Thread 6 - TalkExiles: "Yup, still round."

[Kucinghitam]

Continuation of previous threads (thread 5).

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.

A couple of years ago, the garage where I took my car for a service called and said that they couldn't proceed, as they had found a rat nest in the engine. UGGGGGHHHH! I had to get the engine steam-cleaned before anything could be done.

A couple of years ago I came across this pair of toads during an evening lockdown wander

Toads! I love toads. They are such funny little animals.

@Ginmonkeyagain Me too. Growing up I was lucky enough to have a pond which was populated by frogs and little fish my dad took from a river I loved spending time with the frogs and tadpoles though I suspect they didn’t enjoy me stroking their heads and carrying them around quite so much. Both the frogs and fish did get a hand-foraged feast of wood lice, aphids and greenfly every day though. I only remember seeing a toad a couple of times and was shocked by how dry and lumpy it looked compared to the frogs.

I suspect a bit of rat activity in my front garden but I think not much on account of the foxes (I’ve spotted rodent shaped animals on my trail camera a couple of times whereas the fox patrols are frequent) .

Oh, I have a question about Mumsnet language - why is donating to crowd funders called “gardening”?

Oh yes, that’s been baffling me too!

I think it's code for donations or fund raising.

I assumed it was something to do with growing/cultivating funds while waiting for something outside of your control to happen e.g. the timing of a court case. No idea how it came to me the metaphor of choice though.

I don't how it originated either, but I think that if you refer to that activity or post a link, it's deleted.

Yes you can't openly promote crowdfunding for any purpose, MN had some problems with people scamming in the past. Gardening because you plant seeds and see results.

Went to the bathroom to be sick (codeine, you know) and was completely distracted by the sight of a sparrow hawk surveying its empire from an oak branch. Must have gazed at it for 10 minutes before it finally made its move…

…and it was just a fucking pigeon all along.

Hahahaha! I've done exactly that, Mavis!

I’m always mistaking pigeons for other, better birds.

wasn't a pigeon. was a trans sparrow hawk.

In bird chat we had a very noisy nightingale last night - I could hear him cheeping away at 11pm last night.

I have never heard a nightingale anywhere in the UK, don’t think they’re very common in Devon and Cornwall.

They are rare but you get them in the SE England- Kent, Essex, Sussex etc.. We are in SE London, not far from the Kent border.

@MavisMcMinty

You can tell by their call if they're sparrowhawks. They go:

Cu-coo-cuck-cuckDIE YA BASTID!

Heh, as I gazed at it I wanted it to “speak” as I don’t know what sparrow hawks sound like. I can identify a buzzard from its cry alone because they’re ten a penny round here - I used to get terribly excited about them when we first moved here.

I know what pigeons sound like. They annoy me because their call ends on the wrong note -

Coo coo, cuh cuh coo, cuh
Coo coo, cuh cuh coo, cuh

When logically, to my ears, the last “cuh” should be at the beginning of the line, not the end.

Wood pigeons go cuh cooo coo cu coo. Over and over and over and over again, just outside my bedroom window. Then they do it some more. And they rattle when they try to launch themselves off the ground. Collared doves do 7 coos but I can't remember the rhythm right now. That will change. I have a pair of bullfinches. So pretty but make a rather unmusical noise.

There was a pair of sparrowhawks nesting in the tree opposite me the summer before last. I enjoyed watching them through binoculars, particularly the little baby sparrowhawks trying to fly. There was already a squirrel nesting in a hole full of fluff underneath. They seemed to tolerate each other for a while but then the squirrel cleared off so I didn’t get to see any babies.

I hear birdsong every night here. Not sure what sort of bird but probably not nightingales, although the song is beautiful. It usually starts around 1am. I worry it’s because our block’s garden is lit up like a football pitch at night and it’s disturbing their circadian rhythm.

Had a lunchtime trip to the cinema today. Snoop and I, mostly I, decided to see All Quiet on the Western Front at the cinema rather than on TV because I thought it looked very cinematic. It is. Very much so. It also holds nothing back and is pretty full-on trauma. Snoop said "I think I might have PTSD" when we left.

Until today I could say that hands down the most traumatic film I'd ever seen or thought I would see was the Soviet film Come and See which was utterly brutal. It is no longer a stand-alone and it's possible that AQOTWF is even more brutal. Bloody fine film though and I'd have given it the Oscar for best film over Everything Everywhere All At Once.

I've come home and had a banana and a Mars bar to calm myself down.

Come And See is the only film that's made me scream out loud in terror, so I am not sure I want to see IAQOTWF now.

Pet Semetary gave me the creeps.