Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 10 April 2016

HAPPY NEW WEEK!

Last week's Chat thread is here. I left two long posts on the end of last week's thread, and others had posts, too.

Everyone have a wonderful week!

These are endangered American White Pelicans like the ones that are waiting out the bad weather on the lake down the road from me, so they can again fly north to their breeding area.



American White Pelicans
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service government photo
Labeled Public Domain (Copyright Free)

  • Here's a very profound 2-minute video. I recommend it. If that link doesn't work for you, you can watch it on this page. It's called The Fable of the Wolf.

    Wendyb: Best wishes to Daisy.

    Thanks to all for your kind comments to me about my new job.

  • I'm still celebrating, DIANE!!   Expect you are, too!! :-))

    Quiet on here today. Hopefully, Annette is enjoying time with her family, OG is resting (for once) Heather is looking at kitchen brochures, AQ is also resting, after sleeping!, and Margo is resting and recovering -  {{HUGS}} to you, Margo.

    I've done some boring housework, submitted our energy readings online, written a whole pile of birthday cards (why are so many people born at this time of year!?), and studied my credit card bill --ooerr! - and it hasn't even got the new shoes I bought on it yet! Hope they're delivered when my OH is out........

  • DIANE -  Just watched your little film.  Very moving, and says it all about the history of the wolf. I particularly liked the line about "living on the edge of the light"........

    There is a proposal to reintroduce wolves in remote parts of Scotland. Of course, as soon as it was mentioned, hands threw up in horror! "They will kill cattle & sheep" -  "They will be a danger to humans!"  Everyone forgets that they were roaming for hundreds of years and had their part to play in the balance of nature. Now, there are culls of the deer as there are far too many because they breed without any predators. 

  • Would anyone like a spaniel??  My OH took Bonnie for a walk this afternoon.....   she found a small furry, dead thing in the woods, and ran away from him with it.  Eventually he found she had come home on her own, and was eating it on the doorstep.  She would not let him take it away until she'd gulped it all down. We're not giving her a meal tonight! And are waiting for her to be sick....... urgh.

  • Lindy: The American West is vast -- plenty of room for people, livestock, and wolves to thrive. But it remains to be seen whether the reintroduction will be successful. The ranchers, hunters, loggers, fossil fuel industry, and the government are determined to send the wolves back into extinction.

    Oh, dear. I hope Bonnie will be okay. Hope whatever she ate was safe! You might even want to induce vomiting if she starts to act really sick. You could call a vet and ask? Good luck.

  • Hello all

    ROSY- so sorry that your OH had a medical emergency in Tenerife. I can empathise, same thing happened to us in 2003. We couldn't fault the care in the private hospital(under our travel insurance), and in fact the letter from the Spanish consultant sent to our GP in Scotland advising further investigations proved to be lifesaving for my OH. It was all a bit of an eye opener. OH was sent for a scan in Tenerife - actually more than one. He was given the results immediately and sent back to the original consultant's office, holding the results in his hand.

    Yes, WENDY, it is cold here too but only a flurry or two of what might be called snow.

    I have to take Amy to the Diabetes OP clinic on Monday morning. Middle daughter has obtained a second job, mornings.She doesn't want to jeopardise things by asking for time off. I promised to help and will do as much as I can.Just hope that there aren't too many emergency calls from the school, if she is in hypo. The staff are not allowed to do anything, nowadays.

    OH tired again, this evening. He has been working in front garden, attaching wires to the new fence, for rambling rose etc and digging over the border which was badly trampled by the fencer.

    Still waiting to hear if my bro is coming to visit.

    OG- I will be shopping for christening outfit on my own! No daughters available....

    .

  • Oh! Lindybird, how patient you are with Bonnie! Sympathy comes your way, for what comes up later!

    On another note, I think we were in Tenerife about the same time that you were in  

    ? Fuerteventura.

    We never did get our tour of the island. I was interested in your photos. Are all the islands similar?  I believe that you have been to most of the Canary Islands.

  • Wet start to the day, and another heavy shower lunchtime; afternoon was quite bright but of course too wet outside for gardening, but I did prick out more seedlings in the greenhouse and sow my courgette seeds.  This evening it is already quite chilly, with a frost forecast for the morning – just down to zero, so nothing currently in the garden will get damaged.  I slept late this morning (having had trouble sleeping the night before) and didn’t get much done while OH shopped, just pottered about indoors, paid credit card bill and placed a M&S order for new underwear.

    Wendy – sorry Daisy needed a bigger op than expected – I hope all will be well and that you get boots to fit her and protect the dressings.  I guess wet snow won’t really be very helpful!

    Linda – we gave up watching Grand Tours of Scotland when we got tired of all the references to his Black’s Guide – but had been enjoying the scenery.  I do hope that the furry dead thing has not caused Bonnie any great problem and that she soon brings it up – better sick now than needing it removed later!

    Rosy – good to hear from you again, but so sorry about your OH’s health problems – especially being taken ill on holiday.  Pleased he is doing better now.

    Annette – quiet celebration in hotel room sounds a good start to the family visit after their long journey – and yours. 

    Diane – very poignant video re Wolves!  My view on re-introductions here is that it is not the same Scotland as when they were roaming here, but we do need a solution to over-population by deer, so as usual I have no handy solution to that problem – I think anything would be too late now.

    Heather – good luck with Amy on Monday, and I hope she won’t have any emergencies where you get called in.  Good luck choosing the christening outfit too.

    No plans for this evening – close curtains and keep warm seems the best plan, but still light yet.

    Ospreys Rule OK, but Goldfinches come a close second!

  • Well a cold day of only about 2 degrees and snow on and off all day.

    Elgin trip produced boots in XXL but sadly no good as the padding around her toes is quite large.

    Luckily she has no intention of going out front gate but the good sign is she jumps on her chaise.

    Fire lit early so she is a happy bunny.

    I do sometimes reflect on the fact in all my nearly 70 years I have never wanted a dog!!!

    Still love her though.

  • Wendy - sounds as if Daisy is doing OK. Sorry about the boots, how frustrating. 

    Rosy - Yes, went from last week in Feb until 16th March.  We first fell in love with the Canaries many years ago when we resumed holidays without our children, as they grew up,and we started going to Tenerife every spring. After a few years of enjoying the Los Gigantes area, we tried Lanzarote and fell in love!  Then we tried Gran Canaria, which was interesting but didn't charm us in the same way. We returned to Lanzarote but then I met a friend I hadn't seen for over twenty years, and she had an apartment on Fuerteventura. We booked to go there, knowing nothing about the island but knowing that my friend had a beautiful home, so her apartment would be comfortable. "There is almost nothing there!" she said!  "We like lots of nothing" we replied. So we set off as if on a blind date, having booked the flight and a car.

    We were charmed as soon as we left the airport, the island is indeed very empty, windswept and in some places, almost bleak. But soo beautiful, and mainly unspoilt.  We have been every year bar one, for the last 17 years!!

    We still sometimes return to Lanzarote in autumn.  The main islands are similar in that they were all volcanically formed, and are quite often treeless. They all have the same mild weather all year. But each island has its own charm, and places off the beaten track where it's less 'touristy'. Tenerife has a different climate in the North, where they get more tropical rain, and so has more tropical greenery. Lanzarote is the most bleak and stoney, as they had a volcanic eruption in the 17 hundreds, where a lot of the farms were lost under volcanic ash and stones. This makes it very dramatic. Gran Canaria is perhaps the most international, with a large Port at Las Palmas where a lot of cargo & cruise ships dock.