Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 15 May 2016

Hi Everybody. Dry and sunny here, but there is a cool breeze.

Wendy, Sorry about your screen washer bottle.  Enjoy your test drive.

Dibnlib, Good to see you back and that you had a good time in Amsterdam. I have seen the tulip fields, but can't remember the exact date. Look forward to your photographs.

Linda, Good to hear that you are feeling less stressed now. Hope your OH enjoys his round of golf and feels more relaxed on his return home.

Friends have rung to say that they are bringing my OH a birthday present. Trouble is, I don't know, when !!

Its Spring!!

Apple blossom on our old apple tree:

Lovely pics, LINDY.

ANNETTE - Youngest son in law is indeed casting his net, as are most of his colleagues. Some have jumped ship before they are pushed but he is 'representative' for the team at meetings with the Norway big boss and Human Resources people, so will hang in there until all the decisions are made. One interesting thing he said yesterday was that all the meetings and consultations have enabled him to see things from the management perspective as well as from the employees' side. His previous experience was with aircraft and he could go back to that.

BRENDA - happy that your lunch out was good.

LINDY - Only reply if you want to - but why is your OH unwilling to consider training/obedience classes for Bonnie? Perhaps he feels that this is a passing phase and that she will mature and eventually, the three of you will be able to live peaceably together.

OH and I together with stepson, made a short expedition to B and Q this morning to purchase new cord for the electric strimmer. Then on to Highland Industrial Supplies just to have a look around. OH and his son had a magnificent bacon roll in the café there and I explored the kitchen shop. Prices very high but very good quality kitchen goods etc. I spent £9.30 on a kitchen gadget that I certainly don't need! It will probably find its way to one of the daughters, just as a lot of things do. I have a wide hob top grill thing which is flat on one side and ridged on the other.( Well, not any more, I don't....)

Lovely pics, Lindy. I love apple blossom. I think it is beautiful. I used to have apple and pear trees in my Chester garden. A mini orchard.

I forgot to say, but I loved your poem too.

Yes, I can imagine the advice coming your way. Although you know it is well meaning, it is like someone else telling how to bring up your children.

I have never had a dog, so cannot comment. I had a cat once, though, who cleared our garden of blackbirds. I was horrified. I became very skilled at holding him firmly so the blackbird could fly out of his mouth in reverse. The birds became quite skilled as well!

Sometimes, they would play' dead, and after shutting my cat inside, I would see the birds take off again, apparently unharmed.

My last cat didn't chase birds. She did catch mice though. A lot, but I never saw her with a bird. In fact a blackbird made a nest for several years running, amongst some geraniums in a planter on the patio. They would just fly over her head when she was dozing on the table, bringing food for the young, On the rare occasions when she was awake, she just watched!

Thank you for the Tupperware Day explanation, Wendy. I had not heard that one before,

Sorry you missed the tulip colours, Dibnlib. Glad you had a good few days there, though.

Brenda, Glad you enjoyed your lunch. Good that you will be seeing your son.

Greeting to Keith, Annette, Heather (nice to explore kitchen shops  - I went to Lakeland yesterday) and everyone else I have missed.

Morning all:

Lindybird: Gorgeous blossom pix! So very pretty.

Heather: It must be informative - if not reassuring - for SiL to see both sides of the story. Fingers crossed he's kept on, though that sounds less likely, and that he gets something he really likes if not. I assume they'd prefer not to move house for a new job though...  Re kitchen gadgets, never ceases to surprise me how they keep reinventing the wheel.  Half of them are more trouble than they're worth when it comes to setting up, storing, and then washing.

Rosy: We have a couple of California Towhees that scratch for eats in my new redwood walk-on mulch, most of which then ends up all over the pathways. I'd just finished sweeping up one mess yesterday, when two of them landed just down the path and proceed to make another mess. They weren't impressed when I scolded them.

Apropos of Lindybird's apples, I've just finished reading Tracy Chevalier's new book At the Edge of the Orchard.  As anyone who's read her books knows, she takes a relatively obscure piece of history and weaves a semi-fictional story around it.  In The Girl With the Pearl Earring it was the craft of creating and mixing paint colors; in The Lady and the Unicorn the plot revolved around the weaving of the famous tapestry by the same name in 15th century Flanders. Orchard starts with an immigrant from England who brings, then grafts and grows,Pippin apples in New England, which then travel with the next generation to Ohio and Indiana. The tale then evolves through one family member's story to the export of California redwood and Sequoia saplings and seeds back to England during the Victorian age.  Fascinating. FInished it in three days.

Have the soaker hose on our two new trees out front on the parkway so must keep an eye on that and then start some laundry.

ANNETTE- have put the book on my kindle wish list. I wait patiently until the books come down to a really cheap price. I don't use our local library much, anymore but think that I should be visiting it again.

Annette, I had to Google California Towhees. Something to learn every day!

Is your cat a threat to them?

I also like Tracy Chevalier's books.The last one I read was "The Last Runaway'

It was interesting to read about Ohio. I have visited The Freedom Center in Cincinnati.

The latest one is definitely on my list. Fortunately, I can get most of my books from the charity shop where I work.  I do have a kindle, also.

Heather, I don't use the local library any more, as the books are in such poor condition. Lack of funds, I expect.

People  often donate books in excellent condition to the shop. Of course, there are also very scruffy ones.

I find it difficult to part with books that I have enjoyed, but perhaps I should. The bookshelves are rather full.

Hi, folks. This website is undergoing a cyber attack right now.

I suspect that the site will be locked down shortly, in order for the tech people to deal with the damage.

I thought some of you might see this, and that way you'd know what's going on. It may take some time to fix it. I saw one post that said the attack began at 4:30 a.m. So it may take quite a while to recover.

Everyone have a good weekend!

used my usual route to get on the site and found it mostly in Chinese, so took the long way round. also cannot get on to the webcam. What on earth has happened!!!!. Will  ask OH when he comes home in an hour or so.

ANNETTE    Think it was you I recommended Peter James to. His new book is out in the UK and is called "Love you Dead" I have ordered it through the library and am 25th on the list!!!!. Plenty to keep me going in the meantime.