Post a good thing that happened in your life today

[Bryan]

This weekend is the RSPB garden birdwatch event, when you are asked to spend one hour counting the birds that alight in your garden and report the results back. It was too cold to be motionless outside so I had to observe from a bedroom window. I've done this for a few years, and, in our north facing back garden, have previously not registered a single bird.

 

This time it appeared to be going the same way, but then I noticed a blurred shape passing close to the window and twigged that it might be an inhabitant of our bird box. Sure enough it was a blue tit sussing out a possible nest. There were two of them, but I only saw one alight at any time, and it was impossible to know which was which, so in the rules of the game, that counts as just one.  On two occasions a pigeon settled on the neighbour's roof and then flew just above my head to presumably alight on our roof, I think I'll count that one as well.

 

I might spend an hour at the allotment tomorrow in the relative warmth of the greenhouse, should do a whole lot better there!

[NYCat]

We have a Snowy Owl in Central Park and we Big City folk get VERY excited about nature.

 

A half-dozen park rangers flocked to Manhattan’s Central Park on Wednesday to control the crowd. Photographers moved in, while onlookers bundled up in hats, gloves and face masks gathered around. The rangers told everyone not to shout, use flash photography or deploy drones to get shots. 

At the center of it all was a small white-faced owl standing in a ballfield.

 

Paulette

[Betty LaRue]

2 hours ago, NYCat said:

We have a Snowy Owl in Central Park and we Big City folk get VERY excited about nature.

 

A half-dozen park rangers flocked to Manhattan’s Central Park on Wednesday to control the crowd. Photographers moved in, while onlookers bundled up in hats, gloves and face masks gathered around. The rangers told everyone not to shout, use flash photography or deploy drones to get shots. 

At the center of it all was a small white-faced owl standing in a ballfield.

 

Paulette

That’s so cool! And so understandable about the excitement. My nephew has a farm in Oklahoma about 65 miles from me. I went down once to shoot the resident Great Horned owl family on his property. At the time, a male, female and female fledgling. I was beyond excited. But I screwed up big time. I got there, got out my Fuji X-T2 and took out my 100-400 lens, only to find I had put my 50-135 in my bag instead. I can’t believe I did that. Excitement, I guess. I made do the best I could. The sky wasn’t the best, either.

This is the female fledgling.

 

 

The male

 

Edited January 29, 2021 by Betty LaRue

[Allan Bell]

16 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

Really? Hmm. They make Lipitor, a drug I hate. I hear the new Russian jab turns you into a Putin supporter. 

 

Six days in and no problems so far.👍

 

Allan

 

[Ed Rooney]

16 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

Well, the Moderna turns you into a hipster.

 

Except for the outfits, the tattoos, drugs, and bad attitude, I thought I was a hipster. 

 

I remember the term as jazz slang in the '50s. The only thing I had in common with those folks was the music. 

[Sultanpepa]

It's my birthday. 

[Ed Rooney]

Happy Birthday, Doug!

 

In Scotland, is 60 younger than in England? I was still a lad at 60. At 85 I still was feeling okay. At 86? I'm feeling new aches and pains in my old chronic aches and pains. 

[aphperspective]

3 hours ago, Sultanpepa said:

It's my birthday. 

Mine 2 only 2 more years to qualify for the winter fuel allowance( which is allot in Ireland) 🙂

[Ed Rooney]

1 hour ago, aphperspective said:

Mine 2 only 2 more years to qualify for the winter fuel allowance( which is allot in Ireland) 🙂

 

Happy Birthday to you too, Andy. 

[aphperspective]

3 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

Happy Birthday to you too, Andy. 

Thanks Edo got a few more years wisdom to catch you up. A quiet day due to lockdown but hopefully raise a jug later in the year.

[Allan Bell]

3 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

Happy Birthday, Doug!

 

In Scotland, is 60 younger than in England? I was still a lad at 60. At 85 I still was feeling okay. At 86? I'm feeling new aches and pains in my old chronic aches and pains. 

 

As a doctor once told me. "Getting old is not good for you."

 

Allan

 

[Allan Bell]

3 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

Happy Birthday, Doug!

 

In Scotland, is 60 younger than in England? I was still a lad at 60. At 85 I still was feeling okay. At 86? I'm feeling new aches and pains in my old chronic aches and pains. 

 

Living on the damp (soaking wet) west coast is not good for you.

 

Allan

 

[Ed Rooney]

37 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

 

As a doctor once told me. "Getting old is not good for you."

 

Allan

 

 

Was that an NHS doctor?

 

Damp in Merseyside? Oh yes. I tried living in Spain but the Spanish bureaucracy was not good for me. This month will be the third anniversary of my Mulberry Street fire, I did okay for my first two nomad years. This last one has aged me. But I guess it has aged us all. 

 

Edited January 30, 2021 by Ed Rooney

[NYCat]

I think it is hard to realize how the stress of the virus situation has affected us. I was feeling a lot better today. Happier and more relaxed. I think it is because I have now had one dose of the vaccine and have found a new primary care doctor I really like. I think I had a lot of worry that I didn't even recognize.

 

Paulette

[John Morrison]

17 minutes ago, NYCat said:

I think it is hard to realize how the stress of the virus situation has affected us. I was feeling a lot better today. Happier and more relaxed. I think it is because I have now had one dose of the vaccine and have found a new primary care doctor I really like. I think I had a lot of worry that I didn't even recognize.

 

Paulette

It will take years, I reckon - and maybe more years than are left to me - to understand fully what's happening right now...

[John Richmond]

6 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

Living on the damp (soaking wet) west coast is not good for you.

But at least our west coast rain is warmer than my native Lincolnshire precipitation.

[MizBrown]

Went with Luis, my dog walker and helper, to La Colonia grocery store the second time.  It had a small octopus and a brioche that both came home with me.  I couldn't find sage, but the store did have packaged fresh herbs and I picked up some cilantro which will go into whatever I make with the chicken thighs tomorrow.  The store also has some single malt Scotches and some 12 and 16 year old rums.  The 7 year old rums are the best value for the money, but I just looked today.   Also got Parmesan cheese (not from Italy, though), and noticed that between the octopus and what was on offer, I could do sushi, but didn't go that way this time.  The store also has tahani.  They have in-store bread baking and one of the women was pulling French baguettes out of the oven.  And La Colonia has one of the things that disappeared in Jinotega after 2018 -- brown rice.   They also have split yellow and green peas, red and green lentils.  Got some of the red lentils, which are also available at a weird food and auto parts store called PioPio.  Would have gotten frozen peas, but they were all frozen together in a lump and on special, so they'd been thawed at one point.  

 

I like seeing what they have, which is more variety than we used to have, but which is also a bit pricier than the WalMart franchise, Maxi Pali.   La Colonia also had some kitchenware that I'd only found earlier at a department store.  Maxi Pali has thinner no stick pans.  I'm good with the one I bought at the department store, but these looked like the same model, only granite coating.   Did buy three all cotton dish towels from Guatemala, not as cheap as when I bought others years ago for ten cordobas each, now about three times the price. 

 

Googled how to cook the octopus and simmered it for an hour until reasonably tender, cut it up, and boiled spaghetti in the cooking water, drained it when nearly done and added canned tomato sauce, dried basil, and the cut up octopus, and finished off with grated Parmesan cheese, olive oil, and black pepper.   I'm  sure that was not classic Italian or Spanish, but it was tasty. 

 

So a day of small pleasures, but no photographs.

 

Edited January 31, 2021 by MizBrown

[Betty LaRue]

My son, who works in Alabama, will interview for a job in Kansas, 100 miles away from where I live. He’s been through about 5 layers of telephone interviews up to now, so he’ll get a face-to-face with the president of the company this coming Friday, and a tour of the plant. It’s a high-paying managerial position where they manufacture high-end boats. It would be his job to increase production. He’s an engineer with a MBA.

There is still a chance it won’t work, either if they think it’s not a fit or if my son decides it’s not a fit for him. Whatever, when it’s done, he’ll drive to Wichita and my daughter, her hubs and I will feed him a great dinner on Saturday, before he drives back. We’re hoping my other daughter in Oklahoma can get away and come.
He has a good job in Alabama, but he’d like to be close to family. It’s coming on 2 years in April since he lost his wife to breast cancer. If this works out, he possibly could start in March, hopefully earlier than later in the month.

I’m excited. I have one daughter in town, and the other two children would be 1 hr 45 minutes away in different directions.

[Betty LaRue]

duplicate post

Edited January 31, 2021 by Betty LaRue

[Allan Bell]

17 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

Was that an NHS doctor?

 

YUP!

 

Allan

 

[Allan Bell]

11 hours ago, John Richmond said:

But at least our west coast rain is warmer than my native Lincolnshire precipitation.

 

Agree the rain is cold here at this time of year but warmer in the summer.

 

Where away?     Lincolnshire I mean. I am a 15 minute bus ride from the centre of Lincoln.

 

Allan

 

[NYCat]

7 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

My son, who works in Alabama, will interview for a job in Kansas, 100 miles away from where I live. He’s been through about 5 layers of telephone interviews up to now, so he’ll get a face-to-face with the president of the company this coming Friday, and a tour of the plant. It’s a high-paying managerial position where they manufacture high-end boats. It would be his job to increase production. He’s an engineer with a MBA.

There is still a chance it won’t work, either if they think it’s not a fit or if my son decides it’s not a fit for him. Whatever, when it’s done, he’ll drive to Wichita and my daughter, her hubs and I will feed him a great dinner on Saturday, before he drives back. We’re hoping my other daughter in Oklahoma can get away and come.
He has a good job in Alabama, but he’d like to be close to family. It’s coming on 2 years in April since he lost his wife to breast cancer. If this works out, he possibly could start in March, hopefully earlier than later in the month.

I’m excited. I have one daughter in town, and the other two children would be 1 hr 45 minutes away in different directions.

 

That would be so great, Betty. I remember you went to be with him when his wife died. I can't believe it was that long ago.

 

Paulette

[John Richmond]

33 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

Lincolnshire I mean. I am a 15 minute bus ride from the centre of Lincoln.

Cleethorpes born, Grimsby schooled until I moved down to Plymouth in 1974 (one of the first things said to me when I arrived was "oh, you've come down to retire, have you?  I was 24).  Lincoln was a regular day trip in my youth. My three sisters and their families are still in the area and I visit whenever I can.

[spacecadet]

18 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

Was that an NHS doctor?

 

Damp in Merseyside? Oh yes. I tried living in Spain but the Spanish bureaucracy was not good for me. This month will be the third anniversary of my Mulberry Street fire, I did okay for my first two nomad years. This last one has aged me. But I guess it has aged us all. 

 

I think this counts as a Good Thing.

I'm on the brink of some film work in Liverpool with the Steenbeck next month, Ed, and if there were a way we could take some lawful exercise if I had a spare hour that would be great.

You're vaccinated and I will have had a Covid test for the work so we won't kill each other. If you're interested, can you suggest a way to make contact? Maybe through the blog? Which one- edoruan or edoruan2? Or I'll post an email address here.

[Ed Rooney]

3 hours ago, spacecadet said:

I think this counts as a Good Thing.

I'm on the brink of some film work in Liverpool with the Steenbeck next month, Ed, and if there were a way we could take some lawful exercise if I had a spare hour that would be great.

You're vaccinated and I will have had a Covid test for the work so we won't kill each other. If you're interested, can you suggest a way to make contact? Maybe through the blog? Which one- edoruan or edoruan2? Or I'll post an email address here.

 

Hi, Mark!

 

By next month, do you mean Feb or March? 

 

Normally, it would be great to have lunch or dinner, or at least hit a pub. What passes for a get-together in a lockdown? 

 

 

 

Edited January 31, 2021 by Ed Rooney