A grand day out...
Not much knitting to report (well, I’ve been hard at it, but nothing looks much different – I’m on row 122 of the Shetland Garden Shawl, which I reckon means I’m about halfway there, and I’ve done another couple of inches on my mum’s sock – oh, and I’m idly swatching another sock, but I’m not sure that it’ll come to anything, and I can’t be bothered to take a pic just now anyway.)
So I’ll try to distract you with photos of our trip to The Raptor Foundation – it was fantastic. You know you’re onto a good thing when the first sign that strikes the eye as you turn into the driveway says “Yarn sale”. (In the event that wasn’t so exciting – all acrylic and fun fur, but hey, it’s definitely the right way to welcome people! – And to be honest it was rather a relief that there were no spectacular goodies – I’m on a very strict yarn diet after Skip North!)
Working from the left we have: 1) and 2) a Harris Hawk, 3) a Little Owl, 4) a Common Buzzard, 5) a Kestrel, 6) – 9) each of us with a Barn Owl. The last one is the most important – a few weeks ago a group brought some owls into Adam’s school – he was absolutely full of it when he got home – wonderful. Not so wonderful was a week or so later when he had a photo of himself with the owl in his book bag – with a note enclosed saying that we could buy one copy for £7, two for £10, or return them both to school. Amidst much wailing and screaming and stamping of feet I returned them. I’m afraid I object to the emotional blackmail to spend up to £10 on what was not a particularly good photo of Adam, when there had been no warning that it was coming. It smacks of the whole “sweeties at the checkout” syndrome – and although Adam can apply plenty of pester-pressure, I’m stubborn enough not to give in. However, I did feel bad that the experience had been spoilt for him – hence the trip to the Raptor Foundation. (And we did see a lot more birds flying – the whole demonstration lasted over an hour – I just didn’t get any decent photos 
)
(Edited to add: Just to make it clear – it was an entirely different group who brought the owls to Adam’s school – the Raptor Foundation do visit schools, but don’t do the whole “let’s fleece the parents” photo thing.)
There was high drama at one point when a wild red kite flew over – all the tethered birds started shouting, and the falconers got very excited and tried to tempt it to land – however a local wild kestrel had other thoughts and sent it packing. (Wonderful to have expert commentary on what was happening.)
So what looks like a simple Tuesday Sky:
does in fact have a little black dot if you look closely enough (click on the picture to enlarge it)
Enlarging further shows the kite itself:
Urgh. My writing feels very lame and pedestrian – I’m ill. Having scoffed (a little, and mainly sympathetically) at John for going down with a nasty cold over Easter, I’ve now trumped his ongoing cough with what the doctor called folliculitis and has prescribed antibiotics for. (Having looked it up online I’m not totally convinced it is folliculitis as it’s all over – yup, I got a nasty ITCHY skin thing ALL OVER!!! – and I’ve not been sitting in any dirty hot tubs. In fact I’ve not been sitting in any hot tubs.) But I do ITCH – like it’s driving me crazy – and I do feel rubbish, so I’m WHINING. (I can be rather a whiner, which is wrong given just how many times I tell Adam off for whining – mind you, he does have it to a much higher art form than me.)
two comments:
Now, it may not surprise you to learn, that is my kind of thing! (And I’m with you on the deliberate emotional blackmail thing, it really annoys me.) Falconary visits can be very exciting. On a trip we made, the peregrine the falconer was flying decided to go away on a daytrip…Louise () (link) - 12 April '07 - 12:07
Very, very cool, the raptors. We have a raptor center here, too.Itchy why? It isn’t dermatitis herpetiformis, is it?!
Chris () (link) - 12 April '07 - 15:23
