Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 10 May 2020

HAPPY NEW WEEK! 

I hope everyone has a wonderful, safe, and healthy week! And, I hope your weather is warmer than it is here! I had thick frost last night.

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I'm editing my post to add this link. 

I have these Carolina Wrens on my patch all year long. I also have House Wrens in the summer and Winter Wrens in the winter. Many of the wren pairs build multiple nests. I have wren nests everywhere this time of year. My parents and my ancestors all revered wrens and built houses for them. I can't dig down into the earth anywhere without finding fragments of wren houses.

  • Thank you DIANE. Frost? Shouldn’t it be spring for you? It was 9 C here when I crawled out of my warm nest 2 hours ago.

    LINDA. – You wrote “Sunday (which in AQs case has already gone). Not quite. It’s only morning here still, but perhaps not by the time you read it!

    ROSY – A few days ago I planted my tulip bulbs. Last year two had flowered and produced lots of babies. As instructed, I placed them in fridge for 6 weeks. Despite the cold & dark I was amazed to see they had tiny sprouts. I have planted them where I can see them flowering from kitchen window.

    DIBNLIB – “we are not long back from a lovely dry 1hr 20 dog walk.” I first read it as if “20 dogs”. LOL

    ANNETTE – Libraries here may be supposed to reopen tomorrow but Dau says some need “more time to prepare”!!!!! Her local library has been culling books during lockdown and gave her a big bag of children’s non-fiction. I know they cull books if the computer shows they have not been borrowed for a while. Dau has threatened to gather all the A’s, check them out on her card, then return them.

    Thank you for the appreciative comments on my daily dose of words “stolen” from here and there. They say that while in isolation we should have a routine. Mine is stagger out of bed, eye drops, breakfast, load latest flickr pics, check LG chatter, add my bit, and so on through the day. At some point I hunt for the daily dose, choosing a theme and alternating positives & funnies. Today’s theme, well, what else. It being Mothers Day in some parts of the world, I wish all mothers & grandmothers a happy, and not too lonely, day.

  • A mother’s hug lasts long after she lets go.

    24/7. Once you sign on to be a mother, that’s the only shift they offer! (Jodi Picoult)

    If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands? (Milton Berle)

    A mother’s happiness is like a beacon, lighting up the future but reflected also on the past in the guise of fond memories. (Honore de Balzac)

    Grandmothers are the people who take delight in hearing babies breathing into the telephone.

  • AQ: It's supposed to be spring, but Mother Nature had a different idea. The polar vortex dropped down on us, and some places even had a lot of snow. 9 C is fairly chilly for you, AQ.
  • DIANE - Our poles are responsible for so much weather. See this about a warm snap in Antarctica.

  • AQ: That's fascinating science, but it's very sad for the whales, the little penguins, and the other birds. Hope your weather system can return to normal for them. Yup, it's the extreme warming at the North Pole that forces the polar vortex down on us. The high temperatures at the N. Pole in the last few years have been unprecedented in recorded history, and they just play heck with the jet stream.

  • Hallo all -  and thanks Diane once more; also for the wren link. We have wrens too - they're such busy little birds and fun to watch.  This morning I saw a male Western Bluebird on our fountain; take a look here www.allaboutbirds.org/.../   The other evening we were watching a program on hummingbirds and they mentioned that they don't go in bird baths, but prefer showers - like the one that was popping in and out the spray when I was watering the other week.  :-)   And this week the LA TImes ran a section on area birds to watch and listen for while we're all stuck at home.

    Lindybird: Thanks for Mother's Day wishes.  :-)   Our Governor allowed some low-risk stores to open this week -among them florists, who I bet were thrilled.  

    Diane: Is your cocoon still hanging about?  Any discernible changes?  How did you edit your link so you got Carolina Wrens instead of the www. business?

    I had another busy day, but no heavy lifting involved.  :-)   Take care all.

  • Annette: I love listening to the wrens. Summer wouldn't be same without them. I'm hoping they will eat all the wasps this year; my wasp population is growing too big! 

    That Western Bluebird is wonderful! They are such lovely birds. I hope he stays around so you can watch him. I suspect that your hummingbird will grow accustomed to your bird showers and will be eager for you to offer more. LOL

    My fancy moth is still in its little cocoon sack hanging on the tree. There have been no changes, although I thought I saw it rocking a little so I think it's alive. The cold weather has probably delayed its emergence from the cocoon. The source I read said that they will usually emerge in early summer.

    To make a smart link (so the link is on the words and not the www. web address), follow these steps:

    (1) Click on rich formatting.

    (2) Type your message in the box.

    (3) Select or highlight (slide your mouse over) the words you want to make the link. In my post, it was "these Carolina Wrens".

    (4) Click "Insert" from the toolbar at the top of the box and then click on "Link". 

    (5) When the "Insert Link" box comes up, paste the web address in the box labelled URL. Click OK.

    In my case, I copied the web address (the URL) for Outdoor Indiana where the photo of the Carolina Wren was located, and I pasted that web address in the URL box.

    It's not as complicated as it seems from these instructions.

    Take care, everyone.

  • Good Morning. Dry & sunny here but a chilly wind now.

    Thanks to Diane for starting us off again. Glad your little cocoon is still there, and hopefully, is still OK. Thanks also for the link instructions - I remember Tiger trying to instruct us years ago and never getting around to having a go! Maybe I will, now.

    Love the quote about Mothers needing three hands, AQ - something I've often said.

    Got a Timeline on my phone which tells me where I went all through the month of April, it's very detailed and quite shockingly accurate. !!! Even our walks through the fields are there, as I often take my phone with me for the camera use.
  • LINDA – You asked what colour is OH’s wool. It dark grey, named Smoke.  Sorry it has taken so long – I wanted to show knitted as well as the ball. Out of focus <sigh>