Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 2 July 2017

Harelady: I am so very sorry for your loss, and my thoughts are with you this week. Sending you strength and solace.

Diane: Thank you for starting us off, but I can't see the image of the Desert Tortoise, just that funny little icon that indicates where it should be....

Harelady: I'd like to piggyback on Diane's message. Thinking of you.  It's all so darned unfair and wrong.

OG: I remember when my mother and I and my daughter went out for dinner here a few weeks after I arrived (back in the early 60s). We ordered something or other and then decided to have pancakes for dessert.  We couldn't understand why the waiter was incredulous until we saw the massive stack of pancakes he brought, at which point we were incredulous.

Sort of busy day - I think. Seems like I didn't sit down until nearly 3:30 and then it was suddenly time to leap up and think about dinner. No plans at all for tomorrow except to see what didn't get done in the garden...

Diane: Not in a hurry, is he?  :-)

Good Morning, Everyone, and thank you to Diane once again for starting us off.

"I am a  Desert Turtle -

My family call me Myrtle.

I begin the day off really slow

It's really best not to rush, you know:

Some early bird has caught the worm

But I don't mind, it can be his turn

To grab the limelight, I'd really rather 

Not get myself into a lather!"

Here's today's pic:

"Pancakes! - What pancakes?!"

Good morning! Thank you DIANE for starting us off.

Love the pic, LINDY. I was a bit slow in making the association with OG's pancakes :-) You would certainly have been tired last night after such a busy and enjoyable day.

OG - I would probably have had the onion rings and chicken burger. Like you, would have forgone the chips and coleslaw. Yes, you will have had a great welcome back to the OTB. You would have been missed.

When we were lunching at Harbour Lights on Friday I chose slow roasted belly pork, black pudding, colcannon mash and apple sauce. It was delicious but I kept looking at the enormous battered onion rings that were served with Son in law's burger and fries. Then looked at daughter's crayfish and mango salad with raspberry dressing. Sometimes decision making is so difficult!

ANNETTE - yes, can see why the waiter was surprised! Not a pancake dessert as we would know it.

We had a happy time at Elgin, yesterday. The rain held off so we were able to spend time eating outside. The birthday girl was very happy and enjoyed spending time with her cousins. We arrived at 1pm and left at 6.30 ish so home by 7.30 and very tired. Too much excitement and a glass or two of wine made an early night inevitable. THEN, having had a couple of hours sleep, the usual wakeful period. Dozed off again and woken at 4am by noise on one of the dormer window roofs. We are used to that, the gulls often bring a bone or something and bang it as they eat it. However, it sounded as if it/they had something very large.  I wondered if there was a person tramping on the roof and felt nervous for a while. Never heard anything like it. Gulls also unpopular in Elgin :-( Son in law had been to supermarket yesterday morning to get last minute food for the party. He bought two large freshly prepared pizzas. He put the first lot of shopping in the car boot, turned around as he heard a flapping of wings only to see that a gull was swooping down to the other pizza which was on top of the shopping. It ripped the clingfilm open. One pizza in the bin, another one had to be purchased. They were £4 each.... These 'town' gulls have no fear.

Thinking of HARELADY, especially on Wednesday. All our misfortunes are minor compared to her tragic loss.

Best regards to all.

Good morning, and thanks to DIANE for starting the week with the tortoise.

ANNETTE - sorry about typo in your name yesterday evening - should have put the light on and watched what I was doing.  Sounds like you keep running out of hours in the day - maybe you need to slow down like DIANE's tortoise!

LINDA - enjoyed the poem!  Pleased you had a good family day, but sorry it was spoiled by difficult journeys.

HEATHER - Almost everyone in the place had the chicken burger - I think they must have had a lot of leftovers from the other main dishes to offer at Saturday lunch service!  Pleased the birthday girl was happy with the family party.  Sorry about your bad night and the disturbance early morning.  Gulls are a real nuisance - not too bad here in Annan, but real pests in Dumfries - Council has put out the "do not feed" notices again, but they just help themselves!

Have not gone to church with OH this morning - feel like I need a break from being "owned" - just need some "me time" I think.  J will be setting off to his church soon.

Good that you're taking some time out, OG.  We all need time to "breathe". And anyway, you must not do too much just yet! We're resigned to difficult journeys for quite a while, as apart from the usual holdups, there are signs on parts of the motorway saying that there will be work taking place until "approximately Autumn 2018".....  bah!

We sometimes get strange noises in the bedroom, above our heads: we are effectively sleeping in the eaves and it's only a few inches away from birds clattering around. Thankfully, we don't seem to have too many seagulls around here, although some do appear, following the plough when there is a farmer busy in the fields.

Great that you had such a good time with the birthday girl and the family, Heather :-)

My OH had a Sunday Roast dinner in the pub: two of us had a Turkey Dinner with the trimmings, stuffing and cranberry sauce, but new potatoes stopped it short of being a Chr. dinner, LOL! Tomasz ate a pork sausage as big as himself, with a few chips and peas, but the babe only played with his food and smiled brightly at everyone in the vicinity.

I can eat pancakes at any time of day, plus before or after meals.......