What made you smile today?

you have waay more species of deer in all of europe than we do. I saw that the deer endemic to UK were introduced by grazing when Doggerland connected UK to the rest of the continent. up to 6000 years ago.
Many f the other deer were imported from China and got loose from captivity

They were pretty small. Lots of fawns.

We've got fallow deer here Westphalia (though not where I live besides farmed) as well. Originally, this deer species comes from the Middle East. However, they were introduced to England in the Middle Ages. From there, the first fallow deer arrived in Germany in the 16th century.

On Sundays a lovely family joins us at the pool. It has been wonderful to see the kids grow and develop their skills. I'm a bit sad as fairly soon their final daughter will be leaving the group as they are Muslim and they do not approve of women past a certain life stage in the public swim. We've already lost their older daughter.

but the smile ...

talking to the young woman in the shower about Hallowe'en and she's so so excited ... she's going to be a unicorn! she wanted to know all the details of what I and my neighbours will be handing out. she loves Hallowe'en and dressing up and I'm so very happy that she's allowed to indulge in this great child-friendly event for at least one more year. A unicorn. A sparkly unicorn

I just enjoy life now. I just enjoy every morning I get to wake up.

'Stros Win! 'Stros Win! 'Stros Win!

Realising I have too much solar power, and wondering what to do with the excess.

PG&E gives us a credit.

We're off-grid, CI. Running a 500 watt inverter all the time, for the gal's iMac 27 and slow juicer.

Fire up the 2000 watt inverter as required, for the Ninja blender, hair dryer, frontload washing machine, power tools, et al.

I stopped into the local Octopus car wash to see if I could talk them into cleaning the inside of the windshield without a full detail charge. They are now a different company and don't do interior detail anymore, but the manager went out and did the windshield, anyway. No charge.

With accumulated injuries and ageing, I just can't do a decent job of cleaning it.

Nice roger. Yeah sometimes my car will be overall clean except for the fog and schmutz on the inside wind shield. I can never seem to get it as clear and streak free as they can.

My smile?

Roland hasn’t vomited in over 48 hours, so I think we’ve got it under control.

Good to learn that there are some managers who understand the meaning of customer service.

Reg. This makes you smile? It makes me uncomfortable. It's November! It's not supposed to be 75 steenkin' degrees.

yeah, but they got this global warming thing on...

is Barbados moving to Boston?

In the third week of August (usually our mid-Winter windy time) we had an electrical storm, after a 32C heatwave. First week of Spring (September here) we had a week of fierce storms after a string of blisteringly hot days, and hailstone strikes in what used be the most predictably calm weather weeks of the season.

No smiles here, but it did break the drought for many farmers.

our weather patterns have been messed up for a couple of years

while I don't miss the deep freezes, I know I should

I'm seriously considering a turf-covered dwelling for our next build. I can cope with extremes of heat and cold, but my partner wilts in our Summers here.

The gal was very happy to be able to use the hair dryer and straightener, straight off the solar without a problem.

32 amps coming straight from Sol, and 43 amps from the LFP storage cells.

Woohooo! etc. ;-)