I've been invited out for a meal, so see you all later. Have a lovely evening

Summer, I hope you have a good time

 

anyone having a little tipple this evening?

 

http://i.imgur.com/grp6sCt.gif

night yogi EL summer  pirate and everybody

Good morning everyone

 

Very cloudy here,

 

I see on the Social Strata twitter pages that on the 13th they were investigating some network connectivity issues (dropped packets and latency) at their data center. Later they posted that the issues had been resolved but would keep an eye out. I'm guessing that this related to the problems people were having here.

 

Thanks for the info El :

Morning Buddies  

Dull and overcast here. The odd shower is possible 

Have a good day everyone 

Ochre is a natural earth pigment which has been used by artists for a very long time.

In this country, there is one place where it is still mined. That's at the Clearwell Caves in the Forest of Dean. Sadly the miners there are very elderly and there's a delay in getting funding to train some younger replacements.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-e...cestershire-34525946

 

 

Morning moonie

The weather here is much the same as where you are. Though I've just seen a tiny patch of blue sky so it still exists

 

Flippin typical El 

I may come and steal that bit of blue sky later El 

Good morning everyone, not a hint of blue sky here, some very threatening dark grey clouds

 

How fascinating to think that they mine for a paint colour, amazing.

 

Seen over Palm Beach yesterday - enjoy your day everyone

 

Good morning damp and overcast here today
How are we all today?

Wow squiggle! What an incredible and heart warming picture thank you for sharing

I saw such an interesting thing yesterday, a Nuthatch with a large round nut in his beak trying to bury it in the lawn!  He poked it in and stabbed at it and then dug it up and tried it somewhere else, he then walked round the corner presumably to have another go.  I looked it up and apparently they do this all the time in the winter and come back to it within 30 days.

Lovely picture, squiggle

 

I wonder if that's why nuthatches are so called, as if your nuthatch was trying to hatch that nut?

 

I found this which I found interesting.

 

It's very normal to witness this as all nuthatches appear to store food, especially seeds, in tree crevices, in the ground, under small stones, or behind bark. These 'caches' are remembered for as long as 30 days.

Nuthatches have been found to avoid using their caches during mild conditions in order to save them for harsher times. As much as 90 per cent of a nuthatch's time in winter is spent gathering food. Detailed knowledge of its territory and location of stored food may be an important reason for the birds not moving far from their home range.

They get their name from their habit of wedging a large food item in a crevice and then hacking at it with their strong bills.

'This habit has given nuthatches their name. They 'hatch' the nut or break its shell with the bill as with a hatchet.' Forbush (1929)

 

 

 

 

I really enjoyed catching up with your nuthatch posts, what a lovely sight squiggle. I wonder, is there anything we could leave out as food for them?

Summer, from later on in the aerticle that squiggle found it says this:

As we go into the colder part of the year don't forget to help out the birds in your garden. Nuthatches will eat peanuts and sunflower seeds - a great way to attract birds into your garden and provide them with a nutritious, high-energy diet. Feed peanuts from a secure wire mesh feeder to avoid the risk of young birds choking on big pieces and with a 'guardian' if you do not want squirrels to join the feast!

Remember though Summer that if you live in an area where there are any squirrels they will certainly beat any nuthatches to the feast before they get a look in they are greedy little creatures and will not stop until they have eaten what they can and buried the rest, and from what I have seen they never remember where they have buried anything

BBC video clip of the oldest person in Britain who has just had a hip replacement at the age of 112.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-e...d-hampshire-34547263

The news item on the BBC television news at lunchtime also mentioned that she was a teacher and that she had been married to her late husband for 60 years. Also that her son in his 80s was visiting her in the hospital.

I wish Gladys well.

 

happy friday everyone 

Gladys is amazing what an inspirational lady

Thanks for the bird feeding info, I haven't seen any squirrels locally but there is a patch of woodland not far away so maybe...

Happy Friday to you too pirate have you got any plans?

yes

im going to drink myself simple

 

and

go on twitter & insult katie hopkins

 

nah, im baby sitting the kittens, theyre like puppies, they keep ripping everything up

Put peanuts out and you will most certainly see squirrels

 

Hi pirate, happy Friday to you too, I agree kittens can be little hooligans.

Early evening peeps  

Hope we have all had a good day 

Been in and out all day 

Hope you all have a good evening 

night everybody

Good mornong everyone

 

Cloudy conditions here again.

 

I hope everyone has a good weekend

Good morning everyone, it's a blue sky here with very fast-moving white clouds scudding southwards, a huge bank of greyish clouds over Wales though so whether that's heading my way I don't know.

 

No Yogi? I thought she would be back with us by now.

 

Hope you are all feeling tickety-boo and ready for a lovely weekend, no matter what you're all up to

Squiggle, that huge bank of greyish clouds over Wales has been here for some time and doesn't look as if it's going. Not raining though.

 

I hope Yogi is OK as, like you, I would have thought she would be back by now. It may be that PB has stayed over into the weekend.

 

 

Morning Buddies

Overcast here but dry at present 

Hope all is okay with Yogi  

Washing done and on the line, shopping done, lotto put on 

Now an afternoon of sport for me 

Have a good day everyone  

 Forgot to say earlier, I have all my Christmas cards now 

Just need a second mortgage to post em all  

at least you have plentry of time to organise that mortgage

And if I start writing in them now, I may just finish by Christmas too El, if I'm lucky 

Flying visit.

 

Having new windows put in today - it's dusty work!

 

Hope you're all well. Hope to be back later tonight

Yogi, I'm glad you are OK. I hope the new windows installation goes to plan I had new windows put in just over 5 years ago and it was a quite a big job. Not as big as bay windows though - those take a lot longer.

 

Moonie, my brother. when he was working, sent a lot of Christmas cards each year. He will still send a lot mow that he has been retired but not so many. I know that he used to start preparing them around this time of the year because of the quantity he did. I think they were in the hundreds.

 

Hi Yogi
Glad you are okay and hope the window installation goes smoothly 

I have a feeling I will get "writers cramp" El