Weekly Chat, Sunday, October 17, 2010

Hi everyone: And a good Sunday and rest of the week to you all. Don't forget to check the last posts of last week's chat for clever moving graphics from Tiger and Alicat (and maybe some others), pix of OG's friends' garden, late updates on one thing or t'other - and pix of my trip north!   :-)

Weather these last few days are more like a not-very-nice English summer day.  Unbroken gray skies, low clouds, and a constant soft drizzle. All very odd. On telly they were saying we had a couple of days of summer and now it's back to May Gray and June Gloom. Although tomorrow through Tuesday they're forecasting rain and possibly thunderstorms!   A good day for doing inside stuff - like researching a new laptop. Spent ages reading about replacing the LED bulb in my laptop and it does sound a tad daunting: The Dell forum folks gave a link to a video, but you apparently - according to several folks who know - have to be "very, very careful." I didn't mind that but was especially put off by the news that the LED bulb (long and slender) was made of a very brittle glass that likely had lead in it, not to mention mercury.  Also, do not have the tiny soldering iron or the special tape.  Sounds like one of Alan's "Destroy It Yourself" projects!  :-)

OG:  Poor son with bad toe - definitely not a good time to develop problems - but ugh! - what a nightmare to find his new apartment so trashy.  Just awful. So good of your OH to go up and check out the appliances, etc.  Don't you hate it when "our" kids run up against this kind of stuff!

patriciat: I suspect there's more than one Mission San Miguel - wonder which one Lonnie Donegan (and U.S. artists) were thinking of.  There is an old pueblo next to the mission I visited, which oddly has a Scottish name - The Rios Caledonia Adobe. According to the history page:  In 1846 William Reed, Miguel Garcia, and Petronilo Rios bought the San Miguel rancho from Pio Pico, Governor of the Mexican Nation. Rios and his wife, Catarina Avila, had twelve children and moved into the adobe in 1851. In 1862 German-born Warren C. Rickard purchased the property from the state of California on a possession claim.  In 1868 George Butchard named the adobe the Caledonia, a Scottish word meaning Scotland. He operated a stagecoach stop, tavern, and inn. According to local legend, Jesse James and the Dalton Brothers visited the inn. 

Enjoyed reading all the posts; back tomorrow. Take care dear friends!

  • Lovely pics OG and AQ. Apologies to all other pics I haven't got round to commenting on but enjoyed seeing.

    Love the name 'Mount Remarkable' AQ.

    LOL wonder what my cats would make of Lizarda :)

  • Morning, Everyone.     Frost!   White over the cars in the driveway this morning, and on some of the window glass.  It was not unexpected as was forecast last night, but its a shock all the same, to realise that we are now well and truly into the autumn/winter season.

    My thoughts are with Lynette after the sad loss of her mother:   Take care of yourself, Lynette:  I am so sorry to hear your news but also as others have said, it is a release.  I always thought that the loss of my mother would be the hardest of all our bereavements, but after she was ill for over 8 years, I found I had already grieved in a way, at the loss of the person I knew when younger.  It does leave a big gap in the world, though.

    The sun is trying to come out and I have just seen a huge gaggle of geese fly over the house, so will  'gird my loins' and walk into the town for some bread and provisions.

    Thanks to All for interesting chat and photos - will comment later...

  • ....By the way, if you go over to 'Forums'  and click on the Community Central section, then go to 'Tearooms' , you will find a thread headed   "Just a thought.....  "  written by Robert, which is really clever.....

  • Morning all,

    Lynette : I am very sorry to hear of your mothers death. My thoughts are with you. Having just lost my SIL I can appreciate how difficult the next few weeks will be.

    OG : great pics as usual. I have been to Melrose and can remember the ruined abbey there. Lots of abbeys to visit in the borders if I remember correctly.

    No frost this morning but really cold when I took the Thunderdog out first thing. Sparkling sunshine now and I can feel a shopping mission coming on. 

  • Morning all ... a beautiful day here .... sunny, cloudless, blue sky ... Yesssss!!  It is VERY cold though... sounds like I'm never satisfied!!

    Firstly, my thoughts are with Lynette on the passing of her mother. It is never easy, no matter how much it is expected, although it is a blessed release.

    Annette - your thunderstorms sound amazing!

    OG - more lovely photos ... OH says more engines please!! Your poor son seems to be having a bad time ... how awful to be locked in. Lets hope the spare key is the solution if it happens again!

    AQ - more lovely pics from you too ... love the camel wagon ... and I remember helping my Granny put sheets through her mangle, just like that one. Glad you managed to get Lizarda,  the skink, back where she belongs!

    Must go and do domestic things now ... the sunshine is showing up stuff that shouldn't be there :-))

    Take care

    Joan - avid bird and nature watcher in Northumberland!

    Index Thread

     

  • Hi everyone.

    Quite clear and cold this morning, with early frost.  Thankfully the bird bath wasn't frozen though.

    Thanks for all the posts and brilliant pictures everyone.

    Lynette:  I'm very sorry to hear about your mum passsing away.  My thoughts are with you and your family.



    Paul.

    Warning!  This post contains atrocious spelling, and terrible grammar.  Approach with extreme edginess.

  • Lindybird said:

    ....By the way, if you go over to 'Forums'  and click on the Community Central section, then go to 'Tearooms' , you will find a thread headed   "Just a thought.....  "  written by Robert, which is really clever.....

    I liked it.

    Just to make it super easy. See  Just a thought.

    Strange I was just discussing something like this yesterday with someone I never expected to be discussing science with. It was Rutherford's gold leaf experiment and it has parallels. See Rutherford'd Gold Leaf experiment   Strange we were talking about Neil Bohr, Einstein, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle  and Schrodinger  cat etc.

    So even when his jar was "full" it was still mostly empty.

    You see contrary to opinion I do talk about things other than ospreys! :)

  • It was frosty here too Paul. Beautiful day though. You just reminded me, must be off out to fill up the feeders.

    Linda - just read Robert's post and enjoyed it. How very true :)

    Tiger - thanks for the link to it, will read about your Geiger-Marsden experiment when I have fed the birds...priorities, priorities :)

  • Lynette: so sorry to hear about the passing of your mother. My thoughts go out to you and your family at this time.

    Tiger: Talking of Einstein and Niels Bohr I love the exchanges they had as they wrangled with the competing theories of relativity and quantum mechanics. Einstein is oft quoted as saying to Bohr, re: the underlying probability in quantum mechanics "God doesn't play dice with the universe".  Less well known is Bohr's response - "stop telling God what to do!" In fact Bohr was good value for pithy quotes, see:

    http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/n/niels_bohr.html

    BTW, didn't Schrodinger have the cat, and Heisenberg the uncertainty principle?

  • Tiger, just goes to show we have lots of space for improvement....or golfballs, pebbles, sand and coffee :)