Hallo all. It's a brand new week!
Gary : He has 3 or 4 blankets which we wash in rotation. I guess he would probably drag them out one after another and leave them in a heap then wonder why there is none in his basket. He never drags them in to the house always out.
Afternoon all.
Lindybird, that saying about smile is great, must remeber that one.
Diane, I totally agree with You about Annettes penmanship.
Caerann, are You sure that Your mothers(?) ancestors came from Sweden and not Finland? Because when I saw our photo, I thought that You and I could be distant cousins :)
Alan, thanks to the IR, that webcamera in Seili Island is working again
Gary, what kind of horses You have, racinghorses?
my photos in flickr
Glad to be of assistance Auntie. FAB
Morning all: Still no update on GE. :-( Maybe we need IR to check things out!
Caerann: Thanks for that link. I note that most of the reporting was from the US NE with one from Corpus Christi, Texas. Texas is huge for birding enthusiasts and the Texas Parks & Wildlife folks have a fabulous website http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/wildlife_trails/coastal/. And yes, I've got the Ken Burns special on the National Parks firmly fixed on my "things to watch" list! The Grand Tetons (named by a Frenchman I believe after a part of the female anatomy!) are geographically/geologically impressive, as are most of the Western parks. I've always wanted to take off in an RV and just spend months cruising the Western states. Here's a link to the Old Faithful live webcam in Yellowstone National Park. You need WIndows Media Player. Old Faithful "goes off" every 90??? minutes and there's a place on the site that tells you when the next one is due, but you can also tell by the crowds that start gathering on the viewing platform on the live webcam http://www.nps.gov/yell/photosmultimedia/yellowstonelive.htm.
AQ: Love old cemeteries - in the Gold Country in the Sierra Nevada foothills, you can see graves of people from all over the world who came during the California Gold Rush. New Orleans has lots of graves of French families wiped out by yellow fever outbreaks. Such history! So many stories buried there. I'd love to read about what happened to the convicts who got deported. Can you suggest any books with "people" stories, AQ? I also love to read books/diaries of the people who crossed the US in wagon trains. One woman wrote how the noise of thousands of buffalo passing by their camp - like constant thunder - kept everyone awake one night.
Alan: I've found the shopping mission is easier on weekdays when everyone else is at work. That's funny about Hamish dragging blankets out, but not back in. Makes you wonder about the mental process (if any). What makes a dog walk "successful" as opposed to "unsuccessful." And maybe I don't want to know. :-) Didn't get too far into the conkers site since I noticed the Bartlett Tree Expert sponsorship. They're the folks who "do" our Chinese Elm - a huge tree that's got cables and braces due to splits in one branch and needs special attention every year or two. They're due next month. Do let us know if conkers keep spiders away, but even then, not sure where I'd find conkers around here.
Gary: Maybe they don't let you bring your own conker for fear of contestants "enhancing" their conkers with weights or special coatings. Wonder what a conker on steroids would look like. :-)
Diane: Have not/do not plan to write a book. Sounds worse than giving birth from what I hear!
Hi everyone else!
Sorry this has been such a long post folks. There's a lot to catch up on. I'll start a new thread tonight if that's okay...
Alan, Conkers as spider deterrents were mentioned as a throwaway comment on the BBC 'One Show', by Nigel Havers, during an interview, about ten days ago. So I thought, I would give it a go. This being the year of the spider....I even have them in the car! But the conker harvest has been scooped up by this new demand I fear and they are in short supply. Spiders on the other hand are much appreciated by the birds, so they are happy.
This next bit is for any French readers, who may have come onto the Weekly Chat. I am pasting this article, because the link, includes other subjects, which may not be of interest.
It is by Simon Barnes and is from today's 'Times'.
Tweeting with an accent
One of the great things about wildlife is that you find yourself being amazed over and over again by things you knew about all along. The marvellous nature of the ordinary is a continuing revelation. All it takes is a subtle change in point of view, and stuff you see every day is suddenly all lit up by your amazement.
Which is what has been happening to me this week. I am in France, in the forests around Fontainebleau, for the European eventing championships, and while walking the course in the time-honoured horsey way, I constantly found my mind straying towards the sounds of the birds.
Normally when walking through such a wood I’d be capable of telling one common bird from another with reasonable ease. But here I found myself constantly puzzled: before suddenly cracking it and walking on in delight. Because the birds don’t sing quite as expected. They sing in French accents. So much so that they sound at first like quite different birds.
I found myself struggling to identify goldfinch and great tit, and even robin. Perhaps I mean especially robin. It’s only in England that robins are the ultra-confident birds we know all about: here in France they are shy woodland creatures who sing their autumn songs from deep cover.
This variation is a wonderful thing. It happens because birds are not consistent. They are not programmed pieces of feathery software. They are living creatures, and as such, they have some kind of living culture.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/simon_barnes/article6850128.ece
ChloeB & Tiger's Osprey Data Site
Sat track schedule Spring 2014
LG 7 days; RW & SWT nil; LDOP varies
jsb: Fascinating about birds with accents. I liked his bit about "All it takes is a subtle change in point of view, and stuff you see every day is suddenly all lit up by your amazement." Wonder if anyone has done any serious research on it....
Good morning everyone! 6.30 am here in Aus. I have to go out all day doday. We're running escort on an antique tractor rally, and it's 4 degrees outside!!!! Just got to fill the thermos and we're off. Talk to you all tonight or tomorrow. ☺☺☺
Smiles, Jan.
Just having a quick read through before I go to bed.
If you delete something by mistake it is worth holding the Ctrl key down and clicking on Z. In lots of instances it undoes your last action - not always though but still worth a try.
Use whatever talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sing the best.- Henry Van ***
jsb: Lovely article. I always have two pairs of house wrens (known as jenny wrens here) who return about the same time in the spring. Even though both females are house wrens, I can always tell which bird is singing, no matter where they are. I don't know whether the slight difference is because they winter in different regions or because individual wrens have distinct sounds.
I always put up houses for them, but, this year, one pair decided that it would be more fun to nest in the nook above my propane gas tank, where the dials and controls are. So I had to fiercely guard the nest from the gas company employees who periodically check the gas levels. The gas company guys think I'm looney but they didn't dare to defy me and bother the wrens!
Adelaide 10.50 am 12 C. Pumpkin soup for lunch thanks to friend giving me 2 large butternuts. Today is the Bay to Birdwood Classic for cars 1956-1977. Once upon a time they left from Glenelg (the Bay), but lack of space means they now leave from West Beach (2 km north). They travel about 70 km (44 miles) to Birdwood in the Adelaide Hills where there is a Motor Museum. Next year is the run for the Vintage cars (pre-1956). A picnic day. A bit chilly today but not as chilly as Wattle's.
Annette. I shall put my thinking cap on re books. I presume you mean non-fiction? And Australian? However I have just read 3 books by a New Zealand historical novelist, Jenny PATTRICK (note TT), that I enjoyed very much. "Denniston Rose", sequel "Heart of Coal" & spin-off "Catching the Current".