Hobbies and Crafts

very much so!!!!

Good evening everyone
Saw some red kites when driving to Windsor again today.
Visited my brother and he said he had picked raspberries this week !!! Unbelievable.

Linda xxx <3 <3 <3

Jane....Well trained chickens:)

AnnCardiff.....Strawberries, blimey:)

Linda....don't believe you...lol

This morning l heard a sort of shreiking, looked alround, was about to go in and get the bino's when a green parrot flew out of the big fir tree...presumably one of those wild parrakeets....never seen them here before. Or someone has lost a green parrot:((

Its flipping cold here, whats it like where you lot are??

jude :-D

Would anybody like some snow, I don't mind sharing and can soon blow some your way.
Night Night to you all.
Shaun

Ann
I'll take your advice and leave it a bit longer then.
We have a tree in the garden and used to hang feeders from there but it meant OH had to do it as I can't reach!!!
I can reach the new one and was hoping to encourage my little robin to venture closer to the house so I didn't have to go down the garden in winter to feed it with mealworms.
We'll see what happens as the weather gets colder.

My french lavender is flowering again and right beside it are daffodils in bud.
One of my grips about Chelsea is that you see flowers planted side by side that aren't usually out at the same time.:-S
How wrong can you be !!!
Take care
Von

Came home to empty feeders after two days away, greedy lot they are.

Shaun please keep the snow there thanks.

Morning...just a quickie:)

Loads of W/pigeons in our garden lately with one odd one out in the middle, the Stock Dove:))
3 robins earlier having a punch up, started early !!
2 blackbirds
2 chaffinch
loads of sparrows
and still the occasional call from the parrot :)

Must make one of Shaun fat feeders.

jude :-D

Did anyone watch the gardening programme last night. Pam Ayres was on it, she likes to attract wildlife to her garden. She took a plastic bottle (like a squash bottle) and cut the narrow top off. She then took stems like cow parsley and others that were dried out and hollow and packed them into the bottle cutting them of across the top to one length. This she laid on the ground, she said it would provide shelter for all sorts of insects which would eventually attract birds to the garden.

Hello Ann,
Yes I watched that, it was quite interesting too. I have a pile of old branches that were sawn off a tree in the garden. They have started to rot, and the bark is separating. I notice there are lots of creep crawlies in there, and often see birds having a good old forage.

A few birds today, sparrows, chaffinches, two greenfinches, robin, starlings, blue and great tits, and a lone dove who seems to have lost his mate.
Also the unwelcome first visit from a rat this winter.

Tec.

Hello Tec, your pile of branches will continue to attract the birds I expect. I thought it was an ingenious idea with the bottle to keep the twigs dry and warm. Nice to have all the birds return isn't it but I don't envy you the rat. We have had Goldfinches, blackbird, Great and blue tits, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, sparrows, Collard dove and Starlings today. Not seen a robin for a few days.

Hi everyone
I have brought the bird table back in front of my patio doors so I can see the birds more easily there were birds feeding this afternoon on mixed seed, sunflowers are still the favourite. Bread has disappeared but not sure who ate it.
The robin was around yesterday when I moved pots into the greenhouse. They were mainly geraniums which are still flowering, not sure they will survive as it isn't heated but they have a small chance.
In other pots I have hyacynths and crocus' showing. Very odd combination. Some trees still have green or yellow leaves too, not just a few but almost all of them?

Linda xxx <3 <3 <3

Lots of birds around again today. We seem to have a lot more blue tits than previous years.

Evening All !
We had 2 Red Kites and a couple of Buzzards over the garden this morning,all in a group.The Woodpecker has appeared again which is lovely.
I saw a Woodpecker the other week pecking on the side wall of a cottage.It was an old thatched cottage.Got a lovely pic of a Squirrel with a couple of Conkers in it's paws,and then having a scrummage in all the leafs lol
The Squirrel is having a feast most of the day on the Peanut Feeder,and doing his acrobatics,by hanging upside down by it's feet.

Have yous ent the squirrel photo to Jude Jane? He/she sounds a lot of fun.

A lot more birds around now, at one stage there were 5 goldfinches on the feeder and several blue tits flitting back and forth on another one, a couple of great tita and a green finch and a chaffinch. Strange only one of each as they are usually in at least pairs.

Will send Jude the pic this afternoon Ann.Just dashing out now to Donate a Coat (s).

Is that something special (donate a coat?) Jane.

Hello all:)

Just seen the emails from Jane & Shaun...will add the photos in a mo:)

We've had a green parrot around for the past few weeks and he actually fed from our bird table this afternoon, got some photo's but not that good, it was getting abit dull. It could be one of these green parakeets or a ring necked.

Mmm whats with the donate a coat?? lol

jude:)

Donate a Coat is for Age UK.To help elderly people have a warm coat for winter.Our local Wilkinsons has a collection point for donated coats.I did see something on tv the other week about Donate a coat.Brilliant idea.It made me have a root through my cupboards and I found a couple of coats I didn't even realise I still had.Hopefully they will help someone keep warm this winter.I also have a lovely 'Duvet' type coat I have had for donkeys years,but had to wash it as it was a bit musty.So will drop that off tomorrow.
No Green Parrots or Parakeets here Jude.Although I have had a couple of stray Parrot type birds over the years.I spotted one drinking out of the fishpond once .It hung around long enough for me to get my neighbour with one of those massive fishing nets to catch it.It was (I think) a Rosella?
He looked after it for a while whilst we advertised it as a 'found' bird.I have a feeling it went to a Bird Sanctuary in the end.

Jane...have'nt seen anything about donate a coat, what a brilliant idea:) My sister has loads and a Wilko's where she lives, l'll tell her, l might have one too.
l used to look after peoples birds (when is Sussex) and we had Green ring necked, gawd it was noisy, don't think l'd have one as a pet. Was watching a YouTune video earlier of parrots, so cute:)

Photo's are on blog now:)

jude:)

Hello Everybody,
Very white and cold over my little mountain today, 1 inch of snow when we got up and it's now got to be 2 and half, as it's been snowing on and off most of the day. WOULD YOU LIKE SOME :-D , Saying that , it is now raining so hopefully the snow will go.
Hope you are making sure that the birds have plenty of food in there feeders.
Later on this evening I will be sending ANN and JUDE a photo of the containers I use for the birds , I filled all these up last night, you will be surprised what items can be used.I used the pudding mix I gave you a while back.
Right back of photo ,water container with a 2" x 1" window in the front, Back Left, same container with the top cut off, the orange and brown lid's are olvatine plastic jars with a window cut in front, and garden wire threaded up through the lid so it can be hung up. Old coconut shells can be used time and time again, garden wire also threaded through the shell to hang up. With the bisto container cut the cardboard from round the pudding mix then you can either put it in one of the larger containers or put it in the nets that you get peanuts in. The plant try and Fray Bentos containers can be used for the ground feeding birds. We collect all our feeders up and bring indoors once it's got dark and put out early in the morning because the squirrels well ruin them also it will not encourage vermin .

Hope you have fun making and filling them, the birds give us so much pleasure throughout the year ,so it's only right we reward them .

I have sat here far to long and must move now.
You all take care.
Shaun