Hobbies and Crafts

There don’t seem to be many birds around at the moment Gill. It’s disappointing for Sandra but I am sure they will be back. As the weather gets harsher the birds will go where they are sure of finding food.

I put a lot of mealworms out on the ground feeder and topped up the seed feeder late yesterday afternoon and when I got up this morning the seeds had gone down by about half and the mealworms had all gone, so I think the birds must be feeding early in the morning and then going into hiding for the rest of the day. I’ve only seen pigeons today.

I managed to give the bird bath a really good clean out. It was not very nice, full of pigeon poo and soggy leaves that had blown in. It took a lot of hard scrubbing but it looks much healthier now. Next job is to tackle the mini pond. I’m not looking forward to that much either. Perhaps I should turn on the charm and get OH to do it :-D

Hi everyone I've been very busy lately so haven't been on here for a while.

We haven't got any birds at the moment as the new neighbours next door are having lots of work done before they move in, including an extension. So with all the people and noise the birds haven't been anywhere near, much to Sandra's disappointment. The builders didn't turn up yesterday as they were waiting for the concrete footings to dry before starting the brick work today, so Sandra did see a few starlings but not many and they didn't stick around for long. Hopefully the extension won't take long to do then hopefully the birds will return.

In the meantime we are sorting out Christmas, wrapping up the last of the Christmas presents and writing the shopping list for the food. I've still got my cards to write out so that'll be done soon.

Just watching the end of the F1 it's the last race of the season, then we're going to watch a Christmas film I've recorded, the second one from one we watched the other week, then Sandra is going to watch her favourite Christmas film later "Deck the Halls" while I do a bit more on my family tree. I've just been given lots of information on my Australian relatives, so that's keeping me busy at the moment.

Lol Vera And I think some people always think they know best. I hope that lady takes time to work it out later and realises. But well done for spotting a bargain.

glad you liked the photos, I don't have a recent one of Inara to hand otherwise I'd have put that on too but she towers over Adam and is 4 months younger than him!!

Hope the pain in your back eases quickly Ann. Take care.

Good photos as usual. I can't believe Luke and Adam are so grown up. It seems only yesterday that they were being born.

Not much bird life around today but it is still very cold. I still need to get the bird bath and the little pond cleaned out so that's a couple of jobs for the weekend.

A local shop had small bags (100g) of mealworms on special offer for 99p. 500g bags were £6.99. I saw a lady pick up one of the £6.99 bags so I politely pointed out that she would save money if she bought 5 of the 100g bags instead. She looked at me as though I was mad, said "the big sizes always work out cheaper" and took her £6.99 bag to the till. I followed on with my 5 little bags and paid £4.95 :-D. Some people just have no common sense!

I was up late this morning, suffering with a pulled muscle or trapped nerve (not sure which0 in my back and overslept a bit. Not doing a lot as I allow my back to heal. The only bird I have seen in a magpie who hoovered up the mealy worms on the table outside the lounge window. They are such beautiful looking birds but so very greedy.

No news of Gill's birds lately.

I have put a couple of photos of the great grandsons on my photo blog for anyone interested, also one of our garden as it is now in November. So different from earlier on in the year.

Lots of rain over the last couple of days but today is dry and very cold.

We have hardly seen any birds today but I filled the feeders this afternoon and put some fresh mealworms on the ground feeder and put the cage over. Within about a minute a robin appeared, had a few mealworms and went again. I'm really pleased because, although the food has been going, I haven't seen anything inside the cage till now. At least I now know the small birds are getting in to the food.

No sign of any snow now Ann! In fact the sun has come out, but it is COLD!!
No sign of any birds either after this mornings rush,but I did see a couple of Wagtails on the roof of our logstore when I took our little dog for a walk! They seemed very busy or perhaps just keeping warm!!!

Ooh Liz, no snow here, keep it your way please! Bitterly cold out there and very cold rain earlier although the sun is now shining. We have popped out to the community hub for breakfast and done a weekly shop in the local Tesco Metro. I did notice that some things are dearer there than in the Tesco Extra we usually shop in but then we saved on petrol so swings and roundabouts.

No birds here at the moment, I was hoping we'd see a few more when the weather got colder but it is still the usual collard doves and wood pigeons not many others at all. I think our birds come from the fields down the road, however there is a huge building site going over those fields so all the grass and hedges have been taken out, poor birds have nowhere to go.

It's been snowing here this morning but not settling!!!! Both Robins are around along with the bluetit gang!!! I've cleaned the birdbath spoken to son, hoovered round! OH has walked the dog, put our Exmoor pony out in the paddock, and is about to make a COC! So that's us done for the day!! :-)

I had to smile about Winchester being an unusual choice for a honeymoon venue.

'Back in the day' we didn't set our sights on foreign lands and we stayed near Arundel in Sussex. Lovely sunny autumn days helped us to enjoy the surrounding countryside, but one day we went to Chichester. The weather wasn't so good and we noticed that a tour was soon to start at 2 pm. so thinking that would keep us out of the rain, we joined in.

Not many people toured Shippams Paste Factory while on honeymoon.

I haven't seen our Woodpecker for about a week now. But I hear it so know it is around somewhere.
Liz we tend to share a few household things now since OH retired. He does more to help now he is not spending so much time in the garden.He is not as practical as your OH when it comes to plumbing and all the hands on things he is so good at.I can't complain though :-) Some husbands do nothing to help.

Our birds have been so busy today along with the Woodpecker its been a pleasure to watch them. We have two Robins and they've both been around today!
I would never ask my OH to do any household job apart from washing up!. I always have to redo as he hates doing whatever it is!! However, he is an excellent cook and gets supper most evenings, extremely practical, and has saved us a fortune over the years through not having to get a tradesperson in, and is very affectionate!! So I can't grumble! :-)

They just DON'T listen to instructions do they Vera :-D :-D. I too have said to my OH about just pillow cases and sheet only to find the whole bed stripped.He then says he is quite capable of putting the King Size Duvet cover on :-S.. None of the corners are in place and half the Duvet is at the bottom and nothing much at the top. I give up sometimes LOL

9pm ..Late?? . No I think you are right and thing have changed these days. Hopefully it was still a very happy Honeymoon in Winchester :-D :-D

My window feeder is almost empty :-S. That has gone down really fast today. Maybe the cold weather is making them feed a bit more .

For some reason we spent a week's honeymoon in Winchester. Lovely town but it does seem an odd choice for a honeymoon :-S We stayed in a small "private hotel" run by two elderly ladies. Our first evening there we decided to go for a wander around and perhaps have a coffee somewhere. Everywhere was closed so we made our way back to the hotel to be greeted at the door by the two ladies who said "If you are going to be coming in so late at night you had better have a key". It was 9 pm!!

I am sure things have changed in Winchester now.

Yesterday afternoon I put the rest of our guava berries on the ground feeder and lifted the cage off so that the blackbirds would be able to get at them easily. Much to my surprise they are still there although I have seen blackbirds hopping about the garden. They obviously taste better straight from the bush.

EDIT OH has blotted his copy book again :-| This morning I was complaining that I didn't have time to get out to the garden and he was off to the pub to meet a friend for Sunday lunchtime drinks, so he said he would help me by doing whatever I wanted. Not trusting him with some jobs I suggested he changed the sheet and pillowcases on our bed and emphasised that was all that he needed to do. I told him where to find the clean ones and left him to get on with it. After half an hour I thought he'd been a long while so went to investigate. He had removed the almost clean duvet cover, which I wasn't going to change, and was sitting on the floor trying to stuff the duvet into a new cover. His 'help' means I now have extra work - a king size duvet to wash, dry and iron. I love him to bits but...grrrrr

I don't think I have been to Winchester. The setting for the Christmas Market sounded lovely. I miss the sound of Seagulls after growing up by the sea. We do get a fair few flying overhead here but they probably just visit the landfill sites :-S We are right in the middle of England here.
There has been a Red Kite flying above us and the sun was shining under it wings .The red colours were beautiful.
Window feeder very busy at the moment :-D

aaw that was lovely Gwyn. Winchester Christmas fair does have a good reputation, daughter and her OH always used to go when they lived in the area, they bought some very expensive Christmas decs there. The Cathedral setting is lovely as it is so I am sure it enhanced the fair.

Rather quiet on the bird front around here lately.
The seagulls are ever present, surveying us from the rooftops before shrieking to herald any comings and goings from individual houses.
They are such noisy birds, but even more so when they have young.
We have a wren darting about on the ivy-covered fence most days, but I've no idea where it lives.
I have seen a solitary robin foraging in the back garden and there was a really tame one in a churchyard in Hampshire yesterday. It flew to the ground just a couple of feet in front of us.They are so inquisitive.

On the same round trip, we also visited a Christmas market in Winchester. The setting is perfect alongside the magnificent cathedral. The stalls were selling some lovely goods, although some were rather pricey.
Just in front of the main cathedral door are more stalls. It was a beautiful sunny morning and suddenly there appeared a splendid Red Admiral butterfly, which fluttered around before landing on one of the garlands decorating the chalet. It was just lovely to see it so relatively late in the year.

Why do these men do things off their own back without asking the boss??

I have not heard of Chilean Guava bushes before. The Blackbirds obviously had a good feed on your berries. Our window feeder this afernoon had a sudden huge visit from a great number of Blue Tits. They were all in the tree pecking around on the branches so maybe some lovely tasty insects?
Ann you sound as though you have had a lovely and exhausting day at the Victorian Xmas Market. We never have anything like that here :-S. Kettering is a dead place these days and we would have to go elsewhere for something like a good Xmas market.
Oh dear Vera OH in the dog house then :-S My OH has often taken things to the tip before I realise what he has done. Then there are WORDS :-S

Thinking of you Kandj <3

You sound as though you have had a good day Ann. We don’t even attempt to go to our local Christmas market. It gets so jam packed that there is no pleasure in it.

Gill, We used to have one of those wrought iron poles with feeders and water dish etc. We took it out when we put in a couple of trees and a bird bath but I expect it is still at the back of the garage somewhere. If it is the only way to stop the pigeons getting at the bird seed I shall have to get it out again, but at the moment all our feeders hang from tree branches.

They seem to be leaving the seeds alone today. I have hung a much flimsier feeder on a different tree and I don’t think they feel very secure hanging on it.

The starlings are back again. They are such greedy birds and they don’t leave much for the others. I expect they will be here for the winter now.

We have a couple of Chilean Guava bushes in large pots. I had picked a few berries, went out the next day and found they had almost all disappeared. Then I saw a blackbird hop on to the pot and very delicately pick off a berry, hop down to the path and eat it. I don’t mind really because they are fiddly little things to pick and eat, but they had a wonderful smell as you walked past the pot. Now, no berries, no lovely smell. I hope the blackbirds enjoyed them :-D

EDIT. OH has just told me that he asked around our friends and no-one wanted our wrought iron feeding station so he took it to the tip!!! What would you do with him? If he wanted to get rid of it he could at least have taken it to a charity shop. He is not in my good books