Weekly Chat, Sunday April 25, 2010

The falcon at Derby left the nest for a very brief flight. Now two hatchlings visible.

Aaaaah!

Try to reply to some of the recent posts: 

jsb:   Saw the 'Spelbound'  act on the Talent show the other day, we are fascinated by the awfulness of some of the acts, I'm afraid, but this group (troup ?) were really good wern't they? Must have worked hard to get to that kind of perfection.

Thanks to DjoanS  for link to the Tawny Owls - glad to hear they are doing well (though the Barn Owls arn't    : - (     )

Glad to see you both, TerryM and Heron77!  Its really not obligatory to write on here every day, we all have lives to lead.  Just nice to have you 'drop in' when you can.   (will cross our fingers for you, to find work, Heron)

Annette:    Hope your friends Garage Sale went well and you got rid of all your bits.  I agonise over throwing things out/giving them away, but usually feel a lot better when they are gone at last.

Well, Eldest Son came this afternoon (his birthday today)  - he brought the New Girlfriend & she was highly amused to see the new ironing board was his present. We have not met before (didn't know she existed until the other day!!)  so we all sat in the garden as it was sunny with no wind for a couple of hours.  Ate biscuits and cake, and drank tea & coffee and talked of this and that.   Dog was very much a  presence as most interested in whether he might be offered a biscuit. Gave him half a shortbread so he was happy. He didn't lick the new visitor too much, and was on good behaviour. Now he is under his master's chair as its just started thundering, and I wouldn't be surprised if we got lightening, too. The British weather is wonderful.

Sandy :Thanks for the update on Derby Peregrines. I have been trying to get a glimpse of them but no joy so far.

I have updated the Ospreys nesting calendar with the good news from Kielder and the bad from Aberfoyle:

OOOps ... Sorry .... may have got the info about Kielder ospreys wrong :(((  I thought the newsreader said Kielder ospreys .... but she may have said Lake District ospreys. There is an item on local teletext about 3 eggs for Lake District ... which we knew about already ... but nothing about Kielder. Will keep you posted.

Got lots done in the garden/greenhouse this afternoon  - we feel we are catching up after the late start to the gardening year.  Still observing some possibly dead shrubs – others have already surprised us after looking dead!  Thanks for all the snippets of news here and elsewhere – don’t know why it took Wigtown a week to report egg#3 – been checking their sight every day!  Egg#3 at Caerlaverock is still unconfirmed.  Seems to be more intruder trouble this year – is it because there are more Ospreys about?  Shame about Aberfoyle nest.  Annette – I hope the garage sale was successful for you (and your friend) getting rid of surplus goods.  Lindybird – sounds like a fairly relaxed visit with the Girlfriend – and Dog enjoyed it!  Felt like thunder here at one time yesterday, but didn’t do it – today no significant rainfall – just a few drops which immediately evaporated.  Well, coffee time, and then may relax rather than spending another evening in the study!  Church and then more gardening tomorrow.

This link is for any ex-pats originally from Edinburgh, it is a vast site with photos and acecdotes from contributors around the globe. I can see my old haunts as a child, my house, my neighbours washing on the line, old school class photos, our scout hut, local cinema, where I saw my first film, etc, etc. It is a very personal record, by many to be shared with thousands.

I imagine there are similar websites for other towns and cities as well and it is an amazing acheivement of the internet that these records are now available for posterity. 

http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/index.htm

Memories of an Edinburgh lady about Tam (Sean) Connery, from above website......

Hi everyone.

Thanks for all the good wishes on the job front.  Weather wise it's been a very pleasant day in these parts.  This evening a couple of goldfinches turned up to feed on the nyger seed.  They vanished before I could find my camera, and then turned up again about an hour or two later, so I was able to get some pictures. :-)

Annette:  I get the feeling some of the cuts could be quite scary, whoever gets into power.  Although there's a good chance of a hung parliament.  Don't think any of the politicians would tell us all the planned cuts, while they are campaigning to be elected.

Diane:  We do have 3 languages in Scotland, although some people say it's only 2 because they class Scots as a dialect of English.  This is probably because Scots and English both descended from Old English.  I'd say Scots is a separate language, and has many regional variations, although it's sometimes hard to define Scots because of a lack of standard Scots.  Scots also has no spelling rules, so unlike English, Gaelic, or just about any other written language it's impossible to misspell a Scots word. :-)

OG:  I learned a few Gaelic phrases on a BBC website but I've never had time to really concentrate on learning a language.  Done Spanish at School but really struggled.  I think the best way to learn a language is to go to where it's spoken.

Sandy:  Thanks for the Derby Peregrines news.

Lindybird:  Hope your eldest son has been having a great birthday.  The one certainty of the British weather is variety.

Alan: Thanks for the Osprey Calendar update.

Here are the two goldfinches from this evening.

Paul.