HAPPY NEW WEEK!
Last week's Chat Thread is here.
This is an important week with several major events for the global community!
SPRING EQUINOX
Spring arrives Friday, 20 March 2015, in the Northern Hemisphere at:
22:45 GMT/UTC10:45 p.m. in the U.K.06:45 p.m. in the eastern United States03:45 p.m. in California
Autumn Equinox is Saturday, 21 March 2015, in the Southern Hemisphere. Fall arrives at 09:15 a.m. in Adelaide, Australia.
NEW MOON
The Moon turns new on the day of the equinox at 09:36 GMT/UTC, only 14 hours after reaching lunar perigee (the moon's closest point to Earth in its orbit). The New Moon is at 09:36 a.m. in the U.K., 05:36 a.m. in the eastern U.S., 02:36 a.m. in California, and on 20 March at 08:06 p.m. in Adelaide, Australia.
SOLAR ECLIPSE
Here's the big news! On Equinox day, 20 March, the close perigee New Moon will swing right in front of the Sun to totally block out the solar disk. It's a Total Solar Eclipse!
You have to be in the right location -- the Faroe Islands or the Svalbard archipelago... -- to witness the eclipse in totality, but a much larger swatch of the globe will see varying degrees of partial solar eclipse -- Europe and parts of Africa and Asia. In much of the U.K., your view will be near total! (Oh, how I envy you. It won't be visible in the U.S. or Australia, I regret to say.)
For children who might read this, I have to add: Looking directly at the Sun during the eclipse could cause blindness or severe eye damage.
Eclipse information HERE
Watch a livestream broadcast of the event HERE
Edit: Slooh has redesigned their site. Here's an updated link for the livestream broadcast of the total solar eclipse: HERE
Good Morning ALL. The weather hasn't made up it's mind yet. The sun is breaking through a completely white, insignificant sky.
i hope Linda and Annette have a good and uneventful journey home. We need to go to John Lewis this morning to buy a TV. We were watching the early news yesterday, when the main TV switched itself off. We thought it was about to die but hadn't got round to replacing it !!!! We have spent so much time discussing what we should buy.
No posts since my post at 9am. Hope you are all enjoying your day. It turned out to be a much sunnier day than expected.
We bought a new Smart TV, which will be delivered next Thursday. Also bought some new sets of bedding for our bed and a smaller TV for the kitchen. Quite a successful day's shopping.
Apart from shopping most of the day, I really don't have any news. Dinner is in the oven and I am glad of a sit down.
Hello All- We have had lovely sunshine here over the last few days so I have been busy in garden and conservatory, and also sprayed all the cactus in the greenhouse with warm water to get them going. My gardener turned up yesterday, he comes about once a month but I never know when to expect him, he works for a lot of people and does'nt seem to have any sort of timetable. Anyway I was very pleased to see him and he got through a lot of weeding and other work so the garden looks a lot better now. He is a very nice person and really knows a lot about plants as he was manager of a local garden centre for many years before he took up private gardening.
Brenda - I am glad that you had such a successful days shopping, I am sure you will enjoy your new TV's.
Annette and Lindybird - hope you are both safely home now.
Margo- I hope that you are feeling better now.
Lynette- I have been looking at your pictures of the Alcoa Ospreys , they do not seem to be building up the nest much, that new metal dish looks so empty I wonder if they do not like it as much as their last nest. I am so looking forward to EJ arriving back very soon now.
Hope everyone else is OK.
A belated happy birthday to Eagle -Eye, sorry I missed this yesterday. I voted for the Robin in the National Bird Competitiion, there is something about a Robin that I cannot resist! a few years ago I had such a friendly baby Robin in the garden that he landed on my lap and on my shoulder on another occasion, with his parents screeching at him from a nearby bush, they were really worried!
I see that 03(97) is safely back at Rutland Water, what a fantastic bird he is! Wish him luck with his fifteenth breeding season!
Hi! Tuesday turned into a busy day, with various interruptions to our plans, but we did enjoy a very good soup and sandwich lunch at The Old Toll Bar in Gretna (aka “First House in Scotland”). Today the weather was excellent; OH painted the outside of the fence behind the shed, while I was busy sowing seeds in the coldframe and greenhouse, moving on seedlings which germinated well from my previous efforts. The birds have let us know that spring is really here: those which aren’t busy “billing and cooing” have been gathering nesting materials with great enthusiasm.
I see the LG Osprey blog has not been updated for two whole weeks! I hope this just means that they are busy preparing for the expected return of our birds!
Brenda – pleased you found what you were looking for on your shopping trip. We decided against the Smart TV and got a Smart DMR instead which is networked with all our computers.
Rita – I am glad your gardener came to augment your gardening efforts with some of the more mundane tasks.
I hope that Annette and Linda have safely arrived home today from their travels, and that the washing machines will not be too busy producing piles of ironing! I also hope that Margo is beginning to feel better now, and that George is able to enjoy some pleasant walks in the good weather.
Ospreys Rule OK, but Goldfinches come a close second!
Brenda - you did have a shopping spree, glad you managed to get all you wanted.
Rita - I wondered whether they were younger ospreys, its gradually getting filled up but not as fast as I thought it might. You could well be right, they don't really like their new site!! OH, just read that one of the Rutland ospreys is back. Thanks Rita.
Let's hope that's all it is OG, I keep looking but no update yet. Nest hasn't gone live yet either. Does anyone know when that might be?
Yadkin ospreys tonight
one or two coming up from Africam earlier in the day
this bull elephant was crossing the Oliphants river. Next one a family of giraffes
Not going to the gym tomorrow as having to go to a funeral of one of our members at church. Her husband died quite suddenly in hospital - he was being treated for pnemonia and a brain tumour. Will be a bit sad as she joined the choir at the Parish Church when I did in 1996. We have both since left and now go to the local Baptist church.
Been a lovely day down here and managed to get the washing out to dry - do love it when you can do that.
http://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/things-to-do/wildlife-webcams/loch-of-lowes/
RSPB Giving Nature a Home
Lynette - EJ has returned over the last 3 years between 21st and 27th March - normally the cameras are not switched on until she has been here about a week. Also suspect the centre will open on the 1st April as Easter is that weekend following. We might be lucky however and someone from the staff may write a Blog telling us when EJ returns.
Evening all: Home - finally - after a tiring trip and a tiring drive today. Called an old friend from the road (hands-free call!) when I was passing through Palm Springs and chatting to her for about 30 minutes helped wake me up, but oh, don't want to talk, or listen, to anyone for a day or two! Will catch up later. Take care all.
Liz LFW and anyone else: Loch of the Lowes Webcam is up and running. www.scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/things-to-do/wildlife-webcams/loch-of-lowes . This year they also have an osprey newsletter on offer, for which anyone can sign-up (see webcam page).
Lynette D said:Let's hope that's all it is OG, I keep looking but no update yet. Nest hasn't gone live yet either. Does anyone know when that might be?
Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.