NWR Silly little things that delight you

The Canadian expression, "If I had my druthers".

I rarely hear it (think it might be more common in the maritime region). It seems to mean, "if I had my preferred option", or "my preference is", and seems to have derived from "if I had my 'rathers' " or "if I had my 'would rathers' ".

I think it's Canadian (or maybe north-eastern seaboard area of N. America); I certainly don't recall hearing it before I got here.
 
Digital watches and silly number sequences that can be taken at just the right second. Next year on Pi Day I'll try to take a more focused pic at 3,1415926 - or maybe round that up by one second since the next digit would be a 5?

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We've lived in our house for over 20 years. For the first 12-15 of those I could sit in our back garden in the evening and watch bats feeding. They then stopped coming. Last night I was out looking for StarLink satellites and Lyric meteors and spent five minutes watching two bats feeding again. Made me so happy.

Coincidentally, we've also lived in our current house 20 yrs+, and I haven't seen any for 2/3 years (albeit not been actively 'looking') but, sat quietly outside in the gathering dusk earlier after a lovely sunny afternoon, with my last part-glass of Santenay, I saw two small bats circling over the back garden trees - one more prominent than the other - very nice.
 
The Canadian expression, "If I had my druthers".

I rarely hear it (think it might be more common in the maritime region). It seems to mean, "if I had my preferred option", or "my preference is", and seems to have derived from "if I had my 'rathers' " or "if I had my 'would rathers' ".

I think it's Canadian (or maybe north-eastern seaboard area of N. America); I certainly don't recall hearing it before I got here.

My mother - born in Shanghai, grew up in Hong Kong, moved to Australia in late teens, where she had me - used to say it, so it must have been more widely used.
 
We've lived in our house for over 20 years. For the first 12-15 of those I could sit in our back garden in the evening and watch bats feeding. They then stopped coming. Last night I was out looking for StarLink satellites and Lyric meteors and spent five minutes watching two bats feeding again. Made me so happy.

We have one that comes every night to fly in a very specific spot over our back garden and those of a few neighbours. I used to go out regularly to watch it flit about. Haven't seen it this year yet.
 
We have bats inside the house every year. But this not something that delights me. The whole family up at 3 am screaming with terror as we try to get it or sometimes them out. It's the risk of rabies that concerns me most.

We have loads outside, every night in the summer, and that is delightful.
 
We have bats inside the house every year. But this not something that delights me. The whole family up at 3 am screaming with terror as we try to get it or sometimes them out. It's the risk of rabies that concerns me most.
Surely there aren't health risks from bats...?!

We saw a fruitbat, which are numerous around here, the way I like them on our walk the other day - spreadeagled across two overhead powerlines just down the street from us. Frightening-looking thing, but now quite inert. Wonder if it flashed when it made contact?

One of the recent memes I chuckled at was a 'photo' of a sign board - of the style you see outside American churches - with a text that read "Anyone who thinks one person can't change the world has never eaten an undercooked bat."

cheers
 
The Canadian expression, "If I had my druthers".

I rarely hear it (think it might be more common in the maritime region). It seems to mean, "if I had my preferred option", or "my preference is", and seems to have derived from "if I had my 'rathers' " or "if I had my 'would rathers' ".

I think it's Canadian (or maybe north-eastern seaboard area of N. America); I certainly don't recall hearing it before I got here.
I've heard it a few times this side of the pond, and assumed it was British. But on checking, I see it originated the southern US, and features in "To Kill a Mockingbird"
 
Travelling on the top deck of a London bus just people watching as the bus trundles along. I still feel like a kid when I do it.
My son spent ages 3-8 in the USA - where such things really don’t exist. When we moved back to London his favourite treat was to stand on the top deck of the bus, right at the front. One time he saw people getting on the bus, and when they didn’t come upstairs he said to me, in utter astonishment, “don’t they KNOW?”.
 
People watching is one of the things I am really missing right now - sitting in a cafe just watching the world go by. In fact, I am now using my daughter's bedroom as an office as she has a big desk at the window and I can see whatever life there is passing by our front window. Plus, I get to have unicorns in the background when I do videoconferences with work.
 
My son spent ages 3-8 in the USA - where such things really don’t exist. When we moved back to London his favourite treat was to stand on the top deck of the bus, right at the front. One time he saw people getting on the bus, and when they didn’t come upstairs he said to me, in utter astonishment, “don’t they KNOW?”.

I’ll never forget my cousin coming to stay with us one year when we were about 11 years old. He lived out in the country and had never been on a double decker bus before. I’ve never seen anyone more excited when we went upstairs...!
 
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