to be civil about it. Most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you'd love to be in Jolene's choir , or other unusual views.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please! We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the weeknight episodes, but we do try our best to avoid cross-contamination from www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/4636789-the-archers-spoilers-thread-7-cant-wait-for-702pm-join-us-here, where spoilers are positively welcomed!

For newer listeners, lurkers or those who just have no idea what we're talking about, @DadDadDad has created this useful thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3557323-For-Archers-fans-a-guide-to-acronyms-on-the-long-running-discussion-threads-and-any-other-meta-thread-questions-you-may-have - BOOP point for him! (See thread for explanation.)

Well, we made it through Stir Up Sunday without bloodshed, but poor Ben is now in the grip of psychotic depression. Not going to be a happy Christmas at Brookfield, sadly. When will Jill swallow her pride and go and give him the abject apology he deserves? Would it be a good idea anyway for Ben to see his gran at the moment?

Will Jazzer say yes? I hope so. We could do with a Horrobin wedding to look forward to.

Will Emma and Ed end up in court if they go ahead with this idiotic scheme to nick the logs from Peggy's Folly?

Will the two choirs put on a joint concert at Christmas? I assume so, and also that the BBC will continue to fool nobody by using recordings of what is clearly a really good well-rehearsed established choir, not a scratch choir of half a dozen novices.

Over to you!

I hope Krusty does go through with her plan to report "whoever it is" to Harrison, if only to stop this absurd storyline.

And I'm looking forward to Jazzer and Tracy blurting out simultaneous marriage proposals. Hogmanay, do you think?

I think they probably should get caught. They didn’t do it out of desperation but out of entitlement.

They didn’t do it out of desperation but out of entitlement.

I thought they did it out of a desire to spice up their dreary lives/marriage. They are just stupid - I mean, how much money are they going to make out of this? I could understand it if they could personally use the wood, but I don't imagine their 9th-hand static caravan has a properly ventilated wood-burner.

I picked that up when Emma was speaking to George too. How can the Bull afford to pay Emma, Tracey and presumably Fallon's dad, the chef? I thought The Bull was on it's knees?

Rex said casually that he'd check what the camera had picked up "in a couple of days" -surely you'd check every day?

The only good bit about the Martyn Gibson stuff was Neil's rather masterful way of getting what the staff wanted. (I still quite fancy Neil and suspect he might be surprisingly masterful after a plate of chilli )

That too, it was muddled. We think we’re boring because our son said so and my coat was cheap so my friend doesn’t want to wear the same one she paid for and I want to buy a new one too with the wood we need a little bit but can also sell. Yeah.

Yes I wondered how much money they would make from the logs and they have to dry out first. I was surprised how quick Kirsty was in noticing the log pile had gone down and how she just happened to have a photo of it before. Hope Ed and Emma get caught its not as if they are giving the logs to people, its money for them. Harrison is going to be embarrassed when he has to arrest his friend and emma will get the sack from the tea room.

I am finding it hard to envisage the rewilded area. If they are having to remove lower branches of trees because adults are hitting their heads off them, then these aren't new trees, but must have been already there when the rewilding started. If this was already established woodland, in what way has it been "rewilded"?

Surely it's less wild now, with the Green Man chain saw carving, and Rex going up and down ladders to hang lights, and people trekking through?

If this was already established woodland, in what way has it been "rewilded"?

Perhaps letting people rampage through counts? I think what they need is some bison, to keep the people under control. Did you see this lovely story? There's a great little video of the calf lolloping about.

www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2022/october/first-wild-european-bison-born-in-the-uk-for-thousands-of-years.html

place marking, need to catch up.

Surely it's less wild now, with the Green Man chain saw carving, and Rex going up and down ladders to hang lights, and people trekking through?

I thought the same. Having a low key visitors centre explaining what it’s all about is one thing but lights and carvings and winter trails sounds like an attraction to me.

Is Fallon’s dad still around? Last I heard mention of him was when the scriptwriters rewrote history and she described how hard it was growing up with an alcoholic father (never mentioned previously) when Alice’s problems were revealed.

Cannot bear to listen to the episode with Ed&Em getting in so will skip that. It will be very awkward for all when they are caught. You’d think they’d already dealt with enough public embarrassment in the past. George will be mortified his parents are such amateur criminals.

I think it’s (for once) entirely in character for Kirsty to know what each pile of wood looks like and to have taken a hundred photos! Plus, Ed and Em took quite a lot I think, so it would be noticeable. It’s also in character for Rex to have noticed nothing. I like Rex (the ridiculous online roasting of Brookfield was out of character so I’m erasing it from my image of him 😆) but he is very dim.

We think we’re boring because our son said so and my coat was cheap so my friend doesn’t want to wear the same one she paid for and I want to buy a new one too with the wood we need a little bit but can also sell. Yeah.

That made me laugh, Over. I seem to remember there was also some confused babble about people freezing so it was immoral to have good wood lying around, so if they took it, they’d be striking a blow for social justice. Not exactly those words but you get the gist.

<clears throat, dons Lincoln green>

🎶 Ed’n’Em, Ed’n’Em, riding through the glen
Ed’n’Em, Ed’n’Em, with the strength of ten
Stealing the wood, all for the good!
Ed’n’Em
Ed’n’Em
Ed’n’Em 🎶

@Octothorpe , shouldn't that be Mianed, Mianed, riding through the glen
Ed’n’Em, Ed’n’Em, with the strength of ten
Stealing the wood, all for the good!
Mianed, Mianed, Mianed

Yeah really fit but he's certainly not the sharpest truncheon in the box is he. Not sure I’m completely happy at the thought of our police being equipped with sharply pointed truncheons

Yes I wondered how much money they would make from the logs and they have to dry out first A lot more than when I last looked! Builders bag £150 to £200, since I assume they’ll sell it as “ready to use”. Since the suggestion is that it’s all from one logpile, I suspect they haven’t got more than two builders bags, and they’ll need to chop it all into logs. People who have the means to chop their own logs don’t usually buy wood.

how long have these woodpiles been there?
its really bothering me that nobody is saying 'but its wet! we/they will never sell it'

The wood seems to be the branches that Ed cut last week. Branches are not generally thick enough to make logs, for a start, unless those trees are enormous, and the wood is not seasoned so it’s illegal to sell and, more importantly, it doesn’t burn well. It is, even by TA’s low standards, a very stupid story line.

She packed in the chickens a long time ago, didn't she?

I fear Krusty is stupid enough to say to Ed "What a pity that some lowlife stole those logs you so painstakingly piled up. Still, we'll catch them because we've now got cameras trained on the next pile they'll go for". So this SL isn't going to be resolved as quickly as it should be.

She packed in the chickens a long time ago, didn't she?

Yes, before Tracy's short-lived employment there.

I thought the law was changed so people can only use kiln dried logs in their fire, so even ones dried out over a year or two won't be allowed. But that law may not have come into effect yet.

I was wrong. Seasoned wood can still be sold and used but it must be of no more than 20% humidity.

where's the intern when you need them?

Adrian Flynn obituary here. www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/dec/13/adrian-flynn-obituary