Gone

Just like my dishwasher will be soon (though not soon enough). Little beggar malfunctioned last night, and though I'm pretty sure it's fixable, I just can't find anyone to fix it. So much for paying off the credit cards.

Meanwhile, Bobby's not Gone yet, so let's enjoy some of his beauteousness.

Bobby goes searching through the rubbish.





Look what he finds!





Bobby tries his luck again, this time in a jumble sale.


The travel clerk can't believe her luck when Bobby propositions her.








Drunk with his success, Bobby tries his chatting-up skills on Alex.





My turn!





I know an interesting brainteaser you can do on people with their hands intertwined like this.


Bobby tries for the hat-trick.


Amazing how a good layer of slap covers up a heap of exhaustion.

Talented Tweeter

A few mornings ago, as I lay in bed in the early hours after the dawn chorus, I heard one of these going off:

It slowly dawned on me that it was far too quiet, and far too irregular and intermittent, to actually be a burglar alarm. It was then that I knew we had an avian mimic. I had a pretty good idea of what it might be.

In between bursts of being an alarm, it decided it was a great tit:

It was close, but you could just discern the difference. Great tits sound like a squeaky bicycle pump.

Then I realised that the song in between these impersonations was that of a blackbird:

Had I been wrong all along? Could blackbirds mimic?

Yesterday I stepped out into the garden, and suddenly realised that a blackbird was singing on next door's chimney. I turned round to look, and saw what I'd suspected was the culprit all along:

A starling was up there doing his thing. Years ago these clever little irridescent birds used to send people scampering indoors to answer their trimphones, which warbled distinctively. The starlings got them down to a T.

I haven't heard a mimic for a long time now. I just hope this one stays away from the predators long enough to pass on its skills to a few generations of young.

The View From Up Here

"You're not stupid for having faith Ann-Marie."

Yes she is.







Bobby cops a feel.





I just heard on the TV that you can tell someone's height by the size of their footprints. We are 7 times taller than the size of our feet.That makes these babies 11 inches long.


Can I scratch that for you, darling?


By the way, what is a floating wall? What purpose does it serve?


Baby's looking tired.


"F*** that cup is hot!"


Bobby wants to film us on the bed.


Baby looks SOOOOOOO tired.


"If you don't let me get some sleep, I swear I will make the Texas Chain Saw Massacrelook like a picnic."


"ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz."





"Just let me rest my head on my armzzzzzzzzzz."

Extinction Jenga

I imagine you are all familiar with the game of Jenga, in which a load of wooden "bricks" are stacked up into a tower.



Then players have to take it in turns to remove one brick at a time without the tower collapsing.


The other day (or rather night) I woke up in the wee small hours and switched on the radio: if there's something on that catches my interest, I am guaranteed to fall back to sleep before it finishes.

There was a programme on BBC World Service in which the presenter was being shown around London Zoo by one of the keepers. They talked about the tigers and gorillas I often show pictures of. The topic, though, was extinction of species. The keeper made an analogy that I found compelling.

Imagine, she said, a game of Jenga, but what we are removing are species of plants, insects, reptiles, mammals, fish. We don't know which will be the one that causes the rest to collapse - like the brick that collapses the Jenga tower - and we may suddenly find that our appalling stewardship of this magnificent planet has destroyed a vital ingredient and has finally led to its irreversible decline.



If humans are not causing climate change, but we behave as if we are, and clean up our act, the worst scenario is that we will have a cleaner planet.

If humans are causing climate change, but we behave as if we are not, and do nothing, we will have destroyed the planet.

There is NO excuse for doing nothing.

Receiving?

According to YouTube, the first of these videos may not be available in some countries. I'd be interested to know in which ones.

Meanwhile, just in case you don't get it, there's another little offering to keep you V-satisfied.

Inert Dwarf

Bobby obviously admires Manotti. It's a shame to see him so disillusioned.

It's that well Ann Dowd again.





I really want to reach up and run my hands over that back, those shoulders.


I don't actually remember...


...him changing legs in this scene. Continuity?


What I'm doing just out of shot is making his hair stand on end and his eyes pop out.





The shoulders, the arms, the legs. Oh my.





Then there's the tum.

Admiring her muscles, Bobby asks Alex where she works out.


Perching again.


Big strong boy.





The neck or the lashes? Everything's a blur.