HAPPY NEW WEEK!
I hope everyone has a joyful week. The Brood X cicadas were screaming today on my patch. About a week ago, I noticed some big holes at the bottom of my trees. Various critters dig holes in my yard, so I didn't think much about it. Since then, I've seen articles about some of last year's Brood X cicadas popping up this year. Apparently, some of the bugs, called "stragglers," decided to sleep in, and they're appearing this year instead of last year. In most cases, it's because our soil didn't warm up to the required 64 degrees Fahrenheit until too late to wake them up in 2021. So, some of the noisy screechers decided to hit their snooze alarm and climb out this year instead!
http://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/things-to-do/wildlife-webcams/loch-of-lowes/
RSPB Giving Nature a Home
What a wonderful start to my day – LINDA’s travel saga is . . . words fail me.
One thing strikes me (as it did in UK) – all that water!!!! How can there be so much? Where does it come from? Just look at our dry land with watercourses that only flow when it rains. UpOver streams are filled with water to the banks!!!
DIBNLIB – I thought kilts would still be worn in Scotland. They do look rather special.
My day goes downhill from now with a major dental operation this morn.
Lindybird - love the Norwegian photos. Those woollen covers on the trees - could it be their version of Scarecrows that we do over here. It is charming to see the trees wrapped in those woolly covers. Latest on the medical side. I had a telephone consultation with the Dr I recently saw when she was at our local hospital. She had had a chance to look at the scans from last Nov and believes I could have Pulmonary Hypertension and would need a right heart catheter procedure done in Oxford. At least we may have a possible diagnosis so just have to wait my turn in the que for the elective procedure. Enough of that. Harelady - hope you can get the dizziness sorted and perhaps it is time to think about retirement. So sorry to learn family were jobless for a time but glad to hear they now have jobs.
AQ; Dare we ask what the dental op was?
Lindybird: That photo of the two waterfalls plummeting down the mountainside to the river is fabulous. What a sight! Amazing. I'm still agog at all that water!
Annette & AQ - Son moved in before covid and were hoping to trade up to a house but with both of the losing their jobs and 2 children it is not possible at the moment.
For instance James is at school now but has to go to after-school club which is £280 per month. Lily is 2 and goes to nursury 3 days a week - that has just increased from
£900 to £999 per month. On top of that my son has a car journey to and from work every day - and yesterday the new said that to fill up an average car with unleaded petrol is now £100.
So unless anyone is lucky enough to have a large rise in salary all of this together with another (3rd) rise in energy costs due in October then everyone is struggling to pay bills, thats before food and heating. I am praying that we have a long hot summer.
ANNETTE – You may dare. After many decades of use, a former gold filling developed further decay. To be replaced by a crown made of “composite” ie tooth coloured. Today’s session took over 1½ hours. I have a temp tooth for 2 weeks. Listening to dentist & nurse chat (but unable to join in) I learnt a lot about their lives! Sore mouth = soup for tea.
HARELADY – How can anyone afford to have children these days? How can anyone live these days.
Dau phoned for a looooong chat. To continue volunteering to help in girls’ school library (ie replace books on shelf), she had to renew 3 “certificates”, fortunately can be done online but time-consuming. Police check, child protection & suchlike. I suggested to Dau that she should have all these checks to have children!
Good news for Ospreys off Eyre Peninsula after last year’s eggs were snatched by foxes. Tumby Island is close enough to mainland for foxes to swim across.