Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers. I hope you all have a great day.
Do check back to last week's chat for OG's gorgeous wildflower garden pics And Lynette's pics of Dunedin & Hampton eaglets.
Linda - I love your pics of Tatton Park, especially autumn.
Alan -24 handbags!!!! Must be related to our Dau#2 who collects shoes & handbags. Me, I have one all-purpose go-everywhere shoulder bag. Plus the gold one OH gave me decades ago and saw the light of day at the weddings.
Brenda, Linda, Lynette, Joan, OG - On my first trip o/s I had a list of what to take. It helps remind me not to forget vital things like eye drops, film (nowadays it is memory cards & battery charger!). When I returned I noted what I didn’t use and now I check the amended list, pruning every trip. Why drag excess around? Invariably my room in B&Bs was on 2nd or3 rd floor. Besides I may buy things, such as jumpers - that’s my weakness. Stupid really because I knit them and the wardrobe is bursting. So, OG, I shall choose one of them. And camera almost lives in said all-purpose bag!
Joan - I heard a story of a local teacher who had 7 children in her class named "Amy" but all spelled differently.
Meant to say Dibnib, gorgeous azalea
OG - glad you enjoyed your evening and that you have got your son back on track. Enjoy your break.
EJ has just had a stretch and egg looking session but is settling down again.
http://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/things-to-do/wildlife-webcams/loch-of-lowes/
RSPB Giving Nature a Home
Before I rush off to try to keep up with posts; here's a very clever video (involves dogs).
www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=EVwlMVYqMu4&vq=medium#t=125
Morning/evening all: Assume everyone survived Friday, 13th and that all the Saturday departers are packed and ready to go - see you all, as Sheila said "On the other side." :-)
Kate2: Feel free to un-lurk anytime (not all of us have wonderful osprey knowledge!) :-)
Lindybird: Glad you're feeling better. Great that your friend has good reason to be optimistic! When Old Age knocks at the door, best thing to do is not answer.
Margobird: How lovely to have Billie on your lap - she must be so happy to have found such a welcoming home. Will someone be looking in on her while you're gone.
SheilaFE: Day continued hectic - right after I last posted, the garage door went off its tracks (back on by lunchtime!) Rose lady visited Mottisfont, Kiftsgate, Sisley and others - she also met with Peter Beales.
OG: Hope son is crisis-free for a few days. It doesn't help when the worry keeps you awake (been there, done that). :-( Grandson just experienced similar OMG moment when his payday schedule changed.
Cirrus: Thanks for insisting that we all have a good time away; I'll try to do my part. :-)
Alicat: Sounds like you're making good progress with Bobbie.
dibnlib: Gorgeous azalea!
Lynette: Very cute photo of Robin and Mr. B.
Didn't get a lot done today so will be zooming around tomorrow. Guess it'll be quiet around here next week - no chat page after the 16th (boo!) and many of us away. Still, I'll start the Weekly Chat as usual and see what develops. Take care everyone.
Hello Everyone; Sunny again, here, but there is a cold wind so shall need my coat on to go out shopping, shortly.
Will have a smile on my face all day thinking about the hilarious video that Annette has posted, above. Do watch it, everyone! Thanks, Annette. Glad to hear that your day was not too terrible afterwards, except for the garage door incident.
Yesterday, unbelievably, I found the usb cable which connects my camera to the pc - typically, I was looking for something else entirely and this thing appeared which I have been searching for, for several months now. (I got a new printer, and the memory card slot does not transfer the pics to my pc automatically any more) So straightaway I scanned in my latest pictures - but now of course I have to get them shrunk before I can put them on here, they never seem to work unless I do something to them first. The usual site I use to shrink them seems to be coming up with errors, so I may have to play about for a while before you see any more pics from me! <sigh>
Lovely pic of the azaleas, dibnlib- ours are just coming out too.
Thanks to Lynette for the nice pics of the Robin and Blackbird.
Sorry, to Trish and to Alicat - I seem to have got your dog stories mixed up! not suprising when there has been so much on here lately. I dread any dog looking aggressively at ours, as although he is a pussycat at home, he will take on any dog which looks at him in that way, and we have to have him on a lead to drag him away (he was a rescued dog so does not have proper manners unfortunately).
Hope that Everyone going off today has made a good start to their hols, and that those going tomorrow are all packed and ready! Thanks again to Annette, for saying that she will start off the Weekly chat as usual, then we will have to come on here on Wednesday or Thursday with our fingers crossed that we can pick things up again with our wonderful Group.
Now I am really confused! We usually have a cooked Sunday breakfast. Decided that, missing it tomorrow to set off, we should have it today – so difficult to know what day of the week it is! Must be “packing day” – OH is outside preparing the car.
Liz – good to “see” you here again after what seems like a long time. Pleased you got to LG with your friends – and glad you saw Vernon the Vole – he is rather cute! Here's one of my photos of him:
Annette – big laughs at the “Dogs” video – very clever! Sorry garage door came off the tracks again to continue your bad morning!! Take care zooming today, and have safe journeys and a great time in AZ with GD and GGD! Thanks for saying you will start a new week before the thread disappears into cyberspace! Still frightening news from Missouri re Mississippi floods – just can’t imagine being told “gather up your valuables and think where to go, while we open the floodgates and inundate your land and homes”! And must be horrible in New Orleans wondering whether the process will work, with the floods there so fresh in their memories.
Lindy – sorry you have more trouble transferring photos. Mine work fine using SD slot on printer – but I do know where my USB cable is, just in case – though I think I would have to install my Canon software for that – which is still sitting in it’s box!
We now have a Carrion Crow making a daily visit! He has learned the correct angle of approach to land on one of the feeding trays, but more regulary he seems to come here for his daily drink!
Time for a coffee, then look at packing lists!
Ospreys Rule OK, but Goldfinches come a close second!
Just been pondering the wonder of Ospreys! Was watching the Caerlaverock nest. AW came in and booted out the female again - "my turn on the eggs, you can go catch your own fish"! I looked at him and was thinking how such a little egg down the Solway at Wigtown, the chick which hatched in 2004, could find his way to Africa, come to Caerlaverock two years later and every year since, and sit there, on his eggs, such a handsome bird! I knew all this already, of course, but somehow, because I was thinking about it, I saw it all afresh - wonderful!
Hello everyone. The day began with wall to wall blue sky and sunshine, but now the bigger white and grey clouds are heading from the NW. What? NW, well it looks like it. I haven't been out yet, but it doesn't look warm. OH has been out in the garden with his big lens and got a super photo of a buzzard flying overhead. A few years ago we had swallows nesting in our small wood hole - an integral part, but separate from our double garage which was intended to house a generator. We never got round to installing one, but keep wood in it instead. OH tempted them by putting up an artificial nest, but they chose to make heir own next to it! They laid eggs and chicks fledged. Sadly they didn't return, but our nearest neighbours both have big barns (one a working farm barn) and they both have nests, with more than one in each. Recently we have had a pair of swallows flying around the house and popping into the garage when we forget to close the doors, and ... into the wood hole. Here's hoping they decide to take up residence. I guess they could be a young pair seeking new territory.
Liz LFW Glad you and your friends had a good time at LG. PIty you missed the excitement though! Are they already osprey lovers, or have you converted them? Does it take you long to drive from home to LG?
Annete I just loved the eating dogs. What a hoot! Friday 13 was fine for me. I popped down to see my SiL whose birthday was on 12 May. She and a friend had the day at a spa to celebrate and thoroughly enjoyed the pamper. Annoyingly she has also lost over a stone in weight since New Year!! I am jealous. Meanwhile my bro has been fishing on the Esk in Scotland (isn't there more than one Esk? so I'm not sure where he is!!) .
I'm not sure where Sisley is (although I see there is an organisation called Sisly which arranges garden tours), but perhaps it is a mix of RHS Wisley and Sissinghurst!! Both have magnificent gardens! I have not been to Kiftsgate, but it is on a to do list. Kiftsgate is also the name of a wonderful, rampant rose, which large heads of small white flowers. It is very vigorous and can reach 10metres and it difficult to control. Sadly I don't really have the height anyway in the garden through which it could clamber. I am sure it also has a wonderful scent - Peter Beale also produces them!
Lindybird We have a USB card reader that you insert the card into and then put it in the computer (note the technical terminology!!). We have a variety of cameras, from small pocket to a medium, to OH's smart SLR digital with a variety of lenses and the reader can cope with any that the laptops cannot take direct. I have no idea how to shrink photos! If I want to send copies to friends I do it through Picasa (free software which I think is part of Google) and this automatically reduces the size. For putting them on here I snip the photo, as I do the screen shots of the nest, save them to file and insert on the blog.
Alicat you and Bobbie are clearly getting on well together.
Shopping and ironing on the agenda. Mmmm isn't there an important foottie match as well this afternoon, oh and what about Eurovision tonight! Will Blue win. Will Jedward take top spot. What a laugh. Have a good day, and safe journey to those travelling.
Birdie's DU Summaries 2018 https://www.imagicat.com/
Please someone else (I've asked ) make a friend of Pharazon (I'm the only one so far)
Bye for now ! Hugs all round
Cirrus have just done so!
Your comments about the Caerlaverock birds is so true. I think that is why I will be over the moon if any of LG tagged chicks are seen in Scotland for the first time. I continue to say, they are amazing. But then so are all the small birds who do the same journey, the Arctic tern which travel between the Arctic and the Antarctic, the swallow and all those LBJs that I just cannot identify!
Annette - hilarious video.
Dibnlib - what a beautiful azalea. I want to improve our garden this summer. It did used to be quite nice until we got Mia! When she was a pup she dug holes in the grass and dug up or chewed a lot of plants - little treasure. Consquently we haven't tried to re-plant much yet but I think it may hopefully be ok now.
Very restless night. I think it must have been the tuna that gave Mia tummy ache. OH out with her early hours, me about 5am and she's still not right. She does have such a sensitive stomach. At least she tells us though when she needs to go.
Caught up with Chris Packham last night. He does fit a lot of info in to his programmes. I wasn't too keen on him when he first took over on Spring / Autumnwatch but he has grown on me.
Quite blowy here today but no rain as yet. Got 2 lots of washing out so I hope it dries before the birds or the rain get to it.