Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 9 April 2023

Hi all, and a very Happy Easter. Hope you all had a lovely time.
Son and his wife came over for Sunday lunch and dau and I went out for lunch yesterday. We go to a pub in one of the nearbye villages which serves good old English dishes and where my late husband use to love coming to. I had a plate of faggots with veg and pot and dau had sausage in Yorkshire pud with chips and veg and we both had treacle tart and custard for afters. So delicious.
Garden is looking spring like with the daffs already out and the tuplips making their appearance. Grass ready for 1st cut which I'll get my gardner to do when he next is due.. Gorse coming out near us, we have a lovely banking of it down by our local resevoir.

Lindy - Classic FM top 300 is something I listen to on and off during the 4 day countdown. It was Rachmaninov's piano concerto which pipped Vaughn William's Lark Ascending this year. Back in its day it topped the chart a number of times.

I've noted that quite a few of the ospreys have returned so happy watching all.

Realised that we've been so busy, I hadn't posted to say that we're at home once again. Good journey back in spite of a woman coming out of a side road right in front of us - how we didn't hit her car I don't know!!
(My phone just decided that I meant to put "sideboard" not side road, LOL!)

Expected a rainy journey but that only started once we got back. Windy now, as promised. Our Youngests birthday today & he's had to be at work, but was looking forward to celebrating with a nice meal at home, this evening. We shall see all of them on Saturday when we'll once again be on the road going to visit.

Lindy - glad you got home before the rain. Off on your travels again at the weekend I see. It will be good to see family though.
Lynnette - good to hear from you. Your Sunday lunch out sounded very pleasant.
Dibnlib - thanks for the kind thoughts.
I am feeling about the same today. The tooth is no worse and the hay fever is under control with antihistamines. I enjoyed the lunch out for my friend’s birthday yesterday. Shepherds pie and fruit crumble and custard if you are interested!! We stayed chatting for ages. Due to the weather forecast, I crossed off from my golf competition today and, of course, it is bright and sunny currently!!! Actually, it will be better for me to have a quieter day. I just plan to pop to the supermarket and then do a spot of batch cooking. My sister, brother in law and their 4 year old granddaughter are calling this afternoon so that will be nice.

Diane-I don't know where you live in Indiana but hope it is no where near the plastic manufacturing fire!

BJANE: Thank you for caring! No, I'm not near the Richmond fire. I live in southern Montgomery County in west-central Indiana in the Wabash River Valley, sort of near the Illinois border. I'm in a very rural region between the major cities of Lafayette and Terre Haute. I live on the edge of the prairie to the north and the hills to the south. So, the fire is due east of me on the opposite side of the state. Richmond is a nice little town, and my heart goes out to the people there. They shouldn't have to suffer like this. I am deeply angry for them.

Remember the recent catastrophic East Palestine, Ohio, freight train derailment, which caused similar contamination? The government has decided to store the incredibly hazardous material from that train fire in my community in a landfill just about10 or15 minutes southeast of me. So when it leaks or catches fire again, I will get to breathe it. Our people objected stridently, but neither the federal nor the state government cares about us, and they won't care about Richmond, either.

www.cnn.com/.../index.html

Richmond fire.

Diane:  Was looking at the map and yes, you're west of the Richmond fire.   Was listening to a Richmond resident on NPR just now saying how worried he was about whatever was burning - plastics apparently.    Ugh...    Which government (state or federal?) agreed to store that hazardous material near you?   No chance of anyone blocking the entrance? Call in the national media?  Meanwhile, our Governor has agreed to keep Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant (handily located on an earthquake fault) going until 2030 while California transitions to clean energy, but of course the power company PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric) is now agitating for it to stay open another 20.  

We have May Gray in April right now: Coastal overcast clearing by 1 p.m. and returning around 5.

For the past few days we have had 'April showers' consisting of hail, the odd rumble of thunder and torrential rain, occasionally interspersed with bright sun. We only had about half an hour of the forecast high winds, which were far worse further west, apparently. And next week we are due for a heat wave! Bonkers weather - it could only happen in England ...!

ANNETTE: The federal Environmental Protection Agency ordered the East Palestine toxic waste dumped in my community. The governor initially objected and ordered testing of the materials already arriving by the truckload, but we remain projected to receive 100 semi-truck (lorry) loads of the toxic material. The national media cares only about the West Coast and New York City. They especially show little interest in the Midwest, except for an occasional story about Chicago politics.

www.hecweb.org/.../

https://www.wthr.com/amp/article/news/local/first-truckloads-contaminated-waste-dumped-putnam-county-landfill/531-d66531c4-e821-4967-8608-0367e71b1ac4