HAPPY NEW WEEK!
I hope everyone has a good week.
I don't have any wildlife stories to share this week. We've had snow and 60 mph winds last night, and tonight we've been warned of dangerous arctic cold settling in. The "feels like" temperature (sub-zero temp plus wind chill) is predicted to be near 25 below zero Fahrenheit. That's 32 below zero Celcius. All of the wildlife have gone to their burrows, nests, and other shelter to try to stay warm. We've been warned that power outages are possible, and the extreme cold will stay around through the week. I'm going to read the novel "Project Hail Mary", which I've had for awhile but haven't read yet. I bought a second arctic sleeping bag for the bed and also some thick, fleece slipper socks and some flip-top gloves.
Hugs to all of you!
Pat O said:But low 30s, when compared to our present minus 3, sounds like 'sizzling'
CHOL:):) agree..
Thanks AQ for reminder Cycle Tour, with so much else going o without OH I completely forgot, so will have to record for later.x
RUSTY and PAT O: Thank you for your concern about our political situation here in the US. I appreciate it. I have resigned myself to the reality that: * The US has been moving toward fascism for some time. * Trump will win the Republican nomination (unless he goes to prison or his health fails). * All the polling indicates that Biden can't defeat him. * Trump will choose Tucker Carlson, J.D. Vance, or another New Right figure for his running mate. So this time as president, he will not have people around him who will try to mitigate his actions. * Trump will take unprecedented steps to dismantle democracy. If his health fails, other fascists will pursue his agenda. * If civil unrest erupts, the area where I live will be dangerous. I admit that I'm afraid, and I will be following the news daily so I can make the best decisions for me.
I'm aware that I left off my travelogue I was posting of our last cruise, as we approached the festive season. I'll try now to catch up, before I forget what I was going to say! When I last wrote, we had left Ireland behind and were girding our loins so to speak, to cross the Bay of Biscay which is never calm at the best of times. We had to face the remains of Storm Babet which had already delayed us and put us off course. It was a rough couple of days during which we tried hard to ignore the rocking of the ship. My OH felt worse than I, and gritted his teeth. Sometimes we didn't want to bother with our evening meal, but made ourselves go, as a distraction. One night we were supposed to have a Formal Evening and dress up, but instead we went to the cafeteria and picked at a bit of something instead :-( Eventually, we were relieved to find one morning that we were approaching land, and it had calmed- we had reached Vigo, a Spanish Port not on our original itinerary.
Vigo is a very important and vibrant place. It has grown, said our guide on our coach tour, so much that it has almost doubled in size in the last ten years. They were already a port when the new idea of container ships was invented: this was seized upon and invested in, and now its a very main European port and is still growing and flourishing.
We drove past the many docks and container cranes and I wondered if everything we saw would be so industrial, but it was interesting, and very well described by our guide who had lived there all of his life. First, he took us to a high place behind the city - this picture (taken in the rain) is of a famous bay where their original industry was born: farming shellfish. In the Bay were hundreds and hundreds of locations of the ropes put out to encourage shellfish to grow and be harvested. These were then sold all over Europe and were much prized as are of high quality. He was very proud to have been born in one of the small communities near the city where his family made a living from this. We left the bus and stood in the rain to admire the view!
This church towered above us on the highest point of the mini mountain we were on. If we had had more time, he said, we could have gone in as it was very old and famous. I forget the name of it now, sadly. But it looked much loved, with colourful shrubs planted around it.