Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), Sunday 1 September 2013

Evening all:  Up at daughter's this morning; then home to increasing cloud and high humidity, but not as hot as yesterday. Looks like it'll be a quiet couple of days on here with several folks off and about. It's Labor Day here - the last summer weekend (lots of sales!).

Diane: Thanks for starting us off with the new week.  FYI, we are now officially in an "extreme drought" area but no rationing on the horizon yet - the feeling is we'll see how much rain we get this winter (let's hope a lot!) and then see what we're left with.  Four Road Nexus? Never heard of it, but will be on the lookout.  Re the gray wolves, maybe we could arrange a "prisoner" exchange with the UK's badgers?

dibnlib: Glad Dillon is feeling better.

Trish2: Great to see you.

ChrisyB: And you too!

OG: Hope that blackbird survived. Your day out sounds very pleasant.

Alan: Lovely hibiscus for Margo. Very funny article on Mr. Paterson's "mishap." Reminds me of a satirical newspaper we have here called The Onion. Their headline for the Labor Day weekend is "Nation Annoyed About Having to Spend Long Weekend Away from Work."  A secondary headline reads "Nation's Single Men Announce Plan to Change Bedsheets by 2019."  Oh good - didn't the Conker Championships get scuppered last year due to the - ahem - drought?? Sounds like a lot of pro-badger groups are out there on the front line. Will be interesting to see what kind of impact they'll have.

Clare: Enjoy the concert. I'm afraid I never got to many rock, concerts, though I do like all kinds of music (except maybe Hawaiian). Wouldn't mind seeing Eric Clapton. Have tended to hang out more with the LA Philharmoic, Yo-Yo Ma, etc..

Have a good Sunday everyone and special good wishes to dear Margo.

Father's Day here DownUnder. So Happy Day to all fathers.

Last Sunday's trip saga. On the Copper Coast Highway up and over the hills to the Copper Triangle.

The range of hills known as The Hummocks.

The crops were looking magnificent after such a wet winter. Here be peas and in the distance canola (rapeseed).

We visited Kadina, Moonta & Wallaroo on Yorke Peninsula (not to be confused with Cape York, way up in Queensland). Copper was discovered here in 1861 and it was the Cornish miners who provided the major part of the workforce. Their descendants are proud of their heritage and every second year hold a Cornish festival, the "Kernewek Lowender". Those familiar with Cornwall will recognise our mine buildings.

Wallaroo itself had no mines - it was the port and also had the smelters. The tide was out when we passed by.

Next time some interesting fauna from Moonta.

Good morning, all!  I'd like to wish the Weekly Chat a very happy fourth anniversary - I believe that the excellent Annette started the first one on September 1st, 2009!  Many thanks for that as I've had many hours of pleasure, both posting and reading.  Long may it continue.

Good morning from here also. I echo your sentiments Clare and can't quite believe that it has been four years! It is a cool 13 degrees here at the moment and the light is distinctly autumnal-----

It feels distinctly fresh here, too, Heather - though it is brightening up a bit now.

Thanks Diane for starting off the new week and month.That red banner has disappeared from my screen now. Thanks also AQ for more very interesting pics of your travels! Also ANNETTE - with whom I travel also especially when she is out for breakfast :-)) Like CIRRUS I get anxious when replying because I hate to leave folk out, but I read every single post here and it goes without saying that I send best thoughts to any of us who are under the weather, right now wondering how OG s eyes are and thinking about dear MARGO as always. I have my OH here today,he has been salmon fishing for the last three days. He can't wait to get into his garden and tidy up.The wind yesterday wreaked havoc. Life has been very quiet since our return from Brittany,one might say boring!

Morning all: Low cloud here today and cooler - is it coastal overcast or the remains of that "tropical" disturbance that has been hanging around for a few days?  Today's LA Times Travel section is devoted to Wigton - the book capital of Scotland it says -w ith a front page shot of The Book Shop on the High Street and inside, shots of "Scotland's Literary Landscape."

AQ: Lovely shots of green fields Down Under. Cornwall sent a lot of miners here in the late 1800s; descendants (acording to Wikipedia) include Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), Franklin Roosevelt, Elizabeth Arden and Jayne Mansfield.

Clare: What!? Four years. How are we going to celebrate our fifth anniversary. A potluck somewhere? :-)   Nice to see the original Limpy is in fine form.

Heather: You're definitely invited on my next breakfast outing.  Do you distribute salmon around the neighborhood the same way I leave bags of surplus oranges?

Off to start the day. Take care all.

Yes,Annette,we do share our bounty but OH returned the salmon yesterday in the interests of conservation. I don't know how the folk on here feel about fishing but given that ospreys scoop trout out of the water and eat them straightaway I suppose that OH giving a fish a quick bang on the head with the (strangely named) priest can't be too bad. OH caught a couple of nice trout yesterday which he gave to one of our neighbours. We had a quiet day, visited two garden centres and spent the afternoon reading and listening to the wind battering our garden. I made leek and potato soup for tomorrow's lunch and then roast lamb for tonight's dinner. Picked mint from garden for sauce, yum!!

To continue with the corvids, I passed a large number of rooks earlier.  They were all flying around a field - it was quite a sight!  They then retreated to these trees:

There were loads of them:

I wonder what the noise levels were like near the tree?

I like the way the rooks at the top were all trying to be the top bird!