Wonderful Life Affirming Things You Love

[JazzFunk]

It's got to be birds (the feathered kind). Not your gilded parakeets and crested eagles, just the plain old British 'commoner' birds, such as sparrows, starlings and blackbirds.

Like, where I work (a big hospital in Leeds), I tend to go out for a fag about 6pm, and there's these two patches of grass, one of them containing a tree, and there's always this one blackbird tottering about, on its own, kind of 'patrolling' the area, and if you stare at it for long enough, it starts to approach you, gets real close, then sods off again, and it's always there, walking about in this extremely eccentric manner, it proper makes me happy to be alive. It's also nice to see so many sparrows about, especially considering news of their 'impending extinction' several years back.

Birds, they're great.

[Darwock]

Starlings are, that's for sure. Those aerial displays of synchronized flying by hundreds of birds are just incredible. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think that can only be seen in the UK?

edit - I was wrong. Curse you Chris Packham!

[JazzFunk]

^They're also highly intelligent, cheeky bastards. Mobs of starlings hang around the fishery connected to Leeds market, they flit about niftily as passers-by pass by, watch and wait for dropped chips & scraps, scarper in groups when a set of young chav tossers approach, and seem to *read* us so easily like we think we can read them.

It's amazing to watch, if you can 'disconnect' from the bland routines of normality.

[prinnysquad]

The more you watch garden birds, the more fascinating they are.

Nesting season at my dad's garden was always hilarious. While I was typing up my MA dissertation, I'd park the laptop on the dining room table and stare out of the back window. The sparrows had just had their offspring and it was a free-for-all for scran, territory and influence. Birds used to sit on this big feeder hanging off the bird house, one with 3 sticky out bits, and the others used to swoop down and try to dislodge them, landing on them and pecking away. It sounds brutal but none of them actually hurt each other, they were just squabbling over the prime food spots.

Sparrows, despite the arguing, seem to stick together. I remember my parents had walked to the shop one day, got back and said they'd seen a couple of crows attacking a sparrow's nest in the eaves of a house. The sparrow sent out a very distinctive call, and within seconds a squadron of attack spuggies flew from nowhere and started to dive-bomb the crows, pecking away, defending their pal.

Then there was the blackbird who use to patrol the garden, going mental with other blackbirds. He used to look at me with menace when babies were involved, but all other times he'd just hop past me.

And the robin who was almost tame. I used to feed it bits of cheese in the winter, which it loved for the fat content. Some days it used to appear on the washing line, staring in through the back window. Other times I'd go to the back door and call for it with a particular whistle. It started with me putting the food on the patio. The robin would hope up, grab the cheese, do a little chirp, and hop off. Then I tried the back step, while I sat in the utility room. Success! Then I tried leaving the food in the utility room. The robin just hopped in and took it, always with a chirp. Eventually it got to the stage where it would come in a good couple of metres to get its treat. When it was feeding bairns it used to leave them hiding in nearby bushes, while it got the cheese. I've got the cheese! This is cheese!

I miss that robin.

[NW2013]

This one Prinny:



You can't quite see the double bit propoerly.

Yes, birds are awesome. I like it when they just stand there and look at you quite close up. I do actually like magpies and crows since they're clever even though they are predators for the smaller birds that I like.

Spatial: Sorry!

[prinnysquad]

Hyper rainbow! It seemed really close when I saw it. I got some shots of it, might have a look at them later.

Yeah, crows are supposed to be extremely intelligent, and can fashion tools for certain purposes, and select the correct tool for different jobs. There was a fascinating article in a recent Fortean Times about some recent research conducted by some university bods, which showed them to be remarkably dextrous, intelligent creatures.

[Spatial]

Spatial: Sorry!

I've had the chance to sleep on it and decided that, because I love you, I will forgive you this once.

But you have to promise me you'll break of all contact and never see him again... oh wait, that's someone else... disregard that last part.

[dataDave]

Speaking of birds - We had some web cams installed in these bird boxes last spring so that the kids could watch eggs hatch and be looked after. Anyway, that did happen and we ended up with some cute little baby sparrows... for around 5 days until three Woodpeckers came along, broke through the side of the box, and mutilated every last one. ><

[Spatial]

Adam Buxton just letting slip on C4 news that the Adam & Joe show will be returning to 6Music later this year!

[Mercian]

Adam Buxton just letting slip on C4 news that the Adam & Joe show will be returning to 6Music later this year!

This!

[Plough Boy]

Genuinely excited kids.

At school our topic work has been based on Hinduism and Holi (a bit late admittedly).

Today we recreated the story of the mischievous Krishna and had a huge water fight and powder paint throwing fest on the school field. obviously I was the main target.
The shrieks of absolute delight and looks on their faces before, during and after reminds me of exactly why I became a teacher.
They'll never forget what they did today nor the story behind it.
The creative curriculum at its very best.

[speedlolita]

Sitting in a bench in the park and staring at the clouds.

[prinnysquad]

Shame you weren't doing Tudor England, then you could have re-enacted the use of stocks in the village.

Throwing buckets of yellow peril and ott at Mr Juans would have pulled in punters from around the region, and they'd

never forget what they did today nor the story behind it.

[kernow]

Sitting down in a nice clean house after spending the whole day tidying/hoovering/polishing/cleaning windows/pulling down the curtains and washing them/putting them back up/taking the whole AV system to pieces and tidying all the cables and dusting it etc

irks: black glass AV units, geh, polish them and watch the dust fall back on instantly. Should have gone for oak or something nice.

[prinnysquad]

I'm touching wood when I say this (and I mean wood, not cock), but since changing ISPs, when my connection would drop half a dozen times a night, I've not had the connection dropping even once (to my knowledge).

Therefore, I feel liberated. Actually getting what you pay for - a novelty i hope catches on.