Weekly Chat, Sunday March 7

Morning all from TI,

Thanks once again everyone for the overnight (in UK) shift. Great chat and interesting history.

Weather is much better today and at last almost springlike. I will be on a gardening mission today I think.

Latest from the Italian peregrines:

Aria & Vento : 4 eggs.

Appio & Vergine : 4 eggs

Giotto & Monna Tessa : 3 eggs

Alice & Virgilio : 3 eggs

Aloa & Falcao : 4 eggs

http://www.birdcam.it/cam.php?camid=1&subpage=cam01.php

One bobblehead being fed and the other watching the camera:

Morning all. At first glimpse, see lots of bird pix and links - Alan must be busy again!   I can see the "bobble-head" image on this open page (I'm in the "reply" box), but can't see it on the second page I have opened so I can read all comments while responding.  Server must be having another bad hair day.

Diane: Yes, as I mentioned before, when the Google car was going through one village in the UK, the residents chased it away. And yes, again, I wouldn't want people being able to see that much (only because of those piles of ironing!)   I'd love to go home and stay for about six months (in the summer of course), maybe rent a place and then travel about seeing all the things I didn't see when I lived there.  Tend to worry about the US side of the family too, since my daughter and I are close and she's been through some bumpy times. Still, we only have one life, right?   Was talking to my daughter's doc the other day - he's taking an entire year off to travel; figures his 18-year-old son is now in college and again, it's the "if not now, when?" dilemma.   And yes, California is really wonderful; I especially love the fact that you can be outdoors 12 months of the year.  OH is going back this year to Cambridge for yet another medieval history seminar (!) and I have the option of visiting my sister while he's there, but I would like her to come here - she's always wanted to go to Santa Fe and that part of the Southwest, which I also love, so we're trying to figure it all out.  Thing is, they're probably going to put their gorgeous old house on the market soon, so that sort of leaves everything up in the air....    Got the microphone on the webcam fixed - I'd inadvertently turned it off. Went to the store to buy a mike; salesperson was clearly clueless, but I was rescued by a knowledgeable customer who got me sorted out.   Oh my, what's the link to the long-haul trucker's cam?  I'd LOVE to see that.

patriciat: See that SueC did a great job of explaining options for both Google Earth and Google Maps. I found it interesting in that the GE overview of my daughter's previous home was taken in summer, while the Street View was filmed in winter, with huge snow drifts.  Last night on GE, I got a chance to "visit" my UK friends' houses last night; very odd in a way.  Posting phones, eh?  We have some of them in our garage too!

Off to start day, but not the ironing - it's time for another laundry load so may as well wait until that's dry, right?  :-)   Take c are all.

OG I don't know for certain if there is a walkway to the hides on the other side of the road but I will certainly find out when I am there next week.  The scopes at the visitor centre are in the cafe but that is up a stair.

Hi, Margobird – hope you are having a pleasant weekend.

Alan – looked at the Rome nests this morning!  Thanks for posting egg numbers.  Bobblehead photo was missing – now there – great.

Annette – hope you sort out the who visits whom dilemma and see your sister soon together in either place – and meanwhile enjoy the web-cam meeting.

George – thanks for info – I believe there is supposed to be a ramp to the café, so will probably go there anyway, but a way across the road would be good!

Coffee break from gardening – just rescued some surviving ground ivy from an old hanging basket – thought “aha! Save some money” - now thinking, “oh heck! 24 of them now want planting to grow on for this year!”  OH has removed small Birch which impinged on shape of Alder.  Saw a camera opportunity:

Alder against spring blue sky - tree was a Glencoe seedling bought from NTS on vist there.  It is especially good right now: some catkins are stil purplish brown "buds", others are open and dripping pollen and there are still some of last year's cones on the tree.

And another:

Crocuses - first of the spring flowers under the alder.

 Now back to work.

Pretty photos OJ - and a blue sky no less.  Hurray!   Off for walk; nice and sunny here too.

Pleased somebody saw them - they're not there now!

Unknown said:

Diane:  Oh my, what's the link to the long-haul trucker's cam?  I'd LOVE to see that.

Annette: Here's the link to the long-haul trucker's cam. http://www.bigrigtruckcam.com/ It used to be streaming but he had to go to a 10 second refresh to lower expenses. You can see more that way, anyway.

If you want to read his blog to find out what's going on, just scroll down and click on "Big Rig Steve's Blog". He often mentions "TK," which stands for Truck Kat. He travels with a much beloved cat. He always posts a map that shows his current trip with a pin indicating where he currently is. As I type, he is in Northern California almost to the Oregon border. He is an accomplished photograher and videographer if you want to check out his gallery.

You may have to load a Google Plug-in. It's safe and only takes a second. If you get a screen prompt for a login/password just exit out of it and ignore it. It's a temporary glitch that he is working on.

If the cam is off, it usually means that he is at the shipper or the drop-off site. For security reasons, some of those companies don't allow any kind of photography on site. Once in a while, the cam drops out when he is driving through a remote region with few towers.  It is interesting to see the country that way.

Diane:  Thanks a bunch!  Fascinating. I've always wanted to ride in one of those rigs and now I can, sort of.  I spent the first two minutes looking at the brilliant sunny photo that opens his home page - was amazed at the weather - then - duh! - scrolled down to the the live, snowy image. He must be out of range of towers right now since it's been the same for about 5 minutes.   And just what we need - another webcam!  :-)