Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 3 March 2024

HAPPY NEW WEEK and HAPPY MARCH!

I hope everyone has a good week!

Folks in my region are shaking their heads in disbelief. We've been having stretches of bizarre, record-breaking warmth here (over 73F or 22.7C). Very strange for the last week of February.

The migrating birds are all returning early. The beautiful Sandhill Cranes began to reach Indiana on February 1, and twice as many as normal have arrived here. Even the songbirds are already appearing.

Love and hugs to everyone.

  • Congratulations OG on responding to multiple posts on different topics!!  

  • Well, I don't know how the test photo materialised - it came and went then came back again, and still appears to be there - unless it is only myself that can see it!  I couldn't find a bar such as LINDA mentioned, but I just tried a number of icons I could see till one of them showed me the words "image file" and then the chance to "upload" - so maybe I have it now!  Monday today, so cleaners this afternoon.  Sun is shining and OH has successfully booked a trip to the "tip" on Thursday - he's very pleased with himself having dug out all the old rhubarb plants yesterday for disposal.  SO, maybe the veg patch will get a chance to produce salads and carrots this year - and we are going to try to return to runner beans as I have missed them so.

  • I couldn't find a bar such as LINDA mentioned,

    Here is the Bar , that shows when you click reply, ( same as previous , so click INSERT and you will see, empty box ,with greyed out word 'UPLOAD 'at the bottom) 

    click the word UPLOAD and takes you to your files for you to select what you want to post.

     

  • OG - gosh. Do you have to book to go to the tip? We can just turn up. It says you need ID to prove you live in the area but no one has ever asked me for any! 
    I hope your veg patch materialises and that you get your runner beans.

    It’s a lovely morning here. It was frosty early on with sun and blue sky. It is French this afternoon. It soon comes round. The topic is countries other than France where French is spoken. The homework was to write about your experiences if you had been to one. I hadn’t. I have been to Canada but not Quebec, so I wrote a bit about watching the French TV where I was staying and not being able to understand the accent!!!! 

  • We heard our first woodpecker of Spring this morning......how lovely.

  • Wonderful to hear of your returning  Cranes and songbirds.  Happy March to you too Diane.  I still have  5 male and 3 female Black birds visiting my garden several times a  day. They line up for their breakfast sultanas (it's been cold here over several days just when we - well, me- were hoping that Spring was really here.)  The  Wetland Trusts over here have had a Crane project and now we too have Cranes nesting  and raising young over here. Hope you have the chance  to see the total eclipse of the sun the US will be experiencing in Aprill 

  • SUNNY KATE – my ancient mind did not identify the row of icons as a bar – so thanks for clarification – and that is how I did it.  I agree with LINDA that it is easier than previous!

    RUSTY – booking at the tip started during worst of covid and they decided to keep it that way to avoid queues out onto the road.  It is easy to do – online.  We are awaiting a new “general grey wheelie bin” as our wheels came off a month ago!  Two weeks ago we used it without wheels and did not get a refusal from the operatives.  (General collection is fortnightly here, with [blue] paper and [red] tins and plastic in the two weeks between)

    DIBNLIB – lucky you, having a visit from Woodpecker.  We are still inundated with Goldfinches.

    CIRRUS – good to “see” you!

    This should be the last night on the old mattresses – my back will be grateful to be comfortable at last!

     

     

  • I hope you will be pleased with the new mattress OG. I seem to remember that you have waited some time for it.

    Rusty, I hope the French afternoon went well.

    Your £35 payment for the green waste bin is a bargain! In my neck of the woods it costs £84, or £63 for over 75 years.

    Good to hear the news of returning birds in various places. Last year we had some doves nesting nearby, and stopping off on our fence with twigs in their beaks. I haven't seen them this year yet.

  • Hope this comes out at the end (at present) of our thread. OG - Glad you seem to have sussed out how to put on your pictures- I'm sorry I wasn't more detailed in my description but I was busy at the time. We can go to the tip when we like, but yes, sometimes the queue does stretch out into the road and causes disruption. We pay £56 a year now to have our green bin emptied, but of course some people can't/won't pay it, and so there will be more fly tipping in nearby hedgerows.

    It's been very sunny here today, and we've almost literally watched the buds opening on nearby magnolias. Our daffodils are nodding cheerfully on our roadside hedge. The birds are very active again. I put up my new bird feeder and they ignored it for two days, then at lunchtime today I saw a bluetit investigating. Hopefully the squirrels can now be defeated!

    I got out our suitcases, as we are off on our annual break to The Canaries in a week or so. My OH is excited, but I haven't told him that I just so hate the airport experience nowadays  and the sitting on a plane for hours. He just loves going, and I will be fine when we get there.