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!
Afternoon all ... sun is shining again today but very windy ... it feels much colder than yesterday, although the thermometer says it is six degrees warmer!!
HeatherB - glad you are still going to be around sometimes!
SheilaFE - lovely to read your post ... I took early retirement seven years ago .... best thing I ever did :-)
Alan - lovely pic of your Brugmansia ... it looks huge!
auntie - well done on passing your test :-))
Diane - take care with all that work on your house ... don't 'do' your back again!
AQ - more lovely photographs and interesting info.
OG - I love the beautiful colours in your phototgraphs ... and another one of you!!!
Went on a shopping mission this morning to Royal Quays on Tyneside and on the way back the sea looked beautiful ... huge waves ... so I went out again this afternoon armed with my camera! These pics are two of the results!
St.Mary's Island, Whitley Bay (only an island when the tide is in!):
Long Sands beach at Tynemouth ( the black 'blobs' in among the waves are not seals, but surfers!):
This post is getting very long ... I'd better stop!
Thanks to everyone for chat links etc
Take care
Joan - avid bird and nature watcher in Northumberland!
Index Thread
Things are now getting back to normal as son and wife left to go back home this morning. The weather here has been cold and this morning there was ice on the car windscreen but now it is very windy and there is restrictions on the Forth Bridge. While son was here he managed to visit the people who had installed his mirror wardrobe doors and they are going to fit new ones next week as they knew exactly what doors they were.
Have loved viewing all the pictures that have been posted and Diane I thank you for the wolf sites. There was an estate owner in the north of Scotland who wanted to introduce wolves into his estate along with other species that had been in Scotland centuries ago but permission was refused.
On Saturday I went to a Farm shop near Elie and took some photos. Top one shows that plants will grow anywhere
george g
SheilaFE: I have had the Brugmansia(Angels Trumpets) for 5 or 6 years and on many occasions I have nearly given up on it but now I am glad I have persevered. They are native to South America so that is why I have had so many problems getting it to flower. This year I put it outside in May and brought it back inside in late September. It has had the occasional flower but this year it has been exceptional.
Alan clearly the five or six years was worth the wait! I seem to recall a number of years ago our village had an open gardens for charity and one was full of these lovely plants, all in pots. I cannot imagine what they did with them in the winter! Did you buy the plant, take cutting or grow seed? Aren't they considered poisonous? Is it the sap on the skin or perhaps when ingested.
Birdie's DU Summaries 2018 https://www.imagicat.com/
What lovely flowers, Alan - we have seen them when in the Canary Islands growing in the hotel grounds, but never in this country!
Thanks too to Djoan for super pics, do love to see different parts of the country. Also those from georgeg. You will find it quiet now your son & wife have left. auntie! Love your new avatar!! what fun!
Sheila FE: Nice to hear about your goings on. Enjoyed the 'Leisure' poem, havn't heard that one for ages. (your post was not too long)
Popped out for an hour this afternoon to see film: "Despicable Me" which was a lot of fun - a 'silly' cartoon but full of visual jokes and had us laughing out loud. My Friend needed cheering up as her next door neighbour has just been diagnosed with cancer and it's not good news. (well, it never is, but this has been lurking so is now not treatable, and can only be managed)
Off to do lamb chops now, with our own brussels sprouts and mint sauce. Have to do ironing this evening to catch up on things :-( but will try to distract myself by watching AutumnWatch at the same time!
Morning all: Well, storms have passed and left us with yet more English weather - overcast gray skies and drizzle! Still, went for nice long walk and looking forward to lunch with friend.
HeatherB: Stupid? You? Never. But please don't neglect your OH; we'd hate to be named as "multiple correspondents" in any divorce hearings! :-) Of course, the thing to do is buy a laptop and leave it by the kettle, preferably switched on all the time; maybe you can hide it under a tea towel or in a drawer? Just stop by when you can and we'll be happy to see you. You can also "lurk" like SheilaFE without posting - that works too. I find that I can't get on first thing or it sets the whole day back an hour or so.
SheilaFE: Nice to know you're lurking there - too bad about the apple crop, especially after last year's. Loved your retirement "speech"- so true - and I too don't know how I found time to go to work.
Diane: Clueless about Bohm, but not as clueless as yesterday! :-) Thanks for wolf link; didn't know AZ/NM wolves were endangered. Oh dear; more things to worry about AND an election looming.
Auntie: Congrats on passing your tests.
Lindybird: Congrats to you on the shorter shorts. Hope they'll still fit when you get home. I read once (and do believe I posted it on here): Dogs have owners; cats have staff.
OG: Love rhubarb. I'm just planting romaine lettuce and broccoli. Went to a talk given by one of our local organic farmers last Saturday on planting winter veggies; he brought along starters. More brilliant shots - great that you can haul your equipment around in your scooter!
Alan: Lovely Angel's Trumpet - not uncommon here. Saw Phoebe's rose bush this morning, but no Phoebe yet...
Thanks also to George and DJoan for pix, and others posts I may have missed. Off to hose myself down before lunch with friend. Take care all.
Good evening just logged in for a while to catch up with news. Thanks to all for all the interesting and funny posts.
Lynette I know this is late but so sorry your Mum has passed away. Even when expected it is a shock. My thoughts are with you and your family.
HeatherB so pleased you will be popping in and out for a chat. I will agree that is easy to spend too much time on PC but now the ospreys have left us I do not spend such a lot of time on here. Jobs will at last be done at home which should have been done months ago.
My holiday with my friend has turned a bit pear shaped. Her OH has poor health so he has not been able to take us out anywhere. I keep reassuring her that it is OK there is a lot to look at on the farm. Today he was supposed to come over at about 1.30 and did not appear. The phone signal here is pretty bad so in the end I asked the farmer if we could use his landline. Managed to get an answer from her OH and he sounded very ill. We then phoned her daughter and got her to take him to the Doctor and farmer's wife very kindly ran my friend home and she will not be back. He has to go for some urgent chest x-rays tomorrow but I must say it does not look good. I am fine on my own but OH wanted to come and collect me but I have said no, there is plenty to keep me occupied here. The new animal arrivals that arrived are Meerkats so have spent quite a bit of today watching them. Three females and one male and they have luxury accommodation with underfloor heating and a heat lamp for when they are outside. They will have needed it today as we started the day with a very sharp frost and it has been very cold all day. We have been lucky with the weather though as we have had wall to wall sunshine most days. I noticed that Bournemouth was supposed to be the coldest place last night. At Hurn Airport it was minus 4!
My OH received the news yesterday that his friend in Glasgow passed away early that morning. So sad when you think he was only 49. He will be going up to Glasgow for the funeral which is next Tuesday.
Have not managed to get MW Snap to work but will have to work on it when I get home, hoping OH will assist when he has time.
Hope you are all keeping warm and well.
Margobird
Have decided I shall drop in further steam pics and mine from Botanic Garden just whenever I am posting anyway, but will put these in now because they tie in with what we did that evening! The Garden’s Friends group was having a lecture, so we went along as guests, to a talk on “Aliens”. We heard about the tactics of non-native species: predating our native species, taking over habitats and food supplies, bringing with them diseases and parasites and being parasitic themselves. The speaker mentioned Grey Squirrels, Signal Crayfish and Mink – sorry friends in USA! - (threatening Red Squirrels, European White Claw Crayfish and Water Voles respectively) but mainly dealt with insects, because he is an entomologist, and because he could bring some examples of them in lab jars! He also touched on plant invaders such as Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner from Greece and Dutch Elm disease beetles.
Having always known about Grey and Red Squirrels (I think the public could claim bounty for Greys' tails in the 1950s!), I already felt bad in the afternoon for thinking these were rather attractive, but after the lecture, I began to feel really guilty, but
Cute, or what?:
Action shot:
Thought this tail was wonderful!
Ospreys Rule OK, but Goldfinches come a close second!
Cute pics of the grey squirrels original goldfinch. I have to admit I do like them.
Lindybird hope you have a great holiday.
Just popped in to Phoebe webcam and saw her. It looks as though she is nest buidling at the back of the tree,