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?
I can remember toasting bread/ sausages over a fire at scouts. They have never tasted so good!
Good morning/evening All.
OG: We still have toasting forks (extendable ones, so we don't roast ourselves as we toast our bread) and use them when we have the opportunity. No other toast tastes as good!!!
It's a good thing we have steel fence posts here. Our resident crested pigeons are VERY plump and love ti sit in a row on the fence.
ANNETTE: I use the spell check from Google. It sits on my Google tool bar along with my translators etc and works in any blog site.
We still have the Flying Doctor Service, and many people in remote areas owe their lives to it. We also still have School of the Air, although it's come a long way from using pedal radios, as they used to when it first started. The internet is still not what it should be in our remote areas, so radio still has a vital role there.
We live not all that far from the Dish at Parks. It is much more photogenic than Honeysuckle, which is (or was) a very inconspicuous tracking station in the high country of the Australian Capital Territory, near Canberra. Parkes was also a very 'typical' and photogenic country town to use in the film. The characterisations in the film were really good, and gave a fairly true-to-life picture of country people of the time. They're a lot more sophisticated now, though! If you haven't seen the movie, I'd recommend keeping an eye out for it on DVD. It's one of my favourites! Honeysuckle was involved officially in the first moon landing, but I didn't think that was quite what we were talking about with HAM radio operators, was it? incidentally, the original Honeysuckle Tracking Station was destroyed in a bushfire. I don't know if it has been rebuilt.
GARY: Love the photo of Pud. Although he is obviously 'his own cat', I'm sure he really appreciates his relationship with you, and would come to you for help if he really needed it. He looks really good for 12. Tiger will be 15 next Easter (our nominal birthday for him) and he still 'scatty cats' for about 5 minutes nearly every day, when his arthritis allows. He also walks quite regularly right down the paddock and back with me when I go to feed our two pet goats. The walk back up that slope certainly has me puffing by the time I get back home!
Smiles, Jan.
Wattle: Extendable toasting forks - they must've qualified as modern conveniences in those days. :-) OK. Maybe I got the name of the radio program wrong - I think it was Flying Doctor.... And sorry I confused you, but I was talking about the first moon landing, not Ham radio operators, during the Apollo mission. And I've seen the movie, and it's a hoot.
I see penguins too, TerryM and daylight past 10 pm there in Antarctica! Strange to see daylight at that late hour.......
When I was a child (here we go again!) our toasting fork was quite a simple affair - probably gunmetal whatever that was - and I remember using it to play at being Britannia, or sometimes Neptune!
When we married, we inherited one from my grannie-in-law which was an extendable brass one, with a leather thong (old meaning!!!) to hang it by.
Ospreys Rule OK, but Goldfinches come a close second!
Annette here are the origins of the names Ciaran and Caerann ( pronounced care-ann):
Ciarán (Irish Gaelic), Ciaràn (Scottish Gaelic), Ciaran, Kieran, Kyran, Keiran, Kieren, Kieron, Keiron, (Irish pronunciation: [ˈciəɾˠaːn̪ˠ] or [ciəˈɾˠaːn̪ˠ], English: /ˈkɪərən/), or Kiernan, is a personal name meaning "Small dark one" or "Dark-haired one".[1] Ciarán comes from the Irish word "Ciar" which means dark or black.[2][3] Ciar can be linked back to Ciar, son of Fergus, King of Ulster.[4] It is linked with many names, like Kerry meaning Ciar's People.
Oengus Mac Oc, otherwise known as Aengus, is an Irish/Celtic God. He is the god of love, beauty and youth. He is known for his physical beauty and golden hair, and because his kisses become birds. His name means "Son of the Young." He was the young lad of Dagda. Oengus lived in a mound by the River Boyne. He was a figure of beauty, wit and charm. Aengus is associated with fatal love. He is said to have dreamed of a beautiful maiden, named Caer, for whom he searched all over Ireland. Eventually, he found Caer chained to 150 other maidens, destined to become swans at the time of Samhain on November 1st. Oengus transformed himself into a swan and was united with the maiden who followed him back to his palace at Brugh na Boinne, on the River Boyne (which is now the modern New Ganges).
Caerann, that is some history behind your name:) OK, you don't have to change it just because I can't spell it easily!! LOL
OG,, who knew there was so much history with toasting forks!
Wattle, glad Tiger still has plenty of play in him. If Pud is still going in 3 years I hope he looks as healthy as your guy:))
Gary you can call me anything you like, just never call me late for dinner. lol!
LOLOL Caerann.
Do you get that a lot, people (like me!!) getting your name wrong?
My surname is Silvester and everyone seems to spell it differently, even "Slyvester" I've given up correcting now unless it's on official stuff
Caerann: Wow. Lots of research. We pronounce my niece's name as Kear-ann ( "ear" as in those things hanging off the sides of our heads).
My last name is Winter. When I was an editor and I'd call people at various places, they sometimes thought I said "Anna Wintour" the name of the oh-so-fabulous and eternally elegant editor of American Vogue, They'd be impressed for about 2 seconds until I repeated my name, then it was "Who? Could you spell that please? And from which magazine?" I'd tell them, then, after a pause, they'd say, "Could you repeat the name of the magazine?" Oh well.
Going off to see Garrison Keillor tonight . He has a radio program called "Prairie Home Companion," which depicts life among olde worlde Norwegian bachelor farmers, among others, in the make-believe community of Lake Wobegon in Minnesota "where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all the children are above-average."