Google Photos is weird
I have no idea how Google Photos chooses which photo to highlight when you open it, but this one is January 25, 2005 and my sweet old cat Charlotte in snowy Rhode Island.
It’s usually a dead pet. Thanks for the gut punch, Google.
Zo! I’m sitting here with a well-deserved G&T in front of me. With one or two little tweaks, I think I’m ready for printing and proofing tomorrow. Last minute fixes early Friday and done.
This is me, skittering around the corner on two wheels.
August 9, 2023 — 7:41 pm
Comments: 3
Happy Flying Ant Day!
Flying Ant Day is a term used to refer to the short period of time when ants emerge from their nests and search for mates, usually in July or August when the weather is hot and humid.The number of ants flying on certain days can be large enough to be detected by weather service radar systems, resembling rain showers. While there is no precise date for Flying Ant Day 2023, it usually falls in July or August on a hot, humid day, often after heavy rain fall. The number of ants flying on certain days can be large enough to be detected by weather service radar systems, resembling rain showers. Female winged ants can live up to 15 years, but males usually die just days after mating – the sole reason they are bred.
I can’t link a source for that. The Brave browser’s search function has gone AI and that paragraph is frankensteined together from several sources. They do tell you what bits go with what sources, but I’m far too lazy for that.
By common belief, Flying Ant Day varies from year to year but is the same day all over Britain, which would be weirdly cool. Sadly, it ain’t so. There are localized swarms in similar weather.
Still, it’s a giant formicalur Sadie Hawkins Day.
We were sitting in the garden with our next along neighbor, and suddenly the air was full of ants. The low brick wall around the patio was covered in hundreds of them. I ran inside to get my phone and by the time I came out again, there were only a few. It’s that quick.
That’s probably why I’ve only posted about it once before, in 2011.
p.s. one of the bastards flew into my right eye. I still feel like there are bits in there. Sorry to have screwed up your one and only sex, little dude.
August 3, 2023 — 7:52 pm
Comments: 6
Oooooh
I have so many questions about chicken orb.
Like, how do you get a chicken into one? Could my little bantams make one go, or would they become static lawn ornaments?
If I put one of my belligerent cockerels in a chicken orb, could he rejoin the flock, or would the two boys peck each other to death through the Holes? (Why did I capitalize Holes?)
If I put both my belligerent cockerels in chicken orbs, would they roll around the garden smacking into each other like billiard balls?
Would that be cruel or awesome?
At £37 a pop, the world will never know.
July 19, 2023 — 6:29 pm
Comments: 8
I used to get spam about these
We went to a cat rescue open day over the weekend, where I met this fellow. Very long haired ginger. They had to shave him when he arrived he was so matted.
He felt it keenly. I tried to pet him and he hissed and swiped at me. He’s going to be a gorgeous boy when it grows back out, but he won’t get brushed with that attitude.
They had their highest turnout ever and a distinct lack of cats, so there were like five people surrounding every cat. And boy were the cats crabby about it. Lots of hissing and swiping and hiding ’round the back.
Behind one shed was a roped off area with a big row of litter boxes and a dozen of them were hanging out back there, like High Schoolers sneaking a smoke in the bathroom.
Nobody seemed to mind. Cat people be like, “aw, isn’t that cute?” as they struggle to stanch an arterial bleed. And they made lots of money for the cats, which is the important thing.
July 18, 2023 — 6:55 pm
Comments: 7
Naughty girl
I thought I’d lost my last hen today. She vanished for hours. Then we heard a soft clucking behind the sofa…
I’m sure she laid an egg back there, but it’s one of those hidden places that has become a maze of unnavigable junk. We’ll find it when it gets smashed some day, I suppose.
Have you spotted what is interesting about this photo? I caught her nictitating membrane halfway across her eye.
It’s easy to see in chickens. They do a sort of double-blink, where their inner eyelid comes across right before their outer eyelids close.
That’s a drowsy chicken. Alert chickens don’t blink.
June 28, 2023 — 7:02 pm
Comments: 4
Ohmygosh, I haven’t posted, have I?
We went to a party tonight. We had a very nice time on a very nice Summer’s night, but I meant to post before we left.
Oh, well. Have a look at this kitty. This is not my kitty, but it looks so much like my kitty that I stopped and did a double take when spotted it just outside my office door this afternoon.
All black and whites kind of look alike, but you know your own when you see it. Especially as mine is super fat. This is as close as it would let me come.
Have a good weekend!
June 23, 2023 — 8:09 pm
Comments: 11
You probably think you know what this is
No, it’s actually two chooks behind my front door. My last little hen has decided she has to lay an emergency egg behind door, and Mo – gentleman cockerel that he is – is giving her a privacy screen.
She’s done this twice. Chickens is nuts.
Today I had to take a bunch of pictures of me using a credit card machine, so I could explain to a flock of old ladies how to ring up their artwork sales. Credit card machine in one hand, cellphone in the other. Erm. Click to take picture with end of nose? That’ll do.
I guess weasels is nuts also.
June 12, 2023 — 7:32 pm
Comments: 5
Frustrating
Well, the speckledy ones are quail eggs, if that gives you an idea of scale.
So I think top right is a bantam chicken, and the one below is a chicken chicken. Bottom left is a duck or goose and top left is maybe a swan or a big goose.
All the other ones? Who the hell knows. There wasn’t a key and there was no-one there to ask. This make weasel mad!
Have a good weekend!
June 2, 2023 — 6:45 pm
Comments: 6
Horse girls
These little girls were amazing. They were little, too – all twelve year olds. Doing some sort of pony relay race in teams of four. I’m sure the horsey among us will tell me what that’s called.
The course was a sort of figure 8. There were low jumps, and then a place where they had to slow their horses to a walk, then hell for leather down the last two jumps and pass the baton.
They were incredibly poised. The two youngest ponies acted up. One ran up to the jump and noped out a couple of times. One indulged a little bucking and rearing. Both girls got their mounts under control and finished the race.
Why is it always girls and horses? I wasn’t a horsey little girl, but I knew plenty. Why is it never little boys and horses?
I should say, our local team placed first and second.
May 31, 2023 — 7:12 pm
Comments: 9
Levitating ewe
After a winning performance in the ring, something about the harness around her muzzle irritated this ewe. She began to bounce in the air while her handler tried to calm her down. Uncle B managed to grab this shot of her at full pronk.
I know what you’re thinking: Weasel’s been to a country show and we’re going to get a whole week of cow and chicken pictures. Well you’re wrong, smarty – we got the livestock ring too late and missed the cows.
And, once again, there were no chickens thanks to avian flu regs. Bitterly disappointing, but otherwise an excellent agricultural show. We walked ourselves stupid.
The weather for the whole weekend was gorgeous. It’s a holiday Monday here, too, but dedicated to nothing in particular.
There are two bank holidays in May, on the first and last Mondays. I have no idea why. They’re called the Early May Bank Holiday and the Late May Bank Holiday. This year, though, we pushed the early on forward a week in celebration of Coronation Day.
I’m getting out of the habit of working.
May 29, 2023 — 6:58 pm
Comments: 9