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Well I'll be blowed!!

What do you think? I think I'm wrong.

But to add a spark of joy [no, not Joy Noelle...this time :D], here are two sweet sibling peafowl chicks:

Not sure, I have got our rather old but still working Panasonic video/still camera up and running so I'll try with that next. A bit more growth might help too.

The chicks are adorable!!

:)
 
We're you @tommo47?
Inquiring minds want to know.

Do you mean the chicks?

As well as playing games with you I've been messing about with my old Motorola V3i (about 14 years old) and HTC Desire S (about 9 years old), both are still working with original batteries although I have bought a new one for the Desire S, it was discharging a tad too quickly.

For the last 3-4 hours I've been converting my Sounds Of The Sixties CD set from .cda to MP3 format to put them on SD card/s.

Oh, and by the way, can you answer my answers to you and tell me what you think I won't believe?

"I'm only 10 years behind you @tommo47 but I got the C before you.

Question 1 :Are you skinnier than you've ever been?
Question 2: Does your sweetie not mind and is doing her best to plump you up?

Congratulations! You are a winner!

You won't believe what comes next..."

:)
 
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Hi @MoodyBlues

How are you today?

"Do you have any pics of your little bird visitors? I'd love to see them if you do. Can you give me a visual? Size, color(s), preferred seeds/food, etc. I'm pretty good about identifying North American birds...but not so much elsewhere! So I don't know if I can be of any help identifying them."

Another challenge for you :) :-

We have a pair of these making themselves very much at home in the large wisteria....

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They may not be clear enough though :(.

I think you are right about the camellias, yours are a lot darker, both leaves and trunk/branches.

The two that you thought were the same were exactly that, I had taken two photos of the one plant....duh!!!

:)
 
We have a pair of these making themselves very much at home in the large wisteria....
The larger one, is it about the size of a jay? Or a smallish crow? It resembles, but isn't, a Western Tanager.

The little one is a Lesser Goldfinch. Like these:

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They usually visit with the whole family: mom, dad, and a baby. The dads are the vibrant yellow/green ones; the duller ones are moms and/or juveniles.

I'm doing just fine, @tommo47, thanks for asking! And how about you? How's the tummy treating you these days? You might want to stock up on nourishing and supplement liquids now for when you need them. Did the nurse come to take blood? Really, I just need an update on what's happening, if you don't mind.

@ocnbrze and I are bracing for temps in the 90s, which should hit by the end of the week. Oh! He's been bitching and moaning about how *COLD* it's been! So I called him out but good, telling him he's a spoiled, SoCal, weather wimp. :rolleyes: Oh...shit...I forgot...then I looked at my California birth certificate, noted I was born in Los Angeles...yeah, well...so just never mind.... :o :D :D
 
They usually visit with the whole family: mom, dad, and a baby. The dads are the vibrant yellow/green ones; the duller ones are moms and/or juveniles.

Hi, I'll keep an eye open tomorrow. They certainly appear to be 'with' each other, and do look a lot like the Lesser Goldfinch which surprises me because they are allegedly a rare site in the UK.

Everything is working fine. I've had a good day today. Up and out early this morning and got some path weeding done then spent the rest of the day putting my MP3 tracks on SD cards.

Another two weeks to go on the current chemo session, after which I expect to have the 'before and after' CT scan before the next chemo session. So the next blood sample will be the day before that.

The CT scan should have been after the third chemo session but the first session was aborted on day two because of the stomach motility, but I think the medics are anxious to firm up on the liver situation in case they need to review the chemo drugs again.

It's been another lovely day today and the forecast is good for at least another week. Not 90° good, but that would be too much for me anyway.

It's good to know your good. Stay safe.

:)
 
Hi @MoodyBlues,

Another lovely day here. It looks like the birds are nest building in the wisteria, they are in and out carrying bits of twig today.

I've done a search on a UK site and I'm pretty sure they are Great Tits. They begin nesting late March or April.

:)
images.jpeg

How is your heatwave developing?

Have you made any progress with a new phone?

:)
 
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Not the photos from post #130, surely? The great tit has a black stripe on the chest, clear white cheeks, and a black top of the head. I can't see any of those features in the photos there. And I can't imagine Great Tits nesting in wisteria: they like holes to build nests in (or nest boxes with slightly larger holes than Blue Tits).

Have you considered a Wagtail? The Grey Wagtail looks a good match to me:

grey-wagtail_male_1200x675.jpg


Or perhaps the Yellow Wagtail, but that lacks the dark chin:

yellow-wagtail_1200x675.jpg
 
Thank you for that @Hadron.

You could well be right about the Grey Wagtail, my photos were not the best, but it certainly is a good match with my visual of the birds.

Definitely not the Yellow Wagtail.

:)
 
Has anyone got a photo of a Rite Tit?

When I apologise to some people for my lack of a side haircut, I'm told I now look like one.

I just want to know if they were being complimentary. I'm sure they were.
 
One of the things that I notice when I'm in the States is that the birds are different, even when the popular names are the same. When I travel around Europe most of the birds are the same (abundances vary, but it's unusual to see a species in Germany or Switzerland that I don't see in the UK), which makes this particularly noticeable.
 
Just a quick update.

This is becoming a serious learning curve. Friday tea-time I got another case of my stomach going ape-shit, ie serious trapped wind followed by what I can only describe as 'indigestion on steroids', then the inability to eat or drink anything.

A repeat of what happened 18 days into the previous chemo cycle, except that this was just 10 days in.

In exactly the same way as previously it has taken about 36 hours of repeated vomitting to empty my stomach of a horrible frothy goo which comes from god knows where, to be able to continue drinking/eating which I celebrated about two hours ago with a mug of cocoa.

Although the meal was pureed, I did struggle to finish it but I have never liked not leaving a plate clean!!! Lesson learnt, I hope!!

Oh happy days!!

:D:D
 
@Sam Howard,

Thanks you for your thoughts, but if you read the full thread you will see that it's all sorted.

I have set in motion the realisation of a teenage dream which is to have a Triumph Bonneville and sidecar combination.

Assuming by 'ride without smoke' you mean 'smoking', that is something I have never tried even before I stopped smoking in 1992, apart from which I think it would be almost impossible to do even if you weren't wearing a crash helmet, which, in the UK at least, is a legal requirement.

You keep safe.

:)
 
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@dontpanicbobby, I've been in and out of hospital 3 or 4 times since the diagnosis in November because of the sudden inability to eat or drink, even water, which brings on rapid dehydration. Each time I went onto IV drip until the problem cleared and I was able to eat/drink. At the moment I'm on liquids and pureed meals only which my wife is preparing. Fortunately she has a catering background so food preparation of any kind is no problem for her.

I bring up just a bubbly, frothy and gooey liquid unless I'm able to express wind which I believe builds up and eventually blocks the stent.

:)
 
How's it going today, my dear @tommo47?

It's a beautiful sunny day here in SoCal, and it made me wonder what your weather is like right now. Have you been able to get outside and do some gardening? How are those beautiful wisterias and bleeding hearts [that I wish I had!]?

Remember that avocado tree? I posted images as it grew from a pit. As noted, it suffered greatly at one point...its prognosis was grim. But look at it now! My helper took these yesterday; they're different angles of the same tree. I left the basketball stand in deliberately, for scale:

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You see, a poor prognosis may end up with a happy ending. :D
 
Here it has been such an amazing spring, this is one of the photos, I uploaded elsewhere, but I have been uploading them frantically on here, hopefully someone would catch it on its eye, just been working on and off lately though. Everyone is doing okay for the meanwhile.
 

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How's it going today, my dear @tommo47?

Good morning @MoodyBlues, I'm good thank you, how are you?

It has been lovely here and yes I've spent a few hours in the garden most days, the weeds don't stop growing and I like to keep on top of them. The wisteria is really blooming over the last couple of weeks. It's very noticeable how direct sunlight makes a huge difference in the way they progress. We tidied up the 'big' one yesterday, which has spread across the trellis now and we also found the nest that we reckoned the wagtails were building :).

Your avocado looks magnificent, you must be really pleased with it. It makes it all worthwhile when you get results like that.

How did your heatwave turn out in the end?

You pipped me at the post today, literally. I was going to update today as the nurse is coming this afternoon to take the blood sample ready for the visit to the oncology facility tomorrow, for the start of the next chemo cycle.

These were taken a couple of days ago :-

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:)

@MoodyBlues I'm puzzled that images from previous posts appear when my thumbnails are expanded. Do you know why that is happening? Although I guess it doesn't really matter :rolleyes:.
 
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I'm puzzled that images from previous posts appear when my thumbnails are expanded. Do you know why that is happening?
It has something to do with the choice you're making when they're uploaded. I never post as thumbnails, always 'full image,' so I don't have personal experience with it. If you're following the only thumbnail choice available, you might want to post on the Feedback board and see if it's a glitch, or how to get around it. Now, on to gardening!

Your wisterias look AMAZING! I love the coloration, and they're just so pretty! I would've asked you to post pics, but you thoughtfully already did. Please post more as they continue growing.

Has the nurse come yet for blood? [Sounds like he's a vampire! :D] What's the game plan following its results? Keep us updated.

I'm doing fine. We'll be 100° in the next day or so, but I'm good--it's nice and cool in the house. :)

My never-ending network housecleaning project hit an unexpected bump in the road. :eek: I posted about looking for file managers with specific traits, and one that I found has created a new pastime.

You see, MiXplorer Silver not only lets you control every menu's entries and order, but it lets you create your own skins [or download other people's]. You can literally control everything about its appearance. I'm working on a blue theme, logical since blue's my favorite color. I'm spending more time playing with it than I am housecleaning with it! Oh well. :D

I hope my avocado tree's defeating its grim prognosis rang a bell. :)
 
Has the nurse come yet for blood? [Sounds like he's a vampire! :D] What's the game plan following its results? Keep us updated.

There were two of them this time, one was getting some training on taking blood samples having recently been reassigned to Front Line nursing due to the huge demand for house visits. Two lovely ladies, who, just like all the nurses I met during my hospital admissions, deserve and get my total respect.

I think the sample is taken specifically for analysis prior to the first day of the chemo cycle so that they can address any negatives in the IV drip feed. I'm due in the Facility at 9:30 today.

We have a telephone consultation with the lead oncology Doctor scheduled for 18th May.

Your wisterias look AMAZING! I love the coloration, and they're just so pretty! I would've asked you to post pics, but you thoughtfully already did. Please post more as they continue growing.

I certainly will. All the plants have responded almost unbelievably to my severe pruning last year. Very satisfying :).

I'm glad you've found a file manager you can work with and is giving you obvious pleasure while doing so :). You know what they say about 'all work and no play'!!! :thinking:.

I hope my avocado tree's defeating its grim prognosis rang a bell. :)

The bell rang loudly and clearly :D:D:D. Thank you for that. As far as I'm concerned it will continue to ring!!!!!

:)
 
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