Winterwatch is an offshoot of Springwatch which is a programme that started on BBC TV several years ago. The presenters have changed over time, but it gives us a view of the British Isles through the seasons.
Winterwatch is lovely, seeing badgers, falcons, water rats, deer, stoats and seabirds amongst other animals gives you an idea of how they live and survive and in some cases thrive during the winter.
The programme explores wildlife and behaviour over a couple of weeks, sampling their lives and how humans affect them. The series is a wonderful reminder of nature. Some of it is filmed live during the evening programmes and also has videos of other animal activity happening at this time of year.
If you want to know more about the natural history of the British Isles during winter you can watch it in the UK on BBC 2, or the BBC I player, or the Facebook page which is called BBC Springwatch. Or bbc.co.uk/winterwatch
I wish I lived in a detached house, not one with thin walls and a neighbour who’s TV is right next to the wall. We don’t complain because he is deaf and I think he would struggle to hear if he moved it anywhere else. Also you don’t want to fall out with your neighbours if you can help it. Most of the time it’s OK, especially when we have our TV on, but sometimes we like to read in silence and then, well if there is a football match on next door the volume is so high that we can tell when someone scores a goal!
I think the volume next door has gradually increased over a few years. You get used to it. But late at night it can also be disturbing. I don’t think there is a solution unless we have noise lowering insulation put in.
So, there was a strange mixture of secular and religious TV on for Christmas Eve. We started out watching the Festival of nine lessons and carols from Kings College, Cambridge this evening. The choral singing was beautiful, etherial, sublime. The arrangements were lovely and the readings were excellent.
But what else to watch. I wasn’t interested in game shows or music quizzes and I just wanted a quiet night. I’m still not very well and it gets worrying as you get older when you don’t recover as quickly as you would have in the past. I’m waiting for the antibiotics to kick in.
My hubby decided to watch an old Clint Eastwood film. It was violent and much more realistic than some more modern films (which have people dying without blood and guts). I’m afraid I just went to sleep, occasionally waking up at particularly noisy bits of it. Not exactly Christmas viewing!
Some people will remember these, before huge flat screen TVs, before TV remote controls, even before colour TV. I give you the cathode ray tube, where an electron gun shot rays at a flourescing front screen in lines and the picture appeared on its surface. The ‘tube’ was a conical shape with a square flat front. It was a vacuum tube so if it broke it would implode as air got in….
People employed TV repairmen to come out if it stopped working (replacing valves or solid state electronics? I’m not sure.) Gradually things changed until TVs changed shape and now use liquid crystal displays.
When ours went on the blink we found hitting it just above the on off switch with a hairbrush got it to work. Apparently the electric connection in the switch burns away slowly so the contacts were seperated, hitting it knocked them back together. Probably not safe!
Yawning, aching, eyes blurred, too many late nights watching TV or videos on my phone. I could sleep, but my feet hurt, which keeps me awake. Then I’m either too hot or too cold, or hubby snores, or kicks my ankle. Too many decaff coffees make it worse. Even if I don’t have lots of thoughts sometimes it difficult. I put a light on, if I read sometimes I can sleep, I hear the book drop, but I’m gone. Other times I put the radio on low, a murmur, but sometimes I catch a headline and have to listen…. So many reasons for NOT sleeping, and yet HE can just sleep, like that, so annoying! ❤️
It took centuries to discover why plants are (usually) green and how they grow and create food from thin air. I was watching a programme about botany last night and there was a long explanation about the science of it.
First people experimented by weighing a plant before and after tending it for five years and finding that although it gained weight it did not affect the soil. Then they tried growing plants but without light, which meant they would not thrive. They realised that they created starch in their leaves, but took time realising they absorbed carbon dioxide and gave out oxygen as a byproduct.
The whole programme was very informative but I wasn’t taking notes. But the idea that humans could understand it and may be able to use the process artificially is amazing. The ability to turn sunlight into fuel would be something that could help humankind.
Satire, a wonderful thing. I’m watching an old episode of ‘Yes, Prime minister.’ it’s probably forty years old and it still speaks to what’s going on in the UK at the moment. Boris Johnson has been fined for breaking Covid rules, and he will not resign although if he breaks the rules he is expected to do so. Now he’s changed the rules so that he only has to apologise (again). The man is almost more of a ridiculous figure than the Prime minister in the comedy programme!
I love Star Trek and have been watching the original series. Suddenly last night, this face started to appear in a doodle. I thought it looked a bit like lieutenant Uhura, the communications officer on the USS Enterprise. I think it’s not a bad sketch.