Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 26 August 2018

Heather, we had the fire on last evening. It's still quite cold here today, I've got a warm top on.

Thank you for good wishes for my friend.

I keep meaning to relate some of my/our visit to Dyfi - I'll put on some pics later but for now, I'll just say that we had a wonderful morning, which included meeting several of the staff there, and although there were no ospreys on the nest, we did see one through the scopes, sitting on a log.  And just as we turned away from the observation platform, to go back, there was a shout!!   "Osprey incoming!" 

We ran straight back in and saw an adult osprey flying in - as it neared the nest, a youngster rose up from ground level to greet it - we think it was the one we had seen earlier. So, two osprey in the sky together. It was a wonderful couple of minutes, seeing them with the naked eye. A thrill for me!

Just spent five minutes retracing my steps to see where I had got to with the Flower Show Pics. It was ages ago!

Never mind, here's the next instalment:  Still in the big RHS Marquee:

As we left, I saw this woodpecker winking at me from a display of all kinds of woodwork, isn't he lovely?

The first of the gardens we found: this one was the "NorthWest Tonight" garden which is our local news on BBC. Everyone was admiring the natural looking, pretty planting, especially around the columns.

We saw this big insect last year, but this year he had a heart shaped wreath of flowers to give us! This was outside a dome demonstrating how honey is produced.

One of the gardens in the competition for the Young Designer of the Year.  This was supposed to be natural, but I thought that his haphazard paths full of untidy white gleaming stones didn't look right.  I'm also not a fan of lack of colour except for green....

We found ourselves in the Produce Tent:   lots of huge carrots, fascinating leeks and many coloured tomatoes. The berries were the most attractive things.

My OH admired these perfectly matched onions. They were bigger than they appear in this pic.

Outside again, the sun was trying to come out.  I liked the metal sculptures which were available to buy, but only if you had a very large wallet!

These giant thistles were my favourite.

We had reached the far side of the Show, where there was another entrance gate.  This is the giant walking flower displays, who were greeting those just coming in. 

Here they are from the front! Cheerful souls, on stilts!

They were walking around, covered in real flowers!

Lots of things on display, to put in your garden. I liked the leaves, at the front here.

This is nice, isn't it?

More leaves, and a bunny.  

Eventually, we got tired and decided to sit around the bandstand, which was transmitting recorded music, sadly.  Later, when we were asked to fill in a survey, I said that this year we missed not having more live music as there has been in the past.  We sat here for a good 25 minutes, eating ice creams. My OH had a tasty nutty concoction and I had a strawberry cone, with great lumps of real fruit in it, yum.

In the background we could see people going around on the Ferris wheel which was there last year, but this year it was not decorated with flowers.

Around the Children's School Competition area were lots of huge, knitted flowers!

Back home – and dinner being prepared!  For lunch I enjoyed the Breaded Brie starter with salad and a side of some chips; OH had Gammon, Eggs (2 of them) and chips – and he also had a Maltezer Slice which he would have however much he had already eaten!  Asda shopping went well until trying to reload the scooter and one direction of the hoist control failed – lifted but couldn’t put it down again inside the car – or back onto the ground.  OH stood scratching his head and a very kind man who happened to have the same model came over and they both scratched their heads, and finally put it in manually – luckily most of the weight was over the floor of the boot.  Now can’t take it out (to store, charge or use) until hoist is fixed – under guarantee.  Journey home was tedious – first several miles behind a combine harvester, then came up behind a car indicating right on the car and left on its trailer and finally a horse (apparently upset by a herd of cows at a gate) dancing about in the middle of the road – a long time before the young rider could get it under control!  The pleasures of country living!

Wendy – how sweet that Daisy remembers the carrot treats from your kind friend!

Heather – supposed too be getting warmer everywhere by the weekend – but I’m not sure when your friend is due to arrive, although I know it can’t be long.

Linda – were the Dyfi Ospreys the first you had seen “live”?  I forget, and I seem to get quite blasé about them, after seeing them at LG and locally at Threave.  More lovely photos from Tatton – those berries look fantastic, and the giant flower people!  There are a lot of beautiful garden ornaments about, and I too like those leaves, and the woodpecker … and the thistles … and I could go on!

Dinner (veg medley in smoked cheese sauce) is almost ready.  Hoping to finally see the last of the dust bunnies this evening if we can finish tidying the big bookshelves!  Not got rid of many, but it’s all organised now – although several disagreements (or agreements to differ!) about what is categorised as History and what is about Places!

www.bbc.co.uk/.../uk-scotland-highlands-islands-45322932

Sad, but cause for celebration - a long life!

Sorry you had trouble loading the scooter, OG. How annoying.  Lunch sounded good, though.

Sad about the Golden Eagle. Magnificent birds.

Those thistles in the picture were many feet high, and cost a couple of thousand pounds! So I didn't get to take them home, LOL!! 

The answer to the question about 'live' ospreys is Yes ......and No!

My first glimpse of an osprey was in the Lake District, years ago, where we looked through the scopes the RSPB were supplying. It was trained on a nest many thousands of yards away, but I was fascinated. Then we looked up, and saw an osprey flying, still very distant, but 'live".  I was interested after that, and when we got online in 2008, one of the things I investigated was the Loch Garten webcam which I'd read about in a newspaper. So began my love of ospreys.

The nearest I've got to an osprey since has been on our many visits to Glaslyn, where the nest is once again very distant from the observation deck, so I've only seen them on the webcams and through the scopes. In spite of hanging around for ages, hoping to see one coming back from a fishing expedition, up the valley!

Roy Dennis's account of the Golden Eagle