Post a good thing that happened in your life today

[Betty LaRue 3,688]

13 hours ago, MizBrown said:

My British nurse (retired) friend here told me where to get very fresh eggs.  My dog walker knew the place and has been fetching them for me.  They have wonderful perky yolks and I found out today just how fresh they are.  The shop owner has the hens in the backyard.   One of the delights of living here is the country is so close to town that some bits are actually inside it. 

 

Mangos are developing on the neighbor's tree.   I get the ones that are on the branches overhanging my courtyard.

 

Also, over the weekend, reconnected by FaceTime with a friend who I hadn't seen (virtually or otherwise) in over twenty years.

 

So far, so good.  I mask up and put on sunglasses with interchangeable lenses (use the clear lenses) when I got out. 

A neighbor scored a dozen eggs for me recently. I enjoy an egg sandwich from time to time, besides baking. Sorry for anyone who can’t get them.

MizBrown, I always found fresh eggs weren’t the best for boiling. Seems the shell stuck on the white more. I always bought mine a week or two ahead for the kids’ Easter eggs.

My good news...I woke up still virus-free. The sun is shining, spring is bursting out all over. Birds are building nests. I envy them their freedom.
I’ve been playing YouTube African Gray videos for my African Gray, and am amused seeing her watch and enjoy them.

Betty

Edited April 15, 2020 by Betty LaRue

[Marianne 967]

@Betty LaRue, so glad your daughter is on the mend!

 

My Joy for today: When I spoke with my daughter last week she mentioned that my 19-month-old grandson has decided he wants to help her vacuum, so I found a toy Dyson (that apparently actually picks up bits, if not so well) on target.com and sent him that along with a Little Tykes slide for their yard. It arrived this morning and he spent most of our daily FaceTime "vacuuming" his room, big smiles and giggles, even though it arrived without batteries. Great exercise for the little guy. Love it when I can make him happy which is actually quite easy since he's been a smiley happy kid since birth. What a joy to see him every day even if it's virtually. 

 

I also sold 2 framed prints this week, either one of which more than paid for the vacuum and slide, so guilt-free grandchild-spoiling. (Not that I ever feel guilty spoiling him, it's my second job 😎)

 

@Mr Standfast Enjoy your granddaughter's birthday - grandkids are the greatest gift! (And technology is a life-saver right now).

[MizBrown 936]

On 15/04/2020 at 10:18, Betty LaRue said:

MizBrown, I always found fresh eggs weren’t the best for boiling. Seems the shell stuck on the white more. I always bought mine a week or two ahead for the kids’ Easter eggs.

My good news...I woke up still virus-free. The sun is shining, spring is bursting out all over. Birds are building nests. I envy them their freedom.
I’ve been playing YouTube African Gray videos for my African Gray, and am amused seeing her watch and enjoy them.

Betty

 

Ortega finally made an appearance on state TV channels.  My dog walker took a look at my t.v. and said, "El vive" (He lives) and giggled.

 

The commercial store eggs are definitely better for hard boiled, but I like omelets and stir-fried rice and lentils more than hard boiled. 

 

One of my friends said that whatever the governments are or aren't doing, we should practice social distancing, wash our hands, and wear masks and eye covering outside.

[Betty LaRue 3,688]

My good thing today....I’m “maybe” figuring out how to paint a cat’s face in watercolor. If I practice it enough to get decent at it, I’ll paint my sister’s cat for her from a picture.

@MizBrown, “he lives.....funny! 
I had a fried egg sandwich for lunch. Again.

[geogphotos 3,888]

2 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

My good thing today....I’m “maybe” figuring out how to paint a cat’s face in watercolor. If I practice it enough to get decent at it, I’ll paint my sister’s cat for her from a picture.

@MizBrown, “he lives.....funny! 
I had a fried egg sandwich for lunch. Again.

 

Betty - you are the good thing for today 😀

[Sally R 1,156]

On 16/04/2020 at 00:18, Betty LaRue said:

I’ve been playing YouTube African Gray videos for my African Gray, and am amused seeing her watch and enjoy them.

Betty

 

This created such a nice picture for me, imagining your African Gray being entertained by watching other African Grays on YouTube. They are so playful, smart and full of character.

 

A good thing today was that firstly it rained (we need the rain), but also there was a pair of galahs (pink and grey cockatoos) on the powerlines. They were preening themselves joyfully in the rain, regularly swinging round and upside down. It seemed like they were playing, but also enjoying a shower in the rain while they preen. I tried taking a couple of photos, but the sky was too bright behind them so didn't get a good shot. I did find a video on YouTube just now though that shows them doing the exact same behaviour in the rain:

 

 

[Allan Bell 2,834]

Packed some clothes hangers in a box ready for my move to Lincoln.

 

Yes I am being optimistic still.

 

Allan

 

[Broad Norfolk 244]

It rained in my corner of the world after about a month without any! The garden is soaking it up and the allotment holders down here will be rejoicing.

Betty, good to read you again and I have joined you in a fried egg sandwich. My first for a long while and it weren't half good!

Jim

Edited April 18, 2020 by Broad Norfolk
Sorry - month not mouth!

[Betty LaRue 3,688]

Sally, the Galahs are doing what all parrots do, I think. I love this video.  
I put Echo in my kitchen sink and turn on the sprayer attachment to give her a shower.  She spreads her wings and turns around so all feathers can get wet just like your Galahs.   She likes the water cold, but in the winter I finish her off with warm at the end.

I posted a picture of a female hummingbird in the nature thread (way back) that shows even these little birds love their rainy shower baths, too.
 

You are lucky to be able to see such beautiful parrots in the wild. I’m green with envy.

 

@Allan Bell optimism is always the way to choose. It makes for a happy and more serene life. Our glasses are always half full. Sometimes I am shockingly knocked off that perch, but I scramble to climb back on again. 

[Betty LaRue 3,688]

3 minutes ago, Broad Norfolk said:

It rained in my corner of the world after about a mouth without any! The garden is soaking it up and the allotment holders down here will be rejoicing.

Betty, good to read you again and I have joined you in a fried egg sandwich. My first for a long while and it weren't half good!

Jim

We had a needed rain, too, Jim!  Fried egg sandwiches go back to my childhood when we kept layer chickens.  I loved them then, too. Both the chickens, one of them I made a cuddle pet, and the sandwich!

[Ed Rooney 4,433]

Good to see you, Betty.

[NYCat 2,899]

12 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

We had a needed rain, too, Jim!  Fried egg sandwiches go back to my childhood when we kept layer chickens.  I loved them then, too. Both the chickens, one of them I made a cuddle pet, and the sandwich!

 

A very long time ago in San Diego when I was a wee girl and Easter was approaching the local drugstore was giving out a live baby chicken (in a Chinese food take-out box) to anyone who spent a certain amount of $$. I know, this is terrible but there is a happy ending for at least 2 chicks. My friend and I asked people to please, please give us a chick. The fools did so and we each scored a baby. My friend's mother wouldn't let her keep hers so I had two. Mind you, my mother and I lived in a small apartment on the second floor of an apartment complex. I could never have a cat or dog because it was hard enough for her to find an apartment that accepted kids without also accepting pets. So I was animal-deprived (probably why I photograph them) and my mother spoiled me. So she let me keep them in an open box in the apartment. We did have a front lawn and I would take them down to play with them. I remember how good they felt sitting in the palm of my hand. They turned out to be bantam chickens and one was a hen and the other a rooster. My mother was afraid the rooster would start to crow and we would be evicted. She had warned me that I wouldn't be able to keep them forever and she found a little boy who raised bantam chickens. A happy story all around. I have discovered that in Africa if a child adopts a baby wild animal they are carefully taught that one day the wild animal needs to go back to the wild. I am going to hug my cat Possum right now! I do miss the cats I take care of when my clients travel. No cat-sitting right now.

 

Paulette

[Ed Rooney 4,433]

Today? No good things . . . but yesterday I scored with three: my rental studio was extended, my building got workable WiFi at last, and Barclays unlocked my bank card. 😀

Edited April 18, 2020 by Ed Rooney

[NYCat 2,899]

23 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

Today? No good things . . . but yesterday I scored with three: my rental studio was extended, my building got workable WiFi at last, and Barclays unlocked my bank card. 😀

 

Three cheers!

 

Paulette

[Allan Bell 2,834]

28 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

Today? No good things . . . but yesterday I scored with three: my rental studio was extended, my building got workable WiFi at last, and Barclays unlocked my bank card. 😀

 

You got two bedrooms now?

 

Allan

 

[Betty LaRue 3,688]

1 hour ago, NYCat said:

 

A very long time ago in San Diego when I was a wee girl and Easter was approaching the local drugstore was giving out a live baby chicken (in a Chinese food take-out box) to anyone who spent a certain amount of $$. I know, this is terrible but there is a happy ending for at least 2 chicks. My friend and I asked people to please, please give us a chick. The fools did so and we each scored a baby. My friend's mother wouldn't let her keep hers so I had two. Mind you, my mother and I lived in a small apartment on the second floor of an apartment complex. I could never have a cat or dog because it was hard enough for her to find an apartment that accepted kids without also accepting pets. So I was animal-deprived (probably why I photograph them) and my mother spoiled me. So she let me keep them in an open box in the apartment. We did have a front lawn and I would take them down to play with them. I remember how good they felt sitting in the palm of my hand. They turned out to be bantam chickens and one was a hen and the other a rooster. My mother was afraid the rooster would start to crow and we would be evicted. She had warned me that I wouldn't be able to keep them forever and she found a little boy who raised bantam chickens. A happy story all around. I have discovered that in Africa if a child adopts a baby wild animal they are carefully taught that one day the wild animal needs to go back to the wild. I am going to hug my cat Possum right now! I do miss the cats I take care of when my clients travel. No cat-sitting right now.

 

Paulette

Around age 11, I got 2 baby chicks, too. My stepfather built an enclosure for them. This was after we’d quit keeping chickens. I loved them.

A funny story. My stepdad could sometimes be quite cruel. For instance, around 9-10 years old, I begin learning how to bake and make candy. One day I made a vanilla cake from scratch and it turned out heavy and a bit underdone.

My stepdad begin eating his cake, but after a bite, he put down his fork. He began rolling the cake into small marble-sized balls. I asked what he was doing. “I’m making dough balls, and going to use them for fish bait.”

I was crushed as only a sensitive girl can be.  Tears and all that.  
So another day, I was making scratch brownies. I was slow. My mother got impatient and started adding a few of the ingredients to hurry me up. I added salt. She added salt. Neither of us realized.

One bite of the brownies...I spit it out. I was terrified that my stepdad would say something bad. We still had chickens at that point. I hurriedly took the pan of brownies out and dumped them in the chicken pen. There was a fine rain falling.

The chickens all ran to the brownies, took one peck and turned up their beaks and walked away. Not only walked away, but acted like that pile of brownies was a fox or something that would attack them.  I didn’t know chocolate was bad for birds at that time, but maybe they did, or they didn’t like the saltiness.

Knowing my stepdad would ask why brownies were in the chicken pen forced me to go in and pick up the brownies amid mud and chicken poop. I did it, looking like a drowned rat, hid them in a paper sack and put them in the trash barrel.

 

[Ed Rooney 4,433]

1 hour ago, Allan Bell said:

 

You got two bedrooms now?

 

Allan

 

 

No, this is a studio—a one room apartment.

[Betty LaRue 3,688]

1 hour ago, Ed Rooney said:

Today? No good things . . . but yesterday I scored with three: my rental studio was extended, my building got workable WiFi at last, and Barclays unlocked my bank card. 😀

Wow, did you find a four-leafed clover?

[Betty LaRue 3,688]

12 hours ago, geogphotos said:

 

Betty - you are the good thing for today 😀

Ian, you just did my heart immeasurable good. Thank you.

[Betty LaRue 3,688]

2 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

Good to see you, Betty.

Thank you, Ed.

[NYCat 2,899]

I woke up this morning in the Big City to see a fledgling bird on the fire escape opposite me. At first I thought it must be a robin because I know we have a nest this year. It was too big though and all gray. I got a terrible photo of it and decided it was probably  a mourning dove. We have a nest near enough that I hear the cooing and I've seen a couple visiting our garden. It was not in a good place or good light for photos so I went ahead and did some shopping. When I got back I saw that it was at the front of the fire escape where I might get a decent photo but by the time I got up to my apartment it had flown away. I'm so happy it can fly because I hadn't seen it being fed. New life!

 

Paulette

[M.Chapman 1,792]

On 18/04/2020 at 16:53, Ed Rooney said:

Good to see you, Betty.

 

+1 Glad to see you back on the forum Betty.

 

Mark

Edited April 19, 2020 by M.Chapman

[Betty LaRue 3,688]

3 hours ago, NYCat said:

I woke up this morning in the Big City to see a fledgling bird on the fire escape opposite me. At first I thought it must be a robin because I know we have a nest this year. It was too big though and all gray. I got a terrible photo of it and decided it was probably  a mourning dove. We have a nest near enough that I hear the cooing and I've seen a couple visiting our garden. It was not in a good place or good light for photos so I went ahead and did some shopping. When I got back I saw that it was at the front of the fire escape where I might get a decent photo but by the time I got up to my apartment it had flown away. I'm so happy it can fly because I hadn't seen it being fed. New life!

 

Paulette

I love mourning doves.

Thank you, Mark!

[Allan Bell 2,834]

Went shopping at our local Tesco store for groceries for a week. Came away with enough for two weeks. Only just managed to get it in the freezer which was full already.

 

No Queueing. Walked straight in.

 

Allan

 

[Michael Ventura 6,446]

I did a 6am grocery run this morning...the best time to go! The shelves are pretty well stocked and even got some hot freshly made bagels.  No lines and got enough items to last a couple of weeks!  Like you, Allan, the freezer it getting tight.