Hobbies and Crafts

I am expecting any day soon to look out of the window and see the birds wearing flippers. Sooo much rain here and very windy again.

Ours have got theirs on today Ann……It is horrible weather :-S.
I have been sitting in my chair on and off for hours trying to get a pic of my big blackbird on the window feeder.She just doesn't give me chance to turn the camera on before she's off.I did get one just now but it is not a good one so I will persevere.
Yesterday I spotted the big Male Pheasant prancing around on the top of my neighbours hedge (2 doors down).He looked so unsteady up there and ridiculous lol
I don't think I have seen a Pheasant quite that high up before as they normally mooch around on the ground .

I hope everyone is enjoying the first day of the New Year.Even with the grotty weather.

That pheasant must have been light on his feet Jane. Birds and animals don't like the reflected light from the lens which is why they fly off when you point the camera. you have to get lucky. We have had a blackbird sitting in our apple tree where the feeders are the last couple of days so gradually the birds are returning.

It is horrible hear still, wet windy and gloomy.

And our son has a lot to answer for. We now have a 40inch smart TV (HD/3D) because the sport looked good on his!!! Thankfully we can't fit in a 50 inch!!! Well I say we have got one. it is still in its box while OH sorts out the old one etc, so we had to move the tree. And no he just couldn't wait until the decorations are down!!!

Then...... Then, my office has to be 'adjusted' so the one from downstairs can go in here. And the one from in here can go in the front room and the one in the front room can go to the tip. It is all go. (and nothing to do with birds!!)

Happy viewing Ann when your OH gets all your TV sets up and running....sounds fun!

It is cold. wet and windy and very dark. We have had lots of starlings and gulls, a few blackbirds and a couple of thrushes. All eating heartily and all looking very wet
poor things. Still nothing venturing near the window feeder, despite me braving the bad weather and refilling the container with new berry pellets. Maybe if I just used something more ordinary the little birds would come visiting??? Watch this space!

It's wet and windy here in Essex too and we have a couple of shallow ponds in the garden that we didn't have yesterday :-0

kandj I hope everyday I am going to read your new feeder has attracted some birds :-(

Jane the cock pheasant we get in the garden roosts in one of our trees, if your pheasant returns to your garden at dusk watch him very patiently and you will possibly see where yours roosts :-)

Boys will be boys Ann :-D

MOG said he saw a pair of little egrets on the reservoir today, wish I had been with him.

Lesley x

Kandj, stand and look at your window from the birds' eye view. Is there anything reflecting that would put them off, anything moving inside the window. They do really take a long time to adapt. I wouldn't change the food, it won't be that, it will just be that the feeder is different.

Ann, the only thing that is bright just now is the Christmas lights decorating our lounge window but they will come down on 6th, so not very long to wait and we will see if the little birds come to use the window feeder then.

I took Jane's advice and put the feeder up in the lounge which is where we spend most of our time. Hubby and I had considered moving the feeder to another window but the birds will take even longer to use it if I do this and so I have decided that it will stay where it has been since 19th Dec and we will try hard to remain patient.........watch this space lol.

Pheasants at Jane's and little Egrets at Lesley's..... all exciting to see. We would be pleased with a little wren, a tit or a robin and so are remaining ever hopeful.

Have you got your new baby home yet Lesley? Lots of cuddles then I'm sure.

kandj maybe you could try not putting your window lights on until after dark to see if that helps.

Mum and babe came home Christmas eve, if Millie had been born a.m. chances are they would have been discharged the same day, no staying in to be shown how to bath a babe or anything anymore :-0

Lesley x

But home for Christmas Lesley that was lovely. Did babe have enough clothes and nappies etc with the shops all closed?

Kandj .Do you have any trees near the window where the feeder is? I think this helps.As they spot the feeder .Then we get little fisty cuffs as to who is getting there first lol
I'm sure they will find it eventually :-D

Leslie ,hopefully the midwife will visit daily and help with teaching the basics of looking after a new baby.It must all be such a shock still :-0 :-0.
Love the name Millie :-D

Lesley, that is something we hadn't thought of doing but I will give it a try tomorrow.

I also love the name Millie, she is sure to bring lots of love and joy to you all when you have all gotten over her arrival. Bless her, a real blessing at Christmas time. I hope that your daughter is coping with your help. I'm not sure the Community services are as supportive as they were, but I hope I am wrong in my assumption.

The neighbour opposite has a huge bushy conifer which the birds shelter in Ann. We don't have any trees in our front garden (only the one tree in the back that the neighbour half massacred earlier this year!!) but we do have a thick border of hedging which the birds love to hide and nest in, so there is shelter around.

I have some fresh cranberries which I am finding quite bitter and so I wondered if it was safe to feed this punnet to my garden birds without harming them in any way?

kandj I wouldn't hesitate at putting cranberries out for birds although I wouldn't put to many out at a time to start with.

Ann our other granddaughter is only 16months and her mum and dad had kept loads of her almost new and new clothes, Moses basket, steriliser, first car seat you name we had it all stored in our spare bedroom so the only thing we had to grab was nappies, by Christmas day M must of had an outfit for everyday of the week, now she has an obscene amount of clothes mostly birth to 3mnths, why do people always buy new born size:-S

Jane we have muddled through bathing etc the way I use to do things :-D leaving out the shampoo and soap as that's frowned upon for the first 3 weeks :-S a very nice midwife did call for 10 minutes the first 4 days and again today which was her last day, as from tomorrow it will a health visitor that calls.

Lesley x

Lesley, I will chop the cranberries in half as they are quite big (almost like cherries) and pass on the New Year treat for our birds in the back and front gardens. These will have to do in place of the prawn crackers as we haven't had a Chinese meal for months.

Your daughters surprise birth reminded me of many years ago when a neighbour who had two sons in their early 20's had been feeling "off-colour" for only a couple of weeks and the GP sent Margaret for a scan on her abdomen and the dreaded cancer was mentioned.
Margaret was (and is) a strong character and went on her own for the scan and was shocked when she was told to look at her baby on the screen!!
She came home on the bus (not many had cars back then) and phoned for Tom to come home from his office and then told him he was going to be a Dad again.... huge shock to them both and their family..... and us village friends. We all rallied round and when baby Gillian was born she wanted for nothing as pram, cot, bedding, clothes, etc were all given freely. Gillian is in her last year at Uni now and is a beautiful young woman who has given and received lots of happiness and love to her parents and her two big brothers.

Margaret and Tom recovered quickly from their shock as a couple of weeks later they had a new baby to care for 24x7, but that was far more joyous than being given bad news of a cancerous growth. Margaret felt embarrassed though, being in her late 40's with two sons in their 20's and not recognizing she was pregnant, Tom on the other hand had a permanent grin on his face for months and Gillian was brought up and doted on as her brothers left for Uni's. Life can be strange!.

I'm off now to fill up the feeders and cut up the cranberries to treat the birds. Still no takers for the window feeder..........yet??!!

Kandj .I think a loud hailer is needed to call the birds lol. I can't understand why none have been yet :-S
I couldn't get any Berry flavoured suet pellets today and had to get the plain ones(with insects) although I can't see any bugs in them :-D.I thought they would be just sniffed at and ignored but by gum they have disappeared fast.I did see one little Blue Tit going through them and chucking out the new ones until it came to the fruit flavoured ones LOL .

Leslie ,I'm glad everything is going well with little Millie.I was trying to remember how long I had the Midwife .I think it was 10 days back in 1985.But I might be wrong.I know someone came for 10 days .Gosh that seems so long ago now.

kandj that's a lovely story and at the end of the day if you have good health and happiness what more can you ask for :-)

Today I noticed ducks and moorhens that seemed quite happy resting/drifting on flooded fields :-D I also saw to many rabbits to count that were suffering with myxomatosis :-( :-( :-( what a cruel disease :-|

Jane I can't remember how long the midwife visited me :-S I still have our girls little pink record books that were issued at birth so tomorrow I will have a look at them and try to work out how long I had visits for :-D

Lesley x

The starlings, blackbirds, thrushes, magpies, collared doves and pigeons are leaving the chopped cranberries......what a fussy lot of birds we have around here!

We turned off the fairy lights yesterday Lesley but the little birds still haven't come to use the window feeder. Hubby wondered if they came very early morning before we opened the blinds but that's not been happening because the berry pellets are still there untouched???

We are still very optimistic that at some point the tiny birds will come along and it will be exciting to see them.......watch this space ha ha. Good job I am a patient person or I would have binned the feeder after 16 days with no visitors at all.

It is a dark, wet and windy cold day here in Yorkshire and I can't blame the tiny birds for staying in the hedges and out of the bad weather. It is forecast to be the same over the next 2-3 days, roll on Springtime.

Oh Myxomatosis is a dreadful thing.I know in the past I have had a couple of rabbits in the garden with it,and they suffer so much.The first one we had I rang a chap down the road and he very kindly came and did the deed for me.Poor little thing hadn't moved for hours so was easy to get hold of.The other one I had had been around for some days and was gradually getting worse.I rang my vet and they said if I could get it I could take it in and they would put it down.So I got an old towel and popped it over it and put it in a cardboard box and drove to the vets quickly as it had lots of blow flies on it :-S :-S keeping my fingers crossed the flies stayed under the towel !!.It is giving me goosebumps now just remembering it.

Ann I think i have managed to get a pic of the Blackbird on the feeder,but I need to find the lead to my camera so I can send it to your blog.Everything seems to have been mislaid over Christmas.
All Decorations and Tree have gone now and for the first time in a few weeks my lounge is all nice and clean and tidy :-D…..Not that it will stay that way for long lol.
All kicks off again on Monday when the Plumber comes to replace new shower ,screens,and tray in the ensuite,new loo and sink downstairs ,new taps in bathroom and some fancy pump to help with better hot water flow to taps upstairs .Lots of new pipe work in the loft I think too :-S :-S.We only got straight just before Christmas after a new Woodburner and re decs in lounge and diner.OH is ready for a melt down .He thought retirement was going to be peaceful .(I don't think so somehow )

We were really pleased this morning when 5 long tailed tits were in our apple tree and then they moved really close to the house. they seemed to be finding bugs to eat on a hazel tree. they didn't stay long but they were there.

Ann, the birds are finding their way back into your garden again. Let's hope that the sparrowhawk stays far away. I like your cardigan. A lovely colour and with all the snow in the background I'm guessing that the photograph was taken last year?

All the Xmas decorations put away and we are all tidy again and just waiting now for the little birds to come to feed from our window feeder.

Best of luck with your plumbing work tomorrow Ann. I hope everything goes as planned

Jane with plumbing work I am pleased to say, good luck with that jane. The blue is actually a fleece sweater and yes taken last January standing in the conservatory door with the garden behind me. :-)