Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 19 March 2023

Annette - Thank you so much for starting my day so wonderfully with your video. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the birds, some of which were familiar but most not - who knew there was a bird called a Thrasher?!?!? - and I also enjoyed the lovely gentle and appropriate background music.

Must watch Annettes video. A first for us this morning as we saw a woodpecker in the garden, We often hear one on our walks in the woods but I have never actually seen one before.

SHEILA: What a lovely surprise to see you back here!!! I was just blathering in my post to start the thread. No worries. If you stop in to this forum to read the osprey news, please pop in here and let us know how you are. You can talk about birds or your life. We'd all be happy to see you! And TerryM, too! You can post about anything on your mind. Take care of yourself, Sheila. So nice to see you!

Oh, HEATHER, don't get me started. I do NOT have my internet, and I am a cantankerous, bad-tempered old woman because of it. LOL! Seriously, my state has decided to undergo a massive construction project that will widen the highway that goes through the small town across the creek from me. The project will also require demolishing the bridge across the creek and building a new bigger, stronger one that will accommodate the increasing truck/lorry traffic through the town. So, all the utility companies are moving and burying their lines in preparation for the project, including the phone company that is my internet provider. I know my outage is due to this work, but the company is trying to tell me the problem is a fault in my own wall jack. They want to send a technician and charge me $100+. I'm not sure what to do about it, so right now I'm just using all my best swearywords and waiting to see if the problem goes away when the lines are reconnected. Thanks for caring!

I promise more replies this evening. ANNETTE: That's a lovely video.

Good to see SHEILA after all this time! I hope all is well with you.

We are surpassing ourselves with two “trips out” this week. We went to a different garden centre for Wednesday lunch (a good one). We found our peat-free growbags there. Want a new small indoor water feature – can’t find one anywhere! Bought some favourite cheese and a few other food items, as well as shopping in the attached greengrocery which seems to have everything – including some good-looking brown baps. Very pleased with the whole day. Were supposed to be going to M&S food too but decided to postpone. After lunch today we shall be going to Dumfries to shop in Morrisons.

As we drove out Wednesday morning, there was an extremely high Spring Tide and a lot of water in the fields – I hope that nobody had any of their wee lambs drowned in the flood water. Weather continues variable – some lovely sunshine, but dry spells are not long enough to achieve anything outside. Fritillaries are looking wonderful and Tulips starting to colour up. Hoards of Goldfinches about, and good to read of so many Osprey arrivals around including some local to us. Must try to organise ourselves some accessible visits.

DIANE – so sad to read about your woes. I gather you are not very happy about the road upgrade, apart from the current inconveniences!

OG How nice to read your cheery post. Annette I watched that video....how lovely.

Diane:  That's so frustrating - are your neighbors having problems?  If it's not your wall connection, will the company reimburse you the $100 for the service call?  Also, looks like you're on the edge of some nasty weather there?

AQ;  Thanks for the additional book mentions.

OG:  Good to read you guys are out and about (but I had to Google 'baps').   We had someone on TV the other night saying that the strawberry crop is at least a month behind schedule - as is everything else apart from many trees, which are busy dispensing pollen all over!

I have read all the posts and will comment on them tomorrow hopefully. I am tired tonight as I have been to Leeds and back on the train for lunch with11 of the “girls” I was in grammar school with. It is so nice that we all get on and are still able to meet up. One lady came from Liverpool, me from North Wales, 2 from London and the rest from around Yorkshire.
I need an early night as it is the first 18 hole golf competition of the year tomorrow and I have a tee time late morning. It is currently wild, wet and windy outside. I hope it calms down before tomorrow!!!

Bumping up before I go shopping with daughters !
DIANE - I empathise with your internet problems - don't understand why you should be expected to pay when the fault is not yours. I hope that ANNETTE is correct in what she says about it.
RUSTY - hoping that you get your golf today.