Hi all: Here's to a problem-free week on the site. Check out the last week's final page or so for updates from everyone, including one from Maureen (HillaryH) who's back with us after a hospital stay due to a chest infection and wants directions to Google Earth. Maureen - assume you downloaded GE before? If not, just go to http://earth.google.com/ and click on the Download Google Earth 5 button at right. I can't remember right now how to load Rothes and Mallachie's route; perhaps someone else will let you know if you need additional info. Glad you're back!
Alan posted a hummingbird link (http://vimeo.com/hummingbirds#8409299) for those who missed it and the week's chat ended with a long post from OG, who'd been composing it for days but was unable to get it on the site due to the techy problems! And no OG, haven't attempted the printer-wireless problem yet; can only handle one techy problem at week it seems!!
Have a nice Sunday all. Let's see if this posts
Lindybird Getting pictures to load takes ages! I just go off and do something else for a while. Give it another try.
Sue C Thank you for that wonderful picture. Loch Mallachie is always beautiful but that is simply stunning.
Evening everyone from a freezing cold, snowy Dundee. Have been catching up with all the news before my last working day of the week. Managed to get the car lodged on a mound of packed snow/ice on our drive this morning. Didn’t have time to dig it out so girls and I had to bus it to work/school and home again. Not such a big deal as we live on a busy bus route but incredible that I couldn’t even get the car out on the main road today. During the day there has been a bit of a thaw but more snow again this evening. If we had this every year I believe we would be well prepared and organised. Our weather sees such extremes its no wonder we British talk about it all the time. We need a lifestyle/wardrobe for all temperatures!
Fieldfares – isn’t it a surprise that we have so many visiting. I mentioned a visiting flock on Dec 28th which devoured the berries on two tree-sized cotoneasters in the garden and now it seems there are flocks showing up in unexpected places throughout the country. AQ and Wattle – sorry to hear your weather is so problematic at the opposite end of the temp gauge. As others have said, hope you keep safe and well hydrated. Home grown tomatoes sound delightful. Caerann – loved the pic of the Cooper’s hawk. Great snap. Well done in the freezing cold. First time I have seen one. Hope you and the other US bloggers keep safe from the snow storm(s). Lindybird – minus 18 is incredible – the sort of temperature people in the Highlands have to deal with during a severe winter but in Cheshire! Forecast is for another bitter cold night here. We are having a taste of Auntie’s winters. George – sorry to hear of your accident. Hope you stay safe in these freezing conditions. You and I are near neighbours. Hope everyone enjoys their Friday.
Thank you all for the posts, links & photos. Too many to mention all idividually. OG - Glad someone was sensible in postponing interview. Not good for interviewee's nerves tho'. Annette - Take care of your zoo . . . and your dau if you have time <grin>. Lindybird - re photos. My dau downloaded a free something called GIMP and showed me how to "shrink" my photos from the 3MB that emerge from the camera to 200-300KB. It’s an image manipulation program. I just follow her instructions LOL.
I have been out to cover drying desiccated-looking tomato bushes with sheets. There are only 2, bushes that is, not sheets!! The spinach has given up the battle (hurrah, says she) and the beans will have to take their chance. Overnight min here was 20 C, already 34 C with 9% humidity. Expecting 39, dry, very hot, sunny, north winds (they’re the hot ones).
Annette: That article about the iguanas is amazing -- sad for the little beasts. We keep seeing news reports warning that the Florida citrus crop is in grave danger because of the rare cold temps in the area. The price of orange juice just went up!
I wonder about the effect on the Dunedin osprey nest? It's going to be below freezing in Dunedin, Florida, this weekend (30F/-1C).
I'm glad that your life can settle down a bit. I hope you can enjoy the time with your daughter and that she is recovering and not in pain. That was so good of you to visit Oro, and I'm sure he was delighted to see you. It sounds like he has very good accommodations, though. I'm sure he is doing just fine. I'm also sure that Lightening will adapt to the household changes, visiting dog, etc. Cats are very good at looking out for their own interests and wellbeing. :-) Take care of yourself, too!
Hi AQ. North winds - they're the hot ones. Thats what I love about this blog. Here, the winds off the North Sea, given that I am in the northern hemisphere, are the cold ones and we batten down the hatches! Good luck in the heat. It seems very quiet at night on the blog just now. Annette, Diane, Gary, Caerann have various storms/family matters to deal with. Like the sound of the GIMP software. I'll keep that in mind. One mission for 2010 is to post photos....don't want to be tooooo ambitious. Another is to visit LG in the summer. Already planning a visit in August to coincide with Steed's Thunder in the Glen outing, but by then the ospreys (all going well) will most likely have moved on. Perhaps the answer is to have an early summer visit aswell....Mmm. Stay safe.
Good Night/Morning to Everyone:
I hope you all are taking good care. Snowing, snowing all day and we're expecting more lake effect snow, should be close to a foot by the time it's all done.
I must have missed that George G suffered a mishap so my best wishes to you, George.
Paul: Finished the Zeppelin book last night and it's very recent, maybe 6-8 months old only. The epilogue mostly involved the current goings-on of the band and how Plant seems to keep dangling the very remote possibility of a reunion tour, which was supposed to follow the O2 show in 2007. Evidently Page and Jones got tired of waiting around and auditioned other singers including.....Steven Tyler of Aerosmith???? Glad that never happened! Anyway, it was a very engrossing book which I recommend to any fan of the band or the music of that time. (You know when musicians played their instruments and actually knew how to.)
Sue C: The photos of Loch Mallachie took my breath away! How beautiful and reminescent of the Varykino winter palace scenes in the movie Doctor Zhivago.
We had some pretty winter visitors to the yard yesterday:
And today a Dark-Eyed Junco was trying to forage in the falling snow. I love their pale pink bills!
AQ: 9% humidity!!! That's ghastly. Get out the Vaseline! I hate it when it's that low. It's been around 70F here - about 10 degrees warmer than normal; hate that too! But chance of rain next week.
Granddaughter bedding down in "my" room with laptop; Thunder already snoozing in the corner behind the piano stool, which he doesn't seem to realize isn't exactly the Berlin Wall. Daughter had good day and we all just had a nice dinner. Off to tuck her in.
Enjoyed reading all the posts tho' don't have time to respond. Take care!!
Snowflake has slogged through the snow, dug herself a wee hole and is now home in her nestbox:
I'm off for the night now. Be well and stay safe everyone. =O)