There's a bird in my fireplace!

This morning, as I was sitting in my living room drinking my coffee, I heard a loud skritching scrabbling noise from the chimney over my wood heater (the wood heater doesn't actually get used much).

Suddenly, a beak poked out from the top of the glass door. Then the whole bird appeared:


It was a reasonably big blackbird.

I did what I normally do when this kind of thing happens. I phoned my mum. (I know, but she has a good 30 years more home owning experience than me, and definitely more wood fire experience). She said that in her experience (see, usefull), birds are exhaused by the time the get down the chimney, and can't get back up. She suggested using a towel to trap the bird and take it outside.

So I got set up with a drop sheet outside the fireplace, to catch any ash (which turned out to be a very good idea), and a large towel to try to catch the bird in. By this time the bird had moved to the back of the stove and I couldn't catch it. So I left the door open and stood back, to see if the bird would make an appearance. Sure enough, it came flying out. Fortunately, I had the main door and a window in a side room wide open. The bird flew down towards the door, spotted the window and obviously liked the look of it better, and flew straight out. So that worked out well.

I am thinking that given that I have athsma problems, and therefore have problems with wood smoke anyway, that removing the fireplace, and also the chimney, might be a good idea. One bird in the fireplace was interesting, but I don't want this to be a regular occurance.

Earthquake!

Well, it was only a little one (which is good!) but it's the first earthquake I have ever experienced, so to me it was pretty cool. Especially as it was small enough (2.9 on the Richter scale according to the papers) that noone got hurt and there wasn't any real damage.

I was sitting in my living room, watching TV, when I heard this loud crash (like someone had dropped something really heavy on the street outside), and then felt vibration through the floorboards. It was a bit like having a large truck drive by outside, except that I live on a quiet side street, and we don't get big trucks driving by.

I didn't know what it was at first, and spent a few minutes looking out of windows trying to work out what had happened. It occured to me then that it might have been an earthquake, but I wasn't sure until I saw the papers the next morning. So there you have it, I have now experienced an earthquake.

(Of course, this actually happened a few weeks ago and I have only just gotten around to blogging about it, but hey, better late than never :) )

Judging a book by it's cover

A blog on the age website had this link:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A23664PX3VILKS/103-8552712-7852618?ie=UTF8&display=public&page=1

This is a page of book reviews on Amazon by a man who has not read any of the books. The reviews are very funny, and all start with the phrase "I have not actually read this book but..."
Here is a sample:
"I have not actually read this book but I think (the author) has hit on a very interesting idea. Most people nowadays write non-fiction books with bits of fiction secretly interspersed throughout, sort of like Where's Waldo for adults. But (the author) has brilliantly turned this idea on its head and written a fiction book with bits of non-fiction secretly inserted into the text. I wonder if Oprah knows about this unique innovation."

I liked this a lot :)

First go at this blogging malarky

Well, lots of people I know seem to have blogs, so I thought I would give it a go.

After all, I may not have a mobile phone, but I don't want to be too far behind the times :)