Mmmm…fresh weasel!
Weather in Britain is a crap shoot, emphasis on the ‘crap’, but there’s one fete that always has lovely weather. We joke that the local witches must sacrifice small children to ensure it.
Looks like they couldn’t catch one this year. It was okay in the morning. It was lovely, in fact. And the moment we stepped out the front door, it was like someone twisted the spigot.
We went anyway. We got soaked. I felt especially bad for the booksellers, whose wares likewise got soaked.
At one particularly violent point, we ducked under the marquee of an owl rescue. They are local, we see them regularly, but I couldn’t resist giving this sweet barn owl a skritchie. She gave me a nibble in return. I was assured it was affection, but I wouldn’t like to know just how hard she could bite down if she tried.
I’d love one, but I don’t think the chickens would thank me. Also, no barn.
Posted: July 31st, 2017 under adventure, britain, personal.
Comments: 16
Comments
Comment from ExpressoBold
Time: July 31, 2017, 10:54 pm
I can’t decide if this is “deep soul” or “no soul.”
~
https://www.worldowltrust.org/images/source/BBEO154__D__Barn_owl.jpg
Comment from Ric Fan
Time: July 31, 2017, 11:19 pm
What does owl taste like? They ate so many weird things in the middle ages/Tudor times, I’m sure they ate owl, too.
Comment from Uncle Al
Time: July 31, 2017, 11:20 pm
Barn owls are very spooky looking to me,
but it is a very lovely sort of spooky.
Edit: I had originally said “weird looking”
but Ric Fan fairly grabbed that word first.
Comment from Ric Fan
Time: July 31, 2017, 11:31 pm
I like owls. But remember they tried to pin that murder on the staircase on an owl? LOL
Comment from JC
Time: August 1, 2017, 12:19 am
Riding my bicycle across the “Experimental Prairie” on the Rice U campus late at night lo these many years ago, I was swooped upon by a Great Horned Owl. Wingspan must have been 5 feet, it passed about a yard above and in front of me. Cool. The Univeristy mascot? Great Horned Owl!
Comment from Armybrat
Time: August 1, 2017, 12:22 am
Many years ago, we lived in the country in KS and had several BIG rotties and a rottie pup. Pup was about 40#, big dogs were each over 120#. We were sitting out in the hot tub one night late when a large owl flew in and sat on top of the light pole in the yard. Dogs ran out to it barking. Big owl flew off the pole and touched done on the pup’s back. Pup was a bit bigger than the owl realized and so it flew off, leaving several deep punctures on the pups back from the claws. Owls are lovely to look at but they are vicious predators.
Comment from A Bar of Pure Frankincense
Time: August 1, 2017, 3:00 am
Cain’t decide if this poat made by real S. Weasel.
Thumb is ambiguous.
Fingernails a match.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: August 1, 2017, 7:38 am
Some site Uncle B was reading mentioned that the space station was about to go over. We ran outside on a whim, and it was something else. I mean, we’ve seen the thing go over: little dot, moving fast, whatever. Somehow, it especially caught the sun last night. For a couple of minutes, it looked downright Biblical.
Comment from Deborah HH
Time: August 1, 2017, 11:54 am
I miss this so much. When Husband and I lived on Canyon Lake in the Hill Country, watching for the ISS flyover was a favorite treat for me. I especially loved the pre-dawn flyovers. We were on a hill, high above the lake so it was usually easy to see. There’s too much in the way now, for me to see it at my house in San Antonio. (I live on a corner; I could stand in the middle of the intersection, but then I’d be the lead on the 10 o’clock news 🙂 )
Here’s a link to sign up for alerts: https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/signup.cfm
If you have children or grandchildren at home, this is an excellent event to teach them about azimuth and elevation. And speed.
Comment from durnedyankee
Time: August 1, 2017, 2:37 pm
“What does owl taste like? ” @Ric Fan
Well, to quote an old hunting joke “it tastes like a cross between bald eagle and golden cheeked warbler”.
Actually the joke used “spotted owl” (endangered) in place of golden cheeked warbler.
To prove RF’s point
http://nerdalicious.com.au/history/curious-morsels-from-a-tudor-kitchen/
Stewed Sparrows – nom nom nom.
Comment from Ric Fan
Time: August 1, 2017, 4:19 pm
If you like wings, and I do, owl would be great!
@ClerkofOxford
I love the Old English name for August, ‘Weodmonað’ – Bede says it means ‘the month of weeds, because they are very plentiful then’!
Comment from Wolfus Aurelius
Time: August 1, 2017, 4:34 pm
“With lecherous howls
I deflower young owls!”
( — attributed to John Steinbeck, while drunk, probably)
Comment from Ric Fan
Time: August 1, 2017, 5:09 pm
“With lecherous howls
I deflower young owls!”
================
A good way to get your pecker pecked off.
Comment from durnedyankee
Time: August 1, 2017, 6:29 pm
“with lecherous howls
I deflower young owls
after sipping too deeply
from wine brimming bowls”
Now…I want to know why
“howl” doesn’t rhyme with “bowl”.
Right, you English people, account for this!
Otherwise the verse will be completed with the word
‘Bowels’.
Just think how THAT’S going to be accomplished.
(Full disclosure…here in Tejas, we can make paint rhyme with can’t, and it ain’t by pronouncing paint as pant)
Oh, and, uh DUNKIRK!
Comment from Some Vegetable i
Time: August 1, 2017, 7:19 pm
Hah! In my part of Pennsylvania, we make “creek” rhyme with “thick”.
Comment from peacelovewoodstock
Time: August 1, 2017, 7:34 pm
And in Virginia we say “abode” to mean a piece of wood, as in “hand me abode to hit dis mule”
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