Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 5 January 2020

Thank you Diane - and yes everyone - be sure to see Lindybird's grandkiddy pix.  :-)

Fairly productive day here, if you don't count the morning, when I went to two grocery stores where I somehow didn't get what I wanted.  Home for lunch, then prepped peppers and onions for dinner with sauteed scallops - which I found I hadn't actually bought!  Oh dear.   Leapt into car and zoomed off to Costco where they've finally installed self checkout stands, so was in and out very quickly.  Then home to rake up remainder of leaves in back garden.  Nothing on agenda for tomorrow.....

Have a good Sunday all.

Annette and anyone interested: SpaceX will launch a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 60 small satellites that will act as relay stations to provide broadband to underserved areas of the world. The launch will take place at Cape Canaveral, Florida. SpaceX plans to recover the rocket's first stage. The rocket will launch Monday (tomorrow, June 6) night at 6:19 p.m. in California and 2:19 a.m. in the U.K.

Info

It's unclear to me right now where the launch will be available to watch online. Here's SpaceX YouTube, and here's SpaceX Webcast and here's NASA TV.

Thanks Diane. I'll make a note to check up on it....

Thank you DIANE for a brand new week

 . . . with rain!!! Well, just a little, about 4 mm overnight and less today. Not enough to dampen fires but some respite. So cool that OH threatened to change a/c from cooling to heating. I told him to fetch a jumper.

Good Morning. Thank you, Diane, for starting us off on a new week.

Hope I'm not boring every one with too many pics of children, but I thought they were high on the cuteness scale!

AQ -- Good that you've had some respite from the heat. I'll be praying to the Rain God for you to get a little more.

Thank you, DIANE.
Lovely photos, LINDY x
I'm very busy cleaning up after the family visit - which was so lovely. Apart from a scare involving Bella, water and electricity, everything went very smoothly. Anyway, back to what passes for normal in this neck of the woods. I'm tackling washing and have decided to clean one room each day.... No decorations taken down yet.
AQ - I've been following the news from Australia.

LINDA - lovely photos of Matthew and Rosie from yesterday!

DIANE - thanks for the new thread.

ANNETTE - I hope you are having a restful Sunday.

AQ - any small drop of rain and minor reduction in temperature must be wonderful for you right now!

HEATHER - pleased you enjoyed the visit from your Son and appendages. She wouldn't be Bella without some sort of drama or near-miss - glad she was okay. One room per day sounds a good way to tackle the aftermath of their visit.

We did all go to church this morning, where we are still awaiting the formal announcement of our new minister's appointment. Today the visiting preacher was a lovely man from over the border - first time we saw him, he preached on "The Good Shepherd" and J remarked he looked like a good shepherd himself, so that's what the three of us call him!

Having a gentle afternoon - I think J is resting, and OH is ironing!

Morning all:  I'm taking the liberty of copying/pasting a post from dibnlib, which came at the very end of last week's post.   Here it is:

"A Very Happy New Year to you all. Sorry it is so very belated but haven't been on the site since early December.

Just wanted to say that we enjoyed "Little Women" very much. Yes it flashes back and forward a lot but I do think that having read the book helped and the film did stay true to the story. I actually thought it was beautifully done."

dibnlib:  Good to see you and glad you liked the movie.  I've heard good things about the director, one of many women who are finally getting recognition in Hollywood.   I'm going to wait for the DVD. 

Heather: One room at a time works for me too (sounds like the Alcoholics Anonymous mantra, though I doubt anyone's addicted to housework).  :-)   Glad Bella survived her close encounter with the power grid.

AQ:  What a tease - 4mm of rain, but I well know how grateful folks are for any moisture.  Am also watching news from Oz.  They showed the fire on Kangaroo Island last night EDIT:  Now I'm reading about Kangaroo Valley - so a different area?.  The wildlife is getting lots of coverage too..   I see we have a contingent of California firefighters heading your way tomorrow (Monday).....   I remember dear Margo advocating that we all do the rain dance during a UK drought.....   :-)

Lindybird:  Be realistic!  How can photos of cuties possibly be boring.  :-)

OG;  Always nice to have someone like your preacher add a special lift to a church service.

Got an e-mail from Mike of the Gray Whales Count saying that the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum/Sea Center is taking over the count and asking if he could release volunteer contact info to them.  They're still working out the transition, but he'll be involved in training, etc.    

High clouds here today and normal sorts of temps.  I'm going to putter in the garden, but nothing strenuous.  I always feel like I've had a small vacation from the world when I come back in the house after a spell with the plants. 

Have a good week all.

Thank you ANNETTE and thank you, DIBNLIB -

We've had a mixed day - lots of activity this morning, getting out the boxes & bags for storage, and beginning to pack everything away. I find that I'm doing the same as last year, and putting a few things on one side which we didn't get out and display this year, ready to take to the charity shop. I gave a couple of things to my d.in law yesterday, but they were received in lukewarm fashion, so I hurriedly said that the charity shop might like them if she didn't.

Then I fell asleep after lunch, having made such an effort! Carried on packing and sorting, but never got around to the ironing which will now have to wait. A long conversation with Youngest, on the phone, as when we arrived yesterday there were plumbers vans in the road: they had a leaking pipe in the hall. It's made a mess of the carpet but that's the least of their worries, as they've had to cut the central heating boiler off. Good job it's mild weather. This was yesterday, and the plumbers left, having made a hole in the plasterwork. But then we heard a hissing noise, and there is still a leak! - today he's spent time on the phone to both the plumbers and British Gas......