Bearded lady wins Eurovision! & A windbreak is secured!

I have not watched The Eurovision Song Contest for many, many years.  Not to say that it isn't  "entertainment" but I aspire to the dear old Terry Wogan school of thought when it comes to the programme! - - -

As I sat thumbing through "the news" the headline Austria's bearded lady wins Eurovision leaps out of almost every page.  Good old Terry was right! - - -




 In another week it will be a month since 15 Sherpa's died on Everest while setting the route up the mountain for the seasons climbers.

 The link above is a video, shot by one of those who died & shows the party around half an hour before the tragedy happened.  The video then go's on to show the funeral and the families grief at their loss - - - sad - - -




Another mountain tragedy - this time in the USA

Mt McKinley in Alaska a formidable mountain made only more difficult by the snowy conditions claims another life.  Over 100 have died since it was first climbed in 1932.  This time Sylvia Montag fell 1000ft while descending after having to spend 2 nights on the mountain due to bad weather.  - - -


Nearer to home
The predicted "storm" over the weekend turns into a rather soggy windy couple of days but not anything like the weather forecasters promised.

The squirrel continues to raid the new peanut store although here it is having a go at the sunflower seeds for a bit of variety

I even managed to grab a still pic from the ip camera of it raiding the other sunflower feeder on this wet and soggy morning.  The squirrel is the one who last year had a rather "hairless" tail at one stage but it seems to have almost all grown back now.

Sainsbury the tabby cat

here surveying his territory from the top of the pergola brought in a mouse early yesterday and it easscaped by hiding under an old fire hearth stone just by my feet as i sit at the computer.
After a while he lost interest in it but i managed to set a humane trap and eventually around 2100 last night it wandered into it to be freed back into the garden.
0200 he came in and announced by mewing loudly that he had caught another and we promptly had a 5 minute chase around the bathroom with it before he despatched it!

Our Northern pergola

has a rather "lofty" aspect to it, looking down on both housing terraces in its field of view.  So more of a screen than a windbreak we secured this to it yesterday.  Not wanting to have it suggested that we are spying on anyone when we use the pergola its an ideal solution.  When we sit in our chairs we can only just see the tops of the house roofs but the valley view beyond is unobstructed & we are invisible from below.

Enjoy the day
Follow this link to see  our weather website

Or this one just to see  the streaming birdfeeder cam