Evening/Morning all: This week should bring more interesting news about Mallachie. Check the last few entries of the previous Weekly Chat for another photo of Queenie and other input from bloggers!
Hope you all got your clocks, microwaves, coffee pots, TVs, etc., organized for the next six months. And when did BST replace GMT, at least in the summer. In the US, standard and daylight savings time have had a long and fascinating (and apparently often confusing) history, given that we have three times zones for the contiguous states. DST is another matter, with most states changing but some not, but at least we don't have 30 minute increments like they do in Australia!
TerryM: The GE Help window is pretty clear re tours. I do recall that it took several "clicks" to get the thing started. Other folks commented on that and I had the same experience in the beginning but then it was okay. I tried to copy and paste some of the info onto your page, but it included boxes with images and they didn't copy. I'm sure other folks will have more helpful info. Good luck. Too bad lovely Queenie isn't around any more. When my daughter and I were away the other week, we stayed at a place which is a favorite "drop off" spot for folks wanting to "lose" cats. They had three cats when we were there, which hung around the garden entrance to the dining room waiting to be fed (by the staff). One night, the cats were served prime rib, all nicely chopped up for easy digestion!!!!
Alan: So. Are you treating us all to a trip to Loch Garten next year with your lottery winnings or will we be depending on the webcam again? :-)
Gary: Dying to hear about your English food outing (what was it really like?)
OG: We grow tomatoes outside here but my friends who do often fence them and other veggies in to keep various critters, including deer, from snacking on them; not to mention snails. My sister has expressed some frustration with EU rules - specifically not being able to buy French cheese off a market stall (I think that was it). Is following EU rules a bore or do you think it's generally for the good?
Good morning Annette, and anyone else on site. Just to help you get your time bearings, or to confuse you more, it's now 5.00 pm in NSW Australia.
Smiles, Jan.
OK, thar confirms I'm 11 hours ahead of BST. Annette, I think I'm about 16 hours ahead of you, aren't I? We used to talk pirater CB radio into California nearly every day, but that was a long time ago now. From memory we were 14 hours ahead in our winter/your summer, and 16 hours once daylight saving kicked in on both continents. The internet is a wonderful replacement for the CB, I can tell you!!!
Adelaide 5.30 pm. Just home from lunch at niece's - a triple birthday celebration in the family. I don't think it was the BBQ & salad but the chocolate cake that caused me to waddle home. For those who wrote about clocks - we in SA changed our clocks to "Daylight Saving Time" (we don't call it Summer Time) at the beginning of October and we are stuck with it until the end of March. Alan - medieval farming? Nay, here it is the business people who insist we must have the same time zone across Australia. I wonder how they cope dealing with overseas countries? Lindybird -I didn't change the stove clock for a week or so, much to the confusion of OH !!!!!!! He didn't know which timepiece to believe LOL
OG: Love the pics of your indoor garden. I must show my tomatoes yours, so they know they have to grow UP first before producing flowers.
Diane: You are welcome. If I didn't want to share my pics, I wouldn't display them. Here is another, a Markhor. I hadn't heard of these goat-antelopes from the Himalayas. Travelling is educational!
These are Bharal or Himalayan blue sheep. Still at the Wildlife Park near Kingussie.
Unknown said: OG: We grow tomatoes outside here but my friends who do often fence them and other veggies in to keep various critters, including deer, from snacking on them; not to mention snails. My sister has expressed some frustration with EU rules - specifically not being able to buy French cheese off a market stall (I think that was it). Is following EU rules a bore or do you think it's generally for the good?
EU has some benefits, and I guess for trading and a world reputation it is good - more "clout" internationally when we all speak with one voice (when we can agree what to say!). But it's a mixed blessing - a threat to national sovereignty and a legal nightmare! Britain has not been invaded since 1066 and most of us have liked it that way - we don't like what feels like an invasion of our national and individual way of life. (I do not hold extreme political opinions, and am not a member of a political party !!! believe me - really!!!)
Ospreys Rule OK, but Goldfinches come a close second!
Something a bit more interesting than politics - there were eleven until I fetched the camera from the study to the kitchen window! That's why I hurried and the tripod legs weren't quite straight!
OG, lovely birds! What are they? (Sorry to admit my stupidity....)
my photos in flickr
Unknown said: OG, lovely birds! What are they? (Sorry to admit my stupidity....)
Auntie: these are goldfinches - probably the most colourful bird we have in Britain. We are so used to all our "LBJs" (little brown jobs - ie small birds with dull plumage - until you get to know them) that, when people first see a goldfinch, they find it hard to believe it is not some exotic cage-bird escaped! They are smaller than chaffinches and greenfinches, and when they come in groups they twitter to each other - when one comes alone, it often calls for others to join it. When they are together, we talk of "a charm of goldfinches". Their numbers are quite a success story, and still increasing in gardens because more and more people are putting out Nyjer (or thistle) seed for them. They normally live in hedges on the margins of farmland.
Not knowing is not "stupidity" - and asking is the best way to find out - I hope I have not given more detail than you wanted!
Just to clarify - my talk of "invasion" does not refer to people - I was meaning rules and regulations - and we have too many of our own already - but that's another story!
Thanks OG! I know very little about birds. Now that I "found" ospreys last spring, I find myself getting more interested about other birds too. I "googeled" those -finches and found out that we have all of them here as well. The Goldfinches nest propably only in the southern part of Finland and some of them migrate a bit southwards for winter.