Weekly Chat, Sunday, January 3, 2010!!

Sleeping at present Alan.  The barn owls,that is, not me!  4 will be a lot of little beaks to feed. Annette:  Sorry to hear you had a broken night- I'm always grouchy next day if I have one. Hope you got some sleep later. Diane:   Liked the story of your snowy driveway- we don't usually have enough snow here for that, but the way its going, maybe we will!

OUR GARDEN LAST SUMMER (2008 that is!)

SAME SPOT THIS MORNING - the snow is now melting a little, due to milder temps & some bright sunshine. Messy bit of snow at bottom left is where we cleared it for the birds, as large tree is our apple tree full of feeders etc. We're expecting it all to freeze again tonight & cold winds are forecast.

Good Morning Day!

I hope everyone is doing well and keeping warm or cool, as the case may be. It's bone-chillingly cold at 16f/ -10c/ with wind chills 7f/-17c. I'm with you Auntie, I don't like the winters either.

Speaking of warm: Where in the world is Wattle15? Haven't heard from you lately.

Lindybird: Weather-wise I much prefer your summer photo.   =O)  

Tiger: Thanks much for the very interesting article on the Eagle Owls.

Alan: Thanks for the Barn Owl link, my John is a big fan of them.

Off to resume my day. Take care all!

Hi everyone.

Had a couple of inches of snow overnight to add to the stuff that's been lying here since just before Christmas.  I think the last time there was snow lying for so long was the Big Freeze of January 1987.  I remember it well because I had extra time off school after the Christmas holidays.  Which as a 9 year old was a fantastic bonus.

Got a new bird-bath yestarday, which arrived in the afternoon.  I've been using an old frying pan since the last one got damaged.  It was great to see the starlings looking so happy with the new bath.  Watching them splashing around is so entertaining.  It's a real battle defrosting the baths and I know how everyone in the cold areas is feeling.  Temperature at the moment is -4C, so I'll have a battle breaking the ice in the morning.

Sorry I can't reply to any of the posts but I really should try harder to keep up.  A very happy Saturday to everyone.


Paul.

Morning all: Thick cloud overhead here today - hurray!   Just spoke to the UK family who have been running back and forth to town in their 4x4 to grocery shop for neighbors

Diane: Florida colder than Alaska? And you wonder who's behind it? *** Cheney no doubt, part of that vast right-wing conspiracy that says there's no such thing as global warming!  :-)

Lindybird: Lovely shots of the garden. 

Heron: Don't worry about responding to every post; it can get very time-consuming. We've been using an old clay saucer (that typically goes under potted plants) since our main feeder fell apart last fall.  Not ideal, but everyone seems to be using it.

So good of you all to take care of all those chilly birds.  Take care all; back later.

Operation snowclear, mission launch, briefing document circulated, all completed this morning.

Midday, action phase started, one operative deployed, in good spirits.

Brief interruption due to vehicle attempting, uphill exit, rolling backwards, operative standing aside for his safety, on cleared patch, passenger of vehicle shouting, hey! we are trying to get out of here. Vehicle finding grip momentarily, courtesy of operative's previous efforts with shovel, exits scene, wheels spinning frantically, moving erratically.

Local top cat sits quietly observing progress.

Second operative deployed, his family members, making dash indoors to avoid the cold.

1 & 2 complete their tasks, with a pinch or two of cooking salt, to make nice black, wet, runny bits.

No 3 starts, somewhat half-heartedly.

Sky darkens, flakes appear, nasty cold wind getting up.

Proper snow starts.

One hour later starts getting dark, roadway clear patches, now with dusting of white!

OK jsb you can have a job with IR anytime.

FAB

Hi Alan, gosh thanks......I think I'm already partly qualified, you'll never guess what my 'j' stands for!

Hmmm let me see. It could be Jeff or even John?

Auntie – Minus 22. I can’t imagine it right now. Annette – I don’t understand the techie stuff - I think this is the lingo - we used to have dial-up internet, now broadband. Anyway dau’s connection is slower than dial-up. She has bought house in a suburb about 10 miles from city centre but there is a problem in the local telephone exchange that no-one wants to fix. There are several areas just the same. Perhaps our population is not concentrated enough to bother fixing it. There are also black spot areas for mobile phones and TV reception. Adelaide & suburbs are now said to spread about 100 km from north to south squeezed between the Adelaide Hills and the sea, and about 20 km wide.

It was 31.8 C at 12.46 am, later dropped to 21 C. Sunrise 6.13 am, sunset 8.33 pm. Day length 14 hours 20 mins. It’s now 27 C and I must go and cover my dry wilting tomato bushes. The lawn goes crunch when I walk on it. Harvested one miserable tomato yesterday. Not even a mouthful.