Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 13 August 2017

Clare: Those are some really good shots of some very pretty birds. Thank you! They seem a lot sharper than some you've taken.

Lindybird: Yes, well, as the Italians might say re yesterday's events here, "the fish rots from the head down."  The mother of the guy who was driving the car couldn't understand what happened because "Trump isn't a racist."  There you have it.  I've also gone out after midnight to watch for meteors. "Lay flat on your back," they say. I've tried sitting and resting my neck, but it still gets very stiff pretty quickly.

AQ: I have a/c and podcasts to keep me comfy on the drive, not to mention bottles of water.  Podcasts necessary due to spotty areas where radio reception consists of Spanish-language stations or holy rollers.

Was up at 2am briefly and noted traffic still steady on I-10. Must shower and hit the road...

Safe journey, ANNETTE.

CLARE- I love the bright coloured bullfinch. Alas, not talented at duck ID..

I wonder if you got to church, OG?

All my garden plans were scuppered today. I saw a spider in a saucepan drawer and as I leant forward to catch him my back seized:-( The revenge of the arachnoids, I suppose.

Bolognese sauce simmering away - half a bottle of red wine in it so should be rich and yummy.

HEATHER   Sorry to hear you have a back problem. Hope you recover quickly.

We are just back from a car rally at Brodie Castle.    We had just admired a few cars when OH pointed out a Beardie at a car we were approaching.The car was a Morris 8 series E. We glanced to the right to see the owner (of car and dogs) and lo and behold it was an ex RAF colleague who we haven't seen in many a year. He has been a civvy air trafficker at Aberdeen for the past 20 years or so, retired now. We have been on Christmas Card contact and knew they have been living at Inverurie as long as we have been here. It was lovely to see them both and hopefully we will be able to meet up and catch up in the not too distant future. Unfortunately the rally was only on from 1400-1600 so way too short to see everything esp as we spent some time with our friends.

Nice to catch up with old friends, Dibnlib. How lucky you were to spot them.

Heather -- You can blame the spider....  Hope it eases up soon. Perhaps a nice soak in a hot bath is in order, when you've eaten the Bolognese!

Clare -- More nice bird studies. Love the mice, too.

My OH has been out on a golf day, and I tidied up this morning in readiness for an invasion, as our Youngest and family called in on their way back from staying for over a week at our place in Wales. They'd had mixed weather, but some sunny days where it was better than most of the country were having. I gave them all cheese on toast and cups of tea, and they went on their way to do battle with the cones on the motorway.

ps --  Annette -- that's the advice we were given. "Lay on your back on the grass or on a garden lounger, and give your eyes 15 minutes to accustom themselves to the darkness."  But I was too tired to get a lounger out of the shed, and stood in bare feet on the paving, getting cold!  It was worth it, though.

Hi!  Very late posting this today.  We went to church this morning – a very good sermon from a lady who is part of the URC nationally here in Scotland.  She recently moved to the south-west and is involving herself in our church by taking occasional services and helping us with planning etc while we are without a minister.  After lunch, we felt very lethargic and have done little this afternoon – shame on us really, as it is such a lovely day.

Diane – thanks for starting us off with that lovely picture; I am glad the doe is so happy to bring her twins near your house to feed – she is obviously very relaxed about your presence.  Sounds like there will be travel chaos as folk make their way into the path of the solar eclipse. 

Annette – what a hot journey for you – I hope the a/c kept working through the rest of your route!  Alpacas are much prettier than Llamas, although they can look a bit weird when their wool has been harvested!  Yup, cucumber cooler in yoghourt (with curries) seems to be the only one I can come up with – and we don’t have a lot of curry this time of year!  We are of course still ploughing through them daily in salads, and Dau will relieve us of a few next weekend.

AQ – well done with the paper shuffling and recycling!

Linda – glad you saw some of the meteors – too late for me to look out for them.  Hope your family are having a safe journey the rest of the way home.  Good they had some sunshine, not easy entertaining little ones on a wet holiday.

Heather – I also get confused about Clematis so my maxim is to leave well alone, especially since a local garden expert told us “Let Clematis wander where they will” – trouble is, they then bear most of their flowers at the top!  Sorry about the back injury – but pleased you sensibly avoided gardening; hope it recovers overnight.  When people saw me struggling this morning I had to tell them my “bad” leg is good and my “good” leg is bad!

Clare – more beautiful birdies – especially Bullfinches!

Dibnlib – a pity the cars were at Brodie for such a short time, but I guess the fun of rallying is driving around together!  Nice that you met friends – and did you have cakes (cream meringues)?

Dinner ready!  Roast pork and apple sauce.

Roast pork and apple sauce, OG. My mouth is watering.

DIBNLIB- how lovely that you met an old friend.

We love roast pork, too!!

I thought I'd tell you about my "Three Bird Day" today - -  it was just a coincidence, but it's been a day of bird events.

I was eating my breakfast and looking at the crossword, when I heard a familiar "thump", and knew right away that a baby bird had flown into the glass. I stood up and went toward the conservatory window to see if it was OK, but as I walked towards it, I saw a flash of black and white wings outside. A magpie! He flew down and snuffled in the geraniums below the windowsill. Then he was off, as he had seen me. In his beak as he flew, the little bird.....  He took it, dead or alive, onto my neighbour's roof where he ate it.

I went upstairs to get dressed, and when I came out of the shower, I looked out of the window and saw a cuckoo in our plum tree.  Of course, it wasn't a cuckoo at all, it was our old friend, the Sparrowhawk. I did a double take and ran back downstairs for the camera. He or she was still sitting there so I took four shots before he disappeared. Only two of the pictures are alright, I hope to post them here some time.

Later in the day I found a perfect circle on the glass, on the opposite side of the room from where I'd seen the baby bird fatality. There was one fluffy white feather stuck there, but no sign of whatever bird it was: I hope it's OK this time.

Evening all:  Lovely drive today. The temps through the low desert were in the 90s and stayed there on the climb toward Prescott. What was so lovely was the change in the high desert regions, where the monsoons had brought everything to life - trees, shrubs, grass - all amazingly green.  I drove through a tiny hamlet called Skull Valley and noticed the local historical museum was open, so decided to stop.  Was greeted by a really lovely older "gentleman" who was full of stories about the building, which used to be a railroad depot.  His father had been the telegraph operator back in the old days and he himself had grown up in this tiny town (although he was a retired U.S. Fish & Wildlife forest ranger.  Photos is below, along with photo of storm clouds taken from the back garden of our PV house. No way does the photo do justice to the cloud. Anyway, it's been a very comfortable high 80s and breezy here. Very nice. I've brought garden tools and can see I'll be busy. Am planning to take Ms. D out to buy her own set of garden tools!

Off to bed now.

Take care everyone; thanks all for news of birds, cars, and dinner (that would be OG!).

Good Morning.  Nice to hear from you, Annette, and even nicer with illustrations!  Love that old building. Have a lovely time with the family.

It's drizzling here and going to be a wet morning. I've got clearing up and preparing to do, as our Eldest is arriving this week with little Amber, so that they can escape from the builders in their house whilst they finish off their work.