The weather is gorgeous here. It's probably summer and will most likely be snowing come July. I took the camera out this morning but there was little to bother with.
A large clump of Snowdrops being the highlight.
A few years ago I started playing about with a Dake steam engine project, these are square piston engines that have reversing capabilities without using complex valve gear. Dake is an American company based in Michigan and is still active, they now make high quality arbor presses but not steam engines. I read that their drawings have been lost. I found what appears to be some quality draughtsmanship recreating a Dake engine. They can be downloaded in PDF format and what is even better they are free.
I'll enlarge them and have a good look.
A couple of days ago a seed drill fell off the low loader ramps. It cowped as they say in these parts. It's a wonderful word and can have several applications. One can cowp beer and whisky, you can cowp and so can most other animals, sheep are the masters of cowping, it means to fall over. A few years ago even the DPD van Cowped.
There's not much else to report, the children are back at school and if one is to believe the education authority are five years behind. The NHS is three years behind. The Batflu is amazing. Not only can it differentiate between folk gathering to support the Black Liberation Movement and those having a day at the seaside but it can warp time and statistics with ease.
I'll leave you with this conundrum.
"How are the Bizzies going to cope with a transvestite misogynist?"
"They won't have to as it will stab itself to death."
This morning had all the makings of a wonderful day. There was frost on the car but little wind and just a smear of high cloud. Perfect for a spot of orthodontistry or whatever it is proper birders do. I loaded the dogs and popped a charged battery into the camera a long lens was mounted and set off for the Howe of Fife. There's a nature reserve there which comprises a couple of flooded gravel pits. I thought I'd have the place to myself but the car park was half full, lots of maskless folk and dogs, a pair of park rangers and not a sign of exciting birds or frogs. I think it's called Bernie Lochs, a good place and it turned out as near normal as a trip out place is likely to be these days.
There are at least a couple of lochs here and this is the other one, called something else. The birds are geese, Grey Lag Geese.
This is one close up, it wasn't being nasty but just popping over for something to eat, possibly something like a West Highland Terrier. It had no chance as the dogs are familiar with both geese and their dubious tempers. The stables have seven of the little sods. Which reminds me it will soon be goose egg time. I'll try and get set up for some video of me stealing goose eggs, it is usually a job fraught with danger for the egg snatcher and entertainment for those not directly involved.
Despite being reliably informed by a lady that these were Coots cos they had white on their heads. I had to disagree as it's their bill that's white and not their forehead. These are a pair of Tufted Duck. She asked where the tuft was, I said if you look at the ones with a white middle bit then the tuft pokes out of the back of his head. She spent some time peering through her binoculars and decided I was a fool. She did enquire where the tuft was on the black ones, I told her the black ones are brown ones an they don't have a tuft at all. She wandered off muttering about idiots.
These are very rare Mute Swans, she is busy nest building and he is keeping guard. Clever chap. A job that seems important enough to satisfy her but requires little effort. My sort of bird.
I often call in here on my way back from Cupar as it's only just off the A91, it's also on the way to the big indoor horse place. It's not a bad place to spend an hour but I've never seen anything exotic unless one counts a Rail with a bill and not a beak.
Have fun.
Now I do have a post that needs compiling. It won't go down well and will be a wonderful way to terminate this Blog. If I get bolshie enough I'll post it.
Maybe my being essential is an exaggeration but this week I have definitely helped enable a couple of essential workers. If I carry on like this and I'll be due a knighthood.
On Monday I had a run up the old coach road to Perth. It's forestry track now and starts in Auchtermuchty and goes through to Glenfoot which is Abernethy to all intents and purposes. My intention was to check for frogs in the swamp, there weren't any at least none the dogs or I could find and the dogs are excellent frog seekers. I took a quick snap of the drover's watering hole by the staines.
Not a ripple in it and no frogs here either.
On the way back to the car I came across a runner who wasn't running but sitting on a rock. To cut a long story short he said he had broken his ankle. I suspected a bit of a sprain was more likely but told him to remain where he was and I'd fetch the car. I got back to his rock and said you are going to have to walk the fifty yards to the track. What a wuss he was, worse than Alf with a wasp sting. I got my shoulder under his armpit and off we set, told him if he didn't stop whinging I'd leave him where he was. We made the car and I asked where his vehicle was. Turns out he had run from Freuchie which is halfway to Glenrothes. Bloody miles away, impressive but never mind. I said we could try and raise someone in Muchty medical centre but the chances were slim, be better off at the chemist cos the lass there was always in after nine, she's got a business to run. He wanted to go to hospital, silly sod, I told him no chance you'll end up with Batflu or sepsis, we'd be as well calling at the Co-Op for some frozen peas to pop on it. He opted for home where he could retrieve his phone that he had forgotten behind. Turns out he was a policeman. I nearly kicked him out after five miles but decided that would be mean.
This morning I went to Lidl, it took a bit longer to cash out as I let a plasterer or harler in as he only had a bag of apples and a bottle of water, then a nurse pushed in front waving a bit of plastic on a ribbon. I was going to let her in anyway as she only had a few bags of crisps, biscuits and a large bottle of pop but her arrogance got my back up and I said hang on there. She told me that essential workers were allowed preferential service between eight and nine. I gave in, I'm too old to argue with tanks, by all that's holy she was a big unit. I got all my stuff in the trolley, wheeled it out and was just packing it into bags by the car and when I was hailed by the leviathan nurse. She was all sweetness and light, more likely sweatiness and light but I avoided getting close enough to tell. She couldn't start her car. I went to investigate the matter, hopped in, wiggled the steering wheel as the the steering lock was on, turned the key and away it went Brmm, Brmm. She was amazed, so was I, it started like it was supposed to. How can anyone so stupid be employed anywhere but the public sector. I don't know how NHS staff are colour coded but during a serious pandemic it seems a little silly to let folk walk about in their work clothes. This one was in barrage balloon navy. Happen just a cleaner.
We now have the Muchty variant, I caught one just now. It's deadly, much more deadlier than anything Brazil has mutated, worse than the black death. Here is a short video of it doing nasty things, I magnified it to make face masks effective.
I tell you it's really horrible and what is worse it only attacks fearful parasitic humans who rely on normal folk to provide food, sewerage disposal, fuel and clean water. I made it specially.
Does anyone know if vegans are availing themselves of the vaccine? I'm not a vegan or having an inoculation that appears not to do anything positive but it would be interesting to know if they are having a product tested on rats and containing lord knows what. I doubt the vaccine has anything like Jackfruit in it, thank god, the bloody stuff stinks horrible, much worse than running and obese essential workers.
Keep safe, wash your hands and privates and don't believe anything a expert tells you.
