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.

That’s fascinating @BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn

And hello @StrawberrySquash

@BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn

Important note!

When birds are feeding their young, caterpillars, worms etc are their only source of water. Chicks fed on dry stuff often die from dehydration.

Please soak the mealworms in hot water for half an hour, before offering them.

(That was in the RSPB mag, a few years ago).

The rain is doing a pretty good job of keeping them well soaked,. But yes - I always damp the worms but now I know there are chicks I'll be extra careful about a good soak.

It would be worth buying live worms for breeding season, but the adults would get a taste for them and then refuse dried ones thereafter. Ask how I know...

Ha! They're as bad as cats, then? One taste of luxury and spoilt for life.

They're worse than cats. They stalk us from dawn to dusk and during breeding season, we've only to open the door and they'll fly at us.

Day #58976 of bathroom replacement, several civilisations have risen and collapsed in the interim.

Boiler has just broken down: hot water demand not being recognised. Builders said it wasn't anything they did but must be a coincidence, they'll try to resolve it after lunch, but if they can't sort it then we have to call British Gas. I'm more than a little sceptical on account of the hot water was working perfectly well this morning when I had my shower just before they arrived.

Oh FFS, what a complete pain @Kucinghitam, and what a coincidence. I had a plumber break my cupboard door under the sink and declare ‘nothing to do with me’. Funny how it wasn’t broken before he started working in there. I feel your despair, I loathe workmen in my flat for five minutes let alone 58976 days crossing my fingers it will all be over soon for you.

Commiserations @Kucinghitam . That is a major pain.

British Gas engineer coming tomorrow morning, so at least that matter is in hand for now (apart from none of us will be having a shower this evening).

But that took a few hours out of the bathroom replacement while the builders were puzzling over the boiler. Shame, as they had hoped it would be finished today.

On the bright side, it looks like there is a blue tit couple moving in to one of our bird boxes.

DTDs had built the bird boxes in Yr6 DT class, weirdly memorable because they were the one of the last items they brought back from school just a few days before Lockdown 2020. We attached one to a quiet bit of fence and other to the apple tree, but there were no takers.

This spring for the first time I noticed a potential blue tit tenant sniffing around the tree box last month, then making tiny renovations around its entrance. This week I'm quite certain there is a pair of them going in and out - if I can do it without frightening them, I might leave out some sheep's wool near the tree.

We leave sheep's wool out for the little birds and it all gets taken by jackdaws. The queue up for it.

My sister hates engaging tradesmen - she says they always create a problem while fixing one.

As wisely sung about by Flanders and Swann fifty years or so ago.

%3D%3D

Haha exactly!

Help migrating fish: https://nltimes.nl/2023/03/06/utrechts-fish-door-bell-underwater-camera-back-online-third-year

Well, that's not terrifying at all!

I'm currently watching so much stuff that is verging on pure shite on Netflix and Amazon. I'm up to date on just about everything I enjoy or not in the mood for the stuff I used to enjoy anymore. Fair play to Amazon for only putting one episode of The Power on each week. It mildly infuriates me but I also appreciate that it gives me something to look forward to on a Friday.

Something wonderful happened yesterday - I’d re-read all my hardback Stephen King novels and was having terrible withdrawal symptoms, I just wanted to be back in Stephen King-land, and couldn’t find my paperbacks, i.e. all his earlier work which I’d read in the days I couldn’t afford hardbacks and had to wait a year for the paperback edition. Anyway! Thought I’d just check our half-storey attic-type water-tank room/dumping ground and found a carrier bag with a dozen or so King paperbacks, hooray!

We have AppleTV on streaming (only about $6 a month) and we are loving Ted Lasso and most recently the beginning of Schmigadoon. I love cheesy old musicals, and this is a fabulous parody of them. I chortled my way through the first episode recognising bits stolen from them.

That fish doorbell is brilliant. I've bookmarked the page.

A Sunday morning puzzle - spot the boggle: https://www.propertypal.com/48-dunover-road-ballywalter/778821

Very practical solution to the Aga problem? Unusual place to live, laugh, love? Nice views of Scotland? Lack of downstairs loos? Lack of unconcreted garden?

My best friend had a weekend cottage a few miles south of that and rented a bit of field where she established a very productive vegetable garden with beehives. I find the Ards a bit hard to know how to react to - she loved it and felt culturally at home and safe across the road from the Orange hall, I always found the Union flags and generally red white and blue vibe a bit too strong a reminder of the fact that people like me were systematically massacred there. A long time ago, but still edgy.

Very practical solution to the Aga problem?

Double solution ... see also picture #19.

Traybakes don't cook themselves you know.