Daniel— Cheers mate. DM— Thanks much…Happy Birthday to Becky as well then. Ta Droopske— we had a good one. Hey Palu— Thanks so much. Bless you, Eileen.— it was pretty darned good. Jane— You are just too cool. I appreciate that. Pac— Here is the birthday boy, then. The birthday celebration was calm, but fun. It is now time for the National garden bird counting, so I nipped out to the lottie. I have a little heater that uses gas canisters that go for three hours. We took our places in the garden house and waited. I first loaded up the food silo’s and feeding table. In-between made rounds checking on this and that, removed some reed from the sloot, looked at the rising daffs and snow drops. Checked the leaf mould to see how that was progressing. Checked for wind damage as well as the inside of the greenhouse. All oké. Back home, we decided on Mexican food and ordered it from the new restaurant in town. Watched the last Autumnwatch and a couple of other entertaining shows on the telly. When the eyes got squinty, it was time to check the eyelids for pinholes. Thank you so much for your generous well-wishes. That means a lot, meid. Netty— Cheers for your good wishes. Melody— Hey, thanks for those piccies. I like that sort of fun. Your words were moving. What a nice person you are. Zigs— I appreciate your birthday wishes. Ta. Tetters— What a surprise! That took a little extra work. I appreciate that song. You know wot, people call up folks and sing that same children's song to each other to this day. Yeah, I really liked that. When I call friends or family to wish them a happy the conversation always begins with that melody…even to ths day. Thanks again. Hoi Cayu— Muchas gracias, chica. Tienes siempre palabras simpaticas. KK— Oh my, that gets the drool flowing…and with a nice tartan to boot! Terima kasih orang bagus. 4G— Thank you, miss. Well, I just have to show you what came in the mail …. Precisely ON my birthday! What are the chances. It is very thoughtful. I wonder where the person got the idea. The cover: Now the back, telling what is inside: Once again thank you all for your wishes…and I would be remiss if I did not thank Jerry for his trouble. Thanks mate.
Sjoerd you had a very impressive BD . And just as impressive is your leaf book and BD dinner and I enjoyed listening about your day. Very much. I bet you have an extensive garden and bird library. Sounds like you had a good time out in the covey watching and feeding the birds. They are starting to come back around here now too. Put out some feeders. Hoping NO blackbirds or blue jays.. they are such bullies to the others. Cheers..
Hoi Pac— it was a somewhat subdued birthday, as birthdays go; but, cosy and personal. Hopefully the covid thing will finally begin to recede here and next year we can throw a party again as normal. I sure did enjoy watching the birds, what a joy. The bird counting is always at this time of year…which is not a good choice because after all the fireworks of New Years’, so many of the birds have simply left the allotments. The numbers are about 1/4th of what were here at Christmas time. Pity, that.
Oh sadly the birds have flown the coup here too. We had an invasion of stink bugs that were decimating the hop crops. A major crop export and in the region for micro beer breweries. The shortage of hops the last two seasons had effected many farmers. Therefore all the farms nearby were air sprayed and this effected the birds big time. Butterflies etc. Talk about the twilight zone. When out side and absolutely nothing is flying or moving is extremely spooky. Really freaked me out no bee’s …the air is dead with nothing flying . Makes no sense killing the bees, other insects and birds . So far have seen a lot of chickadees , and red headed sapsuckers and a few wild bungees. Hoping that they will all be coming back this season.
Sjoerd, surely you are not still in isolation? The Omicron version of this pandemic is no more than a cold. Our natural immunity will have kicked in, it has reached the endemic stage now. I sincerely wish I hadn't followed the ''fashion'' and accepted the booster vaccination, as it very nearly killed me. I became very ill with heart problems within hours after the Pfizer booster jab as did many other people. There needs to be an inquiry.
Teeters I am heart broken that you suffered a huge health crisis from Covid booster. ‘I agree there needs to be more than an inquiry and law suit ‘class action’ against the company. I had stopped taking injections after first shot and one booster. The volunteer injectors have injured many injected with the needle hitting inside the shoulder capsule causing frozen shoulder syndrome. I was one of the lucky ones that managed to wait in lines for hours then suffer the side effects of inexperienced workers that the needle jab froze both of my shoulders. They are better now but couldn’t lift a gallon of milk for a year. Almost back to normal after treatment and PT. I couldn’t lift my arms and couldn’t even comb my hair. Never got Covid and I still wear a mask everywhere.. flu and Covid variants and huge lug virus going around everywhere here. I hope you are better have you been back to normal? Whatever that is for you. Or has this left a handicap or worse… I am so sorry . Makes me very sad to hear this happened to you . How are you doing now ?
Tet— No, I am not isolating as I do not have covid, nor have I been in close contact with anyone who does or may have it.
