Weekly Chat, Sunday September 19,2010

Good morning Chloe B I am so glad I am not living where you are as I am terrified of storms.  When we do have one I hide in the darkest place I can find and all electric appliances are turned off until it has passed.  My Grandmother used to cover all the mirrors and take the hair clips out of her hair.  I am not quite as bad as that but it is a fear that has never left me.

Good morning Brenda H and yes I am catching up with the washing and what a good idea a holiday fairy.  OH is away in Glasgow this weekend as he is going to see a  friend who has only recently been diagnosed with Bowel and Lung cancer and unfortunately is not expected to live for much longer.  He is only 49, so young really.  OH is going early tomorrow morning and flying from Southampton and will return late Monday evening so by the time he is back I will have caught up with the washing thanks goodness, just in time for another load to appear when he comes back.

Hope you had a good Waitrose shop.  We like shopping there and it is no more expensive than other supermarkets really.

Have a good weekend.

Good morning Lindybird so pleased you had a great day out yesterday at the Hat Museum.

Lovely to read about the marsh harriers and I never realised how rare they have become.  No wonder it was kept a secret.  I too wish them a safe journey.

Enjoy your meal this evening and your comment about Sweetpea and the Olympic swimming team made me smile.

Have a lovely weekend.

Good morning Lynette  liked the photo of tne new species spotted at LOtL.

Hope you enjoy your son's 40th birthday party and manage not to have too much booze as you are going on holiday the next day.  You have probably told us but where are you going.  If you did mention it I have forgotten already.  Memory rubbish now, used to pride myself on having a good memory but it certainly diminishes as you get older.

Hope your son enjoys his visit to London when he goes and also the few days away.

Have a good time and take care.

Thanks to all  for all the posts and sorry I have not replied to all. 

We had an amusing 15 minutes last evening just after 10.00.  I opened our conservatory door and a very small frog hopped in and disappeared under the settee.  What a game we had catching it and encouraging it to go outside again.  If anyone had seen us they would have laughed so much.  Shut all the doors so it didn't escape into another room in the bungalow where we would probably have not found it.  So glad we resecued it and set it free.  I am quite fond of frogs and we get quite a few in our garden as we have a pond.

One story from our holiday just came back to me.  We got a puncture, a nail had gone through the tyre and unfortunately it was not repairable.  We got it replaced but then found out two other tyres were barely legal so they had to be replaced as well.  As you can guess a rather expensive interlude but it had to be done.  If we have problems with the car it is usually when we are on holiday so we were not too surprised.    We have a service every six months and touch wood apart from holidays we have very few problems.

Wishing you all a good weekend.

LINDYBIRD/MARGOBIRD.  We made a rod for our own back with our first Goldie who was always looked after by friends or relatives when we went away. Then when Harvey was 13 1/2 we moved to Shetland and felt we did not know anyone well enought to ask them to look after our pet. Until he was put to sleep a year later we did not leave the island together. Fingal was only 6 months old when we put him into kennels for a weekend and he was fine so that has been the solution ever since, though it is never easy. When Dillon went into kennels without Fingal for the first time I was really worried but i need not have been. We have always vetted the kennels beforehand and asked for recommendations.

We are lucky that in many of the hotels we have stayed at take well behaved dogs (even when we had 2 Goldies and were staying at quite an exclusive hotel in the Trossachs) but if you want a city break that is a different matter.

Finished 2 of the essays for the ITALL/PDA course I am doing - only another 10 to go- and only have 60 pages to read of "My Bonnie" before it has to be returned to the library on Mon. tomorrow is out of the question for catching up, as I have my course in the morning and then am skiving off for the rest of the day as we are going to a wedding.

Loved the poem LINDY and the pics of the chubby chaffinch OG

thanks for the enquiries about my shoulder. It is coming on nicely though it will be some time before I get back full mobility and feel painfree.

Watched the Tiger programme last night (it was on Tues in England) what a magestic animal - must be amazing in the flesh. How anyone can kill it for money I just do not understand. think and hope this is a series and that it ends in a good outcome

Good afternoon dibnlib pleased to hear that shoulder is improving for you.  I have yet to watch the Tiger programme but will catch up with it at the weekend when OH is away in Glasgow from tomorrow morning until late Monday.

I think I really will have to think about having a dog after what you have said about Dillon and Fingal being OK with it.  It would be wonderful company for me during the day when OH is at work and he keeps saying he would like a dog.

Yo have a lot of reading to get through, hope you make it.  Do enjoy the wedding tomorrow.

Afternoon all ... cold, windy and heavy showers here. We had thunder several times yesterday, but didn't see any lightning. We had torrential rain last night, but not the monsoon that caused problems in Newcastle!

Linda - your hat museum sounds interesting, and good fun ... fancy being able to resist cake!! I haven't seen any of the tiger programmes yet, but have recorded them to watch at a later date.

Emma - thanks for the offer of help with the ancestry research ... much appreciated! I have been able to get quite a bit of information online, and I am busy sifting through it all. I have discovered the majority of my mother's family came from Brechin... all fascinating stuff. I remember visiting Brechin when I was young and finding the grave of my great grandparents. Glad your OH passed his HGV test.

OG -love the photograph of fatty the chaffinch ... he looks a bit cross. We never get chaffinches in the garden, although we get various tits and other finches. Enjoy your trip to Edinburgh.

margobird - lovely story of your encounter with the frog!

I'm playing catch-up here as I didn't post yesterday, so thaks to everyone else for chat, links, pics etc.

Take care

Quick afternoon check-in.

Margo – pleased you can blow some washing dry today.  I don’t have separate winter and summer clothes, as I find with central heating the bungalow is always at the same temperature, so I just have extra layers for outside.  Sad about your OH’s young friend in Glasgow – so good that he is going all that way to visit.  Pleased frog rescue was successful – can just imagine it, because when we had our little pond at previous house, they used to come in the French windows – several times I went from kitchen and met one coming down the hall!  Car tyres made that an expensive holiday, but I suppose they would have had to be replaced anyway, it just happened to be then.

Dibnlib – you seem to be making fast progress with the course – you must be enjoying it.  Sorry not to see Loch Mallachie on Scotland’s pictures this week – there are some very good ones again – the one of the Seal is just amazing.  I guess wedding must be quite local if you are going there after course – have a good time.

Joan – lunchtime weather forecast said you were getting it bad – I always watch for that bit because Daughter#1 lives in Co Durham.

Now really must make card which I didn’t do last evening!  I hope to do a few extras to have handy – don’t like doing them last minute.

Hi, bit late logging on today.  Doing a few things for tomorrows party and sorting things out for going away on Sunday.

Tiger - loved the APOD pic for today.

OG - enjoy your day out in Edinburgh

Took this a moment or two ago of one of our moggies - other one is asleep on daughters bed.Love the one of the woodpigeon and young Goldcrest.