A downed Chinook, Chinese new year and, we have an inteloper!

We often see the huge C130 military transport planes cruising down the valley and I always think back to the many times I parachuted out of them in "the old days!"  I even got a pic of 3 in formation once.  Another regular site are the twin rotored Chinook Helicopters and you can often see the tailgate down with people sitting on it enjoying the view. 

Last Friday though a bird crashed into the windscreen of one Chinook not far from here and as a precaution it landed in a field close by the village of Rowsley just less than a mile up the valley from here.  The damaged windscreen will have been changed overnight and I remember seeing it fly off south on Saturday morning. It would have been a great photo opportunity if i had known earlier as local people were shown around and inside it during its stay. 

So then "The year of the Snake" has dawned for the Chinese all over the world i wonder what it will bring for them.  Some are apparently not too keen on "slippery syd" and have even made sure they have births or even got married before the year began!

I read with a wry smile a report that the "female hawksbill turtle can store sperm for 75 days".  That must also be a trait of humans too only they have a headache as well!  lol!   full story here turtle

The "Horsemeat" saga "trots" (sorry) on with accusations of an international conspiracy now and mentions of a cancer causing drug being in the horsemeat.  On a lighter side some wags on ebay have been making taking advantage and poking fun at the whole sorry tale.  See one of the better ones here whoa there!

A few nights ago we could here the cat flap "noise" associated with one of "ours" coming in, seeing as they were both firmly in place by the cat flap i went to investigate.  As i switched on the outside light and there staring back through the window was large long haired completely black cat.  I had noticed previously that the two bowls of dried food we leave out had almost been empty in the mornings a couple of times.  This "interloper" then must be the culprit. 

Tom our old cat was a stray who "adopted" us back in 1997 so we are not averse to taking in the odd feline. 

We remember fondly a kitten who barged his way through the cat flap years ago who we named "Edgar".  He would not stay out of the house no matter however many times we put him out of the door he just burst back in through the cat flap.  As our two at the time accepted him he became an honorary resident until he was unfortunately killed on the road which go's past the front of the houses.

Here's a pic of Edgar enjoying part of our garden in the Summer of 2008. 

 The Snow storm in America has been rather severe (see the links in yesterdays blog) and if our weather follows the normal pattern we might get the tail end of it over here in a few days.  The local forecast for today looks pretty grim with rain and snow symbols peppering the graphics of most agencies. 

 

Finally then I end today's "sermon" with the Metro's headline of a couple of days ago.  "30p on cost of a pint could cut deaths by a third"  So there you are then no matter what ails you as long as you pay 30p more for your pint there's a 66% chance that you are not going to die.  Fantastic, "I'll have the same again landlord"  

 

Enjoy the day  

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