Welcome to another week. Do check back lest you miss the pics of many and varied birds plus a certain Toffee. And lots of news of course. Diane had another thunderstorm.
Diane - Uncontrollable children in olden days. Children were sent out to "service" as young as 10. Of course they ran away, thus breaking "Masters & Servants Act". Probably broke other laws as humans do. There were probationary school from which they also ran away. I found some twigs on my family tree who were regularly in trouble with the law - for playing the wicked game of two-up in pubs! Their 13 year old brother went one better (ahem), he broke into a school.
Patriciat - So sorry your OH has fallen again. Don’t worry about moaning to us. We do understand. I’m sending blue skies and healing thoughts to your house.
Our spring bulbs are appearing - confused by the unseasonal rain a few weeks ago. Poor things, there’s another possible 3 weeks of hot weather (34C so far today) and winter rains are not usual until May.
Whoo hoo. Less than 3 weeks to OR Day (Osprey Return day). I wonder what soap opera saga they have for us this year!
New farm shop was excellent – actually opened first day yesterday, so very busy. Didn’t really need to buy, so has a good look round for future reference and only bought 4 lovely looking treacle scones. It will be a good place to source our occasional Galloway beef without risking the farm track to previous supplier, and there is a fish man there three days a week too. Lots of other meats, pies etc, fresh veg, cheese, deli - in fact you could live just from the one shop! Had a very nice salad lunch there too, cooked meals looked good – and very good prices.
Got most of what we wanted at garden centre – tomato grow-bags and food, ericaceous compost and little bits and pieces – as well as a special offer (under half price) pack of mealworms for the Robin!
Now cooking dinner while OH is unloading car – back later with replies.
Ospreys Rule OK, but Goldfinches come a close second!
PATRICIAT these small alterations should help, but I am assuming that the real problem is OH keeping his balance when getting around the house. Maybe the physio can help with this though maybe you have been down this road before. You will be very hard pushed to find boring black shoes at Rogersons. You could try googling art and el naturista which are 2 of the brands they stock, but it might put you off as some of the shoes are not for everyone. That is why it is worth coming into town to see the huge and varied range that the shop stocks.
Mentioned a great lunch at cafe 1 . I had haggis with potato scone, followed by the most delish beer battered haddock with pea puree and OH had chicken liver pate followed by Cafe 1s own sausages. It was £10 for 2 courses. When I say their own sausages, they really are from start to finish. They now have their own farm and breed Holly House cattle and sheep and have just introduced their own pigs. Chatting to Norman I know these animals are very well looked after in order to get the best meat on the market. We mentioned the very good service as well and he was telling us that one of his waitresses is a recently qualified speech therapist unable to get a job because of the recession and cut backs in the NHS. What a shame that this delightful young lady cannot get a job in her chosen career after 4 years studying. She is working as a volunteer in learning disabilities speech therapy but needs must and she works at cafe 1 to earn some pennies. OK having a rant!!!
Lynette : Here is the link to the Shandy Point nest. There has been at least one osprey there since I started watching earlier. I cant get this cam to work using my AOL browser but it is ok using IE. This is the nest that the GHO s used last year and prevented the ospreys nesting there. Apparently the GHO s are using the new nesting platform built for the ospreys this time.
http://home.roadrunner.com/~ospreynest/autoupdate.htm
Brenda – sorry about Thursday power cut. Hope you enjoyed Friday lunch out.
Dianne – I read about Wisconsin demo troubles – is your unpopular state legislation related?
AQ – great Friday Smiles! “Foresight” was my Grannie’s saying, “Stamina” was my Dad’s” but I don’t remember Mum using any of them – her own favourite was “Take that look off your face” – how would you classify that? Genetic Modification?
Annette – Apple Cake sounds good! I hope that unidentified rose turns out a beauty. Your daughter must have been very worried for you, hearing the inaccurate news report in the night – and I’m sorry she wasn’t sleeping.
Agree with all that was said – that Tsunami is horrific – could it be the Solar Flares which are affecting the earth’s plates? Thankful it’s power was much reduced when it reached other Pacific land masses.
Joan – sounds like windy weather was worse with you than us. We saw a heavy snow warning on way into Dumfries this morning, but have only had a few flurries after coming home, and nothing lying. Son in Grantown has about 2.5cm, but while talking on phone he saw a snow plough come into town – probably been clearing snow over Dava. I shall be disposing of a few plants this year – some which only just survived last year have suffered again, and I don’t really want to spend lots of time nursing them back to health if they aren’t getting a chance to return to better condition. I don’t know if I’ll buy anything new – probably just spread some of the overcrowded plants.
Alan – thanks for all your Bird updates.
Terry – enjoy your big concert tomorrow. Pleased your OH is safe home from the south.
Lynette – everything fully decided fro next weekend now – looking forward to it, especially Roy Dennis!
Dibnlib – well done with the longer walk with Dillon – and walking to lunch too. Lunch sounds good!
Patricia – do watch that cough doesn’t turn into something nasty! OT suggestions sound helpful – I hope you can get those things in place without too much trouble or expense, and that Physio will help too, with suggestions of how to get up out of chair, right way to walk etc.
Alicat – you have done so well with your baby fish. Our fish are still in the temporary tank in the dining room, and will return to their usual (now fully-cleaned) tank after the weekend away next week, when it has acclimatised. What are yours? (Sorry if you have said before and I forgot). Ours are Fancy male Guppies and three different kinds of Coydoras, one of whom is about nine or ten years old!
Thinking about an early night – OH noticed I was “flagging” at about 3pm, so I’ve done well carrying on this far!
Evening OG they are cherry barbs we had guppies in our other tank but another type of fish Buenos Aires bit their tails off and they died we was hoping to have some in this with the two cherry barbs we bought not expecting for them to have any young because when we had some in the other tank before they got their tails bit off as well they didn't have any not that we noticed
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Chloe, Terry, Alan, Joan, and all: Here's a map that shows the current aurora activity in the northern hemisphere. I confess, I had to stare at it for a minute before it made sense to me. http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/pmap/pmapN.html
Evening all: Very tired although had lovely lunch with some friends today where we nattered until 4 p.m.!! Light dinner for me and - oh guilt trip! - frozen dinner for OH. Tsunami was a virtual non-event for our area, though there was harbor damage in three coastal towns farther north. And, of course, there's always someone who ignores warnings and ends up - sadly - dead, which is what happened to a young man who was attempting to photograph the waves and got washed away. Videos from Japan are mind-boggling. I keep forgetting that Japan is situated at the convergence of three geological plates, which must make it especially vulnerable... Apparently this quake moved the larger of the islands 8 feet to the East!! Some power, eh?
Read all the posts - thanks everyone for all your news. I'm about to topple into bed. Have a good Saturday.
Alicat – have you got rid of the fish which did the tail-biting? Is that the tank where you are going to put the extra 16 Cherry Barb babies?! We have had a few Guppies die recently, but no obvious single cause. We shall add some more when we have these safely back in the lounge – we then keep the second tank spare, no longer have them permanently in two rooms.
Annette – eight foot movement – that’s a lot in geological terms! Sorry about the young Californian who died while taking photos – I wonder what he thought the warnings were for? I hope you are catching up on sleep and wake refreshed for a good weekend.
Just been watching the awful scenes from Japan. It must have been terrifying. I can’t imagine a wall of water moving so fast. We saw boats smashing in Santa Cruz, I think they said. BTW thanks for your concern, Diane, but Aussieland was sort of protected by New Guinea & the islands to our north. Anyway Adelaide is on a south-facing gulf and Wattle in NSW is inland.
Patricia, Wendy, Alan, Brenda, Margo, Annette, Lynette, Diane, Joan & anyone I’ve missed - You are very reassuring about my speedy decision re holiday. Obviously you are not of the "Marry in haste, repent at leisure" ilk. LOLOG - I fly via Singapore to Frankfurt, arriving 2 days early to allow my luggage to catch up!! The tour starts in Mainz, then on to Black Forest, Munich, Nuremberg, Rothenburg, Dresden, ending in Berlin. There is a day trip from Munich to Ludwig’s castle. I shall give that a miss as it is a lot of walking & I saw it in 1998. Instead I shall potter around Munich city centre. I have an extra day in Berlin and then fly to Vienna before returning home. Hm, Alan, my views of ospreys will be rather rare as I am mostly in cities or in the bus haring along motorways. One can hope.OG - My mother too used to say "And you can take that look off your face".Annette - I have been finding the Wallender books at my library. Mental gymnastics required as I haven’t found them in order.
Not sure what happened to today (it's now 7.30 pm). Maybe two very lengthy phone calls from two friends may have something to do with the missing hours. Plus me messing around with my photos, cropping, shrinking. And now, nothing, absolutely nothing, worth watching on TV. No fair, she cries.
Morning AQ, nice to catch you on here. Well done on your Germany trip - I tend not to plan too far in advance (in case I get a better offer LOL) and I quite like last minute, until I find the opportunity has passed me by. Have a great time!
My mother used to "I knew that would happen" and I, as a stroppy teenager, would reply "Well why didn't you say in time to stop it then?"
Terry in Cumbria