Weekly Chat, Sunday April 10, 2011

Margo - how fortunate you were to be able to go and hear Chris Packham give a talk.  I envy you that.

Lindy - simply STUNNING pics !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thank you for those

Cirrus  as you know there are people who do have a problem with Chris Packham and his views on certain things.  All I can say is go and see him and you will certainly understand his way of looking at things regarding conservation.  We are really hoping he will do another talk in the future.

Afternoon all,

George : Sorry you are still not feeling well. Hope you will feel better soon. Spring is well advanced here now with the blossoms beginning to fall from the cherry trees and my Choisya bushes coming into flower.

Linda : Lovely holiday snaps and such an amazing deserted beach.

Everyone else thanks for the chat etc. I am doing some shed painting in the garden so I had better get on with it. 

jsb I loved your determination to id Red 8T.  The programme was brilliant, it is so wonderful to see these birds out fishing, which of course we don't witness from here.  I think some of it was a bit misleading.  I understood that LG has always been deemed too dark to enable the ospreys to fish, too peaty, rather than a lack of fish, but perhaps the wrong type are there.  The nest wasn't 'our' nest with the loch in the background.  I assume it was a Rothiemurchus nest, but don't know.  Oh, and wasn't 'Ratty' the most delightful of creatures!

George I do hope you will soon feel much better.  I think that being outdoors at this time of year is in itself a good tonic.  Just take your time.

Linda brill holiday photos, particularly the beach.  Reminded me of a Scottish beach!

Alan so glad to hear that your Choysia survived the ravages of the winter.  I have cut mine back by a good third, but as yet there is no sign of anything about to sprout.  Some of the other plants I have given up on and cut to base are sprouting!  Sod's Law.  Good luck with the Man's Job.

Well done Lynette on the cycling.  I do venture out occasionally, but never more than 20 miles - and there has to be a pub half way round.  We occasionally do a 8.5ml round, most of which is on the flat.  That's OK, but the last 1.5miles is always uphill wherever we go, which is fine on the outward journey, but not coming home when I' tired!

Went to the chiropractor this morning to discuss my painful knee.  She pressed and then massaged two or three 'trigger' points, which certainly triggered me to yell 'ouch'.  Lots of tight muscles in both my back and my knee, one might have started the other, but she isn't sure.  Needless to say she recommended further work!  I am certainly aware of tight muscles in my back, but it is so difficult to undo it.

EJ has just stood up for a stretch.  I love the way she draws her talons in as she gently comes forward to cover the egg again.  Wind seems to be getting up again, her tail feather keep being blown up.

Just looking at the Decorah eagles and the 3 eaglets all look very healthy but it sounds as though they are sitting in very high winds.

Just looking at the Decorah eagles and the 3 eaglets all look very healthy but it sounds as though they are sitting in very high winds.

Next Friday, 22 April at11.00am the BBC Radio 4 has a programme on the Harpy Eagle;  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010fc06  It could of course be a radio version of what I seem to recall was a TV programme sometime last year.

Thanks SheilaFE will listen to that.  Saw the TV programme about it last year.

Sorry pain is being inflicted on you to cure pain.  Take it easy.

Thanks Margo.  I will take it easy.  It's OK wandering around the house or doing some gardening.  The problem seems to be walking from A to B and back again!

Cirrus: There are now various recorders/boxes for Freeview or Satellite, Freesat, Sky, and Virgin that can record  TV in SD or HD. The one I have can also play bluray discs and DVDs, some limited internet content and iPlayer has recently been added to the menu choice. If there is one 'magic' thing it does, which makes it more expensive, is that it can copy from the hard drive onto a blank bluray disc any HDTV programme, just as it was transmitted without any picture loss at all, for archive purposes. If you want to save money, it also copies onto DVD which works out cheaper. You can also get bluray players that cannot record, but do play wonderful content, of nature films, for example, and they are much cheaper, with some having brilliant internet functionality, such as iPlayer or direct streaming of movies off the internet. The latter, is not free of course, but good to have on a winter's evening, when there nothing much of interest on TV. Some of these devices are WiFi, so you don't have to bother with cables all over the place. Lastly for those with deep pockets, you can add cinema sound, to have the sound effects at their most realistic. Even 3D TV has emerged over the horizon, but I would prefer to wait until the products have become more established.

However, I think the future will give us more on demand TV, movies and so on, but the sticking point is the ability of the broadband network to cope with the demands being placed upon it.