Thread 4 - TalkExiles: "The Planet Goes On Being Round"

[Kucinghitam]

Continuation of previous lifeboat threads 1 & 2 & 3.

Gather here all ye refugees from the JTT Flat Earth Society, welcome to the reassuringly oblate spheroid of MN! Ye all already know the answers to the questions "How the heck do I format my post?" "Why can't I edit my typos?" "What do those acronyms mean?" and most importantly, "Where is everybody that I used to know?"

So really we're all here just to chat randomly.

Beautiful! Is it a damson tree?

No it was a flowering cherry. It was lovely in the autumn too because it was covered in tiny (inedible) crimson berries. The birds loved them though!

Ah, it reminded me of the damson tree at work, the habit is similar. I do love flowering cherry trees, the blossom is so lovely.

This is the tree I know.

That is indeed lovely. We are thinking about planting one in this garden, but it's so much smaller (and we're a lot older) so it may not work. We do have an enormo-spruce in the garden which was here when we moved in, but we've literally done nothing to this garden since we moved in, except cut the grass, as we've been tied up with the renovations to the house. I need to keep it simple though.

Japanese milk bread looks bloody lovely. A bit like Brioche which I guess is also a milk bread. I love Brioche.

I have new glasses which I'm so glad about as I hated the glasses I got the last time I had to have new ones. I picked them in a moment of madness and hated them from the moment I picked them up. I took a bit longer than usual getting used to the varifocals but all is good now. I have two pairs (BOGOF) and both are pretty damn fine.

Not as fine as this little batfink though. Finally, a decent photo of the void. Django in the cat cot. Yes, it's a cot, yes cats sleep in it, and well, yes, it is actually a doll's cot but I bought it for cats years and years ago. It was used a tiny bit and then not at all. Francis has been using it here in the last week so of course, whatever he does Django must do as well (it also works the other way around) Without further ado, look at my lovely wee boy!

Awwww! He has the most adorable nose and kitten cat eyes.

Brit, if you can get a kojo-no-mai cherry they don't grow too big. We have a couple in pots by the front door, and MaBint has a considerably more mature one in her garden that maxed out at 2m high and 2m across. Really nice twig shapes as well, for winter interest.

Django looks very comfortable there.

Thanks Bint I'll check out if they grow in our hardiness zone. I think we're in zone 4, possibly 4b.

Sadly the kojo-no-mai cherry appears to be zone 6-8, which is probably somewhere around New Jersey.

Ah, that's a shame.

Love the pic of Django and his sweet little face.

"Have a break, have a Kat Kot..."

Lovely catto pics. And trees!

I can join the cat action! This chatty little lady begging for scraps at a roadside stall. She’s a typical SE Asian moggy cat, small, fine-boned and with a narrow triangular face. Oh, and very vocal. Only slightly atypical thing about her is that she has a long straight tail. Most street cats I’ve seen in SE Asia have a shortened, kinked tail.

Magnificent ears!

What do Malaysian cats say? I was surprised by Chinese ones having a very clear 'ni hao'.

Yes, the ears are a thing to behold.

Haha! Malaysian cats tend to make the kind of yowly rounded miaows that owners of Siamese cats will recognise. Not a million miles from “ni hao” really.

My most "Lockdown" photo from spring 2020 is this from our usual dog walk, on a field which is normally only populated by dog walkers. Spring 2020 was very notable for all the people going out for walks on the field (4 sets in this photo), and the amount of complaints about dog poo on the local FB group.

TBH we don't walk there any more, as the amount of people with off lead dogs which have no recall makes me too nervous. Ours can never be off lead outside our garden, and it can be a bit dangerous with uncontrolled dogs coming right up to them.

Anyway, yesterday I spent the day binge watching Sort Your Life Out on iPlayer, so now I have a pressing urge to organise things. So far I've just tidied the understairs cupboard a bit, swapped DH's desk for a different (more aesthetically pleasing) one as he's on a 12 hour shift and can't complain, and reorganised my desk. Might spend some time browsing drawer organisers next - I lead SUCH an exciting life.

My lockdown picture of 2020 was of this bridge in Canary Wharf, taken in the middle of a weekday. Normally teaming with office workers.

Meanwhile, Japanese milk bread has been bumped until tomorrow in favour of a brew day, so another batch of Grey Sheep is afoot.

Love the tunnel pic and duc's is full of promise.

I took this in July 2020 because the cherry stalks reminded me of dead spiders.

Ooh yes, @Tricyrtis2022 ! My Mum used to occasionally give a little fake shriek and hurl a tomato top at me, pretending it was a spider.

My Mum used to occasionally give a little fake shriek and hurl a tomato top at me, pretending it was a spider.

My granny too. I now do it to my children, along with teeth made from orange peel. I seem to find these things funnier than my children do. They humour me though.

This was refreshing to read.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/28/forget-andrew-tate-what-about-the-host-of-misogynists-in-labours-ranks