Menoturals; Saturday Sounds (and a Stop Press; Comments)

Today's bird choice is that of the Cockatiel. These and the Budgerigar (soon to appear here) are surprisingly common outback birds. When one knew of them as pets and cage birds in one's youth, to see them in the wild transforms the thinking! 

Still, it has to be said that Aunty Jenny's Cockatiel called Peter (who knows why), was a character and then some. Often permitted to fly free, his favourite trick was to sit on the washing line and remove the pegs! In windy Scotland, that made him a tad unpopular. And entertaining. When it was decided he required a mate, along came Gem. Let it be said that Peter and Gem were not a match made in heaven. With no sign of any nesting tendencies, the pair created quite the mess of not just pegs but curtains, ceilings, and cabinets... Gem was eventually rehomed, and Peter settled back into bachelor life and had the sole attention of Aunty Jenny. Spoiled brat,,, er bird that he was! I don't recall his voice being quite as sweet as these sounds, either. Ear-piercing, more like.

STOP PRESS - RE COMMENTS

As many of you will have noted, this week's Blogger comments have been playing up yet again. The business of the spamming of comments, both current and historical, continues, although somewhat reduced in frequency.

If you had the setup such that you received notification by email of comments on your blogs, that function appeared to cease... then suddenly, one or two still slipped through. It was only by going to one's dashboard or to the blog posts themselves, that we could see who had left a trace of visiting. (I will note here that there are two regular commenters at DoWY whose comments never came through by email for some reason, so I often didn't know you had visited - Molly and Tigger! I wonder if that will change now I've made the following adjustment?) 

Anyhowzers... desperation took me burrowing for workarounds. My initial thought was to go to the settings and remove my email notification, then enter it again (which had worked after the big overhaul back in 2020 - remember that fiasco?) Imagine my dismay, then, to discover that one can no longer enter one's address for that request in that section! Why even leave the option there, is my next question? 

The usual support network has not apparently picked up on this current situation. However, I opted on Friday just to leave a comment on my own post and tick the 'notify me' box before publishing it - which worked. For that post.

Persistence paid off, though, and experimenting with another part of the settings has proven to be the answer. Go to your dashboard;

settings > page down to the 'email' section > select 'pending comment notification emails' > enter your email address.

You will receive a notification in your inbox inviting you to 'subscribe' to these email notifications. Choose to subscribe, and it will confirm that on a separate tab. THIS WORKS! Comments that were placed after that alteration came through to email promptly.

Now if we could only sort out that spamming nonsense... sigh...

UPDATE ON "THE GREY"

For my van supporters, the news is not brilliant. Though some minor movement, insofar as the invoice came through yesterday, and I have commenced payments. However, the government department responsible for authorising the Electric Vehicle grant that is provided on commercial vehicles (even though I am private, it's a van, so...) has been dragging the chain. It is out of the dealer's hands as well, and we just have to play the patience game. Send up your requests to whatever higher power you choose that I am on my wheels before too much longer! If it doesn't manifest before next Thursday, I am going to have to wait until the end of May due to an impending rather large trip - about which you will read in due course. 😎