April 2015 – WrAnTz

ELO’s Jeff Lynne Gets Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Some might say that this award is long, long overdue. Congratulations Jeff.

View From The Conservatory

My recent angling experiences are limited to salt water, mainly here in the UK and, to a lesser extent, in Western Australia.

Here in the UK, especially when fishing from a boat, if a fish is caught or perhaps old bait is thrown overboard seagulls will materialise out of thin air. Where none could be seen on a mirror flat surface or in the sky, suddenly they will appear to take ownership of the fishy scraps.

I have witnessed a wee, brightly coloured, bird land on a rod tip to watch as a string of feathers were dropped to the sea bed. Then, in a bright flash of colour, it has plunged into the sea to follow the feathers as they dropped to the sea floor. After a few seconds, when the bird didn’t pop back to the surface. the feathers were retrieved with the bird well and truly hooked. Thankfully it survived.

When fishing in Oz I have observed and experienced the fact that each and every shore based angler will have their own personal pelican. Usually sitting on a higher vantage point, but also just a few feet behind the angler at sand level where they are so brazen that they will sneak up behind the angler and steal bait from his hand.

Close up, that beak can be quite intimidating.

My own personal experience was when fishing from a breakwater, I was luck enough to catch a small silvery fish. Looked a bit like a British garfish. Anyway, as I triumphantly reeled my catch into shore, my personal pelican launched and tried to steal my catch from the water. He failed.

However, when all said and done, I have never experienced this …..

Gone_Fishing4_IMG_2381 — Fishing Buddies

Fishing buddies, or a fish thief in waiting ?

View From The Conservatory

Some more boring squirrel shots.

Entertaining animal acrobatics while I was having my brekky of tea and toast ….. lol

Squirrel4_IMG_2355 — A split second before he plummeted the six feet to the ground. Slippery that stainless steel.

Squirrel6_IMG_2355 — Now, If I can just get this lid off !!!

Squirrel7_IMG_2355 — Don’t I Look Cute ?

Squirrel2_IMG_2355 — Second cute pose with sunlit tail.

Support This Petition To The ICSID Tribunal Arbitrating The Philip Morris-Uruguay BIT Dispute

The tobacco giant Philip Morris is suing Uruguay for having some of the best anti-smoking laws in the world, and there’s a good chance it could win, unless we strengthen the fight in court.

It’s a scary reality that one company, whose product kills, could overturn laws that protect our public health. But if our community’s voices are brought into court by a world class legal team, we could fight back with a force no judge could ignore, showing how this sets an unacceptable precedent for the world.

Let’s tell the court that this doesn’t just affect Uruguay — if Big Tobacco gets their way it opens the door for challenges everywhere — companies already have at least 4 other countries in their crosshairs, and many more have anti-smoking laws at risk.

We have to move fast — the court is already hearing arguments. Sign to protect our public health and our democracies from corporate greed — each of our names will be submitted to the court.

Sign the petition

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/uruguay_vs_big_tobacco_wa_tst/?crpgHdb

View From The Conservatory

We put this bird box up last year, well after normal nesting season.

So you can imagine how chuffed we are that we have new tenants in the first year since we opened for business.

Geronimo - Blue Tit — Geronimo – Blue Tit

We have been watching them coming and going for quite a few days. The photo shows the removal of what must be the “wrong” type of feather.

Can’t wait to see the young when they emerge..

Limoges Porcelaine – Emil Madesclaire

I was wondering if there is anyone out there who might be able to shed some light on the history behind this serving dish/tureen. It was given to us as a present but we didn’t pay much attention to the makers mark at the time. We are doing a bit of spring cleaning and de-cluttering and I happened to look at the base which has the following mark. My curiosity was piqued as we spent two weeks on holiday in the Limoges region last year.

I spent a bit of time trawling the web but could not find much information. The best I managed was to find out that this mark was in use between 1906 (or 1929) – 1940. It would be nice to know a bit more about the maker.

Here are some more photos of the dish.