Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 23 January 2022

 A Happy Burns night to All!!

Thank you, LINDY -
I guess that OG will be having haggis neeps and tatties this evening !

ANNETTE: Thank you so much, I really like the sound of Vote Forward. Even if it makes little difference, it comes from the right place, including not demonizing others, I am looking into it here in NYS, where they are teaming up with NCJW...

Thanks to everyone for your news; hope everyone is having an improving week, especially Diane and everyone else with any worries at all.
A few bits of trivia to distract you (since I cannot be of any actual help to anyone--sorry): Been lurking occasionally recently on the Captiva (Florida) Osprey YouTube site (they believe it is a new pair this year, female sitting on 3 eggs, first due to hatch in mid-Feb). I would not have known, but someone posted there that apparently yesterday was National Peanut Butter Day. There are several Ospreyholics from the UK posting on that site now (probably anxious for UK Ospreys to return and need their fix!), and one of the posters from the US kindly wished those in Canada and the UK a Happy Peanut Butter Day also--I hope everyone here also enjoyed the day! Then on the Glaslyn YouTube site today I saw this: '​Dydd Santes Dywynwen Hapus i bawb'. Had to google it (there is only one 'y' in the name it seems, not two) and it means 'Happy Saint Dwynwen's Day' which is today--the Welsh version of St Patrick's Day--a day for friendship and lovers. Wishing a Happy Saint Dwynwen's Day to all of you! See: museum.wales/.../ and for a bit about her including a photo of the ruins of her church on the Isle of Anglesey in northwest Wales see: en.wikipedia.org/.../Dwynwen.
Back to the Captiva Ospreys, they have carried on with the names of the previous pair, Andy and Lena, because it was some time before they worked out this is probably a new pair (I was not following them in earlier seasons and do not know how experienced the locals are regarding Osprey matters). The previous pair had eggs or chicks (not sure which) predated by Corvids and they are hopeful that this pair might succeed.. Here is the YouTube site for a bit of lovely distraction, including the occasional passing Captiva Bald Eagle, Dolphins, Pelican parades (rafts of swimming birds), an alligator now and then, passing boats, and people walking by, sunbathing, or sitting on the bench just down from the nest. The presence of people close by seems not to bother the Ospreys at all: www.youtube.com/watch

Gardenbirder: What a refreshing post! Osprey news is always good, especially news of a new pair. Wonder how Loch Garten will fare this year. Thanks for adding some uplifting trivia :-)

Gardenbirder: Thanks for the links. A lovely osprey cam to watch, over the river.

National Peanut Butter Day!! ..... Hmnnn... I love peanut butter, & can't have it in the house or I tend to just dip in a spoon & eat it straight out of the jar.

Oh, the light fitting..... He battled with it again today, and it took both of us, reaching up (my arms!) to get the plate fixed to the ceiling. Then he managed to fix the wires up, but we are left with three hanging pendants which are adjustable in length and are going to have to be tweaked to get right. The light is not over our dining table, but in the centre of the room, so it mustn't be too low for tall people - that's my OH, our two sons, & other male members of the family. Sigh. My fault for being enamoured of it, without remembering where it was going to hang!

Just a thought

"The biggest thing is that for every one thing you can’t do, there are 10,000 others you can. For every one idiot to give you a hard time, there are 10,000 others worth your time." (Dylan Alcott)

Dylan Alcott is our 2022 Aussie of the Year - wheelchair sportsman, radio host &, most of all, a motivator. With him as an advocate, disabilities will never be the same. Born with a tumour around his spinal cord, its removal made him a paraplegic aged only a few weeks.

AQ:  People like your Mr. Alcott put us to shame when they overcome so much and then keep going (playing wheelchair tennis and basketball!!) .   Tx for reminding us how much most of us can be thankful for (pardon my poor sentence construction).  Sigh.  

Gardenbirder:  So St Dywynwen was a woman unable to marry her true love who was frozen into a block of ice by an angel who also gave her a potion to make her forget him. She then got three wishes, none of which involved marrying the now-thawed swain.  Hmmm.  Oh well.  You can't win them all.  There's a YouTube video telling how to say "Happy St Dywynwen's Day in Welsh).  Maybe Lindybird can visit the remains of the convent she founded off the coast of Anglesey next time she and her OH are at their caravan...

Lindybird:  Oh dear, sorry the new lighting fixture has resulted in unanticipated consequences.  Hope you can make it work for tall people.

I worked in the back garden most of the day where everything is now tidied up and ready for spring.  Still have to get some larger jobs done by someone with muscles and know-how.  And then there's the front garden...

Have a good Wednesday everyone.