Hobbies and Crafts

Ann what a shame that the cat your daughter went to see turned out not to be Lucas. It's very discouraging for her but you do hear stories of cats turning up months after they have gone missing so there's still hope.

Quite cold and very wet here today. I think all the birds have found shelter somewhere.

We have got our tree but it is out in the garden and won't come in for a few days yet. I wasn't going to bother with any decorations this year; no children around and we aren't here Christmas Day or Boxing Day, but I do like a real tree with lights so I caved in and got one. I did compromise a bit though. I got a really nice bushy tree but it is only 4' instead of our normal 6' one.

It still doesn't feel very Christmassy to me yet but I expect I'll get in to the Christmas spirit sooner or later.

Hello all

Another dark wet day here. We have the lights on so it will seem like a long day today.

Our birds are the same as Vera's and must be sheltering in this wet weather.
We saw a robin yesterday. It kept bobbin on the garden wall and hiding in the shrubbery. It is nice and very seasonal. We are hoping it will appear and entertain us both again today. We were singing along together afterwards ha ha.

Remember the song??

When the red red robin comes bob bob bobbing along, along...... tra la la la
Not sure if this was sung by Bing Crosby or Dean Martin or perhaps both??

Vera, yes we continue to hope that he is ok and still around somewhere. Luna is in trouble today. daughter bought one of the cherry blossom light trees (she is not sure wheter she wants to put the normal tree up this year), Luna decided to play with it and pulledd it over!! Bet that gave her a shock.

Kandj It has been dark, dismal and damp here all day today. we have had lights on most of the day. We did have five goldfinches feeding for aes this morning and a few blue and great tits. the male blackbird has been seen around as well.

the bathroom is progressing, yesterday the bath was finished and we were able to have a bath. The shower is also now done not that the electrician has been to do the wiring this moring. We hope that Maonday and tuesday will see it finished. OH has undercoated the newly plastered walls.

A hard white frost first thing this morning so have de-iced both bird baths earlier, bbrrrr

It will be a hard emotional time for your daughter and family this first Christmas Ann,
I hope the lights are still working on the after Luna knocked it over???

Your bathroom sounds like it coming along nicely after all the mess..... it is worth it in the long run!

Yes, lights still ok.

OH has painted the walls that have been re-plasteres and it is all looking good. toilet and sink to go in next, and towel rail that runs off the central heating and in the summer is electric, plus a small cabinet for OH's shaving stuff, shaving mirror, toilet roll older and cushionfloor, oh and skirting boards, then, I think we will be done.

We have had three to five goldfinches feeding off and on all day, and I am 99% certain we had three chaffinches on the lawn this morning plus a robin darting around, and OH is sure we also had a greenfinch on the seeders earlier. we also have a blackbird being chased round the garden by a collard dove who seems to have an identity crisis. I think this may be the one whose mate was killed when we were away in september. :-S

I get excited if I see one goldfinch! And as for chaffinches.....we have only seen one in the two years we have lived here. I do still miss the quantity and variety of birds we used to see in the old garden. All I've seen here today has been a couple of collared doves and a couple of blackbirds who have been throwing clumps of wet earth all over the paving and making the whole garden look a mess :-(

there are definitely fewer birds around at the moment than previous years, but they seem to be gradually returning so there is hope! :-)

I think they are all here !!..Plus the blooming Squirrel again eating everything in the window feeder :-S
I was up really early this morning and saw 6 Blackbirds pulling worms on the lawn.

So all should be just about done and dusted now Ann with the Bathroom :-D What a relief :-D

Not finished yet Jane, toilet and sink to be connected, skirting boards to put on, bath panel to put on and a few other bits. Flooring put down today and towel rail connected. Hopeful of finish tomorrow so fingers crossed.

Is it done now Ann?

A bit chaotic here but the end is in sight. Our lovely man finishes tomorrow, although of course there are then all the finishing bits for OH to do. But..... We have a working toilet and sink UPSTAIRS!! So no need to trail downstairs in the night!!! It does look good we are very pleased with it. I have half put stuff back in the airing cupboard but OH decided he'd change the piece of carpet in there before I did the rest!! tomorrow morning alan is coming to clear up the builders' yard outside the house, put on skirting boards and clear his tools in there. then thursday he is next door putting in windows. :-D :-D

The bathroom is finished. alan came this morning and finished off a few bits, cleared the builders yard from the front of the house. It came in under the estimate so I was well pleased, all settled up. so start saving for the next project now. :-D

Photos on the blog. Awkward to take because it is very dull and dark here today and didn't want to use flash because of the reflections off the tiles.

I have never heard of anything coming under the estimated price Ann.You did well there :-D.Good job done by the sound of things :-D :-D

I can just see that the window feeder is completely empty again.There is one very greedy squirrel .I'm not sure how much of the food the birds are actually getting :-S :-S

Realised it wasn't under the estimate it was about £300 over because of extras like the grout he got for the tiles for us. Still good though because he did lots of little extra jobs. And fitted new skirting etc.

Oh well Ann that is still pretty good.As long as you are pleased with the job that is the main thing :-D

I have had the Gt Spotted Woodpecker on the window feeder again this morning.I also saw a Pheasant walking along the roof of next door LOL.He looked a bit lost up there.But when he spotted me at the window he ran up the tiles and over the ridge and down the other side :-).Haven't seen it again.

We seem to be the feeding station for the neighbourhood's goldfinches at the moment. OH counted six on the two feeders this morning and two in a tree at the end of the garden. we now ned to get more niger seed.

Hello all

Very cold and dark here in Yorkshire today.

I certainly can't compare with the variety of birds in Jane or Ann's gardens, just the usual sparrows, Mr and Mrs Blackbird, pigeons, collard doves, starlings here today.
No sign of the robin........ so no bob bob bobbin along for us right now.

Ann, Glad your bathroom is sorted. Enjoy!

I can send you all the Niger seed you want.....ours hardly gets touched, goldfinches are such occasional visitors here and nothing else seems to eat the Niger seed. I got ridiculously excited today because I saw 1, repeat 1, bluetit on the peanuts.

There are quite a few blackbirds around making a real mess in the garden as they dig up worms and the collared doves seem to like our bird bath as a drinking station but not much else appears. Even the starlings are now only coming when I put a home made fat cake out. As soon as they have finished it they disappear until I put another one out.

We went out to a village pub today for lunch .Very nice it was too.But I was so surprised to see so many Red Kite.I lost count of them.There were 8 that I did count and they were all flying quite low .But higher up and a bit further away were so many more !!!!.Far too many to count.It was quite a sight :-D