Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 8 May 2016

Good Morning, All.  Dull skies today.

Lynette -  Sorry to read that your OH is still having trouble with his ear. Must be annoying to know you will have to be careful with it on holiday.

Annette -  I can't ever remember what I was going to say, if I forgot to post, or it doesn't post --  argh!

Keith -  Glad your roofing is completed, at least you can rely on that, now. Hope you can easily clear up after the rain. I use a nasal spray because all the other medications, in pill form, seem to affect me and I just curl up and go to sleep!  

After my post about the Canadian fire disaster yesterday, I saw film and reports that miraculously some large areas escaped the fires, so the destruction is not quite as bad as was thought. No consolation to those who lost everything, though.

Rain overnight and this morning again. The garden did need the rain, but I think it has had enough for now. LOL Our son has just sent me a couple of videos of a tropical storm they are having at the moment, which has been going for over an hour now. They do get frequent storms, but this one is extra special, he says. It certainly looks horrific to me.

Margo has no telephone connection again,and only very intermittent broadband, so she will not be able to post.They have been told it may take five days before they are reconnected. She is still feeling good and they did go out for a meal at the weekend. It is their Wedding Anniversary on Friday and are hoping to go out for a meal.  

I have read all your posts, but I am so behind in replying. Sorry. 

AQ, My son sent us some osprey photographs that he took on Rottnest Island and Gnarabup Beach in Prevelly, near Margeret River.  I hadn't heard of them being there.
I hope your knee has now improved.

OG, Also hope that you are recovering. You do seem to be doing such a lot at the moment. 

Linda, Forget the new carpet and enjoy the garden and Bonnie. Life is too short : -))

Been out with my OH to buy yet more fencing, to fortify sis -in-laws garden!  We had rain here but it seems to be stopping now. At least it watered the garden.

Brenda:  Thanks for news of Margo, be it rather bad/sad news in that she is once again cut off from the internet.  You would think that it would not take so long to reinstate their phone connection.  Good to know that they managed another meal out.

AQ:  Hope you're reading, if not posting - as Brenda says, hope the knee is not being too awful and is improving for you.  You've been "in the wars" lately.

LYNETTE    Hope you enjoy your hols and that the dressings don't cause too much aggro.

Glad to hear that Margo is having a good spell.

Back to the normal weather today (believe the west coast is basking in warm sunshine) but  good to enjoy great weather over the last 2 days. Forgot to say I had an interesting chat with the lady at Dochgarroch yesterday about her tortoises. They are 47 and 46 and once they are out of hibernation they usually post a notice on their fence telling everyone how the tortoise are doing. She was telling me there is much more to keeping tortoises than most people think. I think I knew that from Rita. It would be good to hear from her again about how she and her animals are doing.

We had intended going to Sutors for lunch today, but when OH phoned to book they reminded us that they do not open until !700 on a Wed and as we are out at1800 this wasn't an option. Thurs or Friday will have to do instead.

I will start on posting the Malta pictures now - I took hundreds, so its been a job sorting them, but as I now have them to hand, I can put them on here in batches.  

For those who don't know, we went there last November for a ten day break.  I saw the offer for the hotel package and we decided to go without much thought - its not that long ago that I vowed never to go there, as I know their policy on not doing very much at all about the horrendous murder of birds annually in the name of sport, many of them 'our' garden birds.  When we arrived it was very obvious straight away that many of the Maltese think nothing of it, and in fact are proud of the fact that it is a national sport.

I spoke to a Brit who lives there and has for twenty years, she said she loved living there, but there were only three things she hated about the island and the shooting was one of them.  The other two were the amount of litter in the streets, and the awful driving habits of the locals - more of those things, later.

I'm going to start with our visit to Valletta, the ancient capital of the island.  We went just for the day, and as it's as bad if not worse than London to park in the street, or indeed anywhere at all, we took a bus which was very efficient and cheap, even though I had more white hairs when I got off than I had when I got on it, from the driver's road sense and bad temper!!

This is the first thing you see when you alight at the bus station:  a relatively modern but attractive fountain.

Then you walk into the city via a road bridge, the old city walls just ooze age:  as you can see, there was a large moat once:

  -- the old and the new, side by side and nicely complementing each other.

Drat!  can't make it go up the right way......

Some of the buildings were interesting but as there was a history to every single one, it would have taken too long to investigate them all, so we tried to aim for the important ones to aim at, and just photograph the others as we passed them.

It was a very international place. There are a lot of Italians, naturally, as it's off the coast of Italy, and there were many many tourists around from all over the world, some in large guided groups and some like us just wandering around on foot and soaking it all up. Here are some who took shelter from the warmth of the day under umbrellas in the cafes right next to the old buildings.

(EDIT  ~ I've just looked it up in the Guide Book and the statue is of Queen Victoria, in a square called Republic Square.)

We went towards this square and the building behind it is I think, the National Library where many ancient papers are kept.

Then I noticed this plaque just inside an entranceway.  

Passing this, we found a lovely courtyard which led into the building but as you had to pay entrance and we did not have time, we didn't go in.

Back outside, the guard were marching back and forth - this young man stood still for a minute as he could see me with the camera~

On the wall nearby were these two interesting plaques:

I thought of our friends in USA, when I saw this one!

The streets between the buildings are very narrow:

but interesting..... a lot of people live there, side by side with all the history. They had to have special permits to bring in their cars, and to park them.

There are a lot of religious symbols and icons, everywhere on the buildings. This was up high, on a corner of the street:

  ~~~  darn it, I've done some of them twice and they won't post the right way up, sorry.

Great shots Lindybird! Back later.

LINDY   great holiday snaps, thank you.

Well it has taken a while, but the sun has finally broken through for a lovely evening.