Monday 20 January 2020

Ship shape and Bristol Fashion.


Monday morning, washing done and in the tumble drier,  the lady who cle ans for me has been and gone and everywhere is neat and tidy - just how I like it.   I cooked myself a lunch of roasted root vegetables and a jacket potato which I stuffed with tuna and that was delicious.   I did intend to go out for a walk with my walker this afternoon but, although it is a lovely sunny day the wind is now very strong so I don't intend to chance it.   I know I have to keep walking or I shall become unable to walk, but not in a strong wind.   Instead I keep walking around the house doing various jobs so I am not sitting around.

As I sit here at my computer in the window of my computer room a seagull floats over the garden carried in the wind.   Seagulls are everywhere here although we are a good sixty miles from the sea I would have thought.   I guess we are about mid way between the North Sea at places like Saltburn and the Irish Sea at maybe Morecambe.   When we were children we would point out seagulls and say they were coming inland as there was going to be a storm at sea.   Now they lay their eggs and raise their young on the moorland I can see from my window.   Times have changed - I guess these seagulls are a success story in terms of numbers.  The sky may be completely empty of seagulls but stick the plough into the ground and set it off down the first furrow and I'll bet by the time a farmer gets to the other end of that furrow there are a hundred seagulls behind him.   How do they get the message?

Here's hoping for a few more days of bright sunshine - cold it might be but how welcome the sun is in January.   I have snowdrops in bud in my garden.

25 comments:

Yellow Shoes said...

You will be getting plenty of exercise walking around indoors, as long as you move about every half hour or so you need not feel you must go outside. I know of someone in his 80s who makes a point of standing on one leg when he brushes his teeth to encourage balance - left in the morning, right in the evening! I find that quite hard and I’m only 71! Take care xxx

Gwil said...

We hardly see any wild birds anymore. A handful of crows this morning. Nothing to write home about. And other things too. Glow 🐛 worms used be in the garden at night. They’ve disappeared too. I’d be more than pleased to see the occasional seagull. They tend to stay on the Danube. Although last week there was 30 km long oil slick reported so I expect they’ve gone elsewhere.

shadypinesqltr said...

How lucky you are to have snowdrops! My sister in Pembrokeshire has seen daffodils blooming. While here in Michigan we have 6" of fresh snow. When I get stircrazy I go to the local megastore and push an empty shopping cart around! Best wishes, Joan.

JayCee said...

Don't overdo the exercise, although I am picturing you building a little race circuit around your sitting room.
We have plenty of seagulls here. Sadly, they target the little ducklings in spring on our neighbour's pond so I am not very fond of them.
There are several clumps of snowdrops already in flower dotted around our garden. They always look so cheerful even when the weather is cold and miserable.
Keep warm.

the veg artist said...

We used to say the same thing about seagulls - that they only came inland if there was a storm on the way, but now they are around all the time. Did you see that fabulous nature programme The Great British Year (part 1, Winter,is on iPlayer now, three more episodes to come)? They showed some seagulls following a plough, but also some red kites. Fabulous photography in it.

Librarian said...

Snowdrops are one of the loveliest flowers I know, but I have not yet seen any around, in spite of the unseasonably warm days last week.
Seagulls are a common sight here, too, even though we are hundreds of mils from the sea; ours are "river gulls", they live on and around the many rivers we have here, so the ones you see could just as well have adapted to the rivers and streams in Yorkshore.
I remember how the gulls came flocking to our school yard every day as soon as we were back in class after our break. They feasted on all the thrown away bits of bread and other things the school children wouldn't eat. My sister and I loved the sandwiches our Mum prepared for us to take to school; we hardly ever had any leftovers, and if we did, they were not thrown away but eaten later - nothing for the gulls from us!

Librarian said...

PS: Yorkshore? A Freudian typo if I've ever seen one!

John "By Stargoose And Hanglands" said...

Gulls used to fly inland when the weather got rough at sea. Most of the gulls you see these days rarely venture to the coast at all, but feed for much of the year at landfill sites and roost on reservoirs. You might think that they wouldn't be very healthy if they consume mostly rubbish and you'd be right, many do not live to their natural lifespan. Not surprisingly they probably welcome a change of diet when ploughing begins.

Christine Hancock said...

Good to keep walking I ducked out of it today.. just felt a bit in the winter doldrums.

Heather said...

I woke up to frost and fog this morning but by lunchtime the sun had managed to break through. I love these cold and dry winter days. I walked a slightly longer route this morning to avoid a suspected icy shortcut.

Jules said...

Plenty of seagulls following the plough here this last week. X

Amanda said...

Gulls like to be near any decent-sized body of water, it doesn't have to be the sea. In the US, they're common on all of the Great Lakes. When I was living in Indiana near Lake Michigan, they'd follow the farmers there as they plowed in the spring. I was working at a Nature Center about 3 miles from the Lake Michigan shore. Somebody had dumped a bunch of bread slices in the back parking lot. The local crows were helping themselves when a huge flock of gulls descended. The crows were forced to retreat into the cottonwoods. We could hear them kind of muttering to themselves, then the head crow dove into the mass of gulls. He grabbed a piece of bread and took off. This incensed the gulls and they all took off after him. While he was gone, the rest of the flock of crows descended, grabbed all the bread they could and left with it. By the time the gulls got back, the crows had made off with nearly all the bread. The poor gulls were baffled.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Amanda - loved that story - I love crows and rooks and love it that they got one over on the crows.
John - Thank you for the information on the seagulls who are inland.
Librarian - love the Freudian slip!
Veg artist - thank you for the recommendation - I shall look on iplayer.
JayCee - what a sad story about the little ducklings - I do know that very few ducklings in any brood survive to adulthood - didn't realise this might be why.
Gwil - I have never seen a gloworm - would love to see one.
Anne - shall try the one-legged toothbrushing.

gz said...

I always wonder about the saying. "shipshape and Bristol fashion", having driven around Bristol roads.... chaotic to say the least..more like the Bristol Quadrille..all change lanes!!

Ruth said...

This quote by Beatrix Potter hits home and made me think of you, too:

“Thank God I have the seeing eye, that is to say, as I lie in bed I can walk step by step on the fells and rough land seeing every stone and flower and patch of bog and cotton pass where my old legs will never take me again.”

Your good spirits, courage and determination, are such an inspiration - your blog is such a joy to read, even when you're having sad days.

Joanne Noragon said...

I got the washing done today, too. Good for us.

Red said...

Well, I hate to tell you that you don't have seagulls. Don't get mad at me. You have gulls ...just plain gulls. Yes, I know most people call them seagulls and sometimes I forget and call them seagulls. they are amazing birds.

Bettina Groh said...

Would you believe that Kansas City... right in the middle of the US... has seagulls?

Cro Magnon said...

When I was young there were never Gulls in the countryside; now they are everywhere. They'll be turning up here soon, like the Egrets.

Rambler said...

Whenever I see a flock of Gulls following a plough, I always wonder - how did they first discover that a ploughed field would be a source of food?
In my area, our rubbish has to be in black bags and left out early on collection day. To avoid the Gulls ripping the bags open and spilling the contents everywhere, we throw a heavy cover over the bags which the refuse collectors then leave behind for next time. My 'cover' is an old waxed coat.
My neighbour actually throws out bread and other food leftovers on her lawn for the Gulls who scream and swoop as they dive to eat it. (Despite a law which forbids the feeding of Gulls in the neighbourhood).

Brenda said...

You are so active and I love your blog

The Weaver of Grass said...

Yes red - quite agree - gulls indeed. Thanks to you all.

Terra said...

In your comment on my blog today you mentioned your camel saddle, would you post a photo of it? Yours has a history to it, it seems. I hope to refurbish mine. Seagulls are handsome birds, my favorite sea birds are pelicans.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Terra - my saddle belonged to Lord Manifold, who was an equarry to King George V. I gave it to my son who I need to get him to photograph it - then I will put it on.

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