Excuse me, please, I’m late for work.
2. Pretty sage in Srem.
3. Hello Andi. Is Bongo with you? Is he coming to play in the water?
4. You think I’m cute, don’t you? Well, you are right, I am.
5. This is the lovely Ziggy who had to have an operation on her eyes and is now back home and getting better on the lap of her favourite human, Matin. Kay sent me a photo last week and the improvement is fantastic.
6. Cherry blossom, Japan.
7. The service in this place is so slow, it drives me nuts… you get it? nuts? That’s squirrel humour.
8. Des coquelicots à Toulouse.
9. Nice place you got there, Rocky.
10. What? It’s hard work pollinating all day. We deserve a little snooze from time to time.
11. I no longer see that well; I can’t play as much as before; But I know when you are close to me…and I still love you as much as ever.
12. I say, my good man, are these the first class accommodations?
13. Two giant emperor moths getting to know each other in Srem!
14. Is this the cat school playground?
15. I’m a little Moorhen. What are you?
16. Hold very tight please. The next stop in the pig sties.
17. A little colour in the garden.
18. I’ll tell you the story of the Ugly Duckling before you go to sleep.
19. No comment.
20. Just keeping an eye on some of the visitors down there. They look a bit dodgy. I suspect they may be Tories, so screw everything pinchable to the floor.
Munguin’s thanks to Kay and Andi.
MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
Awhh poor Ziggy, get well soon. I can see the stitches but hopefully Ziggy will see an improvement. The Cherry Blossom was absolutely stunning and that wee owl was so cute. It looks like Spring has sprung all over, I’ve now got the bluebells following the daffs which followed the snowdrops. I’m very partial to a Spring flower. Love tulips.
So many black cats, much luck changing potential and of course the doorangutans were life affirming and indeed a balm for the soul.
Tonight C4 and thereafter on catchup are showing a documentary about Lucy the disabled child pianist. I must see methinks. She has this wonderful music who I’ve just found out was banned from accompanying her or indeed being present at her performance at the Coronation concert – story here!
‘Musical soulmates’: the extraordinary story of The Piano sensation Lucy and her doting teacher | Music TV | The Guardian
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I’m sure Kay will keep us up to date with Ziggy.
Amazing story about that talented pianist, and utterly unbelievable nonsense about the security., particularly as the guy has never been charged with anything and Snarls is supposed to be a green fanatic, even running his car on left over champagne.
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No 4, a cormorant or possibly a shag ( I can never tell them apart ) drying it’s wings in the morning sun.
Last summer these birds were badly effected by the bird flu epidemic, along with other species, thousands of dead kittiwakes were washed up on the the east coast beaches of Aberdeenshire and Angus.
Aberdeenshire Council removed 6,000 to 8,000 bird carcases from their beaches, Angus Council removed none.
When I asked AC why, the reply was astonishing in it’s complacency, they would have to train people in wearing protective clothing and masks, the birds would have to be sent out with Angus for incineration, and basically, it was all to much bother.
So the carcases were left to rot on Angus beaches all last summer, with the risk to other birdlife, pets and folks as well, another job not well done by Angus Council.
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That explanation made absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Surely better to have people with masks and suitable protection picking up the dead birds than to have kids, dogs and other animals doing it.
They aren’t the best council, are they?
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no they’re not, and they’re in charge of keeping Montrose out of the North Sea.
last summer, within a couple of hours my brother lost a 20yo cockatiel and a 4yo budgie, after his dog had been for a walk on Montrose beach and carried the virus home after having a fly roll on a dead bird.
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Oh heavens.
I hope he put in a complaint about it.
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Alex, it’s a cormorant (No3). Shags are much rarer now: they’re on the red list as endangered. They’re slimmer than the cormorant and in breeding season develop a greenish plumage and have a recurved crest on top of the head. I agree, though, that they’re not all that easy to tell apart. I’m glad that Angus Council isn’t mine – shameful.
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Lovely photos.
Police have released some CCTV footage of a suspect they think has been responsible for a series of thefts.
https://twitter.com/buitengebieden/status/1786824843578478897
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Officers are warned not to approach as he can be a prickly customer! 🙂
Very tolerant dog!
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Perhaps the dog had had previous experience of remonstrating with a hedgehog and was reluctant to push its luck?
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Wise animal…
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That little owl is just wonderful. You just can’t help falling in love with it!
Regarding Panda Paws reference to Lucy, the man who ran the first Sunday School class I attended at age 4 and played the piano was blind. Many years ago my mother corresponded with a couple in Shaftesbury, Dorset and the husband was the organist at Shaftesbury Cathedral. He too was blind and he was also a composer. It’s such an amazing talent and yet can be achieved despite all kinds of disabilities which would perhaps overwhelm the rest of us. It leaves us thinking about what a fantastic ‘machine’ our brains are and still we don’t really fully understand how it all works. Maybe we’re all much more capable of doing amazing things without realising it because we don’t use it to its full capacity. Who knows?
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When you think that animals can do so many things, and seem to know automatically how to do them…sometimes with little parental guidance, and sometimes with none at all, I’m sure you are right.
I can play piano by ear and have always been able to do that. No one taught me. One day at about 3 or 4 I heard a tune on the radio that I liked and went into the room in the house that had a piano and started playing it…although I couldn’t even see the keys.
My parents thought they had a genius… Well, I soon disabused them of that, because they sent (or rather at that age, took) me to music lessons and I made a complete mess of it.
I can’t read a note of music and I’m utterly mystified how anyone can.
I can still do it. A few years ago I was off to visit some friends of mine in their country house. I’d never been there before so was given a tour including a music room which had a grand piano in it.
I sat down and played a couple of the songs from a new album, that I’d only heard for the first time on the journey.
How do I do it? Absolutely no idea. It’s just there.
As I say, if you handed me the music for it and said “play it”, I wouldn’t know where the first note was.
Yet I know people who play from music beautifully, but couldn’t do what I do.
The little owl is just magical!
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Tris, the little owl is indeed cute, even “magical”, but, sorry to say, I don’t think it’s real. The feet just aren’t anything like owls’ talons and even for a young bird the head seems too big for the body. Also, I can’t make out any discernible wings. Still cute, though 🦉
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Oh dear.
Have I been taken in by a cute stuffed toy?
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Gosh, I wish I had your ability to just sit down and play. I took piano lessons for years, but was lazy about practising although I don’t think my brain was sending messages quickly enough to my fingers – that’s my excuse. But it annoys me that I can’t do better. Oddly enough, I’m the opposite and can’t play a note without music in front of me. It amazes me how pianists can memorise an entire repertoire. I suppose it’s years of practice.
Lucy is just absolutely amazing. I hope she can go on to do wonderful things.
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It’s very weird, JH. My father could play a little bit like that and couldn’t read music.
I have no idea how someone can look at a load of notes on a page and translate that into finger movements.
Fair to point out that I don’t necessarily play exactly the same chords as the originals… but the ones I play work.
I was once in a recording studio in Geneva with Petula Clark’s PA and I played Downtown, and he pointed out that I didn’t use the same chord arrangements as Tony Hatch!
Yeah, David, but Tony is a millionaire… and I’m a factotum!
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I hope Lucy has a great career. She has good people around her and fantastic talent.
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Test: The other day I almost tripped over a red squirrel — the cheeky blighter ran along the front doorstep, right under my feet!
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I love them all…poor Ziggy cat, havng had to have an eye op but recovering so that’s good…those black cats, wow so many lucky black cats…but, the wee greyish one on it’s tod?
Blossom in Japan wow…and the bees, all living ceatures deserve to be cared for and loved. We had to ttidy out front of our messy basement today for roofers arriving tomorrow, some amazing critters but the earthworms under the moss and other stuff, not seen such huge ones. We don’t many at the allotment, non in fact due to the the NZ Flatworms that have killed them all. 😦
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I’m sure that Kay will keep us up to date with Ziggy’s progress, but I saw an improvement from last week’s photo, which I didn’t share on here.
Not sure about the grey cat of the family!!!!
I have hardly seen any worms in the garden this year.. Maybe Bertie and Mabel have eaten them. Got lots of wood lice.
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Hm, ducks. I was wondering if there is a rescue centre for a wee female duck. She is a bit differently marked to the usual mallards, and struggles to fend off the males but clearly does not want to mate and she even begged me to save her last year, I could have cried. She’s so lovely and a loner…if I had a piece of land I’d rescue her, she just doesn’t fit in with the usual ducks hanging out together. Sometimes interfering with nature is not a good idea, or maybe sometimes is? I don’t know but she comes and says hello when I see her, knows my voice…
No luck looking for rescue in Scotland.
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Oh that is a shame.
You really never know (unless it is VERY obvious, like with an injury) if you are doing the right thing rescuing an animal for a natural setting.
Kay, Linda and Claire do a lot of sterling work in Srem with the cats and they have done it with dogs too. But they do it in a measure and careful way. That is to say mostly they pay for vet’s treatment and make sure that they have food.
If you have a little place for some water in your garden… (a big plastic flower pot maybe) I doubt it has to be much, then maybe your little duck would be safer there… but like I say, how do you ever know?
Does anyone else have an opinion?
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