WEEKLY CHAT (NON-OSPREY) SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2020

Heather: I'm so very sorry about your brother. I hope he can recover quickly. I know you must be extremely worried. It's my understanding that France has very good healthcare. 

CLARE: I really enjoyed your photos of the gull and the crab, especially the one where the gull is staring into the camera. Very engaging! Do you also have pelicans where you live?

Just a thought

Perhaps they are not stars, but rather openings in heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy. (Eskimo Proverb)

Unknown said:

CLARE: I really enjoyed your photos of the gull and the crab, especially the one where the gull is staring into the camera. Very engaging! Do you also have pelicans where you live?

That one of the gull staring at me seems to be most people's favourite - I really like it as well as it shows how much attitude these gulls have, and how expressive they are.

Sadly we don't have pelicans here, though occasionally a Dalmatian pelican will show up in the far south-west.  I'd love to see one.

CLARE: Oh, wow. Those Dalmatian pelicans are fabulous. (I looked them up.) I love their fluffy heads! We don't have any native pelicans either, except for twice a year when the American White pelicans rest on my nearby lakes briefly on their migrations. Everyone gets very excited when the pelicans arrive. When I was married (1,000 years ago), we vacationed a lot in Florida on the Gulf Coast. I loved the gulls and the pelicans.

I've been living on the coast for 21 years. It's ruined me for living inland - I would miss my coastal birds far too much!

Talking of birds, how are your hawks?

Forgot to mention - we had a lovely red-backed shrike up the coast earlier this week.  Click on this photo to see a few others:

Good Morning, and thank you for the shrike, Clare -- if I'd seen one, I wouldn't have been able to ID it.

A bit grey here in the NW of England, and we've been told that we won't get much of the high temps over the next few days compared to the south. Should be warmer on Sunday and Monday, though.

The other day, I reached into a drawer for a red biro I keep to mark the TV guide where I can see things worth looking out for (not much, at this time of year!). I saw that I had red on my index finger. I grasped the pen, and looked at the other hand: that was red, too. Then noticed that the right hand had more and more red - the pen was leaking. As I ran to throw the pen in the bin, I must have touched my face! I saw later that I had a red chin! My OH in the kitchen, was laughing. I looked like a murderer in a play! It took a whole lot of hand washing and nail varnish remover to get my hands looking even anywhere near normal, but I was very relieved as I was wearing a brand new blouse and that and the drawer the pen had been in were both untouched - phew!!

Sorry to see how bad the wildfires are in your part of the world, Annette. Glad you managed to enjoy your family visit in spite of the weird weather.

AQ, I love today's quote.

Heather, I hope you get encouraging news of your brother today.