A new week - hope it is kind to all...
Good morning – more beautiful sunshine, and wonderful for our one-hour bird count: 53 birds of 11 species! Starlings gathering for autumn – will we see the return of the Gretna roost which was missing last year? Skeins of 50-100 Svalbard Barnacle Geese coming south to the Solway coast winter feeding grounds each evening – perfect wind direction for them – must schedule a trip to Caerlaverock, where the Whooper Swans are also arriving, including some returning named individuals. Is this why I like autumn?
Keith – good to hear from you. Sorry you have had computer problems added to everything else. Sorry about your asthma – must be so difficult being a carer when you feel so rotten yourself. Pleased the various adaptations in the house are progressing. I am in the process of seeking advice for a ramp to the front door – I know I have to pay for it, but in order to get OT advice have to go through the application process, to be turned down and then advised!
Dibnlib – sorry you have lost another RAF friend. Lovely photo of Benson again.
AQ – I too didn’t cope well with kids in the kitchen, but somehow they all learned to cook, and Dau#2 bakes a lot, despite fulltime work. My one exception was Christmas, when I really enjoyed making fun food with them: while other parents moaned that the school holiday started too soon, I loved it back in the day when they had a full week at home to make things, crafts as well as cooking.
Annette – enjoyed the talk yesterday evening; no more events until next Wednesday afternoon, I think!
Today we have to go to Gretna Outlet Village for a light fitting for the lounge – current one will go in J’s room, and was originally matched to a standard lamp which is now in the dining room – an also some edibles from Grape Tree (formerly Julian Graves). So (guess what) we shall have lunch at the OTB.
Thinking of Diane, Brenda and Margo and their families.
Ospreys Rule OK, but Goldfinches come a close second!
OG loads of wonderful birds for you. I love Autumn too and it was a wonderful morning again to walk the banks of the canal with Benson. I overheard someone saying we were going to have another sunny week. I do hope he is right
Just come back from a lovely walk around the grounds at Hever Castle. Great crested grebe, grey heron, a pair of Egyptian Geese as well as some friendly robins, mallards - and the trees just beginning to turn. Yes, Autumn is a lovely time of year. Sunshine would have been a bonus ...
Good to see others are enjoying the outside air and wildlife this week. Had a good lunch, then found a sale at the lighting shop, but mysteriously spent our saving on lounge fitting on one for the wet room! Sadly this branch is closing down, but will still be trading in NE England and Glasgow Braehead. Stopped for our afternoon drink of hot chocolate at the Devils Porridge Museum on the way home - shared a piece of toffee cake and now suffering sugar overload!
OG - Never visited the Devil's Porridge Museum, although some friends used to live further along the road - the name always fascinated me, though. Is the little cabin restaurant on the other side of the main road still there? They used to do wonderful home made cakes ... and the coffee was excellent! I often stopped there after driving overnight from Sussex - by which time I needed coffee!!!
PAT - I think you may mean the little tea room in Gretna, at the cross roads, which is now a Tandoori takeaway. The Porridge is in Eastriggs. When we first came here in 2003 (we stay in Annan) it was in St John's Church in Eastriggs village centre, south of the main road, then it moved to a barn at Daleside (I think) Farm on the west side of the township, and now is in it's purpose-built building east of the village, on the B-road towards Gretna. It moved there in time for the big commemorations of WW1 in 2014.
www.devilsporridge.org.uk
Interesting to read of observations of birds from OG and Pat.
I saw a green woodpecker in the garden today. I have never seen one here before, although there is evidence of them in a tree (willow) At the same time, there were two jays pecking in the grass. They were beautiful.
For the the first time this year, it really smelled autumnal today.
Unknown said: and now suffering sugar overload!
I am picturing you leaping around the furniture, acrobatting . . . as does Miss5 when she overloads!
Evening (morning?) all: No gym, walk, or anything energetic today. Off to daughter's tomorrow to feed horses (vacation helper is off for the weekend) and buy some grocery basics for her return Saturday.
OG: How nice to see all those birds in just one hour. The seasons are changing for sure. Trees turning here...
PatO: Just finished an online jigsaw of Hever Castle (Anne Boleyn's family home).
Best thoughts to Margo, Diane, and Brenda, whose DiL has surgery today (Friday). Life gets really bumpy at times.
Hope Friday is kind to all.
ROSY - I love the cheeky Jays - used to get them in Lancashire, burying acorns around the big Oak - and frequently forgetting where they were (Grey Squirrels used to find them!) Not seen a Green Woodpecker since I was a child in Berkshire!
ANNETTE - I thought Brenda's DiL was having her surgery on Sunday! But thinking of her waiting!
AQ - no leaping, and was so sneezy in the evening so needed anti-histamines which counteracted the sugar, so I slept really well!
Another shopping day - to Dumfries Homebase for paint and a light switch, snack lunch and groceries in Morrison's, back via Ice cream farm for a milkshake then the butcher (who is also promoting funeral directors baking today). J will be out bowling and for a meal with colleagues this evening. We have changed to our autumn duvet today - only one cold night earlier in the week, but it was bed-changing day today, so we decided to get it done.
Have a good Friday, all.