366 Photos - 84/366

Friday, 25 March 2016 12:10 am
byslantedlight: (better Days (snarkyllama))
[personal profile] byslantedlight
I must admit, I've been a bit fed up today. I've not got the flu, I'd taken the long weekend off, and today was fun things at Stourhead. So of course I could barely walk after yesterday - gaaargh! Turns out I twisted my ankle quite badly - but I twisted my knee even worse, and it's doing rather worrying crunchy things when I bend it, which I can only do a bit. Just when I thought I might get out into the world a bit - if only to treat myself to an easter egg! And even if I could get to the GP, they'd only say to rest and use ice-packs and take paracetamol if you need it (as per the NHS website advice, and previous experience with various people!). So that's what I did. And, I must admit, sulked...

And then - I looked out my window, and (cue spooky music)...
2016-03-24 01BlueTitMystery 2016-03-24 02BlueTitMystery
They're blue tits, and they were just lying there, poor wee dead things, and I can't begin to imagine what happened to them. There was no blood or mess or muss, and although the one looks like it fell awkwardly, the other is neat-as-you-please. There's the roof and gutter above, but no sign of a nest and I've never seen birds playing around up there. What can have happened? One I wouldn't blink at, but two of them, just lying there like that?

I realised when I moved them away and left two dry spots on the stones that they must have died before it started raining this morning, so quite early on.
2016-03-24 03BlueTitMysteryBeforeRain
But that's as far as my detective work takes me, there wasn't a sign of a reason for death on their bodies. I just cannot fathom it...

2016-03-24 04BlueTit1 2016-03-24 05BlueTit2
Poor wee things...

So quite apart from being fed up over having pointlessly fallen so badly yesterday, there's been a slightly dark element to today - mysterious bird deaths displayed outside my bedroom window!

And to top it off, I was jangly enough from painful knees and ankles, that I couldn't concentrate to work, so it's effectively been a sick-day, and I now have the work to do sometime in my four days off. Gaaargh! I tell you, something nice had better happen tomorrow!

Hope you're having a better days - though I know there've been at least two other people with falls in the past couple of days, so here's to better days to come, and to cheering-up things!

Date: Friday, 25 March 2016 12:54 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] merentha13.livejournal.com
Ouch and ouch! Ankle and knee - and before a holiday weekend, too. You've been suffering some bad luck lately [and I'm not even going to venture a guess as to what the dead birds mean - gives me the shivers.]

I'll be sending wishes your way for something nice to happen for you tomorrow! Rest and take your pain meds. Hope you're are feeling better soon.

Date: Friday, 25 March 2016 05:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] byslantedlight.livejournal.com
Ouch and ouch is about right - it does make me a bit worried about those two dead birds!

Nice things have happened today - I wrote Pros fic! - so thank you so much for your wishes, they worked! *g*

Date: Friday, 25 March 2016 02:30 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] etain-antrim.livejournal.com
Poor birds! And poor you! So sorry to hear that you're distracted badly enough to have to work on your miniature-holiday. But my best wishes for a good Easter anyway. Here's hoping you get out and find some fun.

Date: Friday, 25 March 2016 05:57 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] byslantedlight.livejournal.com
Poor wee everyone yesterday, it felt like! My ankle and knee are both feeling a bit better today, and it's quite a relief to know that they will improve so that's good. Not sure how far out I'll get on them, but just not being in jangly-pain is a more fun thing, so thank you! *g* (Hope you're feeling better from your fall too - scrapes can last strangely long...)

Date: Friday, 25 March 2016 06:57 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] loxleyprince.livejournal.com
Poor baby and poor birdies! *hugs you* I hope the paracetemol helps your knee. Can't even begin to hazard a guess about the blue tits other than to say that there's probably a plot there involving some sort of covert pulse weapon possibly stolen from the military if it's canon-era, or Old Magic if it's AU and, sad though it is, maybe it was best they went together so neither had to live without the other. *hugs you some more*

I'm sorry I can't help with an Easter egg, but I can give you this, which I made using one of your pictures as the backdrop. I hope you like it :-)

DoyleBSLWoodJ1 MagicCity70 PastelColors30 MagicOcean82Bluer

Date: Friday, 25 March 2016 06:59 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] loxleyprince.livejournal.com
Edited to add - He's most definitely not aiming at any birds or other animals.

Date: Friday, 25 March 2016 05:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] byslantedlight.livejournal.com
Oh, I know just what he was aiming at! And you're a brilliant shining star, cos I saw your pic in my flist this morning, and not only was very cheered up, but fell a bit in love with it, and got to thinking, and then actually sat down at my laptop, and... I wrote a story for it! I hope you don't mind that I re-posted your pic as part of the story, but it just belongs there, so beautifully inspiring... *g* Thank you so much!

a plot there involving some sort of covert pulse weapon possibly stolen from the military if it's canon-era, or Old Magic if it's AU and, sad though it is, maybe it was best they went together so neither had to live without the other
Also - yes! Both these things! *g*

Date: Friday, 25 March 2016 06:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] loxleyprince.livejournal.com
You did! You did!!! I'm glad the picture cheered you up a little and I'm THRILLED that it inspired you to write a story!!! (SQUEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEE!!!)

I don't mind at all that you reposted the pic as part of the story, because half of the picture is yours anyway! (Told you I loved those tree roots) *g*

Thank YOU for the photo that inspired the manip, and an even bigger THANK YOU for writing a story to go with it!

Date: Friday, 25 March 2016 06:44 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] byslantedlight.livejournal.com
Hee - I keep forgetting that your picture started with a picture that I posted myself! *g* Those tree roots are rather fab, aren't they... *vbg*

Yeay and yeay!

Date: Friday, 25 March 2016 11:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] loxleyprince.livejournal.com
:-) I made you a medieval!AU!Bodie in leather with a sword *g*

BluebellBodieJ1 Enhanced

Date: Saturday, 26 March 2016 12:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] byslantedlight.livejournal.com
Hee for being a wicked temptress! Hmmn - Bodie didn't have a shield when he met Doyle in the woods, but this is clearly later in the year, with all those lovely bluebells.... *g*

Very nice!

Date: Saturday, 26 March 2016 01:26 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] loxleyprince.livejournal.com
Guilty as charged (and completely unrepentant) and yes, this is indeed some time after. :-)

Date: Friday, 25 March 2016 01:20 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gilda-elise.livejournal.com
Things are going well for you at all, are they? You've injured yourself (though at least you're finally over the flu,) and you're going to have to work on your day off! And those poor birds. It does make you wonder, why they're there, together, whatever having got one, getting the other. Very disturbing. I hope your knee and ankle feel better soon. You need some good luck!

Date: Friday, 25 March 2016 06:02 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] byslantedlight.livejournal.com
They really don't seem to have gone well at all lately - but I shall be optimistic and think about how that means they have to get better. And they already are, because my ankle and knee feeling like they might recover today, I've not found any more poor wee birds, and I even wrote a Pros fic! (Actually, you might want to avoid it, cos it's set in medieval times, and I suspect you know enough about them that anything wrong is going to read awfully to you... *g*) But spending the day writing felt like better luck! *g*

Date: Friday, 25 March 2016 03:15 pm (UTC)
ext_9226: (snailbones)
From: [identity profile] snailbones.livejournal.com


You poor poor love - you're not having much luck or much fun. So not fair. /o\ I did wonder if you hadn't done yourself more damage than you were letting on - ouch! *hugs carefully*

And the poor wee birds! Poison, I wonder? Not a nice thing to find, in any case.

I hope the weekend perks up vastly for you.

Date: Friday, 25 March 2016 06:05 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] byslantedlight.livejournal.com
I know, you wouldn't believe it, would you?! The damage felt much worse yesterday than it had the night before, even though it was sore then. I drove home on it, and I didn't want to get into the car yesterday at all... but it's better today than it was, so I have hope that it'll eventually get properly better, even if I suspect my knee might be slower to heal...

I wondered about poison for the birds, but I couldn't see anything they might have eaten that hasn't been around for ages... of course it might have been elsewhere, and only stopped them as they flew over my place, I guess... poor wee things.. I think on very very cold days birds can just seem to fall out of the sky, but it wasn't that cold yesterday, even...

Here's to a perky-up weekend. It's already better - I wrote Pros today! I finished a story! I posted it! How exciting, even if it's not very good - something finished! *vbg*

Date: Friday, 25 March 2016 04:45 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] siskiou.livejournal.com

How sad! What could have happened to the little birds?
And I'm sorry you hurt yourself! Wishing you a speedy recovery and that the work you have to catch up on flows easily!


We have the MG back and are spending a couple of days at Mil's, before making the trip back home.

Date: Friday, 25 March 2016 06:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] byslantedlight.livejournal.com
The only thing I can think of for the birds is that they ate something poisonous, but even that doesn't seem right, cos I'd expect to see other dead birds around, or at least to hear about them... Poor wee things...

Thank you for your wishes! My ankle/knee feel a bit better today - and even better (well, just as good *g*), although I haven't done any work today, I did write a Pros story! And I've finished it, and posted it, so yeay!

So glad you have the MG back - I was wondering how you were getting on. Hope all's well with Mr Siskiou too. Have nice time, and a nice trip home!

Date: Saturday, 26 March 2016 01:48 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] unbelievable2.livejournal.com
You said you saw from your window. Were they below the window? Birds can fly headlong into windows and frequently with such force that they break necks. They might also bounce back a bit so they may be a little way off the window itself.

I can't actually see heads, though. Are the heads still on? If ripped off, then I would say sparrowhawk, but I don't know why it would abandon two good prey items.

If it was trichomoniasis - a common bird respiratory disease often leading to death - there would be swelling around the
throat. But normally you see them wandering around in a daze before it get to death, so you would have noticed these two, I expect.

So sorry for your rotten run of days! :((((

Date: Thursday, 31 March 2016 12:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] byslantedlight.livejournal.com
I had a bird fly right through my window once - he must have been travelling straight-as-a-die, beak-first... It was a pigeon, and it was around 6 in the morning, and I was in bed and my bed was under that window - such drama! All okay though - though poor pigeon was a little cut, he was still alive and hopping and wanting to get out. As was I. *g*

They were below the window, which is a long floor-to-ceiling one, but they were also a couple of feet back from it, so it would have been an impressive bounce. They didn't have that look of busted-birds though, and there were no marks on the window from wee heads...

Their heads were still on, and there were no other marks either, so not attacked by another creature. One was all wings neatly folded, head up and legs straight, as if it had frozen on a perch and just fallen like that - but it wasn't particularly cold that night either, and well above freezing. The other had a wing sticking out, but more as if it had fallen awkwardly than anything else.

It was in the morning it happened - maybe even before I got up, but definitely before the rain, which began around 8-ish, I think - so they may well have staggered dazedly around before falling, so it could be something like that. I didn't notice obvious swelling, but I didn't look and don't have a frame of comparison, so.... I guess it'll remain a mystery!

Hold Your Breath, Sunshine


A ship is safe in the harbour - but that's not what ships are for.

~o~

I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night. (Sarah Williams)

~o~

Could've.
Should've.
Would've.
Didn't. Didn't. Didn't.

~o~

QqVKBa.jpg
Page generated Tuesday, 24 June 2025 11:39 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios