Whooper Swan Sunday

[Kittykatt]

Triple Dog Dare!

Pick 3 things
Do them
Post your TaDas!

»»—-Cheers! WTG! Ygg!—-««

Don't think about it. Just do it!
~~ I Triple Dog Dare ya! ~~
Good Morning!
»»————　✼　————««

[Kittykatt]

The whooper swan ( Cygnus cygnus), also known as the common swan, is a large northern hemisphere swan. It is the Eurasian counterpart of the North American trumpeter swan.

Whooper swans require large areas of water to live in, especially when they are still growing because their body weight cannot be supported by their legs for extended periods. The whooper swan spends much of its time swimming, straining the water for food, or eating plants that grow on the bottom.[8]

Whooper swans have a deep honking call that resembles geese and, despite their size, are powerful fliers. Whooper swans can migrate hundreds or even thousands of miles to their wintering sites in southern Europe and eastern Asia. They breed in the subarctic Eurosiberia, further south than Bewicks in the taiga zone. They are rare breeders in northern Scotland, particularly in Orkney, and no more than five pairs have bred there in recent years; a handful of pairs have also bred in Ireland in recent years. This bird is an occasional vagrant to the Indian Subcontinent and western North America. Icelandic breeders overwinter in the United Kingdom and Ireland, especially in the wildfowl nature reserves of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust.

Whooper swans pair for life, and their cygnets stay with them all winter; they are sometimes joined by offspring from previous years. Their preferred breeding habitat is wetland, but semi-domesticated birds will build a nest anywhere close to water. Both the male and female help build the nest, and the male will stand guard over the nest while the female incubates. The female will usually lay 4–7 eggs (exceptionally 12). The cygnets hatch after about 36 days and have a grey or brown plumage. The cygnets can fly at an age of 120 to 150 days.

When whooper swans prepare to go on a flight as a flock, they use a variety of signaling movements to communicate with each other. These movements include head bobs, head shakes, and wing flaps and influence whether the flock will take flight and if so, which individual will take the lead. Whooper swans that signaled with these movements in large groups were found to be able to convince their flock to follow them 61% of the time.[10] In comparison, swans that did not signal were only able to create a following 35% of the time.In most cases, the whooper swan in the flock that makes the most movements (head bobs) is also the swan that initiates the flight of the flock – this initiator swan can be either male or female, but is more likely to be a parent than a cygnet. Additionally, this signaling method may be a way for paired mates to stay together in flight. Observational evidence indicates that a swan whose mate is paying attention to and participates in its partner's signals will be more likely to follow through with the flight. Thus, if a whooper swan begins initiating flight signals, it will be less likely to actually carry through with the flight if its mate is not paying attention and is therefore less likely to join it.

They are very noisy; the calls are strident, similar to those of Bewick's swan but more resonant and lower-pitched on average: kloo-kloo-kloo in groups of three or four.

[Kittykatt]

Happy Sunday, everyone!

[Gma]

Happy Sunday back to you, kittykatt! I'm just getting home from Mom's NH. She had a meltdown of pain tonight. I went to a supper and a play with MrVKM, and decided to check on mother before heading home. Good thiong I did. She was in a very bad way. I convinced the staff to give her a stron pain pill. It took about 70-90 minutes for it to kick in enough for her to be able to talk to me. Then since she ahd been in too much pain to eat, I worked for a couple hours to get some liquid nourishment in to her. She was calm and settled when I left.
Church starts in 7 hours, I have a lol washing (1 of 3 I took home). I'll figure out what to wear to church then go to bed. This lol can sit overnight.
I got up at 0815, it's now 0300. long day.

[Kittykatt]

Gma, I'm so sorry your DMum was in such pain. Thank goodness for you and all your medical training and experience!

[Kittykatt]

Reposting yesterday's Brain dump:
In no particular order, just as I think of everything!
Morning supplement for Matilda
Evening supplement for Matilda (I'm going to list these separately until it becomes second nature)
Visit C
Text DF E re coffee tomorrow
Find menu for venue for October's parish lunch
Photocopy menu
Write/ print sign up sheet
Attach to menu
Put with my bag to take to church tomorrow
Email those people on mailing list for lunch and attach scanned copy of menu
Email DM re poster for Xmas lunch - apologise for late reply and explain
Email CM re chalice rota - apologise for late reply and explain
Create new SO to put a little aside each month for those irregular DDs (once or twice a year) that have been catching me out as I lose track
Work out how much I need to increase SO for SWW by, and amend accordingly (they have suggested a ridiculous figure )
Check DH has ordered new salt and pepper grinders (he wanted to do this! And I do appreciate the little efforts he makes to take some things off me when I've been feeling stressed and overwhelmed this week )
29/9 order HRT
1/ 10 set up new prepayment certificate
Amazon S&S items - review
Receipts for DF PL
Survey for vet
Decant large bottle of shampoo into small bottle
Find new shower gel
Visit DF E

Deep cleaning /decluttering:
Choose something (or more than one thing!) from list!
Tighten joints in chair
Ditto on footrest
Ditto on sofa
Wash sitting room curtains
Wash staircase curtains
Declutter and clean out sideboard
Brush a bit more wall and take down and clean another picture
Wash a bit more skirting board
Polish curtain rail
Clean picture and put back

Autumn project of cleaning windows, flushing drainage channels, oiling hinges and greasing contact points:
Still to do - patio doors

Garden:
Weed / deadhead
Pot remaining pansies?
Plant bulbs
Are there any more roses ready to prune?
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[FrenchFlybebe]

◕‿◕ * * * Good Morning! * * * ◕‿◕

Happy Sunday kittykatt ! Thanks for the start.

Gma, sorry about your mom being so bad, and you having to carry this burden without much outside help.

I hadn't realized yesterday that the titles are about water birds. I hope trissie didn't mind my choice of bird was different. Congrats trissie on the continued progess on apples. I'm relieved to hear you have an apple peeler and electric appliances to help. I thought about you while making an apple crumble with DS7 yesterday, all the small apples we were given (green, underripe ones), and the ones with brown patches or with visitors , that I had to peel and sort and cube... just for one medium sized dish, I ended up with a huge pile of peels and bits to throw away. I hope you have a composter box, or your trash cans will attract bees and maybe other fauna.

Greetings to all, hugs to helia, safe travels to Doggedly, interested about housing purchasing plans at laura's family...

Sunny Sunday, we had a nice afternoon and evening yesterday. By the kids' request we finally watched Jurassic Park for our weekly family movie night, eating pizza and homemade apple crumble.
It seems that in our home, Saturday is cleaning and catch-up day, with Saturday evenings only as "Family fun Day" (as per Flylady's recommendations). And Sunday is more like "how can I finally relax" and "how can I restore my spirit before Monday" Day.
We plan to have a family walk along the ocean this afternoon. The sun is shining and there shouldn't be too much wind.

TADAs
up, breakfast,
peeled a kuri squash and ready for oven
cuop

TODO
prep tonight's dinner (chick pea stew)
finish prepping lunch : fish and baked potatoes
some cleaning : vacuum in DS9's bedroom, same in DS7's
and hopefully more...

[trissie]

gma, that's kinda scary that the staff at the nursing home did not notice that your DMom was in pain!
kittykatt, what's on the famous Sunday menu?
Frenchie, I am all for getting things that make my life easier! The apple slicer/peeler is an inexpensive thing and I bet you could get a French version somewhere in a store nearby: https://www.amazon.com/lasting-Magnesiu ... TSJFJ?th=1
We do have a composter and also a green bin, so the bio waste will not go to waste How was the apple crumble? I think I'll be making one tonight. I still have a basket and a half of fallen apples to process!

DH and DS have gone to the cottage alone. The girls were not in the mood and I didn't press it really, as once it was past 10am, it was obvious I would not get anything done there anyway. DH is working on painting the wood for the new railing and DS will work on making wood for winter, and they will have the two 60minute drives to bond, which is always good for a father-son relationship.

And I pledge to find 60 minutes this afternoon to work on some crafts! I never ever take time to do fun stuff, other than maybe 15-30 minutes of reading a 11pm, when I am falling asleep on the sofa. But it would be helpful to actually declutter the bedroom enough to have the space I need for sewing


TaDas
- slow morning
- breakfast and coffee
- interne time
- dressed to shoes
- morning routine
- yesterday's load of towels folded and put away

ToDos
- 30 on laundry
- 30 in office
- cook lunch

Braindump
routines
- midday routine
- afternoon routine
- evening routine
food
- lunch
- dinner
- bake something sweet
- process apples
organization
- homework and backpacks
- DBD's speech therapy
- have DS chose lunches for next month (school offers three choices each day)
- 15 on filing
- find and pay water bill
cleaning
- spiff up twins' room
- spiff up DBD's room
- spiff up DS13's room
- spiff up master bedroom
- spiff up master bathroom
- spiff up kitchen
- spiff up living room
- spiff up downstairs bathroom and hallways
- spiff up office
laundry
- load of cleaning rags
- ironing
- folding
- mending
- laundry put away
me time
- 15 of exercise
- Bible study
- reading
- 1 hour of crafting
House&Holidays
- week 1 deep cleaning - office
- week 2 deep cleaning - master bedroom
- week 3 deep cleaning - DBD's room
- week 4 deep cleaning - DS14's room
- week 1 Christmas tasks
- week 2 Christmas tasks
- week 3 Christmas tasks
- week 4 Christmas tasks
- week 5 Christmas tasks
garden
- gather fallen apples - any new ones?
- deadheading
- weeding in veggie garden
- deadhead roses
- tree and bushes pruning
- general pick up in garage
- general pick up around the house

[helia]

I've never heard of whooper swans, Kitty. I noticed their bills are orange and black! Interesting. Trumpeters have all black bills. Here, I have a preference for trumpeters, maybe because they're native to N. American and they've generally been pushed out by Mute Swans, which are not native - and like starlings, were introduced here by Europeans. Thanks to FFB I now know this about starlings!
Gma, do you know what was causing the pain?
trissie, father-son bonding time sounds really good! Do you have a sewing project in mind?
Did your boys like Jurassic Park, FFB? Was it too scary for them?

I'm up. I slept about 9 hours last night. It was good to sleep in my own bed. We heard the Eastern Screech Owl calling last night.

Today, I'm starting a new life. LOL! Maybe that's a bit dramatic, but today is the first day at home after burying my mother. It does feel like a new phase of life. There are still some matters to take care of, but things in general will be different. No Mom to visit. No need to worry about her. No services to plan. And, my POAs have ended, I believe. Now everything has become the responsibility of the trust.

Next:
- back exercises
- s2s and self care
- make the bed

Later:
- reclaim kitchen
- 9:45 otd to church
- 12-ish lunch
- payroll: pick up exams at school
- dress to jog
- jog
- perhaps join dh and girls at a coffee shop?
- payroll: start grading exams
- unpack suitcase
- messages: B, DF, MM
- WF run?
- host Sunday dinner for 8? + 2 puppies?
- dinner: frozen pizzas, bread, rot. chicken, Dutch cheese
- after dinner clean up
- duolingo
- health apps

TaDas!
- up; weighed myself - up 1 pound. Could have been worse.
- toiletries unpacked and put away
- coffee
- wrote review for the bnb - it was a little rough around the edges, but it served its purpose for our family. And the things that were issues became a running joke for our family, like the bed with the oversized bed frame OR when the door knob fell out of the bathroom door. LOL! The mouse poo in the silverware drawer was not so humorous.
- email deletions and weather website - high of 81*F today. Sunny! We have sun and warm temps for the foreseeable future.

WEEKLY ACTIVITIES
Sun 10 - Church local AME/ 6 - ? host Sunday dinner?

Mon 11-1 payroll: teach IW D9
Tue KS2J get together/ 6:30 host Tuesday dinner for 5?
Wed 11-1 payroll: teach IW D10
Thu 2-3 work out with trainer
Fri 11-1 payroll: teach IW D11/ 2-3 haircut in other town/ date night with dh?
Sat 5:30 - 9ish CG1 @ ____
Sun 10 - church local/ 3:30 - 6ish host CG2/ 6 - ? host Sunday dinner

September Brain Dumps
This Week - House
- get 2 guest beds remade with clean sheets
- possibly, polish stone counter tops
- repot my little orchid

This Week - Deskwork
- card to CM

General Brain Dump
- progress decluttering clothes - wip
- new phone eventually
- buy queen bed frame + mattress + box springs for dd27's room - wip

Mom
- figure out what to do with the chest of drawers
- move it from the room if necessary - with the help of dh
- figure out what to do with the wheelchair
- life insurance letter - does it mean anything? Send pic to trustee
- start washing her clothes and blankets donation site

[blessedw2]

I am sorry your d mom is in pain. praying that the pain goes away d gma