Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 2 January 2022

Sorry to hear about your OH, Lynette, very awful for you and there is never a good time for such things to happen. Sounds like everyone here is behind you and all sending prayers, good vibes, good wishes, take whatever you want--I expect we will all be happy to verbally wallop anyone who tries to make you do anything you do not want to do.

Hope the ills and ailments of anyone here improve in this new year and that this is a better year for everyone than the last.

Diane, Annette and Aquilareen, My US birder friend moved from Alaska to Wisconsin in May, so she might have warmer winters, or at least historically they were--climate change sometimes makes some of the lower 48 States (or 'outside' as Alaskans call it, as in "Are you going outside this year?") colder than Alaska. She has already reported something like 3 snowstorms in central Wisconsin already and one day they had minus 17 F, that is minus 27.2 C. Can get to - 25F occasionally. One bonus of that weather was that she has twice in the last couple of weeks watched a Cooper's Hawk take down a Mourning Dove, then defeathering it in their drive one time and in the middle of the snowy street right out in front the second time, and then flying off with the corpse--must not be much traffic down their street. Another bonus is a Pileated Woodpecker regularly eating on one of their suet feeders--lovely seeing one of those in the back garden. And White-tailed Deer on the lawn, but no Moose like they had in Alaska.

ANN – No matter where we move, there will be pluses and minuses. I have just finished reading James Michener’s “Alaska”, so I have a better understanding of the Alaskan climate, history, etc, etc even though it was written so long ago (published 1988). I read several of his books ”donkey’s years” ago but not this one. Hardly any of his books remain in our library system and the only copy of “Alaska” is in a school/community library at Mannum, a town on River Murray. I had to order it in and wait patiently for the inter-library courier.

 I had not heard of the purple-crowned fairy wren until this report.

Just a thought

Happiness is an inside job.

HEATHER - Rules change daily. Don’t quote me but s-i-l may not have to quarantine more than a few days if fully vaxxed. Anyway quarantine hotels are better quality accommodation than those for illegal arrivals in detention (even if celebrities!). I hope s-i-l will be OK. Melbourne would not be my preferred place to fly into. Victoria’s covid numbers are rising horribly, though inflated because, as of yesterday, people can self-report a positive RAT and many are honestly reporting cases from earlier in the week, thus inflating numbers. . . or so “they” say. Hardly any covid in WA.

AQ - Cute Fairy Wrens. Glad they're still flourishing.

Annette - If you're the gardener, I'd say you're entitled to say what grows where!! Great that your daughter is progressing well.

Diane - We need to transport some of the Australian sunshine over to you, for sure! Sad to think of losing that giant of a man, and superb actor, Sidney Poitier. What a trailblazer he was. Glad that at least, he enjoyed a long life.

We awoke to rain and it doesn't look too good outside, but I will venture out later for food supplies.

I had to look it up, and found this--it sounds good to me! :-)

Unknown said:

I'd remove the stones and let the dymondia cover the entire area.  OH wasn't thrilled at first, but withdrew his objections when I pointed out that it was me who'd been maintaining the area FOR THE LAST 12 YEARS!

Yet another grey day, and very wet. I've been doing lots of sorting - ?new year's resolution or something that has needed to be done for ages??!?!?! I have shredded three years of bank statements from years ago and they produce a great deal of shredded paper! Which is now in a large bag in the kitchen waiting for the rain to stop so I can take it down to the rubbish bins. Plenty more 'sorting and flinging' required, but I'm exhausted now so will rest on my laurels.

Diane - I can't begin to imagine how you must feel in that temperature, particularly the 'wind chill', which always makes things so much worse. Stay as warm as you can, and hope it warms up a bit soon.

Annette - Good to hear your daughter is progressing well. Hope she enjoys the therapy pool, and that it won't be too long before she is home again.

Pat - Well done on your sorting & shredding. There's certainly something about a new year which makes us all feel like having a clear out.

Our festive decorations are now back in the cupboard, and in the hallway are four bulging bags of stuff to go to the charity Sale. However..... even though I took all of that out, exactly the same number of boxes & bags as usual went back into store. How is that? There was a little more room left in some of the boxes but not enough reduction to amalgamate any of them. <sigh>

My OH is grumpy because he suddenly had a painful big toe today and although I can see nothing, he won't take any painkillers. I'm just off to Google "gout!"

LINDY - I have heard of gout being described as ' exquisitely painful ' -