As you will see from Picture 1 the Coal Tits are proving elusive. They were there again this morning but as soon as I appeared at the window - off ! Their cousins are made of sterner stuff. I hesitate to say that I have Great Tits because Steven will ROFL, such is the puerile humour of the young, but we have - in abundance.
And I think that inadvertently I bought thistle-seed instead of niger-seed for the feeder just out of shot, and we haven't seen a Goldfinch for ages. Perhaps it isn't their time of year.
Nice e-mail from Pete congratulating Y on her rafting-adventure. Praise indeed from an Isle of Man Lifeboat man !! He says he is now too old for the Inshore Lifeboat (similar sort of raft) but that he is still allowed on the AWB. He would have left a comment but couldn't find the button. If you read this Pete, you have to click the 'comments' at the very bottom of the Blog; there is a picture of a pencil at the side, and the dialogue box should open upper left. On my page the comments icon is in orange.
Last night I wondered what autumn colours would look like at night, and illuminated by flash? This is one result. The 'posh' Japanese Rowan. The native Rowan surrendered weeks ago.Next time I would use aperture-priority and use maybe f8 because, letting the camera make the decision, it opened it right up to f3.8 for a lowlight situation. Hence the small depth of field and only a small area in sharp focus. God - I can be boring !
We've had a lovely day so far. Ikea for coffee, mooch round, bought bits (inevitably) Xmas presents, a deep frying pan for Andy, with a glass lid, because we have been so satisfied with ours, then lunch in their restaurant. We both had the Salmon Rosti and swedish mixed veg. followed by rich cakes for pudding, and more coffee. All delicious and under a tenner for the lot. Nice touch is that one can go back for as many mugs of coffee as desired. We both only wanted one so it was lost on us. Good business though !
Then a quick Lidl for essentials and home. Blogging - Pot of tea - and I'm going to have a look at freewebs which Pete uses. I feel I must set up an alternative to Blogger.
I nearly forgot. Mansfield National Trust this evening. The lecture is 'Mansfield before The Four Seasons'. The Four Seasons is Mansfield's Shopping Centre and it should be interesting. We hope there will be lots of pictures.
And then tomorrow, to Nottingham for our 'Holbein to Hockney' class. We want to go into Derbyshire before all the autumn leaves fall off, probably Derwent Water. But it is a matter of fitting it into our busy schedule. Thie retirement business is worse than work.............. And we love every minute of it.....................
Congratulations to Y on her rafting - she even sounds as if she enjoyed it too - what warped tastes your wife has.....
ReplyDeleteSalmon Rosti sounds very tasty.....
I never put anthing at all meaty out for birds, all that happens is the foxes come from far and wide, and the three we have are more than enough....think it is a menage a trois, last year there were 7 cubs around
My bird book suggests that Goldfinches are only likely to be seen in winter near ‘Riverside alders and wasteland'. I think of them as spring birds but we very rarely see them at all.
ReplyDeletePic 2 reminds me of those Victorian(?) still-life paintings I don’t very much like (too photographic?) although I can admire the artists’ skill. Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood?
As for you being boring: it had never occurred to em that you didn’t know! I should have said something instead of just secretly chuckling to myself. Not that Ikea, frying pans and Swedish Mixed Veg are less than fascinating.
And Salmon Rosti is very interesting. Didn’t he win the Booker Prize?
Too late it occurred to Sandra and Stephanie that, if you carried your cup round with you, it should be possible to keep going back for refills at, say, half hour intervals. Does that appeal?
You NT lecture should have included the OLD King’s Head (opposite the end of Queen Street - about where Ann Summers is now?). It was a smashing mediaeval pub, in the same family for several generations, with a splendid collection of pipes (clay, for smoking, not Pan or plumbing).
The roads up Wo’kswo’th way on are excellent for autumn colours.
You said something about a risk of losing all your blogs if you switch system. Couldn’t you copy them all, a month at a time I think, and paste them into Word Docs? I’ll try it tomorrow.
I know that this is not related, but I was troubled by the term 'vested interest' this morning and wondered if you knew its origins? I know that you say alot come from Chaucer. Also, how about Bobby Dazzler?
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