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Hello, Elle!
Yes, my dentist is great!
She is a very nice lady indeed, so she is.
I am not sure there will be a number 3 egg?
Lassie may be a young bird and may only lay two?
We shall see!
I have no plans for the weekend at all.
May be snowed in !!!
Just finished my crossword.
Was not too bad.

Hi, Rusty!
I have been playing catch up with a TV programme that I had recorded.
I have just watched "Scott and Bailey". This was the first episode of a new series - or perhaps I should call it a serial as it is ongoing........
I was having trouble staying awake! not that it wasn't interesting, just that I am very tired.
I'm drinking a black coffee whilst I type this......maybe it will help keep me awake!
Do you have any sport to watch tomorrow? I know you have BGT!
I haven't even watched last week's "Casualty" yet, let alone be ready for tomorrow's programme!
Still raining here...I hope you aren't having snow?

Hello, Elle!
Not much sport to grab my attention.
The Amstel Gold cycling on Sunday, is about all.
Skiing has finished. Racing at Ayr.
I am no longer interested in football.
I record BGT.
i had Brodie's coffee at Pine Cone.
Have you ever heard of it? Pretty yeugh!
I don't like coffee the cafes sell.
They do not have Nescafe.
I saw super looking slices of apple pie.
May try that next at Pine Cone.
it is 2 C degrees outside.
Back to Winter!

I'm now home after a week in the Algarve, where I saw 93 species of birds including a zitting cisticola!! 12 people with binocs staring at pine tree trunks for an hour because they could hear a short-toed tree creeper (I think it was actually a person with a bird cheeping app!). Never did see it. Looking at waders, one man said "Go on, show us your legs". I asked him if that approach usually worked. Took him a second or two!

It is snowing great big flakes

Hello Rosalind,

Nice to see you back - did you have a good holiday?
The Algarve is lovely isn't it, but you must feel quite a difference in the climate! What sort of temperature did you have in Algarve?
I went there towards the end of January one year, and it was pretty mild.

Good morning, Rusty!
Did you get any snow?
It is fine here so far, but rain is forecast for later. Much colder - an expected maximum of 5C!
I've never heard of Brodie's coffee? From the name it sounds as though it might be a Scottish brand?
A Scottish friend of mine has called his West Highland terrier "Brodie". I have never thought to query its origin?
I rarely drink coffee when out, unless I've gone to Costa!
At least you have the horse racing - is that the Scottish Grand National? - and some cycling to look at !
So far as I know (?) there is no Athletics for me to watch!
Ah well, coffee now and a look at the Times GK......

Excellent bird-watching, rosalind. Are you an enthusiast?

Hi Pigale

Any week when I don't have to think about food is brilliant! It rained, but the rain was needed and there were some sunny days, but with a cold wind. I don't go in for sitting round pools getting skin cancer, so that was OK. The best food was a Portuguese chick pea soup, even though the peas make me rather antisocial for a while. I also like their custard pies.

Hi chris
The holiday was billed as walking and birdwatching, and I thought the latter would slow down the former, which it did. I used to be an enthusiast, not for decades now. I would not have been able to ID most of what I saw without our leader, who was fantastic. I only counted them if I got them in my binoculars.
We saw Great Bustards displaying and flying, which was great. And a roller, which I never thought to see. Amazing colours.

That's two I've never seen, rosalind.

We used to stay in a friend's villa on the Algarve. The very first day we got there, my wife said "Look, there are bananas in that tree". Not bananas, in fact - golden orioles!

That's one bird I wanted to see and didn't, chris. Most of the other ladies went into the bushes at some stage but I didn't need to- and wished I had! The only sighting of a golden oriole that week.

We also saw small flowered tongue orchids (you couldn't make that up!) and several broomrapes.