Hi everyone. Happy Sunday! As usual, check out the last few entries of the previous week's chat to find out who left a plant at the supermarket checkout counter and ate a bag of chocolate donuts for lunch.
Brought Oro for home visit today; was lovely and sunny and daughter sat in the garden feeding him treats. He had a little snooze and then while my daughter took a nap Oro and I went to the beach and walked along the grassy area behind the sand for about a mile or so. (No trash cans to crash into!) Marvellous afternoon with brisk breeze and big surf, but now they're forecasting more rain for Monday through Wednesday!
Hi sue c,
thank you for the links will try them later
Alicat
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Alan What a lovely quotation! And thanks for the picture of the Aviemore Iditerod. Lucky daughter to see it in a snowy year.
OG Lemon and ginger cheesecake one day and carrot cake the next - you obviously don't have to worry about your waistline! - or am I just jealous?
Diane our political crisis continues. It's very disheartening as all seemed to be going well. Just have to pray that good sense will prevail.
Law and order is getting worse. See "puffin mugged by gull" at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1246207/Puffin-hell-Amazing-pictures-capture-gentle-birds-mid-air-mugging.html
Tiger Signature
patriciat said: OG Lemon and ginger cheesecake one day and carrot cake the next - you obviously don't have to worry about your waistline! - or am I just jealous?
I absolutely do need to worry about my waistline, as does the dietician where I had been yeaterday! Tuesday was comfort eating as Son had not had the promised confirming letter re job; today was celebration that he had! I got my injection today - and after the last one lost 2kg, so I hope that will happen again, and new regime starts here because the stress of his joblessness is gone!
Ospreys Rule OK, but Goldfinches come a close second!
Annette - I have been watching Michael Portillo travelling on various railway lines (BBC2 every night 6.30) and tomorrow he will be at Watford station, among others. Perhaps it might bring back memories if you used to use it...although it's probably completely changed. Mt sister used to go there to Cassio College in the mid 70s. I don't think I mentioned, when you said your sister (?) was in Leighton Buzzard, that we lived in Mentmore until we moved to Cumbria.
Put all the various links onto new tabs to look at when I'd caught up on here and now I can't remember who put what, so thanks for the Puffin (Tiger) and the dachshund playing with the tiger cub (Alan?) eagle pics (Alan/Sue?) and everything and everyone else!
And OG for reminding me how scrummy lemon and ginger cheesecake can be.
Terry in Cumbria
MARGOBIRD>..........absolutely wonderful video of Orangutang and dog. I love Orangutans!!!
CPT ALAN..........beautiful qoute. I always felt that way when I was going out with my 'best friend'.
LINDEYBIRD..........have forgotten what I was going to thank you for, LOL. Nice to 'speak to you anyway.
Maureen
Hallo then I'm back. =O)
O.G. We have several varities of hawks here and most visit or live in Illinois. I found this webpage with photos and details of habitat, diet and reproduction of raptors found in Illinois if you're interested:
http://www.illinoisraptorcenter.org/Field%20Guide/guidecover.html
(Note that Diane and Gary would have the same birds in their parts of the country and I believe Annette may see the majority of them out in sunny California too.)
While I was looking at the Snowy Owl page on the above guide I found a link to a 12 minute film about Snowys that I thought many of my fellow bird aficionados here would like to see:
http://www.thewildclassroom.com/biodiversity/birds/speciesprofiles/snowyowl.html
There are many other links on this "wild classroom" that I'll have to explore but it looks interesting with a cursory glance.
Alan: I'm glad you liked the American Kestrel photos, they're such beautiful birds although much smaller than the U.K. species. Your birds there are 13 to 15 inches in length with a 26 inch wingspan and ours here are 9 inches tall with a 22 inch wingspan. Most intriguing! =O)
Evening all: I had a problem getting on the site earlier this afternoon. I copied the long error message I got (the same one I always get) and pasted it into an e-mail to the RSPB web folks. Got an automated response; sure hope they can figure it out before too long.
OG: Latte and carrot cake today! Ginger and lemon cheesecake yesterday! What's on the menu for tomorrow? Oh I know, you'll celebrate the one-day anniversary of son's confirmation letter re job. :-)
Sue C: Ah - must be another Sue. I was on Facebook last year when the LG site went kapooey from time to time while EJ et al were at the nest. I stopped posting to FB after the chicks fledged and when the new RSPB community site was launched and we were able to chat in real time here. Sue was a regular on Facebook and always up early (in the UK) right before I'd pack it in for the night. I used to watch the chicks in the wee hours, UK time, and post observations on the RSPB and Facebook sites, but don't think I'll do both this year since it got more than a little confusing at times, especially when EJ/Odin would be on and off the nest and I'd be trying to figure out who brought how many fishes and who was eating and who was being left out! More info that you wanted, eh? :-)) And yes, so many cams, so little time, and I too am waiting to see more of Lily's cub.
Lindybird: Well I did loll a bit - in between loading stuff in and out of the washer and dryer. Put my feet up with a nice throw over my legs and read all the sections of the newspaper and various magazines that I haven't had time to look at over the last week or three. Had to make a quick run to the supermarket for more detergent, and just happened to see some chocolate digestive biccies that I was forced to buy to have with tea when I got home.
Patriciat: I forget - are you in the States? Your mention of "our" political crisis made me wonder...
TerryM: Oh my, I used to live up the road from Watford Junction and was there last year (actually 08 now I think of it) when I was in the UK for a visit and decided to stop in Watford for a couple of days to see my old haunts. The station's ticketing area used to be quite roomy, but it was sort of pokey when I visited having been built up somewhat. Was Casio College on Hempstead (SP?) Road? If so, I remember it as the Watford Technical College, but could be completely wrong.
Caerann: Pots of hawks out here. Saw one en route home from daughter's yesterday - on a telephone pole by the freeway near the bluffs; on the way to my daughter's, saw a turkey vulture, plus two Great Egrets. My friend is taking a birding class at the local natural history museum, which I keep meaning to sign up for..... sigh.
Still tired so will probably fall into bed early again.
Caerann/Diane: Did you watch the State of the Union speech?
Hi Annette: Glad you got to relax a bit and catch up on relaxing. =O)
I only saw the last 7 or 8 minutes of the speech so I can't really form an opinion. One thing I tell you that John is doing and I'll be doing so too, is sticking it to the big banks. He has removed all his money from one of those big nationwide banks that got all that stimulus money and then gave their employees huge bonuses but won't lend anything to the little guy; you know those banks right? He has begun splitting up his money between 2 smaller regional banks and also will take an account at a local bank, all with good investment bases, oh, and they're lending out money too! Doing this we'll also avoid not having access to our money in the event (and we truly hope this will never happen) of a bank run.
Have you heard the rumblings of the Treasury Dept wanting to mandate how people with 401k funds invest a "portion" of their hard-earned savings AND reduce the tax breaks you get by having a tax deferred savings plan? Someone made a great comment that sums it all up quite nicely on the Investment News webpage today (Wednesday) if you or your husband have a chance to check it out:
http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20100108/FREE/100109875
Color me unhappy!
Caerann: Hmm. That's interesting about the 401Ks and no, I hadn't heard about it. I'm sure OH has; I'll have to ask him. I'm with you re the big banks, investment houses, and those bonuses. They should've bailed them out under much tougher restrictions. Good for you, putting your money where your mouth is!