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Hello again Rusty,

The last dog I had was a (very white) Golden Retriever - beautiful, tall and rather impressive when he stood on is hind legs; he was taller than me by almost his whole head !

Anyway, he used to lose his winter coat by packets and we used to see birds coming on the terrace to pick them up. Whenever I saw empty small nests in the hedges, I was amazed at the quantity of dog hair there was intermingled with twigs and moss !

Was lucky earlier on - saw both Laddie and Lassie in the nest !

Good afternoon, Rusty!
It is a glorious day here, too, now!
We have been out walking this afternoon, but goodness, what a lot of damage has been done by "Katie".
We have seen four huge trees down.....two in their entirety, completely uprooted... and the others split down the middle, with parts littering the ground.
One tree lies across part way across a main road.... no sign yet of the cavalry!......and so many huge and jagged branches down everywhere........
Fortunately so far as I know, there have been no local casualties.
I have been looking in on the ospreys, Lassie is being very vocal - to the cat's puzzlement; he still hasn't sussed it out - and is giving herself a good groom.
It will be lovely when the chicks come, won't it?
Did you do the (quasi)homophone I sent you?
(I doubt you would like it!)
Any more Sport to watch today?

Hello, Elle!
I am bereft of ideas about your clue?
I concede defeat!
It is very calm here, yet when I checked up on Lassie it seemed quite windy at the nest site and that is only twenty or so miles away.
The South seems to be getting it a lot worse than us.
There are around 100 volunteers at the nest site, not all at once, obviously.
Nice to hear different birds on the webcam!
Will keep your cat on her toes!
No sport today for me, except
Irish Grand National at 5.00 if At The Races is showing it.

Hello again, Elle!
Just watched the Irish Grand National.
Super race. Rogue Angel won, led every inch of the way
And here's the thing...
That was the fifth race of the day at Fairyhouse and the winner of each race was No8 on the racecard.
Only in Ireland!

Hey, Rusty!
Right, the clue.....
A word we hear in a German accent? So it's alleged (7)
(Now be prepared...I warn you, you won't like it......)
The answer is "averred" = alleged (def)
"averred" sounds like "a word" (a vord) given in a German accent.
"w" being pronounced as "v" in German.
(Well, I DID warn you........
I can hear your cries of anguish / outrage from here....!)
I am glad that you managed to watch the Grand National after all!
What an incredible coincidence in the winner of each race always being No 8!
Spooky or what?
As you say, only in Ireland!
Is that something to do with being "fey"?
I've had to switch the sound off the osprey website! the cat was going demented!

Hello, Elle!
I would be here until the cows came home and were fed and watered before ever I would get that word!
If you were interested, type "loch of the lowes ospreys" into YouTube, and the one at the top gives a wee tour of the site and a flavour of the place. Just lasts for five minutes.
Ireland is uncanny!
Wonder if the bookies got hit?

Elle, that must be, for me, the most awful clue ever ! I think the setters are pushing their luck somewhat !

Hi, Rusty!
Yes, it was a truly dreadful clue! Someone needs to have a strict word (another "word"!) with Mr. R!
I did as you suggested and looked up the osprey site on Youtube.
I wasn't prepared for such wide-scale organisation!
The whole thing is incredibly well set up - the Visitors' Centre looks most attractive and welcoming.
I watched the video of Lassie arriving, and organising the nest.
I am impressed by the way she keeps rearranging her "furniture"!
I also watched another video where a crow tried to invade the nest!
It is all very interesting - I shall keep looking in......
All done and dusted now ready for the arrival of family tomorrow!

I agree about the awfulness of that clue, elle - which crossword was it in?

Hello, Elle!
A dire clue!
I would never have got that.
Thank the Lord you explained it to me!
I remember the crow!
Yes, I wonder about the stick rearranging.
Wonder why she does it?
It is a nice place to visit and well run, and in a bonnie neck of the woods.
The vast majority of the other sites are not made known to the public.
And it has worked. Many ospreys in GB now, I believe.