Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 16 July 2023

OG - glad all is well. Good luck with the magazine. I do hope you have received all the contributions you need.
AQ - well done with the garden tidying. Most satisfying.
Lindy - what a nuisance about the lost post.
My day today can be summed up in a few words. Cleaning the house and watching the golf. I will leave you to guess which I will be doing most of. Lol!!!

Rusty - I'm watching the golf as well ... at least until the cricket starts! Then the remote will be flicking between them. I have a couple of problems, though - I am due at a webinar at 11.30am for an hour, and then due to go out with a friend for a couple of hours. Both will still be going when I get back, though ... oh to be able to be in several places at once!

RUSTY - I think you are muddling your "A" friends. It was ANNETTE who was gardening. Not that mine doesn't need attention!

Sorry AQ. Blame my mistake on the fact that I was watching the golf at the same time!!!! Hoylake looks very nice in the sunshine. You can almost wave at me over on the Welsh side of the estuary. Great birding country all round there plus Hilbre Island which you can walk out to from the English side at low tide. I have done that. You see lots of Atlantic grey seals hauled out on the sandbanks on the other side of the island.
So, Annette - well done with the gardening!!!

Hello everyone , do hope that you are all keeping well.
I have been out of action for the last fortnight as I have been in hospital where they have sorted my c2o problem out and diagnosed OSA. They saved me the task of having to go up to Leicester by sorting it all out at NGH so I came home with a NIV gadget which I have to wear at night. Still getting used to it but trying my best to tolerate it.
I am not going to go back and read all this weeks news but trust that those who need help are getting helped. I have been lucky this time and only have to go back later in the year for a follow-up.

Well, this is the end of a very full day. A webinar this morning which was interesting, then a visit to Wakehurst Place, which was lovely - although not many birds around. We did watch a nuthatch that thought it was a woodpecker, which was fun! Then home for cricket and golf. All very interesting. I am a member of an international group who over the years have come together to play some of the wonderful Scottish courses. And for each of the majors we make three picks each and the overall winner gets a prize. My picks so far are 89th, 32nd and joint leader. But three more days to go yet, so I'm staying positive. Just adds a bit of interest. More of the same tomorrow, although I have what promises to be a long and rather fraught meeting in the morning, so won't be able to get down to some serious sports watching until mid-afternoon. But Saturday I am clear all day ... well, I really must do some housework, so may need an early start!

Lynette: Well glad you've got things sorted out (had to go to Auntie Google to translate the alphabet soup). :-) Good to see you again.

PatO: Good luck with the golf competition - and the meeting; hope it isn't too fraught.

Been in the front garden working all day; got a lot done (so how come there's still more?).

Lynette - like Annette, I had to Google those abbreviations, but you seem satisfied that things are now in place to help you. I hope that is the case.
Annette - well done with even more gardening.
Pat - what a busy day you had. I wonder if one of your picks happens to be a local lad by any chance? Hope the meeting isn’t too fraught this morning. Enjoy the golf watching in the afternoon. I will be watching too. Watching top professionals playing backwards out of bunkers had a certain ring of familiarity to me!! Lol. Mind you, I have. It encountered bunkers like that anywhere!!!
Heather - thinking of you with your “family stuff”. I hope things get sorted. You sound worried.
I enjoyed my day yesterday cleaning the house and watching the golf. It will be more of the same today. I have been doing all of this cleaning and gardening as I am going on a short birdwatching holiday tomorrow. I always like to leave the house and garden in a reasonable state to return to. I suspect the holiday will be full on so I probably won’t have time to post. I am going to Norfolk.

Rusty - You are quite right about the 'local lad' - I've been following him since he was a junior. He always seems to be able to manage stress and stay calm. And who can resist that hair?!?!? And yes, playing backwards out of bunkers is often the only sensible thing to do ... for me, usually after I have tried an impossible 'forward' shot! Hope he can keep playing as he did yesterday. It's so good to see an amateur at the top of the leaderboard, although I fear lack of experience will catch up with him at some stage.

Off to my potentially fraught meeting shortly - and then back for cricket and golf. The weather at Hoylake doesn't look so good this morning.

Hope everyone has a good day, whatever you are doing. Especially thinking of Heather - hope things are calming down for you.