Hobbies and Crafts

When I put the feeder in place I was only thinking of where was the best place for Sandra to see it properly, she has problems with her eyes and can't see properly right down the garden, she was having problems seeing the little birds down there, but when I saw the birds going to the plants then back to the feeder I realised it was the best place all around Ann. She watched them all this afternoon, she was watching her TV and said she heard the birds first, then sat and watched them until they'd finished eating. I'm really pleased we bought it now. The pigeon went down the bottom of the garden to the bird table and ate the nuts off there, so did the squirrel, so I'm pleased everyone is getting something. :-) Only OH saw the squirrel slip off the feeder and with there being a bit of fur on there I doubt he'll be back, if he does come back I'm sure Sandra will find it amusing watching him slip off again, I just hope he doesn't hurt himself again though.

I was surprised how quickly they found the feeder Vera and also how many there were too, we've hardly seen any birds this year apart from the usual Blackbirds and Pigeons, so it's lovely for Sandra to be able to watch the little ones every day now. I'm gong to buy her a book so she can learn what each birds is called. Sorry to hear you don't get as many birds as us, hope you get more soon. Do you have cats around maybe that is putting them off, our feeder, although it's in between to large plants is in quite an open place, so maybe the birds can see around them more and feel safe. Have you tried moving your feeder, maybe that will help?

Gill, Sandra is going to really enjoy her new Bird Feeder. I bet the Squirrel will have another go .They are such determined creatures. I am sure the bit of fur was nothing to worry about.
We seem to have so many Blackbirds at the moment.
Yesterday we were driving along a country lane and almost decimated a whole group of Pheasants !!!!. . OH just managed to put the brakes on .There were about 8 Pheasants all in the middle of the road. It was a close call :-S I shut my eyes and hung on to my seat belt . They are such daft birds and should be thankful they all survived :-D

Very cold here this morning with a hard frost! The birds have been very busy on our table and seed/nut hangers! We have two robins in the garden now, OH thinks one of them is living in the hedge half way up our paddock, but they were both diving about this morning, they do love those meal worms!! The sun is right out now promising a lovely day! Better make the most of it as the forecast is not good!! OH is going to clear up round the back of the greenhouse where he has been tidying up the side of the hedge and get the trimmings onto the bonfire (another good job done!) then we're off out for the day!

Well we have made nother trip to the tip we had another load of those boxes that you keep when you buy things in case you want to return them!!. The big Tesco is on our way home (one of them, we have two) so we called in to their cafe for lattes and a shared sausage bap which was very welcome after all that lugging around. I think it must be that everyone is having a pre- Christmas clear out as it was very busy at the tip. We have just been up in the loft and it is looking a lot better up there. found three more lots of curtains, two of which are probably no use, a load of toys which do come in useful for the Greats and a few more Christmas bits which can migrate downstairs now I have cleared another cupboard down here. So feeling very virtuous now. Seeing that much of the stuff that was buried at the back of the loft has been up there 26 years, I think it can safely be disposed of without us missing it. One mystery, there is some sort of exercise machine up there which neither of us remember having/using, got to find a home for that. :-D

It feels good doesn't it Ann when the loft has a good clear out. We did ours a couple of years ago . Mind you things do start to creep back up there :-S. But at last we know exactly what is there now :-D

We had a hard frost too this morning .Bird Bath was frozen and my Son had a job scraping his windscreen.

Kandj has asked me to thank you all again for all your kind words and thoughts. Sadly she has yet another funeral to go to tomorrow.A close friend of her Hubby.

Very wet again today. None of the feed has gone down so I think the birds are all sheltering from the horrid weather, though I did laugh at a pigeon walking round the ground feeder trying to work out how to get at the mealworms. After a while he gave up.

Gill, I am as sure as I can be that the feeders are in the right place. They are hanging from trees and the birds that do come seem comfortable with that. I think we just don’t seem to have the variety of birds nesting in this area. When we stayed with OH’s sister in Surrey she had a garden full of birds but was saying that they never see sparrows. I think that’s because the world population live with us :-). We hardly see anything else, but I am glad that there are plenty of birds for Sandra to enjoy.

Poor Kandj, yet another funeral for her to attend. Sadly this happens as we all get older but she has had more than her share of sadness. Thinking of her and sending love <3

Yucky day today . Just wet and miserable. But I did have a laugh earlier . There was a Wood Pigeon in the Bird Bath ,actually lying down in it,and it had one wing held up letting the rain in and then it turned around and lifted the other wing. It was just like it was washing its armpits :-D :-D :-D

Have been thinking of dear Kandj today as she attends yet another funeral <3

How funny Jane, I told Sandra and she laughed. Pleased to hear the Pheasants survived and didn't get run over. Good job you weren't the driver if you shut your eyes and hoped for the best LOL. Yes, you're probably right and the squirrels will have another go at some point on the feeder. I did see one this morning jumping around the lawn she didn't seem to notice the feeder, but how long that'll last for who knows.

We sorted our loft a few years ago Ann, but still ended up putting more stuff up there, so I'm not quite sure what's up there now. It's not as full as it was so that's something.

I bought some mealworms yesterday so they're on the feeder now. I also bought Sandra a bird book which she's been looking at today. We have noticed that there hasn't been as many birds on the feeder over the last few days, but OH said it's probably because it's gone mild again. I must admit it's quite warm out today. The food and water are there for when they're ready though.

How lovely to have a little Robin in your hedge Liz, Robin's are Sandra's favourite bird.

After reading the book I got for Sandra Vera, I noticed that not all birds go in all areas of the UK, it differs from place to place, so maybe that's why we have different birds to you around here. It's still nice to see them though, no matter which birds they are. I've had to put the feeding dish under the water dish today with a smaller gap between them as the pigeon managed to balance on the edge of the feeding dish and take all the food, hopefully this way there be only enough space now for the little ones and because the feeding dish has mealworms in it, it won't matter if some of the water falls into it from above.

Sorry to hear poor Kandj has had another funeral to go to. I hope she's okay, she's having such a bad time lately. Thinking of you Kandj <3

Jane I would have liked to have seen that pigeon, it sounds so funny.

Gill pleased to hear you have got a bird book for Sandra, she will soon get good at recognising them.

Vera I hope you have/had a good weekend

We put up another bird table yesterday a bit further away from the other feeders and table so that we can watch from our sitting room. So far no takers, but its early days! We mostly watch the birds while we have breakfast (about 8pm) and the activity this morning was, very active!!! OH is soaking yet more meal worms!! but they give us so much pleasure so well worth all the seeds, nuts and meal worms we are getting through!!

I think our bird food is going to last forever at this rate Liz, we've seen no birds at all using the feeder for the last few days. I'm hoping when the weather goes colder they'll start using it. The only visitor we've had to the feeder today is the squirrel, she climbed up our screening like a ladder and jumped onto the top of the feeder. I have put Vaseline on the top so she soon jumped back off again as she felt herself slipping, I haven't seen her since then.

Yes, Sandra is really enjoying her book Ann, but is a bit disappointed at the moment with there not being any birds on the feeder, hopefully they'll start eating off there soon, then she can find the birds in her book.

Off out shortly, OH and I are having our flu jabs then it's a bit of shopping for the roast dinner. We're having a new fridge and freezer delivered on Tuesday so I don't have anything in the freezer for tomorrow now. All that's left is a bag of sausage rolls, so I'll cook those this afternoon and de-frost the freezer so OH can take it to the tip tomorrow.

Needless to say it's put paid to me starting the insulation in the spare room. I hope I have some free time next week as it desperately needs doing, the room is a mess at the moment with all the furniture moved around, so it'll be nice to get back to normal. I've just been so busy these past few weeks I haven't had the time to get on with the job.

We have not had any birds either Gill, but if you look around there are lots of plants with berries on for them to feed on, and plants like sunflowers that have gone to seed. Explain to Sandra that they are filling up with food in the hedges and when that runs out they will be back.

Don't stress about the insulation, it won't hurt to leave it for a few days much as you want to get on with it, you will only make yourself poorly stressing so it won't get done anyway. Hope the jabs went ok.

After our early morning rush, the birds here have been absent all day! The wind is really getting up now and it looks very threatening! Cas has had a really good walk today so hopefully she'll be too tired to notice any fireworks that might go off this evening!

Fingers crossed for her Liz.

I hope all is quiet around you tonight for Cas .I am hoping for the same here but just know it is going to be very noisy especially if the wind continues to blow our way :-S
I just need Thomas in tonight........ just spotted him in the Summerhouse so have grabbed him quick and brought him in. No doubt he will be playing Merry Hell to get out again but he is in lock down now for the night :-D
I have finally put the window feeder back up on our side window of the lounge.It went up at 4.30 ,a bit dark now for old friends to visit but I am keeping fingers crosssed it will be found again tomorrow. :-D I know it can take a while so Gill and Liz I am sure the birds will turn up at some point.

I have just seen a Robin on the window feeder :-D. Hopefully he has gone to tell all his friends to come back :-D. It actually seems very quiet bird wise in the garden. So as Ann(I think Ann) said there are plenty of berries for them to be feeding on . I am sure they will be tastier than my Sunflower Hearts and Suet pellets.
There is also a Sparrowhawk around so that will be keeping the small birds in hiding.

I hope Cas and Merlin were ok last night and not frightened of any firework noise.
Thomas was fine although not too happy at being shut in so early.He soon settled down and slept until 4am,when I let him out.

I have not seen a single bird today and the feeder is still quite full so they haven't been around while I was not watching. the sparrowhawk won't help Jane, we once didn't see any birds for over a month after we saw a sparrowhawk in the garden.

It looks like we're all in the same boat with not seeing many birds although having said that we did have a few coal tits on our feeder this morning which Sandra was thrilled about and quickly went to get her book.

I did explain to her about the berries, we have lots of berries on the ground in the front so she now knows that until they're all gone there won't be many birds for a while, she okay with it and so long as she sees a few every now and then I think she'll be happy.

So you've put your window feeder back then Jane, it won't be long before word gets around and you'll have lots of Robins and other birds coming to it, so long as the sparrow hawk stays away that is.

Pleased to see all the animals were okay with the fireworks. Our neighbours little dog was barking, she's usually a very quiet dog so the fireworks must of upset her, the poor little thing. I'm sure our neighbour will have given her a cuddle and made it all better or her.....she's such a darling and so friendly. It's very quiet here today with hardly any fireworks so I think last night was the main one. Sandra thinks there's going to be lots of fireworks tomorrow night, but I'm not so sure with it being a school night, there again, you never know do you?

Yay!!!! The Birds are back on the window feeder :-D :-D. It suddenly got busy this afternoon. I think I am lucky in getting them back so quickly ,but it has to do with the fact we have trees right opposite the feeder(just a few feet away ) so the birds are always somewhere up in the branches.

Still not seen a single bird anywhere around here except crows and they are not in the garden.