Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 11 October 2020

Good to begin the day with a laugh!

Good Morning. Annette, sorry I forgot about your earlier post saying about the window replacement. Doh!

Damp here. My OH is off to look at his sister's tap as the handle has come off and the tiny screw seems to be missing which held it all together. She has been very active lately, and took her son's dog on a countryside ramble yesterday which her watch told her was nearly 7 miles up hill and down dale - not bad for someone of 75!

Good afternoon, all.  If anyone would like to see a few photos from Lackford Lakes then click on this beautiful nuthatch:

Thanks, Clare: oh, I do love a nuthatch!

Just found some quotes which people may like:

"Come let us pity those who are better off than we are
Come my friend and remember
That the rich have butlers and no friends,
And we have friends and no butlers" -- Ezra Pound (US poet & critic 1885-1972)

"A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cure for anything" - Irish Proverb

Morning all:

Clare: The detail on those pix are exquisite! You do enter them in photo competitions, right? I loved the robin and yes, the kingfisher, which is stunning.

Oops, sorry. After happily pointing all of you to Gary Larson cartoons, I've just had another look only to see that I should have read the small print! Although the polar bear cartoon is by Larson and he has done most of the dinosaur cartoons shown in the images which come up when you google Gary Larson dinosaurs, that page has drawings by others as well. Annette's card was actually drawn by another cartoonist, Dan Regan, another American. I do love both of the cartoons and I'm very happy that Annette's post reminded me of Larson, and now I've found another cartoonist who I was not aware of, not forgetting that a good laugh is always great regardless of its source. Regan's website is danregancreative.com but his facebook page is not available as I am writing. Scrolling down his home page is a drawing he made which states 'Somebody has to stop letting dudes name birds.' As I do not want to risk being banned for copying the drawing here, I'll let you investigate that one for yourselves!

Clare - Thank you so much, as ever, for another set of wonderful bird photographs. How you spot them is mystery enough, but then how you are able to photograph them in such minute detail, plus some wonderful poses, completely confounds me. Always happy to see what you share with us.

Miserable and wet here, and as I listen to Boris declaiming, there's not a lot to smile about. Perhaps I'd better look at some dinosaur cartoons ... no, I think I'll stick with Clare's photographs!

Lindy, one of my cats used to adopt a similar pose to sleep on occasions. She was always known as upsidedownepuss! (Not surprised my spell checker didn't like that!)

CLARE Thank you for your wonderful pictures.

Benson was at the groomers today. Almost unrecognisable when we picked him up, but we love him still. We do have a warm coat as well as a waterproof one if needs be.

Unknown said:

The detail on those pix are exquisite! You do enter them in photo competitions, right?

I enter very few of them in competition.  Both Limpy and I belong to a local photographic society, which runs eight monthly competitions a year with various themes.  This year, though, they are sticking to an open theme to make sure as many people as possible can enter and not struggle to find an appropriate subject if they're shielding.  This has worked really well for us as we can enter our wildlife photos in all of them.  We're both in the intermediate section of the society but I'm currently in the running to go up to Advanced (heaven help me) as I'm currently in second place in the colour photography rankings.  This is quite heady stuff for me!

Clare: Brilliant re the photography society. Onward and upward.

Gardenbirder: Small print is hard to read online sometimes. I Googled that cartoon - a good one. I've often wondered where some of those bird names came from!

PatO: I've just made sure I've updated my podcasts on my phone. While you're avoiding Boris, I'll be avoiding any mention of the Golden-crested Twit or the Senate hearings on his choice for the Supreme Court (would probably drive into a ditch from exasperation).