THOR is having a right old bang around this evening as I write this, and I'm hoping that after he's had his say, the 'oppressive' feel to the weather will leave us and come fresher.

It usually does. Thor was of course the Scandinavian god of war as well as the god of thunder and, strangely, he was god of the household, being married to Sif (Not CIF please note!)

A book I have refers to him as the god of agriculture also, so he's been a busy sort of chap, who also gave us Thor's Day, or Thursday as it became. However, it's Friday now and he's got it a bit wrong. The old wives' tales are often referred to as a Norse myth, but it really isn't a myth to read the old English folk-lore, going back hundreds of years, which claimed that 'Thursday come, and the week is gone', for that bit's true enough.

I just had a look out of the back door to see the rain torrenting down. Out on the grass a pair of my feathered friends are 'listening' for worms. Well, they hold their heads on one side as though they're listening, before getting in quickly and getting some fresh meat, which, with the rain, is making for the surface. A pair of blackies live here, and we know each other well. Am I allowed to use that word? or should I have said "a pair of dark-coloured birds". Things get dafter don't they!

Also checked on my water butt which, happily, I note is full. I bought one of those devices on offer by Yorkshire Water, which enable you to take rainwater from a fall-pipe into a water barrel, which, when full, then causes the water to go into the drain, and doesn't overflow. I read the instructions umpteen times to make sure I was getting things right, before I cut the fall pipe into two pieces and finally took the plunge and did it. Eureka! It works! I did think I'd set the water level about two inches below the top of the barrel, but it comes just up to the top, without spilling over, so that's just great. I love gadgets don't you!

As for the latter, you may recall I obtained a thingamajig for opening ring-pull cans. Sorry, I spelled the word wrongly, should be 'thingammyjig', although you can also use 'thingammybob'. Useful when you either don't know, or can't remember the name of things. There is also 'thingammy' or 'thingummy', all useful when you're stuck, but whose spelling isn't really established.

As for the ring-pull gadget, well it works all right, but there is still that little problem of getting it slipped under the ring-pull as it isn't quite sharp enough, and has to be 'helped'. I wish manufacturers would really try things out well before putting them on the market. Black and Decker used to have a method for ensuring new products were OK. I don't know if they still do. But I received a large parcel through the post one day, some years ago, inside being a new electric sander (for woodwork). Would I like to test it and let them know what I thought about it, did it do its job, was it easy to use, did it have any shortcomings, could I suggest any alterations etc. I was quite delighted and gave it a fair amount of use, sending them my comments in due course. They sent me a letter of thanks, and said I may keep the sander as an extra 'thank you'. I'm still waiting for the next new tool to appear, but I think such luck only happens once, and one mustn't be greedy.

The mobile phone explosion must have made millions for some firms, and it is hard to remember just how people managed before they became an everyday 'must have'. People are just chattering away - everywhere! I wonder, especially when I see schoolchildren using them, just who pays the bills. The fly in the ointment are the relay towers necessary to obtain coverage throughout the land. Eyesores, yes, and I see in the Gazette & Herald, that Farndale residents are resisting one in their area. I suppose, as time goes by, that they will become 'everyday' things, like phone boxes, but it's a shame there is no alternative. The county is just cluttered with such things, the worst being electric pylons, and there must come the day when even those will disappear and power will come 'though the air - without the need for wires and cables'. Not yet! If man had been meant to fly, then he'd have had wings. Yet the impossible happened and folk fly everywhere, albeit with the help of aircraft. So, whilst in the light of current knowledge wireless electricity seems impossible, it will happen. Would your granddad have believed that you could hold a conversation with your cousin in Australia while standing in the street and all with the aid of a tiny handful of wizardry called a mobile? You'd have been thought to be puddled, yet it happened. Most things do - in the end.

Western Union memo, 1876. "The 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is one of no value to us." I expect they changed their minds!

Updated: 10:40 Thursday, June 28, 2001