Smorgasbord Blog Magazine Weekly Round Up – May 23rd -29th – Crows, Aretha Franklin, Chart Hits 1995, Curacao, Manganese, stories, reviews, health and humour

Welcome to the round up of posts on Smorgasbord that you might have missed this week.

I hope you are well and had a good week. It has been busy here as we continue the redecoration but the dining room is now completed and we will be moving all the furniture back in over the next couple of days. I will share some pictures next week of the before and after. Because of the comings and goings this week I did not have a chance to do the podcast but Tales from the Irish Garden will be back again next Sunday.  Instead a short story that I wrote recently as one of the new collection slowly being written and hopefully out later in the year.. It did appear earlier in the year on Allan Hudson’s blog.

Charlie Update

In the spring we rescued a crow who had probably been injured by a car and was unable to open his beak very far and appeared to have some brain damage. Whilst there might have been an option to put him to sleep humanely, we decided to see if we could rehabilitate him.  For six weeks he lived in a hutch David built and I hand fed him pureed chicken for the first few days which was messy but he seemed to get the idea. He then was able to move his beak sideways and moved on to bread and butter, tuna, enriched fat balls and other soft foods. He couldn’t fly and would fall over if he tried to walk but this too improved over the weeks until he began to flutter short distances.

He got used to drinking from the bird bath on the ground and even copied the starlings who use it as a bath several times a day.

Here he is enjoying his bread and butter

Eventually he was able to fly further and and seemed to regain his balance. He would sit and look up at the sky watching the many crows who fly around us from the neighbouring woods and he would try to launch himself up to join them. Eventually one day, he did and we didn’t see him for about a week, fearing the worst.

However, he did return and we know it is him because he still is unable to eat normally so uses the sideways movement to grasp bird seed and demolish his favourite fat balls. He loves Basmati cooked rice too. He is much smaller than the other crows and he is still a bit of a loner as I guess being disabled he may not be as accepted by the others, but we notice he is in the company of a larger crow much of the time which is great.

He knows when I put out the breakfast for the birds and is always first on the scene and when I shoo off the other crows he stays and gets on with eating but he looks over as if to say.. ‘you don’t scare me missus’.  He still enjoys the bird bath to wash down his food.

As always a thank you to the amazing contributors who share their expertise and entertain us every week.

On the blog front

This week on the series by guests are Sandra Cox, Debby Gies and Balroop Singh and I am sure you will find them as fascinating as I did..

William Price King joined me on The Breakfast show this week for the second part of the hits from 1995 and for the next part of the series on Friday featuring the legendary Aretha Franklin. You can also find William – Blog– IMPROVISATION– William Price King on Tumblr

Debby Gies took us on a visit to Curacao..a wondeful island.. and of course found some funnies and a video to share with us this week. Over on Debby’s blog you can enjoy a Q&A with author Jan Sikes very interesting and entertaining..Catch up with other posts in her archives D.G. Kaye

Carol Taylor joined me on Wednesday with amazing recipes to ensure that we get sufficient Manganese in our diets… and as always an informative and entertaining week on her own blog including store cupboard basics, food reviews, The Bon Bon fruit, Chicken Kebabs and her Saturday Snippets…

CarolCooks2 weekly roundup… 22nd -28th May 2022-Monday Musings, Health, Food Review “Real food v Processed Food” and Saturday Snippets where “Dance” is my one word prompt.

Thank you too for the support during the week and your wonderful comments that always gives me a boost.

On with the show

Chart Hits 1995 Part Two – Tom Petty, TLC, Annie Lennox, The Rembrandts

William Price King meets the Music Legends – Aretha Franklin – The Rise to Fame.

The Travel Column Rewind with D.G. Kaye – #Caribbean Welcome to #Curacao #Lesser Antilles

Manganese – Spinach, Chicken, Tomato and Basil

#Romance, #Humour – Chapter Twelve – Advertising Sales by Sally Cronin

Chapter Thirteen – Makeover and the art of buying a car by Sally Cronin

On the Run by Sally Cronin

Colleen Chesebro’s Tuesday Weekly Challenge – #Themeprompt – #TankaProse – Useful by Sally Cronin

The Dynamics of Change – Part Two – Our Mental Approach to Life by Sally Cronin

Food Therapy – #Walnuts – Not just any nut… by Sally Cronin

#Poetry – Life & Soul (Book 2 in the Soul Poetry series) by Harmony Kent

#Flashfiction – Tell Me A Story in 99 words by Annette Rochelle Aben

#Goodnews John Howell, #Steampunk Richard Dee, #Poetry Robbie Cheadle & Yvette Calleiro, #Characters Gwen Plano, #Reunion Pete Springer & Jennie Fitzkee, #Interview Marcia Meara & Mike Allegra

I Wish I Knew Then What I Know Now! #Life by Terry Tyler

#Wedding – I Wish I Knew Then What I Know Now! by Alex Craigie

I Wish I Knew Then What I Know Now! #Letter to my younger self by Dorothy Grover-Read

– Hosts Debby Gies and Sally Cronin – Vet Care and Pirates

Another Open Mic Night with author Daniel Kemp – Out of the mouths of Babes and Church Notices

 

Thank you for dropping in today and I hope you will join me again next week… Sally.