Hallo all. It's a brand new week!
Margobird, and Cirrus and Gary, too: Thank you for your kind comments regarding my house repairs. I didn't mean to whine. It does make me angry that people like you, Margobird, and my Dad, who have worked so hard all of your lives, don't have more security and reward. Thanks again for your encouragement!
Thanks Margobird, I'm flipping between the Peregrine in Lincoln and at Derby Cathedral as well. =O)
I know it's a bad deal, Annette. It's almost as if they want to lose customers. I've got to change providers, it's just all the upheaval involved, changing e-mail address etc.
I live in a semi-rural location which doesn't have cable, so I don't have that option.
There are very few providers here that offer "real" unlimited use. in fact my present contract advertised unlimited downloads (with the fair usage policy in very small print at the end).
Oh and sorry for the dalays in replying - they haven't actually increased the speed yet, they've promised to do that "in the next seven days"!
Sandy - grim GRIM. Time for a change indeed! And anyway, one HAS to be logged on permanently to the nest (any nest) to hear the background action so one can rush in and look! I personally couldn't bear to have to keep 'going online' to take a look every 20 minutes or something (is that what you meant? - TRIPLE grim :( )
Annette, you must invite me over for coffee sometime - I'd love to check your tiles out. And you know how to do coffee in the good ole US of A. Wot's Shaker style ? Quakers? Still wouldn't know the style (I live under a stone, sorry )
Diane - you weren't whining dear ! We all need to let off steam from time to time it's what stops us from jumping off a bridge :( :) :) Get it out of the system say I, instead of letting it 'fester' inside of us.
It was somehow more lonely than usual walking home from work in the dark - I have an expression for particularly dark evenings/nights, I say, 'it's raining dark'. Well, it was tonight. And I'm quite happy for Rothes and Mallachie to stay put a while. It's so good of Alice to keep bothering, isn't it..
Yes indeed Cirrus. Very good of Alice to input data in between training volunteers and wielding chainsaws (well at least it's not leafblowers). Shaker style is very simple: Plain door with plain wood trim around recessed panel. I'll take photos when done. Do you take cream and sugar? .... Your walk home sounds very reflective - are you in the country?
Cirrus, yes that's exactly what I have had to do. Before I did the same as you, leave them on with the sound up and only rush to the PC when the action started! No more of that I'm afraid. GRIM INDEED!
No indeedie Annette: Neither cream nor sugar - a strong blend (5) with semi skimmed milk. I like cold milk in my coffee but not cream (hence the semi skim) UNLESS - the cream is actually floating (and not the polystyrene stuff from a squirty can)- it has to be the real deal. I shall look forward to the photos when your kitchen is done then.
And no indeedie to the country :( how I wish. I live in a great big city called Bristol. During the summer light hours, however, I can cut a huge corner off with mucho traffic by walking through a portion of common ground surrouded by houses. Bristol is built on hills and the portion of Bristol I walk through to and from work is high and the city proceeds downhill almost to the horizon (as it were) so looking across I can see the line of the Cotswold hills as they come to an end. When the nights close in, however, that same portion of common ground would make a great place to get mugged or worse so It's take the long way around from now on till next spring.
Oh, Sandy, the sooner you change your ISP the better. You must be ready for a season of sheer pleasure when it's nesting time again.
Roy's blog has been updated:
Red 8T looks as though he has made it to his wintering grounds in southern Senegal.
Talisman was travelling through Northamptonshire this afternoon.
I tried to post this on the appropriate thread but it's gone doolally!
Cirrus, like all of us on here I can't wait for the 2010 season to start. I'm just so pleased that, at the moment at least, all is well with all "our" ospreys.
Good morning all!! I have to go out this morning, so this is just a brief post.
It's a much clearer (and colder) morning here this morning, but cloud is starting to bank up in the east and we have been told to expect more storms overnight tonight. I'm glad so many of you have seen footage of how the dust storm affected Sydney, as that will save a lot of explanation from me. It IS the worst dust storm Sydney has experienced, but this was because the winds which usually die down at night, didn't, and the dust which is usually dropped on our side of the Great Dividing Range (Blue Mountains) was carried over and down to the coast. It's drought which allows the wind to lift the dust, and we, and those west of us, have been in drought for over 12 years. We get dust storms ahead of most thunder storms at the moment, and don't think that much about them. I've certainly become very relaxed about the amount of dust in the house! ;-) It's lovely when we get a really good bit of rain to settle the dust and wash everything clean, as well as giving the plants a much needed drink. What often happens at the moment though, is what happened here yesterday. Just a few drops of rain, not enough to register in the rain gauge, but enough to collect a lot of dust and then drop on us as mud! At least here we didn't get the hail they had in some areas close to us yesterday. There was severe damage done to the annual cherry crop in Young, about 50 klm from us.
Sandy, we have to be a lot more careful with our internet usage here than you do! On the plan I have, $80 (AUD) per month buys me 12 meg before my speed drops to a snail's pace. As a pensioner, I get a $10 discount on this. I left the streaming camera on in the background for one day, and got a warning messaage from my ISP, telling me I had used 60% of my monthly allowance. I had 3 weeks of the month to go!!!! You can bet I 'pulled my horns in' for the rest of the month!
I can't help but be skeptical about the 'genuineness' of the defence in the eagle feather case. Surely, if these feathers and headdresses are held in such reverence and respect, they would be cared for and preserved properly between ceremonies? Just how many of these feathers are required for genuine religous ceremonies vs commercial 'tourist takes'? Was this eagle prayed for, and to, before being shot with a non-traditional weapon? I'm afraid I have the feeling that this young man was caught hunting and retreated behind this defence because he could!
The same sort of thing happens here. Aboriginals are allowed to hunt native animals in their traditional ways, but this has resulted in an eco-tourism boom, where native animals are hunted specifically to show tourists how it's done, then the food is cooked and shared with the tourists. Not at all what was intended by the law allowing them to hunt traditionally!!!! A few years ago we encountered a group of young boys attempting to capture a protected (and very much endangered) echidna (spiny ant-eater). When we intervened, we were told by one 'brat' that he was aboriginal and could do what he liked with native animals. We persisted, and sent them packing, telling the boys that NOTHING gave them the right to terrorise any animal, or to subject it to the cruelty which would result in capturing it and taking it home as a pet, their stated intention. By the way, I don't think this boy had any more aboriginal blood than I have, and his companions certainly didn't, as we know theirt families!
Smiles, Jan.