Roger's rock on wheels

roger_holland · March 2, 2026, 8:20am

March 2022 …4 years ago (pretty good for then )

"have you thought about trying an Octave pedal " This quote from Darrell @DarrellW ( in my spring topic
keeps me busy because for me there is no acceptable weight for a 12 string, this goes through my thoughts, but that paafr I saw a while ago the reviews were not entirely positive, but there is GAS bubbling

Yesterday I saw bumblebees and butterflies for the first time… a nice change since I haven’t touched a guitar for 3.5 weeks… my right hand has become inflamed knuckle by knuckle and joint after joint, with the big finale in the wrist… hopefully playing again this week

the first honey bee that is snacking on the first crocuses … hyacinths, daffodils, tulips and so on are sprouting from the ground but still have to bring color … the flowers are now only purple and white…

and at the large Magpie nest that we have been seeing for 11 years and now have for the 4th or 5th time in the first tree behind our garden, the annual partner search and connect club is now busy forming couples for life … 9 were just in the high tree ( one of those will soon be the … _)just gluing them together for a photo later

Gunhild · March 2, 2026, 8:54am

Good morning Rogier

Oh yes, your log is always worth a visit!
Such a lovely spring tune, really warms my heart
And you played it in March 2022 already? No wonder that I missed this one, I only joined the community in summer 2023.

Thank you so much for the spring vibes - the musical ones and the lovely pictures of the visitors in your garden

Hoping that your hand feels better very soon and that you are able to play again this week

Greetings
Gunhild

roger_holland · March 2, 2026, 9:48am

Thank you Gunhild , that is so nice to read

Still on the hunt to shoot some magpies in the tree against a blue sky… well ,photo shoot of course

After all, almost 3 years already …ooo amai …how time flies

The hand looks almost normal again… it was a thick red inflated like a hospital glove that we played with as a uuuhh well uhhh child… …

saw dozens of ladybirds yesterday and a lot this morning… I received a great tip last year to allow these creatures to multiply and thus better combat the aphids in the garden… the first aphids crush gently and they are attracted to that smell and lay their larvae eggs nearby

Greetings

Gunhild · March 2, 2026, 10:25am

That’s great news about your hand
Start slowly again and take very good care of it.

Oh yes, nearly three years for me now. And I’m still in Grade 3
But I enjoy the entire journey so much and practice daily.
I’m just very slow with my progress
I often just noodle around and try to play along to my favourite songs (Does this count as practice time, too? )
Learning logs and videos like yours keep me motivated. So thank you so much for sharing your journey and your progress and success. It helps a lot

And thank you for giving all these lovely a home in your garden. And be sure that they will show gratitude and help you and your plants with these nasty aphids.

I’ll send some more of these little garden friends here …

Take good care of them

brianlarsen · March 2, 2026, 11:09am

Oh dear, Gunhild
I’m afraid they must have got lost in the post and ended up in our bell-tower.
They were deemed an invasive species and dealt with quite severely…

Gunhild · March 2, 2026, 11:40am

Oh no, Brian
What had possibly happened there?
Well, it seems that they like music and wanted to listen to you playing guitar, all these musical little fellows!

Please send them back to me.
Just a „return to sender“.
I‘ll welcome them all

brianlarsen · March 2, 2026, 11:57am

In tiny little polka dot coffins?
I’m afraid these little darlings inhaled too much smoke…

Silvia80 · March 2, 2026, 12:33pm

I agree with @Gunhild Rogier, your Log is always worth a visit!

I just took this picture for you knowing I would find here more beautiful pictures to announce “hey, the spring is coming!” That butterfly is just amazing!..or is it a honey bee??

I hope you’ll be able to play your guitar soon

Nice little spring-vibes tune!

Lisa_S · March 2, 2026, 12:37pm

Hope you will soon be back playing guitar, Rogier! Good to read it’s getting better alread, but still: get well soon!

At least, spring also has arrived on time here and we spent good parts of the weekend outside, but unfortunately, I forgot to take proper pictures.

Gunhild · March 2, 2026, 1:22pm

Oh, that‘s so sad, Brian

Good luck as a lone fighter against all the aphids in your garden this summer …
„I walk a lonely road on the boulevard of aaaphids …“

Gunhild · March 2, 2026, 1:26pm

So sorry for highjacking your log here, Rogier
I‘ll stop this right now and let‘s get back to your beautiful spring vibes

roger_holland · March 3, 2026, 7:44am

Ha ha… no no … that doesn’t exist for me here… now very busy preparing for a garden cupboard to be delivered around 11 o’clock too early (it’s a mess under the veranda where it should be …a big big mess ) …

I’ll read it carefully later and see what all that is about small coffins and Brian

Edit:
another strange way to learn something, but also funny .

I only saw them as pest controllers
Could the ladybug plague of 1976 be happening again?

Gunhild · March 3, 2026, 3:04pm

Hello Rogier

Oh I’m relieved that you are not angry with me for spoiling your log

Hoping that everything went well with your new garden cupboard?
I love these little garden projects in spring.
In my garden there are a lot of corners that need improvement as well. At least it never gets boring

The BBC-article is very interesting
I don’t remember any ladybird-incidents back in 1976 (was only 4 years old ), but I remember lots of ladybirds when I was on holiday at the sea a few years later. I tried to save them all, picked them up from the pavement carefully and placed them on the grass or in a flowerbed.
I love these little fellows so much and have never been bitten by a single one.

And - like you - I prefer to think of them as pest controllers.
The two words “ladybird” and “plague” just don’t fit together.
They aren’t a pest - they are marvellous, lovely creatures

Sunny greetings

sairfingers · March 4, 2026, 9:56am

Glad your hand is recovering Rogier. Lovely Spring garden pics too. Unfortunately it’s still too cold and damp where I am for bees and butterflies to make an appearance but we have plenty magpies. I don’t like them, they are aggressive and attack and eat the young of the other garden birds.
Interesting tip about attracting ladybirds, I’ll give that a go later in the season. (although I confess to usually resorting to chemical aphid control )

domi7 · March 4, 2026, 2:56pm

I thought it was rather me spoiling your log, Rogier?

PS. Now I didn’t mean to start a “spoil Rogier’s log” contest

roger_holland · March 5, 2026, 9:08am

Hi Gunhild @Gunhild no “flushed face” but
even if only for the most important thing here

…

thank you and I will do that … and keep them out of sight of that guy from Merseyside

Still, I think it’s strange Brian @brianlarsen , since they mention here at the “information center for pests” that they also occur in large numbers… "Damage and nuisance
Ladybugs do not cause damage to materials or food. In large numbers they can sometimes be a nuisance.
In the autumn, ladybugs invade homes in large numbers. The beetles hibernate and, for example, look for a building to find some warmth.
Sometimes the animals, for example when they are hidden in logs in front of the fireplace, emerge due to the heat generated indoors.

Ladybugs can occur in large numbers, especially after a year in which many aphids have developed "

I must honestly say that after the first article I stopped looking further…

Back to happy thoughts…

well here Gunhild @Gunhild melted my heart

Thank you Silvia @Silvia80

faltered aurelia butterfly … o o ,seeing your pic reminds me that 4 or 5 of those Primulas have disappeared this winter … the bulbs are growing fast and there are hundreds of them above, but only a few with color yet … I will send my wife outside for some more photos … it has been really great weather here the whole week that she has been off … I still can’t play the guitar but since Monday I have been out together every day for a short or long time … whether it is all equally healthy I will leave it to your judgment

Hi Lisa @Lisa_S

… Too bad, because how do we know that you are not secretly enjoying the rain all day long?

…
I’ll tell you something stronger/weirder … I have sometimes been criticized here in my LL for wandering too much and “taking” stupid pictures … with my first and last attempts with AI … from a beloved forum member (and she (or he was 100% right ) … I wonder if she still remembers it and reads this (I’ll keep my mouth shut )

Well Dominique … I don’t know if further ‘side tracks’ are possible with some of the nonsense I have already posted myself…? asking the question is …

Let’s see if I can follow up on that… although one will soon be very guitar related… something with a vacuum cleaner…

Now I wait for some photos to provide Gordon with the correct commentary…

That’s a shame, I expected the weather to be quite nice here now too… nature is exploding here… every day by 1 to even several centimeters for some plants…

Go for it

roger_holland · March 5, 2026, 9:25am

Hi Gordon @sairfingers ,

Yes, they do indeed have that reputation … although I don’t see it in my garden … it is often the blue tits that chase away the large (and small) pigeons, but also often the magpies … they do not like the crowds around them … and a big misunderstanding is that the small sweet birds are also more than happy to eat other birds … only those magpies often do that in full view (along with other crows)… the noise also makes most people forget about it. consider birds as not fun…But magpies are not half as aggressive as, for example, that “cute” robin or even most tits

the list would be impossibly large if we were to write down which birds and small birds eat others… actually it’s almost all of them and a bunch of mean, stupid and aggressive flying monsters who … uhhh… I’ll stop

Couldn’t get them all (9) in one pic there…
the dating rounds are over and little birds are being “made” right now

the next one is from the Magnolia for…wonder if my wife just made this one

Citron butterfly…

Now some bad photos from the garden because it’s really not all nice/neat here or the way I would like it.

Gordon…you posted that you were suffering from “more moss than grass”
I love moss, and I am also working on incorporating other low small plants such as some clover and daisies… but this year it is in very bad shape with the “grass mat”… if I want to sit under the veranda I have to go through first… yes, this… so I am always completely covered in mud…

So I have to buy grass seed … and hope that I don’t completely destroy it … when I want to drive over my lawn from my veranda I come across this … I don’t see 20 blades of grass in the 3 meters from the birdbath

Oh well…I guess it’s just a “luxury” problem…

My new guitar spot for spring

A week full of good further pleasures of life…

Gunhild · March 5, 2026, 3:14pm

Oh Rogier, I really love the spring vibes and the beautiful pictures in your log
That new guitar spot looks great. A perfect place for music, and I’m sure that a lot of will visit you and enjoy your playing.

Oh no, I don’t want to lead the focus away from guitar again
But me talking about ladybirds can count as a guitar-related comment. Honestly
Proof needed?
Here’s a picture of my guitar. Red with a black pickguard.
Doesn’t it look like a ladybird?