Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 22 December 2019

PAT - was your Christmas bird a Partridge - (was it hitching a lift to a Pear Tree)?

Ate only a small cheese sandwich for lunch, but managed a bit of turkey tonight with a baked potato.

Still not "right" but can't put my finger on it. Perhaps a good night's sleep will sort me out.

Take care of that throat LINDA. Keep warm.

Crazy shopping spree here for Boxing Day sales (not me). One supermarket was selling hot cross buns. <sigh>. After some reasonable weather, well, low 30s, it is hotting up today to 40. . . and we are going out in it to Dau#1’s afternoon tea. I must go out to cover my poor tomato bushes lest the wee green fruit bakes today.

PatO:  Can't give a clue about your bird, but it's not so unusual - I've seen news items about all kinds of critters that somehow got lodged in vehicle grilles, wheel areas and even the engine compartments!  It's amazing they survive.  Hope your bird found its way home.

AQ:  Hot cross buns?  What about Valentine's Day chocolates?  

Cloudy and cool here; I checked our rainfall totals and saw that we've already exceeded the half-way point for our annual average rainfall - and the rainy season has only just started.  Lots of snow in the Sierra mountains too, which is our 'snow' bank for summer withdrawals.  :-)  Must bottle some and send it to AQ.

Tomatoes safely covered as long as it is not too windy. We don't need wind with the bushfires still dangerous in Adelaide Hills.
ANNETTE - I'm sure there will be hot x buns with choc chips by next week. Ugh!

OG - I don't think it was a partridge. It had really good wattles, and partridges don't have those. The nearest I've got, after extensive Googling, is the Lavender Guinea Fowl. I have asked the person who released it whether he thinks it's the one - I'll let you know. In the meantime, thanks for the suggestion.

Here is a link to the Lavender Guinea Fowl -
www.purelypoultry.com/.../lavender-guinea-keets-for-sale.jpg

Lindy - hopefully a good night's sleep will get you back to 100%. Probably too much stress in the days (and weeks!) leading up to Christmas.

PatO; Good grief. That's a large bird to be wearing on the front of your car!

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and Boxing Day. 

Pat: That's a beautiful bird. I hope it lived. 

Lindy: I hope you feel better and don't become ill. Get some rest.

Heather: I hope your expanded dinner went well and everyone had fun.

Annette: Your intense storm was on the CBS News online today. So odd to see that much rain (as well as all that snow in the mountains) in your area, but I know it will help against drought so I'm happy for you.

Indiana had truly astonishing days yesterday and today! We had temperatures of 65 F here in the central part of the state. That's 18.3 C. That heat is crazy strange for Christmas here. I think we broke all the records. Everyone is talking about it. The sun shone today and the hot air felt like late spring or even early summer. People were running around in shorts and sandals. It felt really hot, given that just a few days ago I had 9 inches of snow on the ground. It's surreal to see people dressed for summer!

The heat is supposed to stay with us through Sunday. I'm not complaining, but it's so far from normal that it's downright spooky! 

Diane: I do believe our storm is headed  your way....