While you stitch - who's watching the Olympics

Well, if I were, she wouldn't be in danger of "getting it" would she? LOL!

I'm so happy not to be a sweet young thing, iffen ever I was one! 45 suits me fine.

Elizabeth

Somehow I suspect you weren't lol Enjoy the rest of your forties, I felt my forties were the very best decade of my life. I would enjoy these decades more if there were a few less aches and pains and the limitations that keep rearing their heads, so I pick forties as the best. (So does my elder daughter but she is passing into her fifties next month, so I could nearly be your mama)

My momma would be 88 if she were alive. And she wasn't ever a sweet young thing, either. That apple didn't fall far from the tree at all.

Elizabeth

How do they determine age for the Olympics? By som standard or by what your country uses? The Chinese, you know, traditionally consider your birth date your first birthday. Therefore, what *we* would consider to be 15 would be 16 there (not that it would matter in this case).

As we were watching the other night, we noticed that these girls actually had breasts! and had to wonder if they had something either built into their leotards or had enhancement surgery - because they certainly didn't look old enough to have any (and all the Asians I know have been late bloomers in that regard).

Linda

Certainly that would have to be factored in.

Do you suppose they had 'chest' muscles? In the picture from SI I was surprised at a little one like that having such thigh muscles. I don't know, I haven't watched a thing, just heard all the talk about the girls. I really think they would be leery of the terrific loss of face they would suffer if the girls were proved to be too young. I think we can depend on it many are endeavouring to prove it lol

I' sure you were once - a few decades ago.

I like my age until the knee pops.

Cheryl

Don't you mean this apple????

Cheryl (who just went clothes shopping with her apple)

The original story came from newspapers in China. The girls were terrific gymnasts but the "rules" say they must be 16 and to quote a very tired cliché, It's not in whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game.

Lucille

For over a hundred years they've been bantering back and forth with classification. The main differences in the flower parts is subtle, but the most obvious are the sepal structures, and more than any, the seed pod formations.

Brugs are woody, Datura are herbaceous. Brugs take a while to flower, needing about three feet of foliage to se up, while Datura can develop flowers right after cotyledon under stressful conditions. Brugs flower based on night temperatures, Datura flower based on day length, so closer related to an Ipomoea aka morning glory.

The not so subtle are that the flowers face in up in Datura, hang pendulous are Brugmansia. Brugs are very long lived, Datura are not, though can live through dormant periods after foliage is killed by frost as they have storage organs under the soil. If it is too cold these organs rot in winter.

I've had one on my arm. Intimidating, they are. But I know they are mush pots.

Sadly, people are very unkind to animals and don't do a page of reading before buying a parrot. They are not an easy pet to have. If I told you what I had to cook and prepare for Mika you'd think she was a child I was caring for!

I've seen flocks on YouTube of very loud Too's. I know how loud they get.

Yeah, see. Poor things. It is illegal in the US now to take them from the wild. I'm sure it doesn't stop people from stealing the Hyacinth Macaws from the wild. Those sell for thirty thousand dollars each in many cases for a mating pair, more than twice that. They are the largest of the Macaws and can easily take a hand off at the wrist with one chomp.

I love your DH's uncle. May he have a very long life with no obstacles or defilements. I have Ross Designs for Major Mitchell, White-Tailed blacks and Palm Cockie. Birds of paradise for sure.

I have been trying to teach Mika that she is a bird and should be chewing stuff. I buy her chew toys, balsa wood, puzzles, etc. She only wants her bells to dingle all day. She can drive me crazy when she gets her ding on!

I know. We have problems here in TX with vultures collecting on electrical towers by the hundreds. Huge birds which they are afraid will topple towers. The only wild parrots we have here are ones which got out of their cages. In Austin in the City Park is a flock of Monk Parrots aka Quaker and in San Francisco they have a flock of Cherry Headed Conures. There is a film about them called "The Parrots of Telegraph Hill."

You are right. I'd love to see that. The only big flocks around here are boat tailed grackles which are very loud. Nothing like parrots, but still messy and loud. They seem to gather in shopping center parking lots where the trees are full of them. I get excited when the Cedar waxwings come. Nomads they are.

The main attraction here are our Mexican freetail bats. We live in the path they take every night. There is an overpass on the highway which is built exactly the way bats like it. Bat houses look similar underneath. This is known as the McNeil Bridge Bats and is the second largest urban bat colonies either in the US or it could be in the world. The first largest is downtown under the newly named Ladybird Johnson Bridge, formerly The Congress Avenue Bridge. There are a few million bats there. That is a sight at dusk.

I'd like that.

Will do. These birds have no natural predators beause they are so fast. People think they spend all their time eating nectar, but that is not true. Most of their day is spent grooming their feathers, eating small insects, spiders, etc. They are migrating back through here now. Their little bodies are no larger than my thumb, maybe smaller. Just amazing. They love to fly through mist, so I stand there like a nut with the hose nozzle mist thing on waiting for them. Little territorial fighters they are. They never lack for things to eat in this garden as we kill nothing, no insects, or diseases either. It's a wild place amid a sea of manicured lawns. I am not into formal gardens, though they are beautiful and have their place. Just not in my garden!

I have a friend who bought two hundred acres in Costa Rica. On the property are three small houses and ten of the acres have a vanilla orchid production. I wonder how many people know that vanilla beans are the seed pods of the vanilla orchid. When I get organized I will give it another try. I do like them very much.

Cold climates have wind chill, we have wind heat index! Our winds come out of the south so all the trees tilt north!

I like grey-green. I have several artemesias which are actually thriving on neglect. Do you grow Phormiums there? In New Zealand they have wonderful flax plants.

They build new houses here like that. Big giant McMansions with ten feet between them.

I don't want the rats in the house which is why I made them such a mansion outside.

I don't feed the geckoes, but I have photo's of Mark holding the teeny weeny litle babies in his hand. They live on the walls and come out at night. These are pink and blend in with the limestone we have all on the four sides of the house. They are out there by the dozens just by the back door.

I'll get the pix up and let you know.

Both, actually. Gramma wasn't a sweet young thing ever so far as I can tell, either.

Elizabeth

That must be something that runs in some families because it's true of mine too. I come by my personality honestly from my mother and her mother before her.

one of these children is less than four feet and weighs less than seventy pounds.

the mould cracked ?

Two of my Chinese friends (women with children) are only a little taller and I doubt they touch ninety pounds and you should see them eat !

Sounds like my grandmother

And the point is? My point is that, these are not girls over the approved age and should be dismissed by the medals. China is notorious for human rights issues as well as doing whatever it has to do to win. In this case, cheat.

Ohhh! I can't begin to imagine having such a bird in one's hand! You must've gone all melty, Joan!

FYI, when DS' budgie gets naughty and won't come back to his cage, we use The Butterfly Net. Such a handy thing when the cats are looming...

Ah! Thanks for that. Yes, I've looked them both up and see what you mean. D. stramonium is a serious pasture pest over here. It only takes a small amount to do serious injury to stock. Isn't it funny that potatoes and tomatoes belong to the same family, yet are not poisonous?

Hah! Don't bet! Ever been bitten by a cranky one? Their bills are very, very strong! Not so long ago, I had occasion to rescue one from Alice, who had plucked it from the backyard. I nearly lost both thumbs as Cocky chewed on them!

Pets are just like children aren't they? When you take on a pet, you're taking on responsibility for its entire life, just as you do with children. My sister cooks up the most amazing smorgasbords for her dogs and we put a lot of effort into exotic meals for sick horses back when we had them.

Oz parrots are very much sought-after on the international black market. People are getting nicked all the time for illegal bird smuggling and there are still filthy sods who trap them illegally from the wild. We have strict licensing laws and you can't buy or sell one unless you have a permit from Parks and Wildlife. Some of the more common species, though, like Galahs and SCresteds, aren't regulated because they're so - well - common!

When I was a kid, you hardly ever saw a parrot around the towns. They were only to be seen way out west in the farming country. I think the ongoing drought has brought them ever closer toward the coast in search of food and water so that now we get quite large flocks in the cities. These days, we regularly see rosellas, galahs, corellas, lorikeets and, of course, the cockies. Probably about twenty or so species in all. I've even seen Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos flying up my street (which is PB remarkable, as they're a rainforesty species and the nearest thick forest would be an hour away).

LOLOLOL! Don't try too hard - she might learn to chew on you and that's not desirable.

Cherry Headed Conures are just gorgeous, aren't they? Will trot off to Google your Monk Parrots - I don't know them.

I've seen photos of those - they're so pretty! We have nothing remotely like them here in Oz.

Bats are cool! I mean, I won't be sorry to wave 'bye-'bye to the colony in our palm tree (mostly on account of all the b@tcr@p) but I still like their feisty little natures. The Mums with babies on their backs are great to watch. The tiny batlets are sooooo cuuuute, my kids want one for a pet. Erk. I do draw the line there. Imagine shovelling b@tcr@p on a daily basis!

Heeheehee! You sound just like me! That's exactly the sort of thing I would do. DH can't believe that I'm willing to stand, motionless, for half an hour just to get a glimpse of some creature or another. But every living thing is fascinating and I'd rather watch that that stupid telly.

Oo! Oo! Me! I knew that! I'd like to have a go at Stanhopeas, the ones that flower out the bottoms of their pots. And Oncidiums, the dancing ladies. They grow wild in gardens here in N'cle along with the Epidendrums, which grow like weeds. Our native Dendrobiums are lovely, but the flowers are very small - only a centimetre or two across.

Once, we went on a family picnic to place called Boarding House Dam. I took the kids on a bushwalk and found an incredible glade of mountain beech trees just *dripping* with all sorts of orchids. None were in flower, but I could just imagine how they would look in season. I'm hoping to have another trip up that way in the Spring so I can see the flowers. Sadly, people are usually all too ready to nick the epiphytes for their gardens so it's pretty special to find such a place still intact.

No, I think Phormiums are a notifiable plant. That is, they're likely to achieve pest status. We have a few noxious imports such as pampas grass, lantana, ipomoea, yucca and brambles. There are no natural predators of these and so they just go mental in the bush, choking it up and squidging out all the native plants and birds.

I always wonder who vacuums those huge places. I've only got a pocket-hanky to vacuum and that suits me fine. ;->