Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 28 October 2018

HAPPY NEW WEEK!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week. I thought I'd start the thread, because Annette is traveling.

I'm posting this photo (a National Park Service photo), because I was astonished to see a Scarlet Tanager eating small red berries in my garden this evening. These birds migrate to the tropical rain forest just east of the Andes in South America. It's been fairly cold here in my area, so this species should be long gone from here. I guess the one I saw this evening was a late migrater. I felt quite blessed to see him, and I wish the little fella well on his long journey. I hope the berries were good for him. 

Scarlet Tanager
Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, northern Indiana
U.S. National Park Service photo labeled Public Domain (Copyright Free)

  • Last Victorian town before SA border - Murrayville. From 1940 newspaper “The township was named after the then Premier of Victoria, Mr. John Murray, and not, as some people in the south are apt to assume, after the river Murray, nor because of its proximity to that noble stream. Visitors express surprise to find that the Murray is at least 60 miles away in a direct line to the north, or 100 miles west at Tailem Bend in South Australia.”

    Murrayville Lutheran church, well cared for, as are most Lutheran churches.

    Street art in Murrayville. Local birds – galah, wren, mallee fowl. Roller used to break down mallee when clearing land. Windmill tapping into underground water.

    Eagle, original Kow Plains homestead, goanna.

    To be continued, nearly finished

  • Lindybird said:

    Diane, I thought you might be interested to hear that the fracking which has begun recently here in Lancashire, has just been halted as there have already been three seismic events in the two weeks since they started. I'm hoping that eventually it will have to be stopped altogether! 

    Lindy: I'm delighted that the fracking in your area has been halted. In addition to the risk of earthquake swarms, the toxins released as a result of the fracking operations are dangerous. I hope it will be stopped permanently soon! Lovely photo of little Matthew. He's growing!

  • AQ: I loved looking at your photos. Very interesting.

    AQ/Annette: I've heard the word burlap used here, but when I was growing up, we would have referred to that material as "gunny sack." The fabric was also used to make sandbags here to stop flooding. Now, though, expensive, upscale wallpapers are made from that type of fabric, too.

    Really enjoyed the pics. The street art is beautiful, especially the eagle.

  • AQ: Love that street art.

    Diane: The only time I heard "gunny sack" was in Johnny B. Goode, the Chuck Berry song.

  • AQ - apologies about Marmite/Vegemite.  As I typed it I thought - have I got this right?  And I hadn't!!  I've never tasted Vegemite, and I quite like Marmite …

    We have bits of blue sky this morning - hooray!  Don't think it's going to last long, though.  It seems we've go ne straight from Summer to Winter and somehow bypassed Autumn!

  • HEATHER  Have a wonderful time in Denmark.

    Lovely cold morning here today. Plans are to swim and have coffee with a friend.

  • Good Morning - rather late from me, today, as we both slept in!  My OH overslept as he'd had a bad night, and I lay there undisturbed for an extra hour! The hour change always affects us both....

    Great to come on and find more pics from AQ (They're always so interesting, AQ). Hope you have a good Nanny day.

    I love Marmite, great on hot crumpets, yum!  But when I tried Vegemite, I had to throw the jar away! --  I guess it's just whatever you're used to!

    Pat, my OH doesn't play golf when it's torrential rain, but when it's very cold they all just put on some extra layers and walk faster! Someone asked me why I don't play the other day. I have a set of clubs but find the game very time consuming. We were talking about the new proposals to have shorter, faster games which might attract more people to play.

    Annette -- Glad you're home safe. You've done a lot of travelling this year.

    Off to get breakfast and look at AQs pics...

  • Lindy - I used to have a rule that if it started to rain when I was already playing golf, I would stay out (unless it got torrential - but even then, if you are playing in a competition you have to keep going!).  But I wouldn't start in the rain.  The friend I play with on a Tuesday has a heart problem and can't walk very fast … I played with a couple of other people a few weeks ago and got a fantastic score, because I was playing at my own speed.  But, as they say, life is a compromise and I know my friend still enjoys playing but can't walk any faster.

  • Very true, life is mostly a compromise. My OH often plays with a friend who can only walk slowly, and struggles to get around the course even with a motorised golf cart, he has bad hips. But they enjoy their banter and he has a great sense of humour.

    The sun is still out here, so I'm off to change my pots in the garden from summer to winter bedding.

  • Diane and Annette- always had gunny sack races at picnics years ago. Two people with one leg each in the gunny sack to race to the finish line.