Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 13 January 2019

HAPPY NEW WEEK!  I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Bison deciding which road to take in Yellowstone National Park

National Park Service/Jim Peaco, photo labeled "Public domain" (copyright free)

  • Glad that toe is better, ANNETTE!

    I just received a load of pictures from youngest son in law who is at present working in Alexandria, Egypt. He visited the El Alamein war cemetery, which is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. So many many thousands of young lives lost. He said that the youngest he saw was 19 and the oldest only in his late thirties.

  • Heather: As my Mom would say, "Young men dying in old men's wars."  :-(

  • How sad it is, Heather - we once saw the British war graves at Akrotiri in Crete, and I was distressed by it - we walked amongst them for a while  and so very many of them were only 19 or 20. As the parents of boys ourselves, we thought of their families back home and how they must have felt.

    Very sensible of you to think of making the front garden easy maintenance. We have pebbles and slate instead of a lawn, and easy shrubs. 

    Do be careful if you're approached on the phone with an upgrade: sis in law was offered one by BT, and was asked for her credit card details, whereupon she said "Why do you need those if it's all free?" -- she suspected a scam so put the phone down. I'm not saying they're all cons, but you do have to be aware.

    I saw my first snowdrops yesterday, and last weekend, a whole verge full of daffodils in bloom under a sheltering hedge! They were there very early last year, so must be an early blooming variety.

    Went to visit my Friend G, and talked with her and her daughter. G looks a little better, with more colour, and is trying hard to eat as much as possible. We laughed about the old days when our children were small and we were young mothers, with little money and no transport.

  • Thanks to DIANE & LINDA for sending Arctic cold & frost, our weather is pleasant today. I’m cleaning & chores while it is cool.

    LYNETTE – I’m guessing that the heat in Caribbean was humid?

    ANNETTE - Adelaide is temperate, often described as a Mediterranean climate - cool to mild winters with moderate rainfall and warm to hot, dry summers. More info than you need to know here! {Their pic of bushfire appears to be taken from airport, city buildings in centre, Adelaide Hills behind.) We live close to Adelaide airport, about 1 km from beach, so we often get sea breezes, perhaps 5 C below city temps. But anything over 28 C is too hot for me. Northern Aussieland is tropical, Sydney is semi-tropical, often humid, Melbourne always raining.

  • Annette - as we haven't a piper we are "piped" in by the accordionist and our Minister, who is Scottish, proudly enters with the Haggis and says the ode with a we dram of whisky after.

    AQ - yes, humid, that is probably why I found it difficult to tolerate but we tried and made the most of our visits. We went into a beautiful but simple church with lovely murals. this one was partly obscured by pillars

    full length of the church.  I'm pretty sure it was on St. Vincent.

      this one I zoomed in.

  • gosh, that was easy, first time trying to post pics.

    Heather and Lindy - talking about war graves - went to the British one on Crete many years ago, so moving.

  • stay safe AQ, and what with the extreme weather over Germany and Austria with heavy snowfalls. What will it bring to us, hmmmmmmm.

    Enjoy your weekend folks and have a good one.

  • AQ:  We're temperate too, but I don't recall prolonged hot spells so close to our coast as you've been having.  You are about two kms closer to the beach than we are - we're on the north side of Santa Barbara Airport, which caters mostly to small-engine planes but does have a few commercial flights to Los Angeles/Phoenix/Seattle/San Francisco and Denver, if I'm correct about the latter .....  We are between 5 and 8 degrees F cooler than downtown Santa Barbara.  We're on a south facing beach (the only one in California; most face west) across from the Channel Islands.  I fired up Google Earth and took a tour around those neighborhoods near Adelaide airport and close to the beach and - I swear they could be any street around here!  Same parkways (what do you guys call those grassy areas between the sidewalk and the street?); same lawns, same sort of vegetation and same kinds of single story houses....all very familiar.   

    Talking of the ocean, the Gray Whale Count starts up again February 13, less than a month away!  Hurray.

    Lynette: That's a pretty church; glad you enjoyed the service, even without the pipes. Did the congregation get to partake of the dram, or just the Minister?

    So while we're blathering away on here, PatO is on the CMV Columbus, which is now en route from Bridgetown, Barbados to Aruba in the Dutch Antilles. Then, on the 22nd they'll arrive in Colon, Panama and start their passage through the Panama Canal.  They have live webcams along the Canal.  Here's the link: http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html   Try the Miraflores and Gatun High Resolution options.

    Lovely sunny evening here with a couple of days near 70F next week!  Still, we need even more rain.

  • Diane:  I just checked the weather and looks like you'll get our storm Saturday with super-low temps Sunday and Monday.  I have visions of you bundled up in your little house.......any signs of critters out the window?


    Hi, Annette. Yup. I'm waiting for the arrival of Winter Storm Harper about 4:00 a.m. or so. Predictions have been all over the place, so I don't know what to expect. I went to Crawfordsville to the big box store to stock up on groceries this afternoon, and it was really crowded even early. I got home before dark, but it was already starting to drop ice. I saw a beautiful Cooper's Hawk with a glowing orange chest on my way there. He was sitting on a utility line, hunting before the storm. 

    The Red-Bellied Woodpecker chattered boisterously at me when I got home. He's mad at me because I yelled at him yesterday for pecking on the window trim again. So he gave me an earful from the top of the tallest locust tree. LOL!

    It was just starting to get dark and the icy fog was moving in when I finished unloading the car. The Red Fox vixen barked at me once from the levee along the creek. I hadn't seen any of the foxes for a long time. I think it's getting close to the time when she screams during the night. 

    The store had cold-weather mummy sleeping bags on clearance for a 3rd of the usual price (only $24.99 today), so I bought one, because the forecasters have been warning about power outages. That will give me two thick camping sleeping bags, so I'll be okay.

    Heather: I think you're being wise about your garden, but I know it isn't easy.

    Lynette: I always informally celebrate Burns Night on my own, because my ancestor kin were Scottish.  Hope you enjoy your night very much.

  • Diane; Geez   Power outages on top of everything else.  Don't like the sound of icy fog at all; glad you got home beford dark.   Now I have visions of you huddled up in two sleeping bags (you were lucky to score that second one at such a good price) and only sticking your nose out to shout at the Woodpecker or answer nature's call!   Do you have electric heat in the house or gas/propane so you can at least heat up some food?  Good to know the critters are still in the neighborhood.  Do take care!