Families

One thing you don’t expect to see too often is large mammals pretending to be small birds. Liesel witnessed a moose embedding itself amongst a gang of geese on the lagoon near her Mom’s apartment.

Can you see the moose?

Liesel remembered to take a picture of a sand hill crane family, spotted quite a long way off.

Can you see the chick? Clue: it’s the smudge between the two adults.

It’s been an exciting week in Anchorage observing wildlife.

Can you seee the cygnet?

Meanwhile, in Brookvale, Australia, Helen has a new neighbour.

I think it’s a possum, and I imagine it didn’t hang around long when it saw Helen with her phone camera.

Closer to home, William and Martha took part in the School Colour Run. They ran about half a marathon and ended up covered in paint. Yes, they earned their medals! Actually, I’m not sure how long the run was, maybe it was a whole marathon.

Sometimes, when I tell Liesel I’m busy, and she asks what am I doing, I’ll respond, “Things to do, places to go, people to see,” or some variation thereof. Well, this week, I re-discovered where I (probably) first came across this perfect response. I am still watching old, classic Doctor Who episodes, and I had to rewind this bit just to make sure…

Thanks for the memory, Tom Baker, the fourth Doctor, from about 1978.

Some of the things I needed to do this week included seeing the dental hygienist, visiting a GP and having a blood test.

Some of the people I saw this week were fellow walkers around Northenden and Wythenshawe. There’s a narrow, single-file path along the river, but it’s even narrower now because of all the overgown plants, brambles, grass, nettles and more.

This week, Summer Solstice coincided with a so-called Strawberry Moon. The night before, it wasn’t quite full, but the Moon did indeed look pink-ish as it set over Wythenshawe. I Tweeted (or should that now be 𝕏ed?) my best photo, but my phone camera really didn’t pick up the colour.

I can’t remember the last time I went to a cinema for a midnight showing. It might well be The Gate Cinema in Notting Hill, about 50 years ago. Anyway, this week, I took the plunge and visited Didsbury Cineworld for a once in a lifetime late night showing of the final two episodes of the current series of Doctor Who. I’d seen The Legend of Ruby Sunday on TV last week, of course, but this was the first time we’d seen the final episode, Empire of Death. It was fun to hear everyone in the audience respond in unison to the story, gasps and intakes of breath. And yes, of course I’ll watch it again on proper TV later on, but it was great to see it on a big screen.

On this week’s radio show, I decided to catch up with some of the new music released while I was away. So, to go with all the new releases, I made the theme of the show New Things. You can listen right here on Mixcloud.