Evening all. Wonderful rainbow over Santa Barbara this afternoon; more like April with heavy showers then sunshine. Don't forget to check last week's chat for Tiger's link to the Roy Dennis site about a French osprey that's already completed its migration, and Patriciat's recommendations for places to eat in Grantown (for when we all go to visit OG's son!). :-)
Jeanette - welcome back! Loch Garten will be a bit different in June compared with how it is right now!! How has winter been on Skye?
Ospreys Rule OK, but Goldfinches come a close second!
So much to read when only 2 days missed !!! I survived the gr-kids. We hardly saw them!!! GS spent his time playing some game on an electronic gadget – he only appeared when he had to recharge the battery LOL. Miss 14 was writing an essay (on my computer) or busily chatting on Facebook (ditto). A minor hiccup with food when I baked a self-saucing choc pudding for dessert. Not only is Miss 14 now a veggie, she also doesn’t eat chocolate . . . in sympathy with those poor children who only get a few cents for working, etc, etc. Himself asked her what would the children do if they didn’t get those few cents. GS piped up that their parents would look after them. The discussion meandered on until we got to letters (in olden times). I could hardly control my mirth at the incredulous look on Miss 14’s face "You mean people actually put words on paper – and then waited for them to go through the post?" It seems that emails are obsolete too.
Auntie – Thank you for your snow garden pics which finally appeared. I am soooo jealous! It looks so beautiful. The snow you sent must be having some effect as we have cooler weather, expecting max’s between 24 and 31 this week. Wonderful start to autumn. And you are having plus temps at last!!!
Margobird – Thinking of you and wishing you well. Just remember the reason we have these tests is to catch diseases early and most negative responses turn out to be false alarms.
Terrible earthquake in Chile. Mother Nature is making us notice her. Diane & Patriciat – So kind of you to worry about the tsunami and Wattle & I. It wouldn’t affect us. Wattle would be too far inland and SA is around the corner facing southerly. The wave was only 10-40 cm when it reached Aussieland. At one place it arrived when the tide was out.
Sorry I have missed replying to so many of you. I must away to watch the Olympics Closing.
aquilareen: Be patient with Miss 14, please. She sounds like me at that age. LOL!!! I was absolutely insufferable (my poor parents), but I had a good heart and a strong social conscience. Be proud that she thinks deeply about issues and displays such awareness and compassion. We need more kids like that, I think. The Earth will be better for them. She may grow up to make a powerful impact on the world. :-)))
Glad the wave didn't affect you. I confess I don't know much about tsunamis. Given your location, I didn't think it would threaten you, but I wasn't sure whether a wave like that makes the tide rise dangerously everywhere. I also couldn't remember how far inland Wattle lives. I was surprised that California was under an advisory. I can't fathom how that could be. Seems like the wave would travel out, not up. Of course, we don't have much experience with big waves in Indiana. LOL We only have lake effect snow from Lake Michigan that Caerann insists on sending down here. :-)
Thank you Diane for sorting me out. Sometimes when one is too close, it is difficult to see the big picture. Of course, I shall always be there to provide a shoulder (or food or whatever). Hm, I remember occasions when I disagreed with my parents. Such as, the fuss when I was seen wearing boots (just to the knees). "She had black legs!"
Continuing SA history . . . News of the discovery of gold in California reached the colony in 1849. Nearly 600 South Australians sailed for California in the first three months of 1850. Then gold was discovered in 1851 in New South Wales and Victoria. What an impact that made!
Men walked off farms and there were too few to harvest the crops. Shepherds abandoned their flocks. Crews deserted the ships in harbour. Shop-keepers and merchants closed their doors. Government employees were dismissed. The police force was reduced. Newspapers closed. The Kapunda and Burra copper mines were forced to reduce the number of their workers. Kapunda kept only four men maintaining the pumps to prevent the mine from flooding. The Burra mine workforce fell from 1000 to 100.
Men left for Victoria by ship, horse, dray or on foot, then a journey of 500-600 miles. Those with money in the bank each withdrew £10-£12 to purchase supplies of food, tents, shovels, picks and other mining equipment. In just a few months South Australia was in financial trouble. The colony’s supply of coin was depleted. Even if returning miners brought their gold back, they could not sell it or buy goods in shops.
Alexander Tolmer, the Police Commissioner, offered to provide a mounted police escort to bring back gold sent by the miners to their families. As there was no direct route to the goldfields, troopers took a cart, down to Mount Gambier, across the border to Portland, then north to the goldfields near Bendigo. Meanwhile a survey team was digging wells and marking out a new track of 360 miles directly across the barren country.
When Tolmer arrived at the Castlemaine Diggings, he was overwhelmed by miners wanting to send parcels of gold and letters back to their families in SA. Within a few days Tolmer and his troopers set out for Adelaide with gold worth over £18,000. After 18 such escorts, gold for SA was transported to Melbourne. No SA gold escort was held up by bushrangers, although some of the Victorian ones were.
Over 1 million pounds worth of gold was brought to SA by the gold escorts. It has been estimated that this was 65% of the total Victorian gold brought into South Australia, as many carried their gold in saddlebags or money belts as they returned home. Enterprising South Australian merchants and farmers benefited by sending their goods, such as flour, bacon, ham, salt, sugar and prefabricated wooden huts, to the Victorian goldfields.
By March 1852 it was claimed that one-third of the males in South Australia had left for Victoria. Some men did take the opportunity to avoid their responsibilities, often leaving their wives and families destitute. Seeking gold in the next gully, over the next hill, they travelled on to other goldfields, to Queensland, to New Zealand. Some remarried! But many labourers returned to SA to take up land in the mid and late 1850s as a result of successful goldfields visits. Others took up shops, hotels and other businesses.
AQ: I have a soft place in my heart for kids like your granddaughter. I remember how strident and know-it-all I was at that age and I just have to laugh. When I was in the 8th grade, I skipped school to take part in a fairly dangerous political protest that I felt very strongly about. The police officer who caught me, however, was not interested in hearing about my political dogma -- and neither were my parents. LOL LOL
Diane - I feel that the world was a lot less dangerous way back then. I often wonder what my mother would say about what happens these days - and what is taken as normal or ordinary.
I did try to repost my missing Burra pic. It was there. I saw it for 5 mins!!!! Then when I next looked it had turned into the dreaded "white square with red cross", so I have edited it by deleting and replacing with The Saga.
Evening all:
Jeannette: Nice to see you - and oh! you're scheduled to be at LG - lucky you!
AQ: My! Miss 14 has given up chocolate? That's a bit extreme. :-) Have you told her about carbon paper yet? Thanks for reposting the Burra pix - they stripped the hills north of San Francisco to built that city and others. The California Gold Rush brought people from all over the world; many ended up making their fortunes in businesses that supported the mining operations and miners rather than in the gold itself.
Diane: See http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/2010/02/27/725245/25/ttvu725245-25.jpg for graphic on how and where tsunami's travel. Are you watching Nature ("Is that Skunk?")
AQ: This business about the "now you see it, now you don't" pictures is crazy. But I did see the photo the first time I logged on; then it disappeared and your "saga" was there. I couldn't believe I'd missed the saga the first time around, but now I see you switched them. All a bit odd. But at least we're able to log on!!
Annette - Glad you saw the Burra pic before the gremlins got it. One day when photos behave I shall try again. Carbon paper? Hm, I can imagine Miss 14's dismay at handwriting essays, or typing with a typewriter and careful to make no mistakes. How did we survive? LOL