Weekly Chat Sunday 26th June

We are still sitting in the garden, lovely sunshine all this afternoon, but getting hotter by the minute...   Must go do some more weeding, and then we're off to make Raspberry Jam.

Hey, folks. Get ready to duck!

Tomorrow, an asteroid will make an extremely close pass by Earth. The small asteroid has been named "2011 MD". According to NASA, it poses no threat to our planet. Asteroid 2011 MD will make its closest approach at 1:14 p.m. EDT (U.S.) and 17.14 GMT. I think that will be 6:14 p.m. Loch Garten time. (AQ: I don't know about Oz.) At its closest point, the asteroid will be over the coast of Antarctica.

On the incoming trajectory leg, the asteroid will travel outside of our ring of man-made satellites, but on the outgoing leg, it will travel well inside the satellite ring.

Space.com report     Astronomy Magazine report     Telegraph (U.K) report 

Asteroid 2011 MD poses no danger to Earth, but here's my concern: This asteroid wasn't discovered until Wednesday, 22 June. What if it had been a little bigger and destined for impact? We would have had only a 5-day warning. That amount of time would have left very little opportunity for defensive or preparatory measures.

Hope everyone is having a nice Sunday. I'm off to Lindy's house for raspberry jam. :-)

Annette: There's a marathon of Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman episodes this evening. I recommend: "Is Time Travel Possible?", "What Happened Before the Beginning?", "Is There Life After Death?", "Is There an Edge to the Universe?", and "Are We Alone?". On the Science Channel. :-)

Well it's been incredibly hot here today.  I gardened at home this morning until I couldn't stand any more.  OH had gone to the allotment to spruce it up before judging on Thursday.  I nipped round to pick raspberries and strawberries.  The strawbs have almost finished but looks like loads more rasps to come.  Anyway OH spent most of the day there.  I came home to iron whilst watching the grand prix - another predictable Vettel victory.  I went outside to get washing in and hang more out just before 6 and the burn of the sun was still incredible.

Mia's not been able to get properly comfortable all day and has just settled underneath our bed!  Not sure how long she'll be there before she gets restless again.  OH will take her out for another walk later when it's cooled a little - hopefully.

Have changed the quilt today for the really thin one so that probably means the weather will change.  I have to say though this is too hot for me as I can't do what I want to do outside and is certainly too hot for pets.

Still 28c here and Hamish does not know what to do with himself. He has been everywhere to try and keep cool including digging up the gravel to reach cool earth underneath.

I have been putting out extra water for my Jackdaws.....also been talking nicely to my grass seed patches and giving them drinks too. I have not gone to the extent of 'keep off the grass' signs though, but have ones saying 'area re-seeded'.....which has attracted some comments....the area is open plan, cars and grass sometimes don't mix.

Very quiet on here this evening - by the sound of it a lot of you are enjoying/suffering the heat. Here in Inverness, heavy rain this morning, dull but warmer this afternoon, 16 celsius at present but we have not really seen the sun today. Brother in Brittany reports 42 degrees this afternoon and 29 this evening. They have retreated inside most of the day, except for a wee while lying in hammocks under some trees.

http://www.flickr.com/account If anyone wants to look at my pics this is the link. It goes to my account and you have to click on YOU at the top to get the pics up. Not sure how to do a shortcut.             

 One last look in before we are off in the morning at 5.30am.

AQ - loved your pics and in fact have put some of my own on. Never thought it would be so easy.

Alan - very interesting video of osprey in rain, seems to show that they don't mind it.

Still very warm and humid down here.

See from Stephanie's blog that they hope to ring/tag by the end of this coming week. Will have to catch up on the news when I get back.

Definitely signing off now,see you all in a weeks time.     God Bless.

Just popping in to say we are okay - just had a muddled and fairly busy day - and will probably have a day out tomorrow depending on weather.

The internet has many good things and not a few bad things about it as it allows us to learn things that we would otherwise be unaware of.

I have just leaned that a person who I shared a laboratory with for three years passed away last November.

It really comes as quite a shock as he seemed much too young to die.

His name was Hamish and I dare say that he influenced me quite a bit. Early  on in my PhD I found a compound X which caused great excitement at the time however it did not reappear later. Indeed  I began to feel that  I wished  I had never heard of compound X.

Anyway at a later date Compound X reappeared. I did not tell anyone but cleaned it up and put it in for every concievable test before going off on holiday.

When I came back Hamish and I sat down and went throught the evidence piece by piece. Eventually we came to a suggestion which I quickly proved to be correct. Indeed compound X was not at all interesting. Still it represented a lovely exercise  in research.

I must say I have never been as aware of  how finite life is until now.

There are some lovely tributes to him here.