Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 21 May 2017

HAPPY NEW WEEK!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week.

Yellow Warbler, Trustom Pond National Wildlife Refuge, Rhode Island USA
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Photo Labelled Public Domain (Copyright Free)

  • Good Morning. How sweet, Heather!  You were young. I certainly remember wandering along the lanes alone, to go to our tiny village school. We lived on the very edge of our town and the nearest school was in the village. I suppose my mother took me at first. No one seemed concerned about us, and my big brother never accompanied me.

    Sunny here. Must go and get going!

  • Tupperware day here ( low cloud lid)....

    Heather I was free to wander mainly as my parents ran the village post office and grocers shop. They both worked long hours as postmen in those days were in to sort post at 5.30. So my sisters and I were pretty much free range. I do remember being hauled home by village doctor to be told off for riding my trike carelessly out of top gate without looking straight onto road . Well not my fault we didn't have pavements.

    Here in Moray our bins are free including brown garden one. We also have a green one a pink one a blue one and an orange box. Luckily I can hide them all but at the bottom of rural tracks they look hideous..

  • I noticed the wide variety of bins when at daughter's house in Elgin, yesterday. They asked for a second brown bin and got it. Also noticed the orange one for glass. We have no glass collection here:-(

    Only blue for recycling, green for landfill and brown for garden waste ( no soil, no turf etc etc). Think I'll move to Elgin :-)
  • Funny to see the changing times discussion above - the trilogy I had been reading had a lot of social comment, and was based at the turn of the 18th to 19th century (time of the Napoleonic Wars), and my observation was how little has changed.  I won't say more, don't want to be controversial again!

    And I daren't enter the discussion about bins; our Council is still rumbling on in the discussion of how to introduce the extra bins which are needed to comply with EU requirements!  

    LINDY - have a safe journey home - I guess you are just getting into the car as I write this.

    Fine and dry here, but with thin high cloud.  OH is busy returning a few stones to a small retaining wall which impinged on the new fence arrangement - only the end of a small bank where spring bulbs surround the base of the Alder tree.  I am going to supervise the baking of blueberry muffins later - will probably do the mixing myself, just have him to fetch and carry. I finished typing up newsletter items yesterday, so now we together have to turn the content into a coherent magazine format.  Gradually getting appointments into the diary for next month - hope I will be able to get to them all.

    Ospreys Rule OK, but Goldfinches come a close second!

  • OG - I'm also working on the June church magazine!  Never straightforward, although most of the contributions come to me ready typed as attachments, which saves a lot of time.  It's fitting things onto pages in a sensible order, with appropriate pictures etc, that takes the most time!  I will be doing the July one between golf courses at Troon ... could be interesting - only 500 miles from home!

  • LOL OG!  The continued dramas........

    We arrived home after an uneventful journey, in good time. There was a message on the answer phone saying that there had been flooding again at the allotment, so my OH dashed off to see what was going on. Thankfully someone else has dealt with it but he came home grumpily complaining and saying that he would stop having the allotment if it was so much trouble.

    Our garden is a riot of colour: a clematis which we planted to climb the plum tree a couple of years ago has pushed forth many blooms, and our pots of flowers have just about survived the neglect. The sweet peas have grown, too, hooray!

  • LINDA - welcome home - sorry about the allotments flood and consequent grump!

    We successfully baked the muffins and prepared a pasticcio for dinner - with salad.  Very hot here this afternoon - more sunshine than forecast

    Ospreys Rule OK, but Goldfinches come a close second!

  • Morning all: Out to dinner last evening for OH's b/day to our favorite Italian place for our usual dishes. Nice and quiet there last night; very relaxing. No appetizer; no dessert; home early.  Such an exciting couple!:-)

    I agree that  media coverage of most tragedies seems to have taken on a voyeuristic quality that is disturbing from a variety of standpoints.  Wonder if so-called reality TV shows play any role in our determination to intrude...  I see that the UK has scolded the US for releasing too many details, too soon, re the event. Seems like a trend, blabbing info that wasn't ours to blab.

    AQ: We have "Scotty's Castle" in Death Valley - he sure got around!  :-) The Wheatsheaf Pub (hotel?) looks well kept up. St. Matthew's has lovely brick/stone work, but I did notice that very traditional stained glass window at St. Mary's. Black Springs church has had a lively history - a wine store back in the 1890s? Very progressive. And that tiny council chamber in Waterloo has had a face lift (and a new sign) since Google's first drive-by in 2008 (visible from one angle) and the second in 2014 (shown from the front).  It's interesting to see how the quality of their images improves in a comparatively short time.  I always pronounced rodeo the Aussie way, but here it's definitely roe-dee-o. Is that an abandoned graveyard at Kollyowha Primitive? Looks forlorn, even for a graveyard (although Google Earth has photos where the graveyard looks busier!)  Some of these little hamlets seem so isolated, yet I see they're only about 30+ miles outside Adelaide. The country around Emu Springs looks lovely and green (in 9/2014 anyway).  GE includes an image of an old graveyard near there, on World's End Hwy near the intersection with Hallellujah Hills Road.  GE apparently didn't go down the dirt road to Burra Creek Gorge, but thanks to your link and some photos posted on GE, got the idea.  Geranium Springs? That begs the question How did it get its name?  Eudunda looks nicely kept up. The GE street view image shows quite a few cars along the main road, but few people.  I was also thinking that some of those churches look better maintained than others. Is that just me or is it because they're in an touristy area popular with locals?  Anyway,  thanks for doing all the legwork on my trip!  I suspect I'm still not caught up with you though.

    Lindybird: Maybe the young colts were "playing the people" rather than "playing the horses."   Wimbledon!!  :-))  Must remember to subscribe to the cable Tennis channel for those couple of weeks.  Pink bins?  We have brown (trash); blue (recycle only, which includes glass) and green (garden stuff). Not sure I could handle pink. What's with the allotment flooding? Is someone leaving the irrigation going?

    Heather: Good Lord. 30 pound to take away garden trimmings, etc?  I'm assuming no bonfires allowed anymore - they used to smell so lovely. We have limits on what we can put in our green bins because the stuff is taken and turned into free mulch for residents.   I remember when church doors were open all day.

    OG: Well, as they say, "the more things change, etc., etc..."  Thanks for the link to the osprey doings at Tweed Valley.

    I see another section of Highway 1 north of Hearst Castle has come down - those poor people/tourist areas up the coast aren't getting a break this year. Comparatively quiet here with Mr. T off on a trip. Wish someone could sign an Executive Order banning him from the U.S.  Have spent most of the morning tootling around South Australia so must get off my duff and head into the garden so I can fill our green bin before the truck comes by later this p.m.

    Take care all.