Hobbies and Crafts

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.

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

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

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?

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

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.

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

jude

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.

Poor chicken Dizzie, perhaps she fell in, hope she is OK now. No sign at the moment of airports reopening, hope they do soon.

Hi Birders

Jude,
Yes, we were at Gigrin. The weather was lovely. We topped up the feeders in the garden and soon had blue tits, great tits, chaffinchs and a robin on them. The peacock and his hens came strutting along too and with a little jump could reach the low down bags of peanuts which was amusing. The obligatory squirrel showed up of course!

On the feeding field were the usual suspects - rooks, ravens, jackdaws, buzzards and of course, red kites. The black kite hadn't been seen for a month but the white kite was swooping in.

Max was his usual delightful self.

Fab sunsets cast on the hillside.

Any plans to go again yourself soon?

Oh,and the road side daffs were glorious!

By all accounts the famous swimming chicken is fine again now but the neighbours said they were worried at first because she sat shivering with her eyes closed for ages. She has to have made a bit of an effort to get out of their run and then they have a fence by the river as they have a toddler too. I remember last summer their chickens formed a break out party too. Wonder if they get a bit frisky as the weather warms up? Within a couple of days of each other last summer I had one looking at me from the steps outside our office window at the front of the house and then when I was driving out somewhere I saw another in the hedgerow opposite the front of the house. They hadn't had them long then and they substantially improved their run's boundary which seemed to do the job at the time. I haven't seen or heard of any other escapee plans this time.

Evening:o)

Island........not got any plans as yet. Thanks for lovely discription of who was where etc:o) Do you help up there then? Is this part of the voluntary work you do? l can imagine the daffs were glorious...not like mine here!!

DizzieLizzie....bless that chicken, she had a lucky escape then.

We have loads of bee's and wasps, definately more than usual.
A pr of sparrows we think are nesting in the eaves of the garage, the back garden bit. l thought they gave up cause we are in and out all the time and Madoc bless him sits right underneath almost, sunning himself.
He had a quick check up at the vets this afternoon and l WALKED HIM ALL THE WAY THERE....not often l walk him, he's a pain when other dogs appear, but he was very good for me today:o). When l get there l have to make sure no other dogs are about. One of the vets has a dog who sits in the reception area and they GOT ON BRILL.........dogs ah, worse than kids:o)

jude

Dizzie, Lol Lol just had a vision of a circle of chickens, heads together forming an escape committee.

We think it was pretty much like that the time they all got out last year Ann. Bit like an Aardman animation.

Our two may get away at last on their big bird today. I know getting stranded people home is firts priority , but they've worked and saved so hard for this. If they don't get out soon it will start to cut into other transport arrangements they have booked. If they do get away today they'll have been lucky it didn't affect their plans further, but then since they're going for 6 months they have had that bit of flexibility other people haven't.

Good luck to your daughter DizzieLizzie:o)

jude

Hope they get away today Dizzie, it stands to reason that aircraft will be flown out to bring people home so there will be people flying out as well as in.

Yes they may as well fly the outward passengers so as not to lose more money.

She took off about half an hour ago. No problems checking in, no queue according to OH so hopefully the next 6 months will be incident free and they can just have a fantastic time.

Had a greenfinch on the feeder again yesterday. Few and far between but at least there's still evidence of them. Don't know what numbers will be like after disease last year and a hard winter. But maybe the hard winter will have killed off any remaining bugs for those that remain.

They've arrived safely, are boiling in the heat and looking forward to their first exploration.

Now I can settle back down to watching and looking after my dicky birds properly again.

Dizzie
Pleased your daughter has arrived safely. It's always worrying when they go away but I'm sure she'll have a fantastic time.

There are lots of birds singing their hearts out in the garden this morning but I'm ashamed to say apart from the robin I can't recognise any of them . You can't see them either.
Take care
Von

Just come in for a walk and on one of the local ponds saw ducklings for the first time this year. So cute - every so often in between paddling along they scooted off running on top of the water like little motorbikes doing wheelies.