One of the most wonderful smelling orchids…

A quick google says it is actually diving or plunging. I’m going to have to google the Latin for peeing next…

I always used to plant them on the top of banks, so that you could look up at them.

I would also go for roasted. I use light olive oil, salt and pepper, and lots of thyme

I don’t like them. The berries are very toxic to wild birds. They get desperate in bad winters and eat them because there is nothing else. :-( I dug up all the ones in my VA garden and replaced them with mahonia instead.

Puff has historically been more at risk from flame-emitting ignition sources himself. I suspect JV and I are thinking of the same incident.

It is tiny, but it’s there. There is a saying “when you hear hoofbeats, look for horses, not zebras.” I think your Belding’s Savannah Sparrow would be a zebra in Oregon.

It’s a Song Sparrow. The splodge on the breast is the giveaway.

The internet tells me that 90% of newspapers are printed with soy based inks now, so I feel it’s ok. It’s not massive quantities of paper being used, and anything that is heavily printed gets chucked anyway. (And by chucked, I mean put in the recycling bin)

Yes, I have a wooden form for making pots out of newspaper. It’s ideal for growing seedlings, the paper starts breaking down straight away, so it’s pretty much just a rootball when you plant it out. You can fit loads in a tray so they support each other. Any that don’t germinate go in the compost

Hmm. I don’t think you have much experience with epiphytic orchids, they naturally grow up on the bark of trees and absorb nutrients and water through air roots. If you put them in the ground, the roots rot off and they die.

I don’t think it’s cheating, I used to work with an orchid collection, and one of my favourites was Rhyncholaelia (once Brassavola) digbyana. We used to call it by our pet name, Mr Whiskers.

The extreme cold weather in the eastern USA at the moment is all a sign that hell is freezing over IMO

I have other helpful Norwich tips, but they escape me right now.

If you are ringing bobs, don’t try to count to 7. Count to 3, make a dodge for the bob, and make sure you know which place bell you are at backstroke, then do another 3 dodges for the start of the next lead.

All your up dodges on the back are with the same bell, as are your down dodges, you always dodge 3 times on the back unless you’re with the treble.
I always remember which way the lead/double dodges on the front are by mentally attaching the dodges to the 3/4 places.