Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 24 May 2020

Good to see that the Magpies are living somewhere, LINDA! Love single peonies - and that one is such a lovely shade of pink. I hope the Dominic Cummings business will soon blow over - I am sure he will have to resign, so the sooner the better - all the other public figures who did similar have had to give in eventually.

HEATHER - sorry you are feeling so bad and having such bad nights.

PAT - sorry you too are having bad nights.

Now must get busy!

Morning all:  Lots of chat on here in the last day.

AQ: How thrilling - and I'm being serious - to see life return to those areas (pelicans too!  perhaps that pelican in the desert from last week was en route there).  I do hope those and other areas will get good amounts of rain this winter too.

Lindybird:  The Cats movie certainly got panned; I didn't see the stage or video/film versions but I've never liked seeing people (other than children in school plays) dressed up as animals or vice versa.  Hope your OH enjoys it.    Oh peonies!!  That means we'll soon see them in our markets, albeit at a price I simply can't bring myself to pay.   I saw the Cummings headlines on the BBC website, but I can imagine quite a few people with similar babysitting issues might be put out.....  The main news here now is about how various businesses are reopening and the possible 'wait-and-see' outcomes.  I think I mentioned that they've closed down some streets to allow restaurants to place tables outside; I've always been surprised that - with our climate - we don't see as much outside dining as in Europe.

Diane:  Give us an update on yourself and the cocoon when you have a chance.  Any new/familiar critters in your neighborhood?

Heather:  Don't forget that deep breathing technique if you're busy fretting during the night.  :-)

It's open fully now. Such a pleasure to "breathe in" its living colour & beauty.  Thought I would share it with everyone.

Hugs to both Pat and Heather, we are thinking of you.

{{BIG HUGS}} to you both. xx

Lindy - It's a beautiful colour. I happen to be wearing a top in an almost identical colour today! I do like peonies. They were about the only thing I could grow when I lived in London. But they did get frost-bite quite frequently, and also attracted a lot of ants.

Thank you to Diane for starting us off, and to everyone else for news,

I love peonies, Lindy. Ours here have been in flower for a couple of weeks, but the poppies are later than yours.
The peonies are flowering at different times according to location in the garden (or it could be the variety)

This garden is magpie central! I hardly ever look out of the window and not see at least one. This takes a toll on the baby bird population sadly, but they are beautiful birds. We have a nest in one of our trees. Do I remember a country rhyme about magpies? One for sorrow, one for joy etc. I am sure OG will know.

Sorry about the sleepless nights Heather and Pat. As has been mentioned here before, the present situation has undesirable effects on many people.

We don't seem to have problems with the frost, but then we don't seem to get late frosts as much in recent years.

I'd love to see your top, Pat - some of the new fashions are very vibrant colours now. I like the fuschia shades and the electric blue. I bought my OH two of the now fashionable patterned shirts with coloured patterns on for his birthday but they're not too garish, just coloured leaves.

The sun has finally come out here so we're going to sit in the garden for the last half hour of the day.

LINDA - that really is a spectacular colour of Peony - and as Monty (or was it Adam?) said on Friday evening, the singles are so good for wildlife!

We saw "Cats" onstage in Blackpool - a long time ago now! Still remember a lot of the songs.

Boris has just been on, defending his friend. I suppose there is some difference between visiting one's second home and trying to protect one's child - but it now seems he has also been seen near Durham on two other occasions! Thought it was about time the PM fronted the No 10 briefing, but it was actually full of bluster and bumbling, didn't do him any favours. BTW, why was he allowed to go to Chequers when he left hospital? And another one, how is Nicola managing to maintain her hairstyle?

Tea time - a humble ham and salad sandwich.

I've been having very vivid dreams as has been widely reported in the press: perhaps subconsciously we are all affected by this disturbing atmosphere at present.

Mine recently are in the form of either nightmares, or dreams where things are beyond my control. During the day I feel fine and am not fretting although sometimes my blood pressure goes up when there are politicians and "experts " of various kinds spouting on TV!

OG - I laughed when Boris appeared, as he obviously dare not get his hair cut or he will be criticised for it! Same goes for some other people on the media.

I think we compared notes once on the fact that we had both been to see the Blackpool performance of "Cats" in the early days of its success. I took my mother and she was entranced by it as a cat lover.

Annette, I don't usually like people dressed up as animals either and we didn't go to see the stage version of The Lion King for that reason when it came to Manchester (although I regret that now) but the film has a lot of dancing which sort of goes with the grace and suppleness of real cats, and has a charm of its own.