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Posted by Jane_6MusicHost (U9666316) on Thursday, 1st May 2008
dearest gideon:
it may feel like some time since you had any correspondence from the cardiff area (eastern region). this could be down to one of two things. perhaps the reports managed to get lost in the ether. or perhaps they never managed to get sent in the first place. well, i have been on my travels a bit: boston (the american one, don't you know), bristol, bath... even the glamour epicentre of the known world that is surbiton. but this is no excuse. please receive my humblest apologies.
here we are now, though, and a lot has been happening. the evil neighbours succeeded in getting their planning permission and will no doubt soon be blocking all natural light to the back of our house. honestly. what's the point of this so-called conservation area anyway? and why have one if they'll only let it get messed up more? fortunately they don't seem to be in any rush to do stuff so we can continue plotting to thwart them at every turn.
my descent into dufferdom (or should that be ascent?) moves on apace with the delight i am feeling at the daily visits of a blackbird couple to the back garden. they have been unofficially christened arthur and martha (not my idea, honest). they have been enjoying the treats of breadcrumbs and sultanas left out for them but the key attraction is the juicy worminess of the small patch of lawn - you'd never believe how many they find. i'm just hoping they manage to introduce their offspring to us when the time comes. such a soppy girl.
i close now with the promise of future updates on the big local story that is the demolition of our branch library. (don't panic, duffer colleague, they are building us a new one.) so far the barricades have gone up but no more discernible progress can be seen. fear not, though, as i shall be keeping an eagle eye on what's happening.
danielle x
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Hi Gid,
Sorry I've been a bit quiet lately - school hols interupting my listening again pleasure.
In case no one else has reported, the house sparrow is the most common garden bird in Fife according to the Fife Free Press and the RSPB big garden birdwatch: the sparrow was spotted in 71% of gardens with an average of 5.66 birds per garden.
Overall the chaffinch was once again the top garden bird in the whole of scotland.
I would also like to report that here in Kirkcaldy today is the first day of the Links Market (europe's longest annual street fair).
Regards
Jo
Kirkcaldy Correspondent
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Hello Gideon.
Right now I should be doing my psychology coursework. Can young upstarts like me indulge in some duffing about coursework? I don’t think I posses the language to fully communicate how awful it is actually. When the revolution comes I will end such silly business. I have also got revision to do. Can you ask people for some motivation or revision tips? The first one would probably be to switch off the radio…
Re: Memorabilia. I have a Horrors fanzine and associated tat which I got for a girl who ticked me off before I had planned to give it to her. If anybody would like this let me know.
Enjoying the show as ever.
From your own correspondent in Belfast
Ciaran
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
As Dundee correspondent with responsibilities for the Dudhope area I thought it appropriate to let everyone know that summer has truly arrived.
Dudhope Park is party central right now. The six-packs have arrived (not a flat ab in sight - this is Scotland right!)and there's lots of pasty white skin on show. I'm also amazed at the enduring popularity of the frisbee (other plastic discs are... etc, etc).
Can't let a day like this slip by. I'm donning the board shorts and off out to light the grill for a couple of burgers.
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
As Dundee correspondent with responsibilities for the Dudhope area I thought it appropriate to let everyone know that summer has truly arrived.
Dudhope Park is party central right now. The six-packs have arrived (not a flat ab in sight - this is Scotland right!)and there's lots of skin on show. I'm also amazed at the enduring popularity of the frisbee (other plastic discs are... etc, etc).
Can't let a day like this slip by. I'm donning the board shorts and off out to light the grill for a couple of burgers.
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Odd that - a couple of words did not pass inspection first time. I wonder which ones!
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Greetings! A belated update from the Paisley correspondent.
Firstly, the roadworks outside the house are still there, but it seems likely they will be gone within the week.We can be suitably thrilled about this, since it will doubtless mean that we will imminently possess a brand new 'hygienic pipe' system second to none. Not sure how comparisons can be made between such systems, so I might go as far as to say our system will be the best in the world!! I'm so proud.
Secondly, I haven't been out in the garden much, so can only report sightings of two hefty woodpigeons, the usual mob of magpies and the hungry telephone wire nibbling squirrel.
Finally, beautiful weather here in Paisley. Perfect for one and a half cold cans of beer and half a pizza in the Bank Holiday sunshine.Life is smashing.
Keep up the good work one and all.
Marie
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
It is absolutely glorious here in Kirkcaldy today, as it was yesterday, although being on the east coast we do have the cold sea air which yesterday made us a good 5degC cooler than nearby-but-inland Dunfermline, but at least we haven't got a haar.
Sadly, I must report that the local collar dove population has been depleted by one, following our cat's recent Saturday night out.
Regards
Kirkcaldy Correspondent
(2 k's, not one as on the front page of Correspondents Correspondence)
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Echoing the east coast sentiments Bargeman - the finger of 'cottonwool' cloud extending along the Tay was quite magical on Monday.
Sadly, I must also report an avian loss today. I was startled by a commotion outside the window, and saw a pair of blackbirds trying desperately to scare off a dirty big black crow that had a fledgling under its talons. The pair succeeded once, only for the crow to return and then carry off its lifeless prey. Sad, but fascinating. Nature in the raw!
Cheers
Dundee correspondent, Dudhope area
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Update:
Today the haar is sitting just out at sea. Glorious, but cool on the land nonetheless.
Kirkcaldy Correspondent
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Hello all.
Paisley bathed in glorious sunshine, with a slight trace of a breeze - perfect drying day. Though the bath towels would probably benefit from a slightly stronger breeze. Och, I'll hang them out anyway...
No sign of the aggressive squirrel-baiting magpies, probably nicking stuff from next door's skip full of shiny things.
Teenage Fan Club's Grand Prix on the stereo (yes, the old hard copy CD - no new-fangled mp3 players here. I can't hook up the speakers loud enough for the garden.) Now that is the true sound of summer.
Keep up the good work.
Marie
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Hi
Sunny in Inverness (two e’s, two n’s, two s’s) no haar, heavy dew this morning, hems and toes soaked as I filled the feeders - hope the feathered ones are playing nicely – two (sometimes four) gold finches have started visiting, bit cheeky with it. Sparrow numbers growing daily despite best efforts of cat random. As for greenfly – I’ll be the one buying angelica, failing that dill, failing that I’ll buy ladybirds, failing that rambling rose is in for a short back and sides. It is getting a hammering this year – black spot too - had two gardener friends’ advice, my favourite being: live with it.
x
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Its also glorious on the edge of the Grampian mountains.
Last night I was watering the polytunnel at gone 10pm and it was still light-ish.
I'll do a proper time check for darkness this evening. I think only the Inverness correspondant is further north from me so they should be light even longer.
And its daylight around 3ish so nearly light for the start and end of the show.
pete
inthehills
Huntly Correspondant.
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Do fellow Kingdom of Fife correspondents share my belief that magpies do not exist west of Dunfermline?
I was delighted to spot a Stonechat on Falkland Hill last week.
The haar continues to make these summber days in the east very cool until at least lunchtime.
Yours,
Valour Gull
The Kingdom's roving correspondent
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
You need to get higher Valour Gull! I drive down in to the haar each morning as I head towards Aberdeen. Its an amazing site, filling the glens with an opalescent sea of cloud.
pete
inthehills
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Haar - eerie stuff to cycle through. Left the high land of Dudhope Park in glorious sunshine the other morning and then as I got onto the Tay bridge was enveloped in dank cloud. Half way across visibility was at dangerous levels. With a couple a hundred metres before the bridge hits Fife out I burst into bright sunlight and not a cloud in sight. Looking back to Dundee there was nothing but a white carpet and the Law peaking out the top! Magical.
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
When you ask do magpies exist west of dunfermline do you mean in Fife or at all?
I'm pretty sure I've seen them over Glasgow way, but couldn't swear to it. I'll note the location of any future sightings. Don't see many round here.
My favourite Fife ornithological delight is the terns, and occassionally gannets, diving just off Kirkcaldy 'beach'. Daughter who has had them pointed out to her all her life just cannot understand why I get so excited.
Kirkcaldy Correspondent
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
The haar is rather impressive when it swirls down our street, although it's no consolation for the fact that we are freezing while people a quarter of a mile away are sunning themselves.
Kirkcaldy Correspondent
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Valour Gull,
magpies thrive in the West.
I once spotted 17 (and stopped counting cos I didn't know the rhyme beyond 'seven for a secret never to be told') on a playing field in Glasgow. Also, there is a veritable gang of them hang about in my Paisley garden terrorising every other creature who tries to pass (including the skinny fox.) They're the neds of the natural world.
Funny, they were a much rarer sight when I was a nipper. Urbanisation of the countryside perhaps? That's my tuppence worth.
Keep up the good work, one and all.
Marie
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Apologies to my fellow correspondents, I meant to ask, do magpies exist east of Dunfermline within the Kingdom of Fife?
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Aha, I'm sure they do exist east of Dunfermline, but I can't think of a specific example and certainly don't see them often, so will get back to you on that one if I see any.
Kirkcaldy Correspondent
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
I've not seen a magpie north of Newtonmore. Have a good look out the train window any time I travel to the lowlands - they're a regular sight by the time train gets to Perth. I see lapwings flapping round about Newtonmore/Kingussie, not huge numbers. Saw a kingfisher in Pitlochry once - brave wee thing, bit too far north, bit too cold I would have thought.
x
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
So you want to see the Haar?
try this site
It should open to a page with live road webcams. Pick the one looking south on the A96 just below huntly. That's looking back in to the Glens of Foundland. If you try around 6.30 tomorrow morning you might see some. Otherwise, try the ones south of Stonehaven. They always have haar down there.
I think the stuff we have up in the glens is technically a mountain mist, but its still spectacular.
pete
inthehills
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Ahh! Public webcams!
Call me a duffer but I think they are an absolute waste of money. The website for the new upper Forth crossing, near the Kincardine Bridge - does it need its own website? - at one stage had about 6 different webcams to allow the public to watch live construction images. I'm not sure what the current status of the website is because I'm not one for watching no work being done.
The new bridge when completed is hardly going to be a major tourist attraction.
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
A website with 6 webcams on the construction of the new Kincardine (or whatever they've decided to call it) bridge. Why didn't anyone tell me. Where is this duffers' delight of a website? We should be told.
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Surely it's not a "duffers website"? Nerd, bordering geek website perhaps... or "enthusiasts" to be more politically correct. Not that I side with political correctness. Mumble, grumble.
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Went out to buy a loaf and I kept on walking, I mean I got to the corner and I saw a brown bird throwing her weight behind every peck she took of the apple lying on the pavement. She looked like she was enjoying herself. On the way back five crows had muscled in. The apple was scattered in bits. No sign of the brown bird.
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Just reporting in on the glorious weather here in Kirkcaldy. People in The South seem to be moaning about the weather, but we have had a glorious weekend and it is a beautiful sunny day today, just about light at 4am, sun streaming through the curtains at 6am (unlikely to still be awake for end of tonight's show). Think it was still just about light at 10pm last night.
On Saturday afternoon we were in Glasgow and can report a fox and house sparrows in the in-laws' garden.
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
I’m wondering if it might rain at 3.40 (regional variations) this afternoon so that I have an excuse to stretch out on the couch and watch The Sound of Music for the umpteenth time and fall asleep after doe, a deer - like I usually do.
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
cat random just walked by with a sparrow in its mouth
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
I strolled along our beach today, it has recently gained Blue Flag status for the first time (I fear the worst, this will bring people and they will want car parks built).
As I walked along the water's edge, I misjudged the wave and was struck on the ankle by a piece of driftwood. However, driftwood is too romantic a term, fence is more appropriate.
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Never let it be said that the sun doesn't shine in Tayside. Hunted out the beach towels and donned the shorts for a couple of hours on Broughty Ferry beach (just by the castle) on Saturday afternoon. Ignored the cool-ish easterly and amused ourselves watching a young lass try in vain to control a boisterous German shepherd which eventually had her in the Tay - and that did look cold despite the sunshine. Two hours later and we'd had enough, but just long enough to feel a warm glow. That warm glow turned into mild sunburn, in Broughty Ferry, in May - who'd have thought?
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Driving in to work today I saw a convoy of icecream vans - seven of them, honest. I think they think Beauly Firth is Loch Ness.
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Is it wrong to feel quite so pleased with myself, not only for managing to get the freezer defrosted, but to get the contents so low that I was able to get it all into the fridgefreezer and just switch off and leave overnight to come down in the morning to a defrosted freezer, no scraping, no frostbite, no bowls of hot water and no worrying that the food will have defrosted. (and only a minor overflow of the watercollecting device).
It's only taken me 4 years of having 2 freezers to achieve this feat.
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Today I can report a great deal of avian activitiy in the garden. In the plum tree are at least 3 young blue tits, plus a parent, I have also spotted chaffinches and a robin. Venturing down to the bird bath have been 2 blackbirds - rather hogging it I have to say - as well as a blue tit, great tit and a fleeting visit by a sparrow.
Kirkcaldy Correspondent
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
The mighty onopordum acanthium has been blown over by the winds that are gusting through this part of the country. Is it any wonder I like alpines?
Got woken up at 5.30am by the resident thrush making a tremendous racket. Rooks perched on top of the bowling green floodlights were on backing vocals. Cat Random was sloping off as I peered out the window. Not sure what she was up to.
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
The latest arrival in our garden are some Bunny-wunnies (unlike last time Mr Bargeman said there was a rabbit in garden and it turned out to be a rat, these really are bunny-wunnies).
Despite their best efforts, I don't think there's enough of them to retire the lawnmower just yet.
Meanwhile the warrior cat is doing his bit for the balance of nature by ensuring some baby birds in the vicinity do not reach adulthoud. He was too slow for the rabbits though - not sure if he was trying to catch them or chase them off.
Kirkcaldy Correspondent
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Are there any rumours of the return of the hovercraft to Kirkcaldy this summer? Was that just a publicity stunt, dressed as a trial service?
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
New job means new window to stare out of - rooftops, chimney pots, skylights, no sign of Bert and Mary. Grimaced as I watched sea (aye right) gull outside window, beak bloody, tearing apart a chick – looked like chick might have been an ostrich had it got to grow up.
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Sledging in June. Whatever next. Struggling up Meall Greigh at the weekend we spied a sheltered gully with a patch of snow ripe for exploration. Having scaled the Munro and devoured a lunch of Scotch eggs and Irn-Bru our prize on the homeward leg was a bit of improvised sledging. Never have a bunch of 40 year-old academics had so much fun with a plastic bag and a small patch of snow. Not a midge in sight.
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
There have been mutterings on the hovercraft front, it was happening soonish, then it wasn't. I believe the multi-millionaire owners of the bus company can't do it without someone else actually paying for it. I think they still want to do it, and take it to leith rather then portobello - far more useful (unless you want to go to Portobello). It would be jolly good - we didn't get on the trial one; didn't fancy the queues.
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Last year's hovercraft trial was hardly a trial. The novelty of riding a hovercraft obscured any real study of demand for commuter purposes. It's okay as a fad in the summer, but who'd want to be dumped on Portobello beach in the middle of a winter storm then have go to their work in Embra city centre?
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Well, yes, the novelty value certainly upped the numbers, but there were some serious surveys and things.
Hot off today's Fife Free Press; Fife council are spending £1million on sorting out the infrastructure this end for it to go to Portobello - I thought they were talking boats to Leith and possibly Granton and Burntisland.
It seems crazy not to use boats of some sort to get accross the Forth, but the last ferry to Granton didn't last too long.
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
It's sunshine and showers. I saw a dipper on the River Leven, I regard them as highly as kingfishers. Sadly, I haven't seen any of the latter this year.
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Our sunshine has just come to an end, and a light shower just started
There has been a robin sitting in the nest box that came with the house, that we'd always thought was innappropriately positioned for bird use.
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Crikey, they've dragged in a falcon to control urban gulls in Kirkcaldy?
It's Darwinian evolution, there's nothing they can do to stop the gulls. I can't imagine the reintroduction of the Sea Eagle to the Kingdom of Fife will have much effect.
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Mr Gull, seems your "asbo" cousins have been running amuck - the footage of the dog being dive-bombed was particularly amusing. Mind you, they're breeding like rabbits. 20% a year - where will it end?
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
I should probably resign Forthwith as Kirkcaldy correspondent as I know nothing about falcons controlling urban gulls here.
Before I go, I can report that there are starlings nesting in the eaves at B&Q, as the parent approaches with food baby hangs head out of hole on underside of eaves/guttering/whatever while parent hovers below and feeds it - it all looks very precarious, was worried baby would fall out. Even The Teenager was briefly diverted by this spectacle.
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Unconfirmed (but pretty certain) sighting today of magpie in Beveridge park, Kirkcaldy today. It was in bushes, but definitely black and white and looked magpie size, but it flew into a very leafy tree before I had time to confirm its identity.
Just the one, so preparing myself for all the sorrow.
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
Chattering swallows have built a nest in the eaves of downstairs neighbour’s porch. We’re all getting dive bombed, Random included.
Listening to Friday's show - does anyone remember the MY DARLING FLOPS I LOVE YOU graffiti painted on a wall round about Paisley Gilmour Street train station?
Link to this forum: Correspondents Correspondence - Scotland, Ireland & Wales
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