Weekly Chat, Sunday 28 November 2010

Evening everyone, just trying to catch up on all the posts of the last couple of days. Lots going on and great snow pictures. Sorry to hear some of you have been snowed in though. Very little snow here so far but what there is has now frozen over making the side roads and footpaths very slippery.

Linda very nice pics of what looks to me like a female kestrel. I am not brilliant at bird ID but that's my guess anyway.

The cow covered in snow looks like it has been rolling about in a snow drift! Do they do that?

Margo, glad you like the countdown clock, I enjoyed making it.

Evening all, catching up  as usual.

First and foremost hope North of the Border all had a fantastic St. Andrews Day.   Heard on the news that Auctararder (sorry if spelling is wrong) was cut off.   People were walking 1/2 hour to shops only to find the shelves low on provisions.   You are really having it rough up there and the North East.  Now we hear that parts of Essex and the South East have had a reasonable covering.   We had about 2cm of snow here, not much to talk about - we're very lucky.

Lindybird - just love that pic of the sparrowhawk - lucky you managing to see one.

Alan - thanks for the update that there is a new blog, will look at it in a moment or two.

Aqua and Annette, and Gary over the water - Hi, not forgotten you just find that there are so many posts that it is almost impossible to answer all.

Auntie- like the pic of the Osprey sight - really shows how cold it is there, just like here even though its only November.   Makes you wonder what the rest of the winter will be like and its not officially the start of winter yet until the 21st of December.............rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhh.

Enjoyed my swim, went shopping at a local supermarket in town.  Went into town to try and get some jewellery of my mum's valued, they only wanted up to £120. for the first item and then more for each further item.  I costed it out with the cheapest, H Samuels and it would have cost me £275 just to leave it to be sent away for valuation. Can't afford that so will have to give a rough estimate to my brother - its all for probate purposes, what a rigmaroll to go through.

Annette – good evening.  This is my last look-in before bed soon, because I’m very tired.  My three babies were all induced, and all by different methods, at three different hospitals, so not giving any details!!  Our old school was the one my Dad had been to.  Had been all ages up to school leaving (with only two classrooms with a movable partition) and still was when I started for those who didn’t get to Grammar School, then they built a “secondary modern” so all seniors left, when I was about 7, I think.  So then we were split into infants and juniors.  Always had more infants than juniors, because some of the better-off families used it as a pre-prep school for kids who would move to preparatory schools before eventually going to public schools!  We had spiders, beetles and slow-worms in the outside toilets, but no choice where to go!  At least we had indoor washbasins, but I don’t remember any warm water.  A few years after I went to Grammar School, a new primary school was built with proper facilities!

Lynette – that valuation business sounds terrible.  I’d be tempted to visit someone who offers to buy secondhand, see what he would offer for it, then say you don’t want to sell after all, go away and double his offer for a more realistic value!!

And, so to bed.  Sleep well, all, “see” you tomorrow.

OG - Thank you, so they are lupins. I must get you to ID more of my pics!!!

Sheila - I hope your aunt is OK

Linda - Sweetpea will arrive late Thurs, just to prove who is in control !!!

First day of summer, barely warm, expecting 25 C, a shower or two. So no sunshine to send you, sorry. New blinds were fitted yesterday - look great. Too bad they show that rest of house needs urgent renovation. I guess sometime I will find all the stuff that was cleared away to provide access to windows. LOL

Dau2 rang as I had offered to knit her a cotton top and the yarn was on special until 30 Nov. Yep, I have another interesting knit coming up. Then Miss14 wanted to speak to me. To cut a long story short, I am taking 2 brats to their home Sunday pm, they will clean up, then a friend each can come around and help put up their Xmas tree. (I shall cast my evil eye on boyfriend.) I'll return all home by 5 pm (or earlier if I get fed up!!!). I'm not doing it for the brats but for Dau2 & Sil. Alas, Sil rolled his ankle at the St Kilda (adventure playground) outing last Sunday. Has had to take time off work.

OG, I was the trombone section... and if I can’t get all the notes yet, I just keep count and come in when I can.

Brenda, I wouldn’t say I have “mastered” the trombone, it’s mastered me so far! But I do play in a very sympathetic community orchestra that lets us all improve without being too, umm, sniffy about strange noises. (I am much better on flute though!)

Will reply to others when I've got beyond page 3 (this week AND last week!)

Hi everyone.

Still quite cold here, although there hasn't been as much snow fall today.  There's enough lying around for everyone anyway.  I've actually worked out a new plan for keeping the bird baths from freezing.  I actually keep them in the shed overnight and fill them first thing in the morning.  The idea is the movement of the starlings in the water, will keep it from freezing, and this should mean less time required with kettles, and swear words.

Since this post is starting on the 30th November but likely to end on the 1st of December.  I'll quickly say belated Happy St Andrew's day to all it applies to

margobird:  I must admit to feeling sorry for the birds in this cold weather.  I honestly love to see my feeders full of birds.  Might leave out a donation box though.  LOL  Sorry I forgot it was your OH's birthday, so a belated many happy returns.

AQ:  Thanks for the brilliant Customer/ Tech Support lines.  Not sure if you've heard of it but there's a good site called: rinkworks.com.  There's a lot of good stuff in there.

OG:  The new shed isn't managed to keep out the snow but thankfully its still standing and seems to be passing the first severe weather test.

Lynette:  I hope your snowfall levels keep to a moderate level.  Glad you enjoyed your swim.

Annette:  Sadly the bits of plastic I'd cut to line the bird baths with, have gone AWOL.  Thankfully I've devised other plans.  It was Blue Tits that used to peck the top of milk bottles.  They were only after the cream that used to float to the top of bottled full-fat milk.  I must say I missed this by a few years because by the time I was old enough to notice what was going on, a lot of people had either moved on to semi-skimmed milk, or started to cover their bottles with an old cup.  Now glass milk bottles have vanished alltogeter.

auntie:  Thanks for a brilliantly cold looking picture.  Wonderfully atmospheric.

patriciat:  I always find ice much more difficult to deal with than snow, and often find my self having to adopt a silly walk so I don't become a Temporary Inspector of Pavements.

Linda: No sooner had I opened the back door, the Abominable Snowman was running away at roughly the speed of sound.  Thankfully he didn't have time to start eating any of the bird food.  The Starlings wouldn't have been best pleased.  Thanks for the excellent Bird of Prey pictures.

Alan:  Love the flag :-)  Thanks for the update heads-up.  Thanks for the Peregrine pic.  Such awesome looking birds.

Brenda:  Hope the snow doesn't cause too much havoc for you.

dibnlib:  I wonder what happened to Jack Frost, and did he get many people's fingers and toes.?

DJoanS:  Our school milk was in cartons, and was never the proper temperature.  If I'd known about lactose intolerance back then, I might've conjoured a wee white lie.

jsb:  I've not seen any Goldfinches for a few days but today I spotted 4 Rooks in the garden, which is an increase on the usual one or two.  I reckon this is because any food sources near by will have been obscured by snow.

SheilaFE:  I'm sorry to hear about your aunt fainting.  It's a good thing her friend popped into see her and find out if she needed anything.  I hope she's okay.

Wendyb:  Say hello to Mrs Pheasant for me.  Got the RSPB flier through the post today.

ALICAT:  Sorry you had to got to a Doctor's appointment in such cold weather.  I can't say I've ever witnessed thunder and lightening accompany snow.  Unbelieveable weather indeed.

Liz:  That poor coo looks fair Baltic.

Chloe:  Hope you don't get too much snow.  The other day I thought it would bypass us and keep to the east of Scotland and the higher ground.  Alas no escape.  Hope the footpaths and side roads don't get too slippery.

TerryM:  I'm sure you'll master the trombone in time.

Happy New Month everyone!!! 



Paul.

Evening all:

Lynette: Don't worry about responding to all posts - seems to be getting harder to keep up!  :-)   We had a bunch of stuff that needed appraisal and found that Bonham's (auction house) has an office in Los Angeles that holds first-come-first-served appraisal days one day each month.  We actually have sent jpgs and details of some items and got appraisals (mostly art - and those were prints from India that OH brought back after his stint in the Peace Corps).   275 pound sounds a lot just have it sent for evaluation!

OG: Thanks for not giving details of your experience with hospital stays!  I had my daughter at Whittington Hospital in London (so she's a Cockney by birth, which is a hoot).   Our school had indoor toilets and hot water from what I remember.

AQ: That's the problem with updating anything around the house - all of a sudden things that looked just fine before suddenly appear shabby and worn.  Best not to update anything. :-)    Good luck with the kids this weekend.

Pretty darn cool here today - sun bright but still chilly.  Icy stuff on car windows and roofs this morning; all quite exciting.  :-)   Will be out most of the day tomorrow; take care all if I don't get a chance to check in in the a.m.

Morning, Everyone:   A grim start to December, here in UK - The Weather is the main headline of the news these last few days, and lots of the country seemed to grind to a halt yesterday.  Some airports closed and poor folks stuck on trains for hours.  and don't even mention the roads!

We had another light snowfall, it's still not too bad here, you just have to wrap up well and watch your step when going out on the slippery roads & paths.  I feel for the old folks, who have to try and keep warm when they are the ones who always feel the cold, anyway.  I think if it were me, I would just go back to bed with a hot water bottle & the radio for company.

Glad you enjoyed my Bird of Prey - I'll bow to the Kestrel suggestion if Chloe is sure, - she is much more of  a birder than me, we just looked it up in the bird book when we got home. and the outline when flying seemed to suggest Sparrowhawk .  Must admit in the pics he/she looks fluffier when perching!  After the 1st sighting, we saw it almost every day, so that must have been the hunting grounds as there is not much vegetation in the surrounding area but the grounds of the hotel were of course full of trees and shrubs, which attracted a lot of small birds.  We also saw a very large Bird of Prey soaring and circling in the mountains on a day out, but too hard to identify from a distance.  A wonderful sight and  good to know that they are still in existence.

Son is now weary of being asked "Is it born yet?" and pretty much resigned to waiting until Friday to be a Daddy.  We shall see, but we now know it will be a December birthday for the little one.

Hope All in UK  (& Finland!) keep warm and safe, take care & Happy December!

Morning All. Hope you are all ok despite the weather. A little more snow for us last night but still nothing more than a dusting really. Wintry showers forecast for later but nothing as yet.

Linda, I am no birder, just happen to like birds along with all other forms of wildlife. The general look of the bird and the cheek markings make me think Kestrel but I will bow to greater experience than mine, that is just my guess. You could post it on one of the other forums and ask for ID. There are lots of experienced birders on this Community who will be only too pleased to help. It would be interesting to know for sure what it is.