Tuesday 29 December 2020

Just another Tradgardland Tuesday...

 Currently can’t seem to read novels ( been like this for months now) so trying these short stories, some work on the painting desk and the new bird feeder set up. Icy bright day here with overnight snow smattering having frozen.








22 comments:

  1. Obviously same weather here also and have just put up the bird feeder for the first time this year too! Painting desk awaits my attention for the afternoon. Book mountain exceeds even the lead mountain.
    Ronnie

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    1. Ah, these mountains that beset us all! What’s on the painting desk currently Ronnie?

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    2. Appropriately Cobham’s Dragons of the ’45. Doing them in batches of six with lowland Scots in between as they are a lot less taxing. Awaiting delivery of some painted Jacobite cavalry; my Christmas present to myself but which will undoubtedly make my own efforts look bad! Still there is always something special about figures you painted yourself.
      Ronnie

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    3. Appropriate indeed, will you have an on table presence as a figure in that uniform? How many figures are in your cavalry units?

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    4. Great idea! Didn't actually think of that! The man himself was too old to take part so maybe even more appropriate then.
      I'm working on a scale of 1:15 so twenty one figures. As little as four for some Jacobite units.
      Ronnie

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    5. I hope the Jacobite cavalry lives up to your expectations and l look forward to that vignette featuring you on the battlefield...

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  2. My bird feeders have been up all year...they are a great distraction when I'm meant to be working! I read something by John Whitbourn many years ago and seem to remember it as being pretty good. I'd forgotten all about him but will go off and see if I can track anything down now (although I also have an unmanageable book mountain to work through!)

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    1. Hope the ascent of the book mountain proved both safe and fruitful.

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  3. My wife and son are participating in a Cornell University study, tracking visits by birds to our feeders, of songbird depletion here in the U.S. Very interesting but also terribly sad given how beautiful these small creatures are.

    Best Regards and Happy New Year,

    Stokes

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    1. Stokes, what a fascinating project to be part of. Very sad indeed.

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  4. I haven't read any Whitbourn (yet) - please let us know your thoughts!

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  5. Is this snowy Tradgardland Tuesday what follows "just another Manic Monday? Wish it were Sunday / Thats My Funday / My I don't have to Run Day ..." (if you were the Bangles anyway).

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    1. I can get nothing past you Mark. I will have to up my game in the coming year...

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  6. Sadly having two cats I don't feed the birds much - loving this frosty weather though brilliant for walking .

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    1. I like frost and snow to walk in but the ice sheets adorning our pavements really put me off big time.

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  7. I've always preferred short stories to novels, mainly because I can start and finish them in one. Novels can lead to excessive reading time... like the time, many years ago, when I got through all three books of LOTR in two sittings - the first sitting ending at half three in the morning!
    Covid has changed our bird watching habits. We even bought a couple of remote cameras set up. Useful, actually got a photo of the woodpecker in our orchard. Jealous of our son in London though - he gets parrots visiting his bird feeders!

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  8. I am interested in getting a remote camera some time, do you have any advice? The parrots sound cool.

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    1. Not really much 'advice' needed on these. Can't remember how we first found out about the things - mainly because that was down to Sandra, my wife, who also found a shop in Titchwell (couple of hundred yards up the road from where we had intended spending Christmas"!) that sold them. Went into shop, went over it with the shop keeper, bought one, liked it, bought the next one from their online shop... They're battery powered so rechargeable batteries are best, plus they use memory cards so if you expect a lot of action the more storage on the card the better. Easy to set up but can be a pain to 'aim' it properly, well worth getting if you have a use for them. The shop we got them from is online at https://www.at-infocus.co.uk/?s=cameras&post_type=product
      They currently list 3 cameras, none of which look like ours! https://www.at-infocus.co.uk/product-category/hawke/hawke-cameras/

      The 'parrots' are actually Ring Necked Parakeets and it seems that there are now thousands of them living wild in London! https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/jun/06/the-great-green-expansion-how-ring-necked-parakeets-took-over-london

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    2. Thanks for the parakeet info and camera suggestions.

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  9. I hope you get you reading mojo back soon, milord Duke. Had to wade through the snow to fill up my backyard bird feeder this morning.

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