Check back to last week for Annette's pic of her cactus flower which only lasts one night. (Flower that is,not the pic!) Alicat has further injuries - we shall have to take up a collection to wrap her in cotton wool. Seriously, I hope you are feeling better soon.
Beautiful sunny day here, expecting 19 C, with temp rising to 22 C for the rest of the week.
Hi All ~~ Lovely picture of Bobbie, Alicat. Definitely on the cute scale!
G o r g e o u s pics of food from Alex - yum! Specially the cake for the friend's party - oooH!
Alan: Have seen more Peacock butterflies this year than ever before - but less of all the other kinds, except perhaps Cabbage Whites, which there always seem to be plenty of.
dibnlib - thanks for posting the beautiful poem about the Red Arrows - a tear in my eye..... When you want to the lines to be under one another in future, just press the Shift key (the one which makes Capitals when you need them) at the same time as the 'Return' key and you will get the desired effect.
Saw a mention of the changes to the Wootten Basset parades, when our soldiers are returned from their death abroad - they are cynically changing it to another place so that we will not get the scenes on our TV news any more of those paying their respects. If they think that 'out of sight is out of mind' I think they are wrong - I'm sure that folk will find another way to express their feelings. I'm so mad about this that its off the scale - sorry, off my soapbox rant now..
LINDYBIRD thanks for info on single lining. I will store that away.
Sadly RAF Lyneham is about to close as a flying station. This is why repat flights are now to and from RAF Brize Norton where the Hercs and C17 aircraft are now based. It appears that in "their wisdom" the powers that be have annoyed many interested observers with their choice of route for the cortege from Brize to Oxford by seemingly avoiding anything like Wootton Bassett High Street.
Oh, bother; I’m all confuddled and befused (Alex – you can ignore my English) – I’ve been editing a slide show of our best photos of the wedding to send to Dau#2 and am seeing pictures and numbers in front of my eyes! Will try to get into chat mode. Today turned showery, so we baked Gingerbread and Cherry Slices instead of gardening.
Terry – good to see you here again (have replied to your message). Sorry you have been so busy. I do hope you will see some Ospreys again tomorrow at Bassenthwaite.
AQ – banners at the ready – don’t let them mine the Wilderness Sanctuary! I hope the cat gave approval to the high chair!
Barbara – Irene may be weaker, but still a hurricane – and taking life, I see. I forgot where you live (don’t tell Annette!) – I hope you are not in its path.
Annette – pleased your Grandson seemed well and happy. Don’t think there will have been an email from me in your recent deletion – I am way behind with all correspondence – what’s new?!
Lindy – a lovely laundry basket with its Peacock Flutterby decoration! I hope you are having a good weekend.
Alicat – nice photo of Bobbie. How’re your strains and bruises?
Dibnlib – lovely remembrance of the Red Arrow Pilot. Didn’t go to Chanonry on our August trip – went to the (wet) Black Isle Show instead – ‘twill now be 2012 when we get up there again (emergencies excepted) – look forward to trying out the improved path!
Alex – Kohlrabi – I love it; difficult to buy it here. Looks like your cooking is a professional work of art!
Short break – back in a mo!
Ospreys Rule OK, but Goldfinches come a close second!
Still haven’t had time to sort Waterbird pics from WWT Washington, where we went with Dau#1 and Granddau#2. Since ‘tis Saturday, I’ll give you last Saturday’s photos as there are fewer of them! After getting up late and driving double the mileage – all roads in N-E England seem to lead to Gateshead! – we arrived at Wylam too late for its little railway museum, but had a good visit to George Stevenson’s Birthplace. The Guide there was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable, but interested in discussing with us and not just telling us.
This whole building is usually labelled as GS’s cottage, but the family only inhabited one room (downstairs left) of what was then a four-family tenement!
The room had a "back" door in the side wall, right of fireplace, and a Scottish box bed in the other back corner, with a truckle bed for the kids under it - and all life was lived in the one room.
We had some lovely soup in the little café in the back garden and then returned on the path along the River Tyne:
We continued our lunch in the car with breakfast "leftovers" and finished it off at the ice-cream van in the village centre!
Well, I've eventually caught up with all your posts. Too many to reply to but note that Gary is in the path of hurricane Irene (although now its been officially downgraded to a cat1 storm). Keep safe all you on that Eastern Seaboard.
AQ - just loved your dau trying out the new high chair for new bairn to be, its a kitten then is it? LOL.
Linda - lovely pic of the Red Admiral.
Honestly, I took all your news in, oh btw Alicat, lovely one of Bobbie too. It will soon be a new week and already we are coming to the end of August - where has the year flown to.
Had a really easy day today with a bit of shopping this morning (food) with dau taking me, we have my OH's brother and his wife coming down from Nottingham tomorrow so are having a BBQ, never mind the weather.
Oh Alex, talking of BBQ, loved your food pics, send some over cyberspace.
Not doing anything exotic tomorrow just; garlic mushrooms with cream as a starter, BBQ meats with salad and hot new pots, and strawberry meringue ( cream cheese with dble cream, then add strawberries marinated in white wine and mix into cream cheese mixture, put into meringue nests and serve )
Thats all from me folks, have a good weekend and apologies to anyone I've missed out replying to.
http://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/things-to-do/wildlife-webcams/loch-of-lowes/
RSPB Giving Nature a Home
OG - loved to hear about your break and your photos
Hey, Lynette – can I come for lunch tomorrow?!
Continuing last Saturday, we crossed the Tyne to Cherryburn, birthplace of Thomas Bewick, artist, engraver and naturalist, in honour of whom Bewick’s Swans were named two years after his death in 1828.
In front of his birthplace cottage is a Victorian farm house built by his family, which contains exhibitions about his life and work, and a print room where original Bewick end-cut Boxwood blocks are displayed, as well as presses used by his printers and some modern examples printed from his blocks. Through the tea-room at the back (didn’t indulge!) was the farm yard and cottage.
I seem to be obsessed with fireplaces, but then that was the centre of life in an eighteenth century home! There were some animals to see there.
Chickens (there were four, but have you ever tried to get four bird-brained Chickens in one photo?):
Donkeys (especially for Diane):
Alpacas:
Those eyes!!!
STARTING A NEW THREAD