YES!!! The "I'm So Happy!" thread - 2011

[Paddy Tobin]

Brian,

Get back to your papering and stop wasting time on the internet. Liked the video, though.

Paddy

[Brian Ellis]

Glad you enjoyed it Paddy, finished that most awkward wall (for the second time this week - don't ask) so putting my feet up

[Anthony Darby]

...and we had real butter for tea. I'm not really into the pseudo-harmonies, but the effect was very good.

[Lesley Cox]

http://www.carlsonschool.umn.edu/holiday11/

Bet you think the security man is a spoilsport

Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant! The security guy's OK.
I love these big flash mobs.

[Lesley Cox]

Yesterday at the market I was given a punnet of quite small, not very attractive strawberries, ripe but mostly a bit mis-shapen and not uniform like the large, glossy red monsters available at other stalls. They were given to me by a vendor who sells only organic vegetables, and is know himself to smoke various illegal substances (not on site) and always looks as if he needs a good wash. I didn't really want them and tried to palm them off but only got rid of one at a time to various other vendors as I went along the row. But then there were smiles on their faces and then "mmmMMMMMMmmm..." from someone so I tried one and was thrilled to taste the old, old REAL strawberry flavour I knew from Dad's garden when I was a child and haven't tasted for many years. Very sweet and juicy and utterly delicious. So I backtracked quickly and asked if I could buy some runners when they're ready. "I'll give you some" he said. So that is something to look forward to with much pleasure. I'm also going to sow the seeds from one as I suspect they will be fertile which the seeds on modern cultivars are not, in my experience. I'm now reluctant to buy or eat the beautiful-looking but completely tasteless berries from other vendors.

[Lesley Cox]

Anthony, from the links to South Georgia, it seems as if they ARE planning to eradicate the reindeer altogether, humanely maybe but still get rid of the lot. I couldn't see any reference to keeping any at all because of their being "clean" stock. Maybe some should be taken back to the northern hemisphere.

This reminds me (as did another thread a minute ago, already forgotten which, but Fermi talking about conservation) about a population of a kiwi species raised in a wildlife and offered to DoC for conservation purposes because the wild of the same species are depleting rapidly but DoC refuses to permit the Chch ones to be introduced to the wild ones because of different genes over some generations. They want the wild ones to be kept "pure." even at the expense of the whole darned lot. Sure any species on earth depends on the introduction of new genes to maintain its longterm health and vigour. Isn't "genetic diversity" the very cornerstone of strong conservation. It wasn't a matter of creating hybrids with another species, it was the SAME species.

This was a couple of years ago maybe. I wish I could remember which kiwis and where the article was. It could have been on TV.

[ranunculus]

Another interesting link ...

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/spain/travel-tips-and-articles/76930?affil=twit

Note: No snowdrops (or buttercups, for that matter)!

[Anthony Darby]

Anthony, from the links to South Georgia, it seems as if they ARE planning to eradicate the reindeer altogether, humanely maybe but still get rid of the lot. I couldn't see any reference to keeping any at all because of their being "clean" stock. Maybe some should be taken back to the northern hemisphere.

It was a scientific paper done by some biologists who'd also worked at Millport on the Isle of Cumbrae in Scotland. Clearly things have moved on and the science behind the reasons for cull or no cull may have changed, or may even be ignored.

[Paddy Tobin]

Glad you enjoyed it Paddy, finished that most awkward wall (for the second time this week - don't ask) so putting my feet up

Mary's grandmother was a great one for wallpapering and when she had finished the troublesome corner in the room would always say, "There, I'm just around Tattenham Corner now and into the straight to the finish line."

Paddy

[Hoy]

?

[Hoy]

Here are some more info regarding South Georgia:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9403000/9403368.stm

I know that Norwegian scientists try to stop the planned culling from scientific reasons:

http://www.forskning.no/blog/sesam/284045


A herd of reindeer on South Georgia:



http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?menu=c10400&no=365216&rel_no=1

http://www.doaj.org/doaj?func=abstract&id=815638

[Lesley Cox]

Regarless of the rights and wrongs of the South Georgian cull or lack of it, they do look so very "right" in that stunning landscape don't they? But like all the Antarctic areas we are more used to seeing penguins, seals, whales and their like, rather than large mammals of the land kind.

[Lesley Cox]

Mary's grandmother was a great one for wallpapering and when she had finished the troublesome corner in the room would always say, "There, I'm just around Tattenham Corner now and into the straight to the finish line."

Paddy

A lady for the racehorses was she Paddy?

[Otto Fauser]

Lesley , I stopped buying those red ,glossy monster strawberries  some time ago . not much taste but more important: the most recently published data on pesticides -strawberries were found to have the highest chemical residues .

[Maren]

My answer to that is to eat only strawberries grown on my allotment. With some careful planning, one can have strawberries for 4 months of the year, that's quite enough for me and mine. The big plastic ones we get here only taste of water, but we get the occasional brave farm shop that sells knobbly ones that taste delicious.