CoTT 2 House of Cards

[Bucket1]

Hey Page

How is your day going?

[Page Scrawler]

20 minutes ago, Bucket1 said:

Hey Page

How is your day going?

Things are going well, thanks. I did some laundry, dusted the furniture, and cleaned the windows today. I also got a bit of reading done.   

[Albert1434]

Great Chapter Gary

[Headstall]

3 hours ago, Page Scrawler said:

Hey, Gary.   

Hi, Page.  

[Headstall]

15 minutes ago, Albert1434 said:

Great Chapter Gary

Thanks, Albert.  

[Albert1434]

I am very glad to share Gary❤️

[Timothy M.]

6 hours ago, Marty said:

I think this post in the Help forum may explain what I was talking about:

Apparently Google doesn't tolerate the use of certain words on sites that run ads (as GA does); and that isn't just for the use of those words in authors' stories, but Google also filters the forums, so the language rules apply here as well.

Yup - I made a post in the topic about your trouble with the bird's name, and even though I hid the actual name in a spoiler, it came up as hidden and needing approval by a Moderator. And that applied also when I removed the spoiler. Very interesting and good to know.

[Marty]

3 hours ago, Timothy M. said:

Yup - I made a post in the topic about your trouble with the bird's name, and even though I hid the actual name in a spoiler, it came up as hidden and needing approval by a Moderator. And that applied also when I removed the spoiler. Very interesting and good to know.

To be honest, I should have realised when I made the post. I had actually read that post of @Brayon's in the Help forum back at the end of March, and replied to express surprise at the fact that Google would get upset if someone mentioned a member of the Paridae family of birds by their common British name (which I did in my reply). My reply got deleted (I'm not sure, but I suspect that was because the Mod thought I was just being facetious).

I can understand the reasoning behind the moderation, but it does seem to me to be somewhat strange that Google would get upset over such a common word.

Perhaps in future, I will have to do something like the following, if only to avoid a Moderator having to read what I have written and decide whether to approve it or not:

I think there's a pair of birds of the genus Parus major (* see photo below) nesting in the gaps between the stones of one of the boundary walls of the garden....

Edited April 28, 2020 by Marty
Formatting

[Albert1434]

Aloha All

Happy 800th, Salisbury Cathedral

[Albert1434]

Aloha Marty

[Headstall]

35 minutes ago, Albert1434 said:

Aloha All

Happy 800th, Salisbury Cathedral

Hi, Albert!    

[Albert1434]

How is things Gary

[Marty]

27 minutes ago, Albert1434 said:

Aloha All

Happy 800th, Salisbury Cathedral

Hello, young Albert.

And on this day in 1771, Captain James Cook, aboard The Endeavour, landed at what is now known as Botany Bay in Australia (part of the reason for that expedition was  a confidential mission to search the south Pacific for signs of the postulated continent Terra Australis Incognita (or "Unknown Southern Land").

A mere 18 years later, on this day in 1789, three weeks into a journey from Tahiti to the West Indies, the HMS Bounty was seized in a mutiny led by Fletcher Christian, the master’s mate. Captain William Bligh and 18 of his loyal supporters were set adrift in a small, open boat, and the Bounty set course for Tubuai south of Tahiti.

Ain't history just fascinating?  

[Marty]

And "Hi" to Gary, as well!

Hope you're keeping well, my friend.  

[Headstall]

Just now, Albert1434 said:

How is things Gary

Thy're good, Albert. Cloudy and dull here. Supposed to rain. I'm working on fine tuning a story. How are you?

[Headstall]

1 minute ago, Marty said:

And "Hi" to Gary, as well!

Hope you're keeping well, my friend.  

Hey, Marty!   I'm well. Puttering about. Has your good weather broke?

[Albert1434]

I am well thanks HOT HOT HOT here

[Albert1434]

Its going to be 83F/28.333c

[Albert1434]

We got our swamp cooler dewinterized❤️

[Marty]

1 minute ago, Headstall said:

Hey, Marty!   I'm well. Puttering about. Has your good weather broke?

Not quite yet, Gary. But I think it's going to, either later today or some time tomorrow. The house martins are still flying above the rooftops, so that's a good sign for the very near future.  

[Albert1434]

Captain Cook later was killed in Hawaii over the screws in a rowboat. I was right where that happened

Edited April 28, 2020 by Albert1434

[Headstall]

1 minute ago, Marty said:

Not quite yet, Gary. But I think it's going to, either later today or some time tomorrow. The house martins are still flying above the rooftops, so that's a good sign for the very near future.  

I've had an explosion of birds lately. Robins, bluejays, and turkeys in the back yard. I can hear the woodpeckers in my woods, and the birds I think are starlings that come back every year, are back. There is always just a family unit, though... which make me doubt they are starlings. There are never flocks of them around here. My daughter says they are, though. 

[Albert1434]

Starlings look like this 

[Albert1434]

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=starling&docid=607999366839535195&mid=D31A3C99E37011171116D31A3C99E37011171116&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

And a flock looks like this

Edited April 28, 2020 by Albert1434

[Marty]

4 minutes ago, Albert1434 said:

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=starling&docid=607999366839535195&mid=D31A3C99E37011171116D31A3C99E37011171116&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

And a flock looks like this

That video was shot in Ireland.

A flock of starlings in flight like that is known as a murmuration of starlings.

10 minutes ago, Headstall said:

[The] birds I think are starlings that come back every year, are back. There is always just a family unit, though... which make me doubt they are starlings

As far as I am aware, starlings only murmurate outside the breeding season, and they nest as single family units (although there may be several nests in the same general location). There's actually a pair nesting in the eaves of the house I am currently renting.

And a few months ago, when the plumber was fitting new taps to the wash-hand-basin in the upstairs bathroom of my new place, he found an old starlings nest when he removed the panelling under the basin. The hole through the wall for the drains for the basin and the bath was not sealed, which allowed the birds access to the space behind the panel. That has now been sealed up, so the poor starlings will have to find a new nesting site (there's loads of suitable places for them).

Funnily enough, when the plumber first saw the nest he came rushing downstairs to inform me he'd found a rat's nest!