Weekly Chat, Sunday September 5, 2010

On second thoughts, better catch up tonight or will be way behind as am spending (I think) tomorrow with daughter.  Roses were great last night - lovely evening there, but was so exasperated by a neighboring bed with some particularly lovely blooms that hasn't been tended in - well maybe the whole summer! - that I spent some extra time deadheading it and raking out the leaves.

AQ:   Hmm. Assume you mean "come out" in the traditional, welcome-to-society sense. But what a shame she died so young.

Diane: Silly rabbit!  :-)  I'm sure he appreciated the carrots.  Re Tony Blair, I heard he described George W. Bush as "intelligent."

Lindybird: Seems the world over, when it's harvest time, it goes 24/7.  My sister lives in a tiny village surrounded by farms and she talks about all the nightime activity. And I remember driving south on Interstate 5 just north of Sacramento many years ago and seeing the giant harvesters working their way across the fields with their lights blazing into the night.

BrendaH: Oh that's so sad about the young mother. Post-partum depression by the sounds of it; apparently it's not too rare that new Mom's sort of reject their baby at first. Must be awfully tough on the family too.  :-(

Djoan: Glad you're feeling better - take care of yourself!  Hope Margobird is doing better too.  No, no, you're not a sad person - there's something about the ocean that  is tremendously calming. I'd love to know what the scientific explanation is - something to do with Alpha waves? Negative ions? Whatever, it works for me too.  Hope the guest of honor managed to stay for the end of the party!

Heather: Your OH still climbs and prunes trees at age 80!  He's still a Superman!!

Alan: Scotland "beat" Lithuania 0-0?  Go Scotland!!    :-)))

TerryM: Oh good. A satisfying ending to Hornet's Nest. Thank heaven.   Oh "more-ish" eh? Thanks!  :-)  I thought it was another local Scottish word.  How funny.  :-))   Even when you fly from East to West, you still arrive "later" - if only a little bit - than when you left. The West Coast is 3 hours behind the East Coast. As Gary, says, you could spend a lot of time (or gain it?) driving back and forth over state lines; then you have the added complication that some states don't observe daylight savings time! 

Gary: AQ has two weddings in pretty short order. We spent a lot of the summer helping her buy stuff!  :-)

OG:  Ha! I've been down some windy, blind English roads with hedgerows with my bro-in-law who used to participate - and win - a lot of car rallies. It was G.K. Chesterton (I just looked it up) who wrote "The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road" - the whole poem is very amusing.  But please, next time you take that trip, can I come along?  Sounds delish!  Old ladies in Lyrca? That's a new one!

Lynette: Tapestry project sounds time consuming, but keep it up and you'll eventually finish it  Yes, isn't it awful that vital skills such as your daughter's aren't as highly prized as they should be. Don't worry about responding to everyone - we've all got time on our hands right now. Soon enough we'll be getting ready for Christmas!  (Aaack. Who said that!!)

OK. Off to bed now. Sorry if I've missed responding to someone but enjoyed all the posts. Have a lovely Sunday all.

Sorry I missed you Annette.  Surely you were very late going to bed?

Morning all.  Off to church shortly and will have to do some dog-walking later.  The arthritis/rheumatism (or whatever) takes a lot of the pleasure out of it - one of the joys of ageing, I suppose.  Hope you all have a good day.  Reports on special meals are always welcome!

(Back briefly to report lots of house martins hunting above our back garden.  I haven't seen so many in a long time.)

Ooops!! I forgot I should have started a new thread for a new week. So Gary, Terry, Diane, OG, Heather & anyone else who wishes to read my words of unwisdom, they are on the end of the last Weekly Page. Together with a pic of one of my "friends".

Annette - Yes, "come out" into adult society. In ye olden days, my mother insisted that I "make my debut". I hated it.

Still raining. Now I must go and scramble some eggs for tea. Then a new episode of Midsomer Murders.

AQ  Just loved your 'friend'!  Did you really 'come out' in the long dress, etc?  I remember seeing pictures of 'debs' going to Buckingham Palace to be presented.

Morning all ... dull and cool here, but we are promised sun later!

We managed to survive the 80th birthday party  :-) The couple themselves are lovely, but a number of their younger generations leave a lot to be desired, and their family celebrations often end in disorder ... hence our decision to leave before things got out of hand! Quite a few of the other neighbours made excuses and didn't go at all.

I hope that margobird got away on her holiday safely.

AQ - lovely gonk!!!!! I remember having one hanging from the lights in my room when I was at college!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who enjoys watching waves in the sea! I find it very soothing if the sea is calm and very energising and exciting if it is rough.

OG - your Food Market sounds wonderful ... just my kind of thing. I love trying new cheeses and chutneys etc

Lynette - I do feel sorry for your daughter on such a low wage. I'm a retired teacher and I know what valuable members of our classroom team the Nursery Nurses were. I look forward to seeing a pic of your tapestry when complete ... no pressure on you now, with all of us waiting!!!!

Alicat - I hope that Casper's blood blister is improved today.

Must go and do things now before friend arrives for coffee and gossip. Thanks to all for chat etc.

Take care

Another Sunday – another week!  Where do they go?  But another week nearer to EJ’s return!

Lynette – I know what you mean about your Nursery Nurse Qualified Daughter – our son has a degree in Youth and Community Work and Applied Theology and a professional qualification, but Youthworkers are treated very badly when it comes to pay and conditions.  He does rent his own flat – well we can’t move with him when he has to move to find work – but he has to look for the lowest rent.

AQ – how lovely that your ancestral roots were in Orton – a very picturesque village, with a hand-made chocolate shop, I seem to remember!  Hard work farming around there, especially in winter. Annette – enjoy your Sunday with Daughter.  Re harvest – we saw someone cutting hay yesterday – must be a second crop due to August rain to grow it then recent dry weather to cut it – and, of course, sheep can still graze after it’s been mowed, so they eat leftovers now and have hay for winter.  Re Lycra – read in the news recently that current trend in bike-riding here has led to the MAMIL phenomenon – Middle Aged Men In Lycra!  Not a pretty sight!

Patricia – sorry your arthritis is taking the pleasure out of walking with the dogs.  Take care and go safely.

Joan – Good morning!  I am sure the 80^th birthday couple appreciated you being at their party despite their younger relatives.  We could go to a monthly Farmers Market close by every week in one local town or another, but unfortunately our most local one is currently suspended due to bureaucracy problems with the venue.  We had some lovely conversations with some of the producers yesterday – they do appreciate our interest in their working methods.

Must get ready for church now – then back here for a stay-at-home day.  Need to phone Son later for an update on his possible move to a different flat.

I have not been around much of late....but, someone was asking me, when the nestcam at LG will switch the live feedercam.....today at 5pm seems to be the closing of the Centre for the season, according to the main blog.

The nestcam is making a lot of strange banging and shuffling noises today, but remains empty, as far as one can see.

Feedercam - zilch!

http://www.rspb.org.uk/webcams/feeders/abernethyvideo.asp

Hi Everyone.    Has been sunny here, but now the wind is getting stronger, ready for rain tonight.  We went to a Car Boot Sale this morning & had a little poke around - decided we mustn't buy any more books but came home with -- 2 books for me, and three books for OH!  At least they are all paperbacks so can be taken on holiday and then possibly discarded/passed on after being read.

Enjoyed the pic of your Gonk, AQ!    Also pleased to see that perhaps margo has now left for her holiday in Cornwall, so hope she is recovered from the bad chest infection.  I, too had a Gonk which my mother made for me, she embroidered on the features, and he had wool for hair.

Must go and attack ironing pile, even tho its Sunday & a Day of Rest...    Have a Good Day, everyone.

Afternoon all,   morning was spent at church, had dinner so now relaxing.  Day off from doing tapesty, will get down to it again tomorrow after visit to hospital. 3 yearly check up of the Breast screening programme so nothing to worry about.

Read all your news.    Interesting about other child care workers or similar vein, they all seem to be poorly paid When my daughter was working for the local Northampton School for Boys they were on a very good salary but since it closed down (nursery that is) wages are poor at other nurseries in the district.  She was spoiled because the salary was related to teachers scale of payment.   Never mind, that's life.

Liked your gonkAQ, takes us back to the 70's.

Just chilling out now and going to watch Songs of Praise in a few minutes - coming from SA and including an interview with Bishop Desmond Tutu. We saw the cathedral, where he was Bishop, in Cape Town when we were there in 2008 so should be interesting.

Somewhat belatedly, hello!  I have loved your chat, photos, links, osprey updates, etc.

Alan:  Scotland "beat" Lithuania 0-0?   Sounds a bit like me a few years ago watching the Calcutta Cup in a hotel bar in Braemar!  Needless to say England won, but I was cheering with the locals as I was born in Edinburgh, but my friends were cheering England...woops! 

Annette, when is your Labor (Eng Labour!!) Day, how do you celebrate this?  Pumpkin pie?

Heron, how is the flying practice going?

Diane, I had a look at your Belmar webcam link today.  I must say it looks great, and Hurricane Earl obviously thought twice about coming ashore, thank goodness.  I take it Gary is further north, so I hope you are still safe - you said it was JUST hurricane force.  Sounds pretty awful to me.  Interesting too that you, Diane, mention salmonella and eggs.  Some years ago now one of our MP's caused a storm in a tea cup by suggesting that all UK eggs were infected.  The egg producers went apoplectic and egg sales plummeted.  We all survived.

Thanks Alan for the osprey fix! (oops sorry the exclamation mark!..)

OG your Parsnip and Apple soup sounds delicious, it has given me an idea for a lunch in the colder months!

Love your wee dog Alicat, a real poppet - and that's coming from a cat lover.

Lynette, indeed the Black Isle splendid and with LOTS of water and sea!!  My OH and I watched in awe last year as the tide turned at Channory Point and the dolphins came in shore in their numbers.  Magical.

Diane, I laughed at your rabbit story and your sympathy towards it.  I'm afraid I'm on the other spectrum - the damage they do in the garden at times is heart breaking.  OH grew a lot of box cuttings to make a low hedge on a circular bed recently, and the 'dear' little creatures have proceeded either to dig a number up, or just cut thru the main stalk.  Grrr!  So we have a holey hedge at present.  They also love digging holes all over the place - perhaps trying to find Australia - but it all seems pointless.

We have been entertained over the past couple of days by a huge air show at Duxford - Red Arrows and the French equivalent, and lots of WWII planes.  We are near enough (7 miles or so) to see them overhead.  Although dry it was a pity we didn't have blue sky and sunshine.

I will be rather tied up over the next two weeks but will try to pop in now and again - wind farm Public Inquiry resumes.  See you soon.

EDIT- sorry, just realised it was so long.  But I meant to say that I have had my first, and maybe second case of trichomonosis in a young greenfinch.  It has been sitting around for a while, all fluffed up, and near the water bow.  I was able to pick it up and put it somewhere quiet.  It died later.  I also was able to pick up a very fluffed up collared dove which eventually struggled as I held it with one hand to try to examine it and it flew off.  I have checked out the RSPB advice which says "If trichomonosis is suspected, it is recommended to temporarily stop putting out food, and leave bird baths dry until sick or dead birds are no longer found in the garden".  So sad.