Marty

It's all voluntary work, Albert.

Greetings, young Albert! (Just finished a two hour Zoom session. Off into the garden for a few hours, now. )

That reminded me of Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania, which I visited in 2013 (after climbing Kilimanjaro) Ngorongoro Crater is the world’s largest intact and unfilled volcanic caldera (a collapsed volcano), and is indeed the flagship tourism attraction of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Measuring an area of 260 square kilometres (100 square miles) and extending about 20km (12.5 miles) in diameter, the crater is actually a huge caldera of a volcano that collapsed to a depth of 610m (2,000 ft) about three million years ago. Over the course of time, streams of water made their way down the crater to form little ponds, and vegetation developed all over, attracting a wide range of wild animals. The crater is host to over 25,000 animals including populations of large mammals such as elephants, buffaloes, elands, wildebeests, zebras, gazelles, hippos, and rhinos, as well as such carnivores as lions, hyenas, jackals, and cheetahs. The ponds, or rather small lakes on the floor of the crater also host a wide-range of water birds including flamingoes and pelicans. Away from the crater floor, the forests on the crater rim is home to leopards, reedbuck, warthogs, and forest birds to complete a natural zoo, and Africa’s ultimate destination to see the “Big Five” (lion, elephant, rhino, leopard and buffalo). Source: https://www.ncaa.go.tz/pages/craters#:~:text=Ngorongoro Crater It is part of the Serengeti, which extends northwards all the way into into Kenya, and along which thousands of wildebeests, zebras, and other ungulate animals migrate both ways throughout the year. The full trip is 800 km (500 mi). Annually, around 250,000 wildebeest and 30,000 plains zebras die usually due to predation, exhaustion, thirst, or disease. On the journey they will have to pass the Grumeti and Mara rivers though, and 3,000 crocodiles that wait and suddenly lunge at them. For every one wildebeest captured by the crocodiles, 50 drown. It is a reason why the Serengeti is so famous. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serengeti_National_Park#Great_migration

Monochrome. Week 48 of 52... Daffodil shoots (bulbs planted the week before Christmas).

So are we. And no immediate change in sight.

Great news! ♥️ Latest estimate for me (according to the online vaccine calculator): Given a vaccination rate of 81,771 a week and an uptake of 74%, you should expect to receive your first dose of vaccine between 27/2/2021 and 6/4/2021. Depending on the date of the first inoculation, you should then get your second dose by between 20/3/2021 and 27/4/2021. I'm expecting the later dates to be more likely...

And you, bro!

Greetings, young Albert!

You're just too kind!

Greetings, Drew! Greetings, young Albert! And you, bro! I'm just back from having my annual car inspection with the National Car Test Service. It failed, due to worn ball joints on the near-side (left hand side) front. Have already booked repairs with my garage man, to be done on 12th March. Have until 26th March to get it retested (or I'd have to pay for a full test again). Not too worried. I can drive it in the meantime, and I can book the retest online. The car's twelve years old, so I'm happy enough that it didn't fail because of multiple faults.

Interesting that you use firemen as an example of people showing sangfroid, if only because the word comes from the French expression sang-froid which literally means "cold blood".

Apart from the fact that Jo is short for Josephine (or Seósaimhthín, if you want the Irish version). The shortened form of Joseph is spelled Joe (with the final 'e'). The Irish version of Joseph is is Seósamh. Interestingly, the full name of my Irish father was Martin Joseph Cooke, which would be Máirtín Seósamh Mac Dhadhóc in Irish.

Well as fate would have it your wrong again Okay... So you must be the one lying down on the right (reaching out to fondle the gun of the one on the left)

Just after midnight... Goodnight, all! And I'm still wondering if there's... Perhaps Percy might answer that question for us.

Welcome to GA, @headtransplant!

I wasn't going to mention that, bro... But it was the giveaway.

I'd say you're the one lying down on the left...

Thanks for your concern, guys. And, yes, I'm still alive. Just a bit busier then usual at the moment. But not that busy that I haven't forgotten my week 47 of 52 black and white photo challenge... I'm sure most of you will recognise where that was taken.

Just as a Haiku can distil an idea into seventeen syllables, a GIF can often do it similarly with one short moving image.

Indeed, Gary! Thanks for the comment.

I am what I am I didn't choose to be gay... The problem is yours

Greetings, Drew! If I were you, I'd pull the coat's hood up.

This actually works quicker than logging in to the individual Irish stations' websites. Connects almost immediately, and no having to listen to 30 second adverts at the start (which some Irish stations insist on playing on their own websites). , Albert!

Here's a view of the hedge from outside the garden: As you can see, it's growing on a bank some four or five feet high (1.2 to 1.5 metres). There's still a small amount of box hedge to be cut back that's growing from the bottom of that bank. I'd hope in the future to keep that trimmed to just below the top of the bank. Although I would like to get a stone wall built the height of that bank between the existing wall and the neighbouring cottage. The cost of getting that done might be prohibitive, however...

Possibly... Although I don't actually have a chipper. And I'm not sure if I could hire one with the current lockdown in place.