Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 27 September 2015

Fascinating article. Thanks. I suspected it had something to do with water (or organic molecules). I've had insomnia for two nights. Think I'll sleep in tomorrow and let them make the announcement without me. :-)))

Good morning

OH and I were moon watching too! We didn't have completely clear skies but it could have been worse.

DIANE- hope that you will get a decent sleep. Thanks for the HD advice.

Back later

Good Morning All!!  - in a dash, as I mentioned, we are going out today.  But I had to come on and say Yes!!  I awoke at 3.25am and jumped out of bed to see the Moon in all its rusty glory.  It was only 7/8 ths by then, but hey, it was wonderful gazing out of our open skylight in the bathroom!!  Well done to Annette for capturing it - I didn't even try. 

ps  I feel much better today, thank goodness. Back to normal at last.

Good Morning Everyone.

Great that you all saw the eclipse. I did take some photographs, but it all looks so small. I should have used the proper camera with the lenses, but OH is the expert and he slept through the whole event. We have no light pollution here so it was so clear to see. I don't think I have ever seen so many stars.

So sorry you weren't able to see it Diane.  I was worried for a while as I could hear something rustling through the bushes, but I couldn't see anything.LOL

Update from Gloucestershire Badger Office

"Not much reported last night apart from some crazy pro cull driving and a stunned hare being taken to Vale Wildlife Rescue. But regardless of whether people are constantly repelling shooters or just quietly standing or parked up on key locations, walking for hours on end circling fields etc the heroism and sheer dedication of those out night after night is astounding. It is very humbling being in the office and knowing the sheer feats of endurance that people have put themselves through to save badgers lives. Not everyone is young, people are out there who are in their 70s. Not everyone is able bodied, some people cannot even walk more than a few meters, some cannot walk at all and they are still out in their cars. Some people are in pain from arthritus and other conditions and they still brave the cold and wet. It is truly astonishing how many amazing people have come into the Gloucs zone to protect wildlife."

West Yorks Hunts Sabs have now joined the autonymous groups in the zones.

ALAN   good to hear of such dedication. We don't have culling up here yet, thank goodness.

LINDY   glad to hear you are improving. You have had a really nasty time of it.

Thanks, dibnlib:  and to think that at the start I thought I'd just eaten something a bit "off" or something!  Still feel a bit wan.  We had a nice outing this morning and enjoyed a cuppa in John Lewis, whilst my Friend did some more of her Christmas shopping. She is getting her knee joint "done" in early November and so needs to be early, as afterwards she will not be able to get around much.

I spent nothing in there (except in my head LOL!) and then we went to Lakeland Plastics where I bought a few gifts myself, plus a natty gadget for "spiralizing vegetables", that is, you put in a carrot or courgette and turn it, and out comes a long spaghetti type spiral!  This can either be eaten raw in a salad, or cooked like spaghetti and put into a sauce for a healthy meal.  Will let you know how I get on with it.

Just seen the very exciting TV News that there really is apparently, water on Mars!  I'm sure that Diane will be watching this with interest. I was very impressed, incidentally, that Brenda went out into the garden in her PJs in the dark, to see the moon last night!

Morning all:  Watching NASA on Ustream and they have indeed found evidence of the seasonal flow of water on Mars.  

Diane: I'm sure you'll be watching the replay of this. Who are these brainy people?  I'm always pleased to see young women (a scientist from Ames Lab explained part of the findings) ! Incidentally, I was listening to an interview with one of the folks working on Pluto's New Horizons project and she said that even though the images were clear, they were taken by "old" cameras; i.e. 10 years old, and that if we could launch an iPhone toward Pluto, we would get images many, many, many  (maybe she said hundreds) of times better.  The mind boggles.  What's so amusing about the Q&A session following the Mars announcement is that the media (CBS and ABC at this point) are asking questions requiring a Yes or No answer and getting long, complicated and highly qualified responses from all the scientists. Will wait to see what headlines come out of those answers!   :-))   Hope you managed to catch up on your sleep.

Heather/Lindybird: Hurray for eclipse viewing.

Brenda:  I just aimed my iPhone at it, which was why it was so tiny. I couldn't enlarge the without getting a highly pixilated image. I'm sure we'll see bigger and much better images on the 'net today.

Alan: I have visions of an army of senior citizens lurking in the highways and byways of Gloucestershire. It would be interesting to know the ratio of old-to-young sabs (maybe old hippies/anti-war types still carrying the flag).

Lovely coastal overcast again here. I actually did some puttering in the garden yesterday afternoon. Hope to do some more today.

Take care everyone.

Hi Annette,  I see you've been watching the live broadcast, too.  Very exciting.

Here are some more Flower Show pics.  

First of the Garden Exhibits.  The young lady who designed this one, won the prize for Young Designer.