Hobbies and Crafts

Von - up until Oct '08 I lived in Hanwell and worked in Southall so I know all about the plane stack. One of the reasons we moved away to Wiltshire, that and the ever increasing traffic. We don't miss either!

Daughter's birthday today - should have been in Delhi by now. Of course we had nothing planned but we've spent a lovely day discovering more about Bristol. Only been so far when we needed some specific shopping for the house or Christmas etc. It's actually a very nice city. Had a good day and just come back from a good meal out at a local restaurant. Good to have her here for her birthday after all. They had a replacement flight booked for tomorrow morning which would have meant a very early start for us all, but that's cancelled too so third time lucky on Wednesday maybe. I think everyone's situation is different according to who they booked with and what type of ticket they have Jude. But they seem to have had no trouble getting alternative flight times arranged. We now have another couple of days to fill but I don't work till Wednesday and OH will be home that day so all being well with the booking he'll take them to your neck of the woods Von.

While we were in Bristol today we saw cormorants at the harbour. Remember seeing them on the Thames a few times when we walked along from the South Bank towards Shad Thames and around Limehouse.

Sat in the garden between day out and meal out and we've started to notice the trout again in the river, also a vole ran along the opposite bank.

A couple of days back one of our neighbours chickens decided to see what the attraction is for the ducks on the river. She wasn't impressed. They thought they'd lost her and because one of our neighbours is away and they have a bit of their garden which none of us could see into and no other way to get to the back of the house I suggested going to the end of their own garden and wading along the river to get into the garden to check. They never had to go as far as into the garden because they found the poor old girl shivering in the water. What made her do that no-one knows, but they had to sit her in their porch on a hottie in a towel to warm her up again. Reckon she won't be laying for a bit till she gets over the shock.

Aww bless her, she won't be long then, hope they will be ok??

jude

Jude, she turned up for breakfast this morning, looking as fat as ever, but cant eat as much as usual.
The chaffinches we are getting are in full colour at the moment. We are also getting a couple of sparrows and a wood pigeon.

Hello Island:o)

We had a peacock butterfly in the garage last Sunday, l let it out of the window:o)) and Vic saw swallows about 2 weeks ago:o))))

Did you go to Gigrins?? what did you see??

jude

Hi all

I spotted my first swallow of the year on 10th April in mid Wales.

First butterfly, a peacock, in Norfolk yesterday.

Is summer on the way?

Morning:o))

DizzieLizzie....l do hope your daughter can get her flights sorted, what happens in these cases, do people get their money back??
Would love to have seen the Heron:o) mind you we did have one on our fence a few yrs ago, he was watching the pond next door, eventaully ate them all bar a couple that managed to stay at the bottom!!

l have'nt the patience (too much going on here) at the moment to sort my photo's out, l think the best way is via picasa, will do it asap.

Von...that sounds like a nice relaxing break, so many birds too:o)

Jane...how did the wedding go??
Not that much happening in our garden at the moment, a chafinch appeared about an hr ago, we think he's collecting food for his mate and young. My crow has'nt been seen for a few days now, hope he/she's ok.
The robins are about and making alot of noise. Something has been making alot of noise n the tree's, not one l recognise....VON, that could be because as you say NO PLANES so we're hearing diferent birds!! :o)
We had the dog from nextdoor in yesterday, had to keep him madoc seperate most of the time cause the pup is toooo much for madoc. His owner works away at the moment so myself and a neighbour are looking after it this week, she has him at hers all the time, but if she goes out, he's back at his own, then we keep an eye on him:o)

Jean...has that stray had her kittens yet??

jude x

Oh Dizzie
Sorry to hear about your daughters dilemma. It isn't any fun when travel plans are delayed through no fault of your own.
However I do think it's a wise precaution as it would be awful if something happened.
I just live near Heathrow and the smaller Northolt airport so some times the skies are full of planes. The stack is coming closer and closer to us so hate to think what it would be like if and when the third runway goes ahead.
I still have the noise of the M25 but I just pretend that it's the sea lashing the shore. Mad or what!!!
I do hope your daughter gets away soon and doesn't have to wait around at an airport.
Take care
Von

My daughter's looking out for the big noisy birds today Von, she was meant to be flying out to India this afternoon. Of course it means I get at least another day with them here but she was supposed to arrive in Delhi on her birthday tomorrow and now it's a possiblility she may be spending it shuffling round an airport instead unless they're delayed even more. It's like mission control here with BBC 24 hour news on, trying the phone, and laptops open at different pages. I've managed to claim mine for a few mins for myself, but probably not for long.

Hi
The lack of aeroplanes today meant we were able to hear lots of birdsong.
Did anyone else notice this?
take care
Von

Evening All,
The last few weeks I have seen Canada Geese and some ducks flying over the house.Same time every day.The Moorhens we had seem to have gone back next door now.Maybe they are nesting by the small lake there.I can see them pootling around from my bedroom window.

Hi
I've just spent a few days in Edinburgh. The weather was absolutely glorious and the flat I had rented had a very nice walled garden with lots of shrubs.
In the course of a day I saw pidgeons,seagulls overhead. blue tits and long tailed tits, robins, wrens, blackbirds, gold finches, green finches,chaff finches and best of all a nuthatch on the feeder. I had never seen one of these before.
Needless to say the camera was safely tucked up in it's case!!!
Take care
Von

Had a heron actually on the garden the other day - no, no photo, what did you expect? I noticed it as I went into the lounge, but it noticed me as quickly and disappeared off before I had a chance. Thing is when we see them they are usually wading in the river, so we know they're big because you can see them from the house over our bank, and I had one do a flypast just outside the bedroom window as I opened the curtains one day, but seeing it standing on the garden I realised just how HUUUUUUGE they really are.

Yesterday, though, we had 3 unusually brave pheasants under the feeder on the patio. Two cats came and went and sat looking at them through the window and daughter's boyfriend who has a better camera and is a better photographer than me got some good shots of them through the window (clean windows I'll have you know since this seems to be the topic of recent debate lol, but not us that did them, window cleaner came last week) . A cock and two hens. Later I'll upload them to your blog Jude. One of the hens came up to the window right in front of one of the cats for a moment! Earlier in the day I'd seen two cock pheasants in the garden having a bit of a bust up. I think the one we saw later is probably the regular visitor and when we see hens with him there's usually two, so I think he was coming over all territorial about our garden being his.

Mine neither Jean!!!

Well that was an early bird!! Just sitting in the conservatory watching a robin who has been popping in and out of our garden recently. Watched him go into the wall garden near the door then realised he/she was feeding a young bird. The youngster was able to fly so not eve so young. Must have nested really early.

Ann, I didnt tell you that my windows hadnt been cleaned for several months!!

l have one photo on the Blog....its Jane's spaniel puppy:o))

jude....off to sort the others...lol

Well my windows are not the cleanest but my photos through the window in the snow were fine.

Hello Tec....nice to see you and pleased to hear Ianto is fine:o))
Madoc is too. The Lab pup next door has lost a claw and had a visit to the vets yesteday, he's now wearing Madocs bucket colar!!

Everyone.....think camera!!!
Jean....speak for yourself:o)) lol

Taking photos through the window often depends on how clean the window is! Voice of experience!!

Hello Ann,
Sadly I never seem to have a camera ready when I need one - but would have had to take that through the kitchen window, so don't know how that would turn out.
I will get my act together eventually.

Tec.

Tec, lovely to see you and pleased to hear that Ianto is doing OK. Wow, that was a large number of Goldfinches, I think the most I have seen is five. Did you have a camera handy?