HAPPY NEW WEEK!
Last week's chat thread is HERE.
I hope everyone has a wonderful week, especially OG and Eagle-Eye, who are on holiday.
I had a wondrous experience on Thursday. Temps had cooled a bit, and it was very windy. I went outdoors, just to check my patch. I saw R. T. Hawk come from the direction of the creek flood plain. He was riding the thermals and soaring around and around. If a bird can look happy, he did.
Shortly, his big pale mate came from the same direction. She, too, was floating gracefully on the thermals. She saw me and stared at me for a minute or so, then she started soaring downward, floating in circles in my direction. She kept watching me and moving closer. I froze and made sure she could see my open hands (so she'd be reassured that I didn't have a gun).
She descended quite close to me, and I thought for a moment that she was going to come to me. I thought about holding my arm out to see whether she'd land, but I was afraid I'd scare her. She never screeched at me, and she wasn't diving aggressively -- just floating above me and looking at me curiously. Finally, she caught a thermal and lifted back up into the sky.
R. T. Hawk had been unconcerned, and he was soaring over the creek. His mate followed in his direction, and then they flew toward the ridge together.
I was very honored to see her so close.
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The annual Perseid meteor shower will appear on 11-14 August. The waning crescent moon guarantees dark skies, so the meteors should be dramatic. Folks in the northern hemisphere should see 50 meteors per hour, with a third of that number in the southern hemisphere. Most of the meteors can be viewed in the wee hours before dawn, but you could get lucky and see a beautiful earthgrazer in the earlier part of the night. Info HERE.
NASA government photoLabelled public domain (copyright free)
Evening all: Took out dying lavender plant today and generally puttered in the garden before doing a few errands.
Clare: Two days at Minsemere. How fun. Wll you be in reception again?
Heather: Men are genetically unable to see dust.
AQ: Trampoline? I'm assuming that's a kiddie-sized one? Suggest a tablespoon of sherry for kiddies at lunchtime.... :-)
dibnlib: Re "they don't taste like they used to" don't even get me started on tomatoes.
Brenda: Your local lamb is probably exported (probably to New Zealand where folks like us are wondering why they can only get lamb from the UK). When I was in New York last October with my sister, I saw some wonderful strawberries - grown in California, but then most things are grown in California....
Daughter is down this way for massage tomorrow. We may tootle off to the beach for a couple of hours....
Have a good Wednesday folks.
Good Morning Everyone. It has been raining here since the early hours. Very heavy at the moment.
Linda, Matthew is so lovely. Just looking at his photograph makes me smile. I guess he has an infectious laugh too, when you all laugh with him.We will have to get an allotment and grow our own new potatoes :-)) As generous as a nearby neighbour is, with his fruit and vegetables, he has never provided any potatoes !!!Best wishes for the BP results.
AQ, Another cold........I am sorry. The twins will be irritable, because of their colds and you are suffering yourself. Not a good combination.
Annette, Plenty of soft fruits grown around here, so we buy them direct from the farms but the supermarkets do import Spanish strawberries, out of season, but they are so large, they are tasteless. So many shop bought tomatoes are also tasteless, but they are so easy to grow, even in a grow-bag.
Good morning all
Sorry about the rants last night about food and also about my OH! I was feeling very annoyed at the time but not about OH etc.( A case of kick the cat) Amy is down seeing her Dad, she became unwell with what we think was a tummy bug. It threw all her blood sugar levels askew, she had ketones and she eventually ended up in hospital in Edinburgh. I was frustrated because the bad atmosphere between her parents was preventing effective telephone communication about Amy. Middle daughter was at our house yesterday evening, so I couldn't help but overhear.
Anyway, while typing this, I've just had a phone call from Amy, 'Good news, Nana, I'm getting home this afternoon. My levels are fine and I haven't been sick since last night!'
Heather: Sorry that poor Amy has had another drama. Good though to hear that she is coming home soon, and felt well enough to phone you.
George: Perhaps its good, as you say, that there doesn't seem to be too much urgency about your scan. I do agree that unless a thing is life threatening, you should not feel obliged to have invasive surgery or treatment - its all according to what it is, of course. Hope that your knee trouble eases off, it may only be something which can be treated easily so I wouldn't worry about needed new one, just yet. I saw Annettes links and they sound interesting. Hope you get to grips with Windows 10.
I meant to say, that if anyone wondered what had happened at Bosley where they had the factory fire, since then they are still damping things down as there are a lot of flammable items around but of course as the whole business has now gone, the owners are putting a whole lot of the workforce out for redundancy (about 100 people, I think). They own other businesses apparently, but cannot absorb all the workers. Last weekend on our local TV they showed a wonderful Fun Day which was organised, and very well attended, for raising money to help all the victims' families. It was a bright sunny day there, so it was a huge success. Nice to know that folks can rally round to help others.
I went to see the Nurse this morning and returned my BP cuff: I spoke to her at length (this one was much friendlier than the first one!) and she showed me my results - every single reading was high but although she agreed that if it was hurting me, it was still too high overall not to take action so she made an appointment with the GP for next week. My usual GP is busy then, followed by a holiday, so I will see one I don't know. I'm half expecting to be prescribed some tablets to keep my blood pressure down. I made the nurse laugh with descriptions of our Mad Dog, and she agreed that they can be challenging as she has a Beagle who last week escaped from their garden, stole a birdfeeder and promptly ate all of the suet balls, without any ill effects!
ps: One of the reasons it hurt me was probably that as most ladies of a certain age, I have Bingo Wings which got squashed when the cuff was used!!
Heather, Sorry about poor Amy, but glad she has now recovered and that she rang you. It can't be nice for you, knowing the bad atmosphere between the parents, but obviously, there is not much you can do about that. As we always say, never worry about having a 'rant'. I didn't really think it was one :-))) {{{HUGS}}}
Linda, Always sorry to hear of people losing their jobs, especially in circumstances like Bosley. I did laugh about the beagle eating the suet balls, though. Sorry about the high blood pressure. I gather that the older we become, the more likely we are to get high BP. You will have to start running marathons LOL
Morning all: Rant? What rant? Did someone have a rant? :-)
Heather: Hard to bite your lip when hearing others bickering in such circumstances, but glad Amy is now home.
Lindybird: Bingo wings? :-) Still think your BP cuff was too tight. Maybe buy one for home use while awaiting doc visit - and tell Bonnie she needs to be more considerate!
Off to pick up daughter from train...